Jesus had just told His disciples that no one knows the day or hour of His coming (Matthew 24:36, 42). Instead of leaving them with a bare command to watch, He asks a question that turns waiting into work. Barnes says the parable's "design is to show that his disciples should act as if they were each moment expecting his return." Gill notes that the Latin Vulgate adds "do you think?" and treats this as a question put to the disciples "which they might apply to themselves." Jesus is not asking for a name. He is asking each listener whether he is that kind of servant.

Jesus answers His own question with two outcomes. "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing," and the lord "shall make him ruler over all his goods" (Matthew 24:46-47). But if "that evil servant" says in his heart, "My lord delayeth his coming," and begins "to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken," his lord will come "in a day when he looketh not for him" and appoint him "his portion with the hypocrites" (Matthew 24:48-51). The faithful and wise servant is the one found doing his work when the master comes.

Jesus describes the office of a steward, the servant who managed a household while the master was away. Barnes notes that among the ancients this office was often filled by a slave who had "shown himself trusty and faithful," with oversight of the whole family. Luke's account calls him a "steward" (Luke 12:42).

The KJV word "meat" means food of every kind. Barnes explains that in 1611 the word covered "all kinds of provisions requisite to support and nourish life." "In due season" translates en kairo, at the proper time; Barnes says "as they need it, or in the accustomed times." The Greek text behind the KJV reads therapeia for "household," which Thayer defines as a "body of attendants, servants, domestics." The servant was put in charge of his fellow servants.

The disciples had asked Jesus when the end would come (Matthew 24:3). Here He answers a different question: what kind of people they should be while they wait. The master in the parable entrusts his household to a servant, goes away, and returns to reward faithfulness generously, making that servant "ruler over all his goods" (Matthew 24:47). The Lord who is coming is also the Lord who trusts His people with real responsibility for others.

The danger in the parable is not ignorance of the date but a quiet thought: "My lord delayeth his coming" (Matthew 24:48). Barnes explains "say in his heart" as "secretly suppose." That private assumption led to harshness toward fellow servants and indulgence of self. In Luke, Jesus gives this parable in answer to Peter's question, "speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?" (Luke 12:41-42). Gill says "it looks as if it was more especially designed for them, though it may be applied to other." The parables that follow, the ten virgins and the talents, press the same call to readiness (Matthew 25:1-30).