Before God, a Christian needs to pay attention to growth in life and usefulness in service. These are two important matters.
In Matthew 25 there are two parables: the parable of the ten virgins and the parable of the master distributing talents to his slaves. The parable of the virgins is related to life, whereas the parable of the talents is related to service. When we live before the Lord, we love Him, pursue Him, follow Him, fellowship with Him, and await His return; in this respect we are all virgins. According to chapter 25, the ten virgins have two characteristics: first, they have oil in their vessels with their lamps (v. 4); second, they go forth out of the world of darkness to meet the bridegroom (v. 6). Spiritually speaking, a believer should be full of oil, the Spirit, and apart from the world. We should be those who are going out of the dark world to meet our Bridegroom.
The parable of the talents is related to our need to be slaves who are faithfully serving the Lord. We are a virgin to the Lord on the one hand, and we are a slave to the Lord on the other hand. We are a virgin-slave. According to our life, our love for the Lord, and our relationship with Him, we are a virgin. According to our service to the Lord and our commission from Him, we are a slave. We should receive His commission faithfully, because He has delivered His possessions to us.
The master gave talents in varying amounts, one receiving five talents, another two, and still another one, with the talents being given according to each one’s ability (v. 15). In the church we can certainly see this. Every person has a different spiritual ability before the Lord. Some have a greater capacity, and the Lord entrusts more to them. Others have less capacity, but the Lord still entrusts something to them. Still others have little capacity, but the Lord, nevertheless, entrusts a little to them. Although the amount that the Lord entrusts to each differs, the principle of being faithful to the Lord applies to all. If a believer is entrusted with five talents, he should be diligent and faithful to gain five more talents; if he is entrusted with two talents, he should gain another two, and if he is entrusted with one talent, he should gain another talent. The Lord is very fair. If those who are entrusted with five talents gain another five talents, they will receive a reward. If those who are entrusted with two talents, however, gain another two, they will receive the same reward. The Lord’s reward of being “set...over many things” is the same for both the one who received five talents and the one who received two talents (vv. 21, 23). His reward does not differ even when the slaves who were entrusted with different amounts gained different amounts. This indicates that the Lord does not care about how much has been entrusted to us or how much we have gained. He cares only about our faithfulness. In other words, our faithfulness should not come short of what has been entrusted to us. As long as we are faithful to the fullest degree, our reward will be the same.
In this parable the one who received only one talent was the one most in danger of receiving the master’s rebuke. When those who receive one talent see others receiving two talents and even five talents, they often think that they cannot do very much with only one talent. Hence, they “hide” their talent by not using it. The slave with one talent thought that his master was a hard man, one who reaps where he did not sow and gathers where he did not winnow. Consequently, he hid his talent in the earth in order to not lose it, and he was not faithful to use it (vv. 24-25).
After a period of time, the master returned to settle accounts with them (v. 19). We all should know that the Lord will indeed return and that we will need to give an account to Him. This parable shows how the Lord will settle our accounts with Him. The slave who was given five talents came to settle his account joyfully and said to the Lord, “Master, you delivered to me five talents; behold, I have gained another five talents” (v. 20). The Lord said, “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful over a few things; I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your master” (v. 21). On earth today the Lord has entrusted us with only a few things, but in the coming kingdom, the Lord will entrust us with many things.
The slave who was given two talents also came, and his situation was the same as the one with five talents. Thus, he received the same appraisal and reward from the Lord. However, when the slave who was given one talent came, he said, “Master, I knew about you, that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow” (v. 24). In effect, he was saying to the master, “You are a hard man because you demanded much even though you did not give me much.” It is wonderful that the master did not deny this. He did not say, “You are completely mistaken. I am not a hard man.” Rather, he said, “You knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I did not winnow. Therefore you should have deposited my money with the money changers; and when I came, I would have recovered what is mine with interest” (vv. 26-27).