Parable #45–Matthew 25:14-30

Parable of the three servant given Talents?”…(also see Parable #37)…Parables can be as exciting and challenging as detective stories. Even more so, for in the end they turn out to be dealing with real life, while detective stories can be pretty far-fetched. But parables, like detective stories, are filled with half-hidden truths and secret meanings and yet with clues to these secrets scattered liberally throughout. Parables are God’s exciting way of challenging us to a mystery hunt, and the treasure we are after is a new insight into the nature of life which will enrich us in a thousand ways if we act upon it once it is discovered.

The parable of the talents is the last in a series of three which Jesus gave his disciples to illustrate what he meant by the command, “Watch!” Its opening words link it to the same time period as the first two, and it reflects the same basic pattern of a master who goes away and leaves a certain company to fulfill a task till he returns.

Matthew, in chapters 24-25, records the Lord’s heart of compassion and love mingled with unwavering holiness. This section of Scripture, including the Parable of the Talents, constitutes final warnings, prophecies, and encouragements to His people Israel prior to His departure.

He, who is their Lord, is leaving for an undisclosed period of time. He is delegating to them the responsibility, as stewards, to care for His kingdom. The Parable of the Talents, Matthew 25:14-30,

14 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of a man going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted his money to them while he was gone. 15 He gave five bags of silver[a] to one, two bags of silver to another, and one bag of silver to the last—dividing it in proportion to their abilities. He then left on his trip.16 “The servant who received the five bags of silver began to invest the money and earned five more.17 The servant with two bags of silver also went to work and earned two more. 18 But the servant who received the one bag of silver dug a hole in the ground and hid the master’s money.19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’21 “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together![]’22 “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’23 “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’24 “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’26 “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, 27 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’28 “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. 29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Jesus impresses on them the weight of that responsibility and the serious consequences of neglecting to understand and apply His instructions. …There is also a message to all mankind.…If the talents are talents of gold, the value of what the master entrusted to the stewards would be immensely high, maybe millions of Rands.

Since the Lord uses only the term “talents” we must make some assumptions, but is seems reasonable to assume that the owner of the talents, the man traveling into a far country, was a wealthy man.

He is entrusting his wealth to three men who become stewards of his money.

One receives five talents.

Another receives two talents.

A third steward receives one talent.

Each is given a significant amount of money.

These are stewards entrusted with the care of the money.

The stewards must know the personality and character of their Lord.

He expects them to know Him well enough to apply the spirit as well as the letter of His instructions.

Those that do are richly rewarded.

The others receive severe judgment.

The amount given is based on each steward’s ability.

The first two understand the spirit and letter of instructions and the character of their Lord.

They both use the resources by “trading” to gain a profit.

Each of them makes a 100 percent profit.

Fear and mistrust of his Lord motivate the third steward.

He buries the money in the earth and returns the original amount.

The profitable stewards are praised, given increased responsibilities and are invited to enter into the joy of their Lord.

The untrusting steward is scolded, rejected, and punished.……The application of this parable must be understood within the context of the message of Matthew 24-25. It is first a message to the people of Israel that will live in the last days before the Lord returns.

The statement, in Matthew 24:13, “ 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” is a key statement.

This is the believing remnant that will receive the promise of the kingdom.

In Matthew 24:32-34, that verse comes from parable #41 and in that parable the Lord states, 32 “Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near. 33 In the same way, when you see all these things, you can know his return is very near, right at the door. 34 I tell you the truth, this generation[a] will not pass from the scene until all these things take place..”

These will be alive when He returns and will have understood and believed their Lord.

The application to the people of Israel is graphic and relevant. Those that believe Him will be rewarded in His kingdom.

The basis of the reward will be their stewardship of His resources entrusted to them.

Those who fear and do not believe will be rejected and judged.…There is also a universal application to all mankind.

From the time of the creation of mankind, each individual has been entrusted with resources of time and material wealth. Everything we have comes from God and belongs to Him.

We are responsible for using those resources so that they increase in value.

As Christians, we have the most valuable resource of all – the Word of God

If we believe and understand Him, and apply His Word as good stewards, we are a blessing to others and the value of what we do multiplies.

We are accountable to the Lord for the use of His resources.…

The Relationship Between Luke 19:12-27 Parable #37and Matthew 25:14-30 Parable

The marginal notes in the NASB, both in Matthew 25 and in Luke 19 seem to suggest that these two accounts are parallel. While there are some obvious similarities, the differences are far greater. Consider the differences, which become much more obvious when the two passages are compared side-by-side: …

The Differences Summarized

Interpreting the Parable

In many ways this is a deeply puzzling parable. The central question of course, is: What do the talents represent? There is a common, but quite shallow, understanding of this parable that it teaches the need for us to put our natural gifts to work for God. Someone says, “I play the piano and I would like to devote my talent to the Lord.” Another says, “I think I have a gift for speaking (or teaching, or making money, etc.,) and I would like to develop that talent and devote it to Christ.”

