Make Them Work! (Part One)

Good morning.

In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus told the parable of the talents. I’d like you to read it in your Bible first if you don’t know it yet. In this parable, talents were money, but we all know that talents are special gifts or abilities. Included in these talents would be musical, writing, handwork (for both male and female) and hundreds of other abilities, inclusive of the motivational gifts as recorded in Romans 12:6-8: “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

The parable of the talents begins where the Master goes away for a long time (V14, V19). The talents he shared with them were his property – it belonged to him. This parable was told in the context of the Kingdom of God, for it is preceded and followed by a number of parables about the Kingdom of God and the end times, and therefore refers to Jesus as the Master who went away and shared His talents with His servants.  The moment we deal with somebody else’s property we are accountable, aren’t we? Our talents and gifts are not ours to do with what we’d like to, as we would see further on in this parable. It belongs to the Master.

The parable also tells us that the Master returns to call His servants to account. Jesus is returning soon and will call all people to account for what they did with that which was given them. “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works (Matthew 16:27).” To be frank, many godless people use their talents more efficiently than certain Christians.

Note that not all the servants were given the same amount of talents. Some were given five, others were given two and others were given one (V15). Everybody, however, received a talent. Talents are not only the obvious ones that we perceive as talents, such as singing, dancing, art or writing. There are a vast number of talents. My grandmother had this amazing gift to work with children. As children we just loved going to the farm during school holidays and, even though we usually worked hard to help her, since my grandfather had passed away, she had this wonderful way of making the holidays unforgettable. When my oldest child was little, she could be a handful, but one day, when grandma drove with us over a long distance, we didn’t know about our daughter. In fact we were astonished as we observed how she kept the child busy.

So, if you don’t have one of the ‘recognised’ obvious talents, don’t think you’re exempt from using your talent profitably. You certainly are talented and also gifted according to Romans 12:6-8 and will be called to account for what you’ve done with that which Jesus entrusted to you.

While you’re waiting for tomorrow’s message, think about your talents and gifts. Most of us have more than one.

Lord, please show me how I can make the most of my talents.

If you benefited from this, why don’t you link it to your Facebook or Twitter to make it available to your friends? You can also use the e-mail link to pass it on. Please also pray for the spreading of it to those who need it. Please feel free to ask questions or discuss thoughts.