The servant abuses his authority, presumably because he thinks that he will be able to predict the return of his master and quickly prepare for it. He knows that his master is going to be away for a long time and anticipates that this gives him a chance to indulge his sinful desires for a while. Beating fellow servants and eating and drinking with drunkards are behaviours at odds with the biblical demand for sobriety (Proverbs 20:1; Proverbs 31:4–7; 1 Thessalonians 5:6–7; Luke 21:34).1
48 But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’