For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
Today we come to another parable that Jesus used to teach us the truth of the kingdom of heaven. This parable, known as the parable of the talents, teaches us the necessity of making the most of our spiritual opportunities. In this story we see a man who is going on a journey so he calls together his slaves and gives each of them some money before he leaves. The text tells us that he gave the first one five talents, the second two talents and to the third he gave one talent. According to one source I looked at, a talent is a very large sum of money. Each talent is equal to about 6,000 denarii , and a denarii is the equivalent of one days wages for a laborer.
While the man was gone two of his slaves put his money to work and they doubled what they had been given, but the third took the one talent that he had been given and he hid it in the ground, doing nothing with it. When the man returned he called all of his slaves together and examined what they had done with what had been given to them. The first two were praised for what they had done, but the third who only returned what he had been given, because he had done nothing with it, had his one talent taken away and he was thrown out. He was not able to share the joy of his masters kingdom with the other slaves who had used their talents to enrich their masters kingdom.
So what does this mean for us today? Each of has has been blessed beyond measure by our Heavenly Father, and as His bond-servants (slaves) everything that we possess belongs to Him. He has entrusted each of us with varying degrees of ability, talent, and money. These are all gifts from Him and they are given to us to use to advance His kingdom. But are we using what God has given us to advance His kingdom, or are we consuming it all for our own comfort and pleasure? Or even worse, are we just hiding it away and not doing any good for anyone with what God has given us?
We cannot earn our salvation, but God does expect us to use the gifts and talent He has given us to bring Him glory. Are you doing that today?
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