“For it is like a man, going into another country, who called his own servants, and entrusted his goods to them. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one; to each according to his own ability. Then he went on his journey. Immediately he who received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. In the same way, he also who got the two gained another two. But he who received the one talent went away and dug in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.
“Now after a long time the lord of those servants came, and reconciled accounts with them. He who received the five talents came and brought another five talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Behold, I have gained another five talents in addition to them.’
“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
“He also who got the two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Behold, I have gained another two talents in addition to them.’
“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
“He also who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you didn’t sow, and gathering where you didn’t scatter. I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the earth. Behold, you have what is yours.’
“But his lord answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I didn’t sow, and gather where I didn’t scatter. You ought therefore to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received back my own with interest. Take away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 21, 27 Christ witnesseth that there shall be a long time…
Christ witnesseth that there shall be a long time between his departure to his father, and his coming again to us, but yet notwithstanding that, he will at that day take an account not only of the rebellious and obstinate, how they have bestowed that which they received of him, but also of his household servants, which have not through slothfulness employed those gifts which he bestowed upon them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv14–29 14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a…
14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
Ver. 14. And delivered unto them his goods] There is scarcely any man but hath some one thing or other in him, that is excellent and extraordinary; some special talent to trade with, some honey to bring to the common hive, have he but a heart to it. Sua cuique dos est. Let every man, according to his own abilities, improve what he hath to the common benefit. Freely he hath received, freely let him give; ability he hath none but from God; who yet, for our encouragement, is pleased to call that ours that is his own work in us.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 19, 20, 24, 28 There is much the same parable Luk 19:12, but…
There is much the same parable Luk 19:12, but the difference is so great in the narration, and the time, and circumstances, and scope seem so different, that the best expositors think it another, and spoken at another time, though there be much of this in that: I shall therefore leave the consideration of that in Luke, until I meet with it in him, (though some interpreters do think this the same with that), and only consider this, as it is before us in this evangelist. By
the kingdom of heaven, is doubtless here to be understood the economy of God’s providence in his gospel dispensations. The
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man travelling into a far country, is Christ ascending up to heaven, who, when he ascended up on high gave gifts unto men, Eph 4:8. By
the goods, which the man is said to have delivered to his servants, are to be understood the gifts which God giveth to men, being himself (as to his glorious presence, and his principal residence, which is in heaven, at a great distance from us) as a man in a far country; for I see no reason to restrain these gifts to such as flow from Christ as Mediator, but rather choose to interpret it generally of all the gifts of God, whether of providence or grace. Whereas it is said, Mat 25:15, that this man divided his goods to his servants unequally,
to one five talents, to another two, to another one, to every man according to his several ability, it signifieth only God’s unequal distribution of his gifts to the sons of men, according to his own good pleasure; which is true both concerning natural parts, as wit, understanding, judgment, memory, as concerning those which the heathens call good things of fortune, as riches, honours, aud dignities; Christians call them the good things of Providence; under which notion also come all acquired habits, or endowments, such as learning, knowledge, moral habits, &c., which though acquired are yet gifts, because it is the same God who gives us power to get wealth, as Moses speaks, Deu 8:18, who also gives men power to get knowledge, and upon study and meditation to comprehend the natures and causes of things, and also to govern and bridle our appetites: or the gifts of more special providence, or distinguishing grace. I take all those powers given to men, by which they are enabled to do good, or to excel others, to come under the notion of the goods here mentioned, which God distributeth unequally according to his own good pleasure, and as seemeth best to his heavenly wisdom, for the government of the world, and the ordering of the affairs of his church; of all which God will have all account one day, and reward men according to the improvement, or no improvement, which they have made of them in their several stations.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 19, 24, 28 Observe here, the person intrusting, Christ; the persons intrusted,…
Observe here, the person intrusting, Christ; the persons intrusted, all Christians; the talents they are intrusted with, goods; that is, goods of providence, riches and honours; gifts of mind, wisdom, parts and learning; gifts of grace: all these goods Christ dispenses variously; more to some, fewer to others, but with expectation of improvement from all.
Learn, 1. That Christ is the great Lord of the universe, and Owner of all his servants’ goods and talents.
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2. That every talent is given us by our Lord to improve and employ for our Master’s use and service.
3. That it pleases the Lord to dispense his gifts variously among his servants; to some he commits more, to others fewer talents.