But when we think of the parable in this way we are being misled by the modern meaning of talent. To us the word means ability-a natural gift which we possess. But it definitely did not mean that in biblical times. The disciples thought of this word as a definite amount of money. The talent was a specific weight of silver, worth about a thousand Rand. Though it was a definite amount of money in the story the Lord told, yet it represents something other than money in our lives. We shall see in a moment why it cannot represent the natural gifts we possess. But the major question before us is: What has the Lord given to us to invest, which corresponds with the talents given to the servants in the parable?

Another easy pitfall we must avoid is to interpret this parable as though it dealt only with the matter of ultimate rewards for service. This concept often accompanies the idea that the talents represent natural gifts. We must use our natural gifts to the full for Jesus Christ, we are told, even if in the end we lose our reward, we will not lose our salvation. But salvation is the very thing that is at stake in this parable. It is the ultimate destiny of a professed servant of Christ which is the issue. The last line of the story makes that crystal clear. Of the man with one talent, the returned master says, “Cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.” The final scene therefore reveals that the worthless servant was not really a Christian at all. So it is apparent that the talents are not distributed only to true believers but are given to false and true alike, that is, anyone who in any sense recognize the authority of the Lord and who claim to be his servants. But what is done with the talents that were distributed that is moreimportant. The destiny of the individual hangs on the matter. It is a question of life or death.

Once again, we must treat this parable autobiographically. …We must see that it is intended for us. …In Mark’s account of this same parable (Mark 13:32-37), the Lord says, “What I say to you [disciples] I say to all: Watch.” …The parable is addressed to anyone whohave any interest or conviction that what Jesus describes as the outcome of history will actually take place. To each one the Lord has distributed one or more talents. We are either trading with it or burying it in the ground. As we read the parable we must face, in terrible loneliness, that central issue.

Now, having gotten our perspective straight, we turn to the inevitable question,… “What are the talents, in our experience?” There are several clues given to us in the account which will guide us in this search. We shall discover and assess them one by one.

The first clue is found in the opening verse,”For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property.” The last two words are the key: “his property.” That is another term for the talents which are distributed. They are the Lord’s property, God’s property. They are then, not something which man can give, but something which God alone controls. The talents are not distributed, like natural gifts, to all men freely, but are given only to those who in some fashion have the relationship of a servant to the Lord. To them he is willing to distribute his property.

The second clue is found in the next verse,”to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability.” Again, the last phrase is extremely helpful. Here we learn that the talents are clearly not natural abilities but are actually distributed on the basis of natural ability. To one man the Lord gave five talents because he was a man of great natural ability, he had many gifts. To another he gave two talents because he was not as gifted as the first, and to the third man he only gave one talent because he had few natural abilities. Whatever the talents may be, one thing is certainly clear: they are not natural abilities. Rather, the number of talents given is determined by the number of natural gifts possessed.

The third clue is not stated in the text but is clearly implied. It is the unspoken implication the Lord expected these servants to invest the talents he distributed in such a way as to produce gain. …The talent, then, is something that can be invested, be risked, with the possibility of producing gain or loss. The decision to risk is wholly the servant’s. He can choose to take this risk, as the first two servants did, or he can utterly refuse to do so, as the third one did.

The fourth clue is likewise implied.…It is that the investment must be made wholly for the benefit of the absent Lord. …The talent is not given to the servant for his own use. …It remains the property of his absent Lord and if it is risked it must be on the Lord’s behalf. …There is no promise made to the servants that they will share in any way in whatever profits may be made. They have no right to deduct a broker’s percentage. As far as the servant could see, all the loss would be his, all the profit would be the Lord’s. The Lord alone would benefit by this transaction, if any would.

The Riddle Solved

Let us now sum up these four clues and ask ourselves a question. What do we professed Christians have that is God’s unusual property, …which comes to us on the basis of natural ability, …which requires a risk on our part, and …that risk appears to benefit only the Lord and not ourselves?…Can you answer that?

Well, look at it this way. Having certain natural abilities, what do you then look for? Recognizing that you have a particular gift, what do you then seek? …Is it not an opportunity to use that gift? …Do we not all look for such opportunities, young and old alike? …As we grow up and feel our powers developing, do we not then look for some opportunities to use them? …And the more talents we feel we have the more we look for occasions for expression.

