The division of tasks between servant' and porter' is only part of the drapery of the parable. To show that watchfulness belongs to all, see the two following verses.
What is this watchfulness?
Not constant fidgety curiosity about the coming of the Lord; not hunting after apocalyptic dates. The modern impression seems to be that such study is watchfulness.' Christ says that the time of His coming is hidden (see previous verses). Ignorance of that is the very reason why we are to watch. Watchfulness, then, is just a profound and constant feeling of the transiency of this present. The mind is to be kept detached from it; the eye and heart are to be going out to things unseen and eternal'; we are to be familiarising ourselves with the thought that the world is passing away.
This watchfulness is an indispensable part of our work.' The true Christian thought of the transiency of the world sets us to work the more vigorously in it, and increases, not diminishes, our sense of the importance of time and of earthly things, and braces us to our tasks by the thought of the brevity of opportunity, as well as by guarding us against tastes and habits which eat all earnestness out of the soul.
Thus working and watching,' happy will be the servant whom his Lord will find so doing,' i.e. at work, not idly looking for Him. Our common duties are the beat preparation for our Lord's coming.
