Address at Luther College Graduation

June 15, 1887

THE FAITHFULNESS OF SERVANTS

Unfortunately I've been prevented lately from being able to give our Luther College more of my time and to be present for the examinations here. I'm happy that this time circumstances have allowed me to be here. I also want then to use the opportunity to lay some precious truths on your hearts.

It is written that on the Day of Judgment the Lord will say to some people, "well done, thou good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things." (Mt. 25:21.)

Allow me then, my young friends, to speak to you a little at this time about "The faithfulness of ser-vants." We are of course all called to be the Lord's servants, also you, students and teachers. We are bound to thank our heavenly Father for whatever gifts with which he has equipped each of us and we are to serve him with them.

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, has redeemed us, who are sinful, so that we shall be his own and serve him in righteousness, innocence and blessedness. But it is of the servants that the Lord's apostle says that it is required that they are to be faithful.

Now, my friends, it is however well to note that faithfulness is the only thing the apostle mentions which the Lord will require of his servants. Faithfulness in service, however, is not the thing the world in general is looking for primarily. Neither is faithfulness, certainly, the quality which our natural mind places as the highest thing we are to aspire to acquire through our development or to try our best to demonstrate by our service. Being able to become outstanding and to distinguish oneself - be it through hard work, knowledge, ability, talents in one or several directions - that as a rule is really the goal of its effort in service if the heart is not under the discipline of the Holy Spirit. It is also that surely which many students have set for themselves as the highest goal during their education. And yet, my friends, the kind of brilliant results which even such a striving can seem to produce is not however the striving which fulfills the Lord's requirement of his servants, nor is that the thing which will make the student more and more suited for the Lord's service.

As you all know, this school was erected to the service of the Lord. Here it is our wish, our endeavor, that our young men shall receive the preparation by means of which they can become capable especially for the Lord's service in the work, but in every case, for the service of the Lord. But at the same time as you are being made capable for that service, you are to serve him. But of servants we have heard, it is re-quired that they are to be faithful. Faithfulness is the thing then to which we also have to admonish you first of all and to see to it that you demonstrate during your schooling.

In his wisdom God gives abilities and strengths in varying measure. Aptitudes and gifts are likewise divided quite differently, as well as such things as temperament, inclinations and the circumstances of one's life. The development of the abilities, as well as the acquiring of knowledge and skills will, for that reason also occur in very differing degrees. As highly as we may praise it that in this regard everyone seeks to go as far as he is able, yet that however is not the most important thing for us, even less, that in this regard one person outdoes another, as though we should regard him as the best student who rises highest in these matters. No, we consider him as the best, the most excellent student who demonstrates the greatest faithfulness during his schooling, i.e. most earnestly and zealously busies himself with being found faithful in the use of the abilities and gifts God has given him, faithful in the use of time and of the opportunity to learn something which is offered, faithful in the use of the material means he has, or gets to dispose of.

That , my friends, is why your effort is to be noticeably directed toward demonstrating this faithfulness during your education. That is what each of you is to busy yourself with, and with God's help, can busy yourself with - also the least gifted - and thus win the praise of being an excellent student, faithful in his service.

In order to demonstrate this faithfulness, naturally it is necessary in the first place to acknowledge your-self a servant of the Lord our God and this station of yours as students as a calling in which God has placed you in order that you are to serve him, and the gifts and abilities, etc., which he has given you as talents entrusted to you by God in order that you shall serve him with them and that with all your dil-igence and effort you seek God's glory and it alone. This faithfulness toward the Lord your God must, as it were, form the foundation stone which shall give all your actions and behavior, all your diligence and effort, your devotedness and renunciation the proper tone and make it possible for you to be found "to be faithful" during this time and in that way. The fact that you must be children of God and be preserved as such in order to be able to have this inclination and to demonstrate this faithfulness, I will not develop further here. You know that. You also know what Means of Grace the Lord has given you so that you can be upheld in faith. Only one thing will I hold out to you, that it naturally belongs to the faithfulness which is required of you, that in watchful prayer you diligently and devoutly use the Means of Grace in the pub-lic services and devotions in church and school, as well as for your more private edification. Indifference and neglect in this matter is not only unfaithfulness but it will most certainly drag unfaithfulness in your entire conduct in its wake.

On the other hand, we do want to dwell a little on the Lord's words about being faithful in the little things, when he says, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things." (Mt. 25:21.)

The studies which you shall pursue as students here may well be reckoned as "little things" in compari-son with your future work as men in your life's calling to which God may someday appoint you. And that certainly means that those who are faithful in this apparently minor position he will then make rulers over many things. However, considered as the young man's life's calling by means of which he is being pre-pared for the work of a man, this so little regarded station undoubtedly becomes something big, yes, cer-tainly the biggest, most responsible station in which a young man can be placed.

But also in this work of yours there is both that which is called small and that which is called big. If we are inclined not to regard the "little" as anything, then neither does faithfulness in something small appear so important to us. Thus many students think that to look upon the daily diligence, the thorough studies, the constant attention to the teacher's instruction and trying to remember what one has learned, to be something "small," even tiresome too, which it isn't so very important to apply oneself to. And, on the other hand, surviving, that is something big in his eyes. He thinks that he has to strain his powers, and he crams. Again, it may possibly happen that a student would consider it as something "big" - which it certainly also is - to stick strictly to the truth, guard himself against all immorality, all immoderate amuse-ments, all major breeches of the regulations of the school, and he would do that so that he could be found faithful in such matters before God and man, while strict punctuality and exact following of the various rules of the school which are however of such great importance for the success of a large school, appear so unimportant to him that he doesn't bother himself much about them.

That's why the Lord reminds us about being faithful in the "little things" and adds a special promise to just such faithfulness. But in this way, my friends, the Lord is of course in reality making the "little things" into something big and he wants to get us to consider them as such too, because finally it doesn't depend on how we regard a thing but on how the Lord considers it. And now we hear the Lord praise just faithfulness in the little things so highly that he will say to him who demonstrates such faithfulness: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant!" and he gives him the most wonderful promise.

This is really also how the matter must stand that just by being faithful in these many small things we are being trained in part to be faithful in the big things, and are in part already demonstrating by that the proper, faithful temperament of a servant, and therefore are faithful also in the big things.

That the teacher also must busy himself with such faithfulness, yes, that it is doubly important for him, certainly needs no further pointing out. Through his instruction he is to be the student's guide, through his example, a model for him, and not least, by being faithful in the small things. And as a servant of the Lord, of course, just that is required of him that he be found faithful.

Isn't it true, my friends, older and younger, that there is a loaded challenge here for all of us to examine ourselves. And it is written: "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged ... with the world." (1 Co. 11:31.32.)

May the Lord forgive us our sometimes unfaithfulness, for the sake of Jesus Christ! May he give us the proper mind of faith and grant us all grace to again show greater and greater faithfulness in the service in which he has placed us so that on the great day of reckoning we may get to hear the greeting from his mouth, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things."

Kirketidende, July 15, 1887; pages 429-432