So the talents of the parables are to us golden moments of opportunity. …Now let us test that to see if it fulfils the qualifications we have discovered and agrees with all the clues.

Is it not clear that those opportunities for exercising our natural gifts are God’s right to give or hold back? …We all refer to things that happen to our advantage as “lucky breaks” that life occasionally brings us? …Or we refer to the “bad breaks” that leave us defeated and discouraged when suddenly those opportunities we were looking for were removed from us? …Who governs all this, ultimately? …Can we not agree that they are something which God alone gives? …They are his property. …It is equally obvious that such opportunities come on the basis of how many natural gifts we possess. …Every day we see examples of many-gifted people who seem to thriveon opportunities to demonstrate what they can do. …For those somewhat less gifted the opportunities seem to come less often. And often refer to the Cinderella-type who may have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to step into the limelight and display the hidden talent he or she may have. …Thus we can see that the opportunities are given on the basis of natural gifts. We even say that it is the gift which creates the opportunity. …But experience does not support that.

Making Investments

But it is the third and fourth qualifications which mark an opportunity as equivalent to the biblical talent. …Opportunities to display gifts come to all kinds of people, Christian or not; but those opportunities which involve the possibility of gain to Christ come only to professed Christians. …Such opportunities are moments of decision when we must choose to play it safe and get what we can for ourselves, or risk our reputation or even our life to ensure that God may have what he wants. …They are hours of crucial decision when making we cast the die of our lives for ultimate good or evil, though at the moment the only questions we may face is, “Will this give me what I want, or will it only make it possible for Jesus Christ to do what he wants to do through me?”

These moments can occur when we are confronted with moral choices. “Should I give in to my passions to do this thing I know is wrong, and only satisfy myself and my friends; or should I refuse it, and be true to what God wants of me, and perhaps lose my friends and certainly the immediate satisfaction of getting what I want?” …“Should I accept this new promotion, that may involve certain questionable business ethics; or should I pass up, for my conscience’ sake, the possibility of some new furniture and a better car which the increase in salary would buy?”

Or perhaps there is no moral issue involved, but only the question of where our gifts are to be exercised. …“Should I respond to this inner urge to invest my life as a social worker in a slum area for Christ’s sake; or should I play it safe and continue my present plans to be a rich lawyer?” …“Should I take the time to teach this home Bible class with its life-changing possibilities; or should I go on reserving each Tuesday night for a night out with the boys?” …“Should I get involved with my neighbour’s seemingly endless problems and try to help him/her find the strength from God that she needs; or should I forget it and use the time to read, and study, and pray?”

The God-given opportunities which the talents represent are clearly part of each professed Christian’s life. …They are distributed to each, according to his ability. …But inevitably there will be an accounting. Jesus describes it for us in verses 19-21:19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money. 20 The servant to whom he had entrusted the five bags of silver came forward with five more and said, ‘Master, you gave me five bags of silver to invest, and I have earned five more.’ 21 “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!

This first man has gained a one hundred percent return. …In terms of the application of this parable to our lives it means that he made full use of his opportunities, not for his own advancement but for his Lord’s. He put the kingdom of God and his righteousness first. …He made each crucial decision about the investment of his natural ability, not ultimately to profit himself but that the work of Christ might be advanced. …He risked the possibility of loss to himself. …He took the chance that he might never have the place of prominence, influence or power which he had wanted, but deliberately invested his opportunity in something that would give God what he wanted: to bind up the broken hearted, comfort the fatherless, set at liberty the captives, and proclaim the gospel to the poor.

Christ’s “Well Done!”

To this man, whose God-given powers were all at Christ’s disposal, not in an empty commitment of word only but in actual deed, Jesus says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”…Obviously Jesus Christ would never say “well done” unless it had indeed been well done. …This is not an empty praise, made meaningless by being spoken to everyone alike, regardless of how well or poorly he has done. …Then the Lord sets him over much, which in the estimation of Christ must be a great deal indeed, and adds, “Enter into the joy of your master.”

What is that joy? In the book of Hebrewsit is said of Jesus, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews12:2). …It is the joy of accomplishment the joy of achieving the results for which blood, sweat, and tears have been shed; the shouting joy of having satisfied the heart of God. …It is an eternal joy, not passing in a moment , but remaining fresh and glorious forever.

