Christians Must Put Their Talents To Work

“And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 25:30)

I read the above verse the other day and thought about a cornflakes commercial I remembered seeing on television several years ago. Three men are seated in a waiting room, each with a bushel basket, flooded with ears of corn, waiting to see the cornflake inspector. All were very proud of their harvest, at least until the first man went in to see the inspector and within seconds comes flying through the door with his bushel basket emptying itself as he slides across the waiting room floor. The farmer who was next in line looks at the remaining farmer in the waiting room and says, “You go ahead.”

Interestingly, the Bible has a similar story, told in the form of a parable, a story that compares something in everyday life to a spiritual truth. In this case, however, bushel baskets of corn are not used. Rather, Jesus uses money, called a talent.

A talent in Jesus’ day was worth around $1,000, a lot of money when you stop and consider that the average daily wage of His day was around 18 cents.

According to the Parable, a man was going on a long journey and entrusted some of his money to his servants. To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and one talent to the third servant, each according to his ability.

You remember the story. When the man returned, the servant with five talents gained five more. The servant with two talents also doubled the amount he was given. But the third servant hid his talent in the ground and did nothing with it. When he showed it to his owner, he kicked him out, much like the cornflake inspector in that commercial.

If you thumb through Matthew, you’ll learn that Jesus told this parable to believers, not the lost. His point was simple. Each of us has been uniquely blessed with talent that we can use to serve the Lord. Some have more than others, but everybody has something that can be used.

The point of the parable is the Lord will return one day at which time all of us will be asked to give an account of how we have used that with which we have been entrusted. The Bible says it this way: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment”. (Hebrews 9:27) The question is when we are judged for our life on earth will we hear the words from our “Master” that the master in that parable spoke to the two servants who had proven their loyalty: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21)

Billy Graham once told CNN talk show host Larry King how much he looked forward to hearing those words from the Lord, but admitted that even he had a tinge of doubt as to whether he had used his talents to their full extent. I don’t think Billy Graham has a lot to worry about, but the reason he mentioned it is he understands the spiritual truth that comes from that parable. Heaven is not promised to Christians who prove themselves to be lazy.

The truth is believers are not called to sit in the church pews on Sundays and soak up sermons from week to week. We are called to serve the Lord Jesus. Otherwise, just like that servant in the parable, we, too, could be thrown into the outer darkness – Hell.

We all know that the wages of sin is death, but we also should remember what the Apostle James once said: “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:17)