Can you help me understand the parable of the talents in Matthew 25?
That parable is found in Matthew 25:14-30. Verses 14-15 tell us, “For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.” (NASB) This was no small amount that the master entrusted to his servants. A talent was worth about fifteen years’ wages of a laborer. It was a lot of money! Verses 16-18 tell us that the first two servants invested their master’s money and doubled the amount. The third servant, the one with one talent, took the money and buried it in the ground. The rest of the parable (verses 19-30) speak of a day of reckoning…the day when the master returns.
The first two servants presented their talents to the master and told him that they had used their talents wisely and had doubled his investment. To these faithful servants the master said, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Verses 21 and 23)
When the master questioned the servant who had been given one talent, that servant said, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.” To that, the master replied, “You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest.”
This parable has to do with INDIVIDUAL FAITHFULNESS as servants to the Lord Jesus during His absence. All the writers of the epistles in the New Testament refer to themselves as servants of the Lord. Paul (Romans 1:1), James (James 1:1), Peter (2 Peter 1:1), and Jude (Jude 1:1), along with John, the writer of the book of Revelation (Revelation 1:1), all presented themselves as servants of the Lord. We are called upon (and blessed to be) servants of the Lord while He is away in Heaven. We are to serve His interests in the world. We read in 1 Peter 4:10, “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” The Lord has given each one of us natural abilities and according to those abilities the Lord has given us gifts, or spiritual endowments, to be used in service to Him. Notice that the master rewarded the first two servants equally, even though they earned different amounts. The Lord does not reward us for our RESULTS, He rewards us for our FAITHFULNESS. We should be faithful to serve the Lord in whatever capacity He has given us, the results are His to produce.
Let’s look at this third servant. See how this man describes his master, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed.” This is not a true description of his master. It seems he did not really know his master at all. The master describes this unfaithful servant as being wicked and lazy. He was wicked because he could not see the goodness of his master. He was lazy in burying the talent and not using it. This servant represents one who claims to be a believer, but in truth, he is not. He doesn’t truly know the Lord. He has no spiritual energy from the Spirit to labor for the Lord. He is an imposter!
May we take this parable to heart. For we who know Christ as our savior, the Lord has given us gifts (abilities) to serve him. Let us all be faithful to the Lord, using our gift (or gifts) to minister to the needs of others as our Master leads us. When we stand before Him, He will reward us for our FAITHFULNESS.
But, are you an imposter? Do you claim to know Christ but you have never really bowed your knee to Him and owned Him as your Lord and Savior? Perhaps you are busy with ‘church activities’, perhaps you are a Sunday School teacher or a camp counsellor. Without faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you CANNOT be His servant. You WILL be cast into “outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” If you have not trusted in Him, I plead with you to put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ now. (205.2)