Jesus continues the story of the final accounting:…22 “The servant who had received the two bags of silver came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two bags of silver to invest, and I have earned two more.’ 23 “The master said, ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’…The man with two talents had gained two talents more. …Is that fifty percent? No, that is one hundred percent, as well.…That means that to the limits of his ability he, too, had chosen to put Christ’s cause first. …He was not naturally as able as the other man but he was equally committed. He had risked loss to himself so that his Lord’s work might prosper. …To him, therefore, the Lord says, Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’…There is not one syllable of difference between what the Lord says to the man with two talents and what he said to the man with five!

Perhaps before we go on to view the accounting of the third man, it would be well to pause to answer a question that may be haunting many. …What are the additional talents gained by the two men when they invested the talents they were givenon behalf of their master? …These first two men each had double the talents they were given. …What do the additional talents represent? …If the talents given represented opportunities, would the talents gained not represent the same? …But would these opportunities possibly represent, opportunities on a different level, in a higher realm.…If the talents given represent opportunities to invest natural gifts, then very likely the talents gained represent opportunities to invest spiritual gifts, those gifts of the Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 which are given to every true Christian without exception.

If this is so, they would be opportunities earned, the right gained to exercise spiritual impact, spiritual power. How many Christians have discovered they have a spiritual gift only when they have made use of an occasion to be of use to Christ? …They have to make a decision to risk, to venture, for his name’s sake. …Feeling ill-equipped and clumsy at first, nevertheless, they went on doing what needed to be done and before long it was clear, that they had a gift for the work, one of the gifts of the Spirit. …Having found the spiritual gift they soon found great opportunity to employ it.

No Risk, No Gain—Only Loss

Inevitably, Jesus moves to the climax of his story. One man yet remains to give his accounting:

24 “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. 25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.’26 “But the master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, 27 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’28 “Then he ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver. 29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

At first we may be a bit bewildered by what seems an excessively harsh treatment of the man with one talent, who at least had a sense of responsibility to see that his master got back the money that he gave him without any loss. …But the matter is put in proper perspective when we hear Jesus’ words: 29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. …The basic purpose of life is growth, increase, return. …To fail in this purpose is to be fundamentally unprofitable. …All life grows, and if it does not, it has already ceased to live and is no longer worth keeping. That is what Jesus means.

One Big Risk

This servant had gained nothing because he had risked nothing. …There was no increase because there was no investment. …He had one great (and long-continued) opportunity to risk himself on behalf of his master but he deliberately ignored it. …The outcome of the story tells us the nature of that opportunity. It was the opportunity to give himself to God; the opportunity to be redeemed.…That one supreme venture was a possibility that he should have taken during his master’s absence. …But he had deliberately decided quite early to hide it in the ground! …When it was safely buried he could forget about it and go on about his own affairs. …It was out of sight so he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable by constantly reminding him of his master’s expectations. …But since he took no risk for Christ’s sake he had also no spiritual influence, no impact for eternal good. …His life counted for nothing; there was no spiritual power. …It had all been lived for himself.

When the master returns, the man has a little speech carefully prepared to justify it all. Evidently he had rehearsed it many times. “You are,” he says, “a basically unreasonable man. You expect other people to do the dirty work while you get all the benefits, and if they should fail to satisfy your expectations you are quite ready to accuse them as thieves. So I was afraid to risk what you gave me, lest I should lose it and would have to face your wrath when you returned. But I have outwitted you. I have kept your talent safe for your return. Here is exactly what you gave me. You and I are even.”

The master does not attempt to debate his character with the man. He takes him at his own appraisal of his master. “You wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, ?” The editors of the text have done right in ending this statement with a question mark. The master is not agreeing with what the servant says, he is saying, in effect, “So that is your understanding of my character, is it? …All right, then, out of your own mouth will I judge you. …If that’s what you thought of me, then you ought to have known that you couldn’t possibly please me by failing to get some kind of gain. …27 why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’.”

The Phony Revealed

Of course, the real problem is that the man had no intention of really being the servant he was pretending to be. …The master’s argument is: …No matter what his opinion of his master was, whether true or distorted, as a true servant he should have acted in accordance with what he knew his master would expect. …But this the man refused to do. He had his own life to live and it was really nothing to him that a servant’s fundamental task is to serve, not himself, but his lord. …He was therefore a phony, a hypocrite, pretending to be what he was not.

In his selfish blindness what he did not realize was that his one chance to become genuine was to risk himself, by venturing with his master’s talent. Had he done so, like the other two men, he would have gained. …He would himself have been changed, for to venture is to be changed. …To risk for Christ’s sake is to find yourself altered, redeemed, reborn. …That one talent is given to all who are drawn to follow Christ. …They have the opportunity to risk themselves upon his word, to trust his redeeming grace, to rest their hope for eternity upon his work for them upon the cross. …Other opportunities for risk will follow that, but without that one investment there is no true value to life.

