Fr.Elijah Fanous

Many people over the years asked for the meaning of the following declaration by our Lord Jesus Christ:

“For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
(Mark 4:25, NKJV)

“Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”
(Luke 8:18, NKJV)

The words of Fr. Tadros Malaty explain this declaration in a simple and direct way. He explains that whoever chose the spiritual riches, more will be given to him; and whoever is negligent in his spiritual life will get poorer. Jews, with their denial of the Lord, what they already had, had been taken away from them; while those who received Him, have been granted grace on top of grace.

In our spiritual life, if we reject the labour of God, even what we have been given by nature, or by natural law, will be taken away from us, leading man to walk on a level fit only for animals, or even less than that. As for he who strives to be faithful, he will be granted exalted blessings, beside what he enjoyed through nature that God has given him.

We can call this principle ‘the dynamic partnership with God in His Son’. This means if we are honest, we receive ‘the life of Christ in us’ in honesty. For this life is not stagnant or slothful, it rather grows constantly in us. When we have ‘the life in Christ’, He gives us the constant growth, for we might reach the full stature of Christ’s. Christ grants us what is His, so we possess Him as Ours; as live seeds that yield in us, and increase the fruits continuously. But he who has not, that is, he who does not accept God’s work in him, then what he assumes to be his, such as natural talents and hereditary blessings, even these things will be taken away from him.

In other words, our life in Christ is an incessant motion. Also evil is an incessant motion. He who responds to the Lord, grows non-stop, and he who accepts evil, slopes down in it boundlessly.