The Parable of Talents

   

    Jesus often told a story to teach a lesson. Hear the story of the talents.

    One day a man was going on a long trip. He needed his servants to take care of his property while he was gone, so he called them to him.

    To the first servant he gave five talents of money. (A talent was not a coin, but a weight of a precious metal such as silver, and one talent was worth more than $1,000. So this servant received money worth more than $5,000.)

    This man went to work at once using his money until he had doubled it. He now had ten talents instead of five.

    The master gave the second man two talents. He probably thought the man was capable of managing that amount of money. The second man was successful also, and doubled his money. He began with more than $2,000 and now he had twice as much.

    The third man was not as capable as the other two, but the master gave him one talent with the expectation that he would manage it well. He, too, could have increased his money, but he dug a hole and hid it in the ground.

    After a long time the master returned. (Some think the master's trip is a picture of Jesus returning to heaven, and the return from the trip is the judgment of mankind.) He was ready for a report from the servants.

    The man who had received five talents brought his money and showed the master that he had doubled it. He was happy to show his master the results.

    The master was well pleased. He said, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!"

    The man that had been given two talents showed the master that he had also doubled his money. He received the same words of praise as the first man who had received five talents.

    The man who had received one talent dug up the talent he had buried and brought it to the master. He accused the master of being a hard man to work for, said he had been afraid, so he just buried his talent. He gave it back to the master saying, "See, here is what belongs to you."

    The master was very angry with him and called him a wicked, lazy servant. He said the man should at least have put the money with bankers and received some interest. (Now the Jews could not charge nor receive interest from a fellow Jew, but they could get interest from a person who was not a Jew.)

    The master took his one talent away from him and gave it to the man who had ten talents, and the one talent man was punished because he had not properly used the talent he had been given.

-END OF THE STORY-

    Each servant received a substantial sum of money from the master, which was commensurate with the servant's capabilities. The first two servants were dependable in looking after their master's money. They were duly compensated for their efforts. The third servant lacked trust, and the master considered him to be unworthy of his position. He was stripped of all he had and punished.

    As a result of the paragraph above, we might infer that God gives gifts to every individual. These abilities differ from one individual to the other. We must, however, account for these gifts to the person who gave them to us. We are reminded of the blessings and abilities God has given us, including our responsibility to nurture those gifts and talents for them to flourish and bear fruit. It is not just about abilities, money, or education that are discussed in this story; instead, it is about the significance of obedience. God put the servants to the test to see whether they would obey God's orders or if they would continue to do what they were thinking. It merely shows that God put us through our paces to see how far we would go to follow his commands and obey his commands. Overall, this story speaks of the need to develop and share God-given skills by God's plan and purpose and following God's commands and instructions for each of us.

    This story shows us we can only achieve success if we act on our ideas. We are to labor, putting our gifts to be used to honor God, serve the common good, and advance God's kingdom on this earth. The Parable of the Talents tells us that God always provides us with all we need to accomplish the tasks he has assigned us. Even we are inclined to feel sorry for the servant who was given just one talent. He was given as much by the Master, which he hid in his backyard. He was given more than enough to ensure that he met the Master's requirements. Like the Master expected his employees to accomplish more than keeping the property in their possession, God hopes we will create a return by using our gifts for fruitful purposes. The slaves were given enough to generate more, which is true of the things that God has blessed upon us.

    In the Parable of the Talents, we are taught that we are not equal in our abilities. Even though we are not born with equal abilities, the Parable of the Talents shows we are all created equal. It stems from the fact that it takes the same amount of effort for the five-talent servant to generate five more talents as it does for the two-talent servant to produce two more talent for the Master. As a result, the Master's prize is the same for each participant. Success is measured by degrees of effort, just as we should measure it. It is taught in the story that we should labor for the Master rather than for our selfish ends. The money that is paid to the servants does not belong to them personally. They do not have the right to keep the money they make from the capital. The slaves are only custodians of the Master's investment, and it is the quality of their stewardship that the Master is concerned with evaluating and rewarding. We should make the best potential use of our abilities, not for our selfish ends, but glorify God. We know well that we are working in a fallen world. The curse of sin will make our labor more difficult, as we all know.

    However, we should get pleasure and delight in doing our best with what God has given us in the circumstances. He has placed us to succeed in bringing him glory. The Parable of the Talents demonstrates we shall all be held responsible for our actions. Rather than being about salvation or works righteousness, the Parable of the Talents is about how we use our job to fulfill our heavenly callings on this planet. In this parable, the unfaithful steward did not so much spend the Master's money as he lost a chance to serve the Master. As a result, he was labeled as nasty and unproductive. We handle what we do for God with the resources we have been given, and we shall be held accountable for our actions one day.

Source: https://gardenofpraise.com/bibl52s.htm