As C.S. Lewis vividly puts it: “It may be a hard thing for an egg to become a bird; it is a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while it is still an egg. We are like eggs, today, and we either must be hatched, or go bad!”

What is the final message of Jesus in telling this story? …It is: Step out! Risk! Live dangerously! …Take constant chances with your life and goods for his name’s sake. …Don’t try to bottle up your life so as to hang on to it at all costs. …If you do that you will surely lose it. …But surrender yourself to his cause, again and again. …That is the way to find life. …That is the way to watch for his coming. …You have risked yourself to become a Christian, now risk yourself again and again as opportunities arise. …Live dangerously! Or that also could be written, love dangerously! …To live for Christ is to love men with his love. …And that is always a risk. It has been well written:

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully around with hobbies and little luxuries, avoid all entanglements, lock it up safe in the casket or the coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless-it will change. It will not be broken, it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is hell.”*

Prayer

Lord Jesus, have I ventured anything for you? Have I risked my life for your sake? Or have I but transferred my ambition from the world of business or sport to the world of religion, still busy seeking self-aggrandizement, self-exaltation? Lord, teach me to risk, to abandon, to fling away what would minister only to myself. For your name’s sake, Amen.

_____

* Lewis, C.S.,The Four Loves, 

How should Christians think about work, success, and wealth?

The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30 provides a helpful framework for thinking about them.

Let’s use this parable as a guide for these questions …Here are five lessons the Parable of the Talents can teach us about work, success, and wealth:

1. First, this parable teaches us that success is a product of our work.  In the book of Genesis we see that God placed Adam in the garden to work it and take care of it. We were made to work. As Christians we have a mission that our Lord expects us to accomplish in the here and now.

Far too many evangelical Christians today see their salvation as simply a “bus ticket to heaven.” They believe it doesn’t matter what they do while they “wait for the bus.” The Parable of the Talents teaches us what we are supposed to do while we await the return of our King.

We are to work, using our talents to glorify God, serve the common good, and further God’s kingdom. …Biblical success is working diligently in the here and now using all the talents God has given us to produce the return expected by the Master.

2. The Parable of the Talents teaches that God always gives us everything we need to do what he has called us to do.

Have you ever wondered what a talent is worth today in Rands? …It is hard to know for sure, yet whatever its exact value, in the New Testament a talent indicates a large sum of money, maybe even as much as a million Rand in today’s currency.

We are tempted to feel sorry for the servant who received only one talent, but in reality he received as much as a million dollars from the master and buried it in his back yard. He was given more than enough to meet the master’s expectations.

Just as the master expected his servants to do more than passively preserve what has been entrusted to them, so God expects us to generate a return by using our talents towards productive ends. The servants were given enough to produce more – it is the same with the gifts God has given us. The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10…10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

We seldom associate this verse with our work, but we should.

3. The Parable of the Talents teaches that we are not all created equal.

The most overlooked part of this parable is the second half of verse fifteen: the master gives to each servant talents, “…each according to his ability.” The master understood that the one-talent servant was not capable of producing as much as the five-talent servant.

We want to protest this as unfair. Yet we know this is true from our own experience. Diversity is woven into the fabric of creation.

But even though we’re not created equal in regard to the talents we’re given, there is equality found in the Parable of the Talents. It comes from the fact that it takes just as much work for the five-talent servant to produce five more talents as it does the two-talent servant to produce two more talents.

This is why the reward given by the master is the same. The master measures success by degrees of effort, as should we.

4. The Parable of the Talents teaches that we work for the Master, not our own selfish purposes. 

The money that is given to the servants is not their own. The money they earn with the capital is not theirs to keep. The servants are only stewards of the master’s investment, and it is the quality of their stewardship that the master seeks to measure.

We should maximize the use of our talents not for our own selfish purposes, but to honour God.

We know that we work in a fallen world. Because of the curse of sin, our work will be difficult. …But we should feel satisfaction and joy from doing our best with what God has given us in the place where his providence puts us, seeking to succeed in order to honour him.

5. The Parable of the Talents shows that we will be held accountable. 

The Parable of the Talents is not about salvation or works righteousness, but about how we use our work to fulfill our earthly callings. …It is about whole-life stewardship, or “Stewardship with a capital ‘S‘.”

The unfaithful steward in this parable tells us more about wasted opportunities rather than wasted money. …As a result, he was judged wicked and lazy. We are responsible for what we do for God with what we have been given, and one day we will be held responsible.

What we hear from the Master on that day is up to us.