4. That to this Lord of ours every one of us must be accountable and responsible for every talent committed to us, and intrusted with us.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv14–29 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man…
For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling,.... Our Lord adds another parable to illustrate the Gospel dispensation, or its visible church state; or the state of things respecting the church of Christ, before, and at his second coming, and during the interval between his ascension and that: for by the man here, is meant Christ, who in the everlasting covenant agreed to become man, was prophesied of as such, frequently appeared in human form, under the Old Testament dispensation; and in the fulness of time, really became man; though he was not a mere man, but was God as well as man; having all the perfections and fulness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in him: this man is said to travel
into a far country; by which heaven is designed, and is so called, not only because of its great distance from the earth, and which is very great indeed; but because the better country and land afar off, is out of sight; and what views we have of it, are very distant ones; and is afar off, in respect of our state of pilgrimage in this world, in which, whilst Christ was here, he was a pilgrim and a stranger too; who might be said to be as a "man travelling", whilst he was in it, and when going out of it, and ascending to heaven: he came from thence, and stayed here a while, walking up and down, and doing good; and when he had finished what he came about, he ascended on high, went to his God and Father, entered into heaven, where he is received until the times of the restitution of all things:
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who called his own servants; before he took his journey, to commit some things to their trust and management; and to give them some instructions how to behave during his absence: for, according to the Jewish (u) canons,
"a master that had a mind to go out of the land (of Israel) could not take his servant with him, unless he pleased; and this is a rule at all times, even at this time, that the land is in the hand of the Gentiles.''
And here no mention is made of any going with him, only how they were to be employed whilst he was gone: by "his own servants" are meant, not all mankind; for though they are all in some sense his servants, or ought to be, yet they are not so called in Scripture, much less with such an emphasis, his own servants; and besides, more than what are in the kingdom of heaven, or Gospel church state, cannot be intended; since the parable reaches to, and concerns no other: nor all the elect of God only, or all are not the elect of God that are designed; for though these are the servants of Christ, and his own peculiarly, yet all intrusted with talents, are not such; one of these was wicked, slothful, graceless, and at last was eternally lost, and perished; which is not true of anyone of the elect: but ministers of the word are here meant, who are eminently the servants of Christ, his own, whom he has called, qualified, commissioned, and sent forth; for the ministers of the word, whether faithful or slothful, good or bad, are in a very lively manner described in this parable, which is a distinct one from the former; for whereas that gives an account of the different members of the visible church, this describes the several ministers of it: nor can it be any objection to this sense of it, that these servants are all of them said to be his own servants, and called, commissioned, and gifted by him; since Judas, as well as the rest, was called, ordained, qualified, and sent forth by Christ, as an apostle.
And delivered unto them his goods; the Gospel, that rich treasure of divine truths, the dispensation of it, and gifts to preach it; all which are Christ's goods and his gifts, and not man's; and which was in a very eminent manner done, when Christ ascended on high, and received gifts for, and gave them unto men. Just before it, as he was ready to go, he gathered his disciples together; he renewed and enlarged their commission to preach the Gospel; and quickly after it, gave them greater and larger gifts of the Spirit than before; and has been ever since giving ministerial gifts to men, to some more, others less, and which are signified by the talents following.
(u) Maimon. Hilch. Abadim, c. 8. sect. 9.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 18, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29 Our Lord proceeds by a parable still plainer (if…
Our Lord proceeds by a parable still plainer (if that can be) to declare the final reward of a harmless man. May God give all such in this their day, ears to hear and hearts to understand it! The kingdom of heaven - That is, the King of heaven, Christ. Mark xiii, 34; Luke xix, 12.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 27, 29 Verse 14. Called his own servants] God never makes…
Verse 14. Called his own servants] God never makes the children of men proprietors of his goods. They are formed by his power, and upheld by his bounty; and they hold their lives and their goods, as in many of our ancient tenures, quamdiu domino placuerit - at the will of their Lord.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv14, 16, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26, 28 Mat 25:14-15. For, &c. — To show us more…
Mat 25:14-15. For, &c. — To show us more clearly the nature and duty of Christian watchfulness, to which he exhorts us in the preceding verse, our Saviour immediately subjoins another parable, wherein he represents to us the different characters of a faithful and slothful servant, and the difference of their future acceptation. Like the former, the present parable is intended to stir us up to a zealous preparation for the coming of our Lord, by diligence in the discharge of our duty, and by a proper employment and a careful improvement of our talents: as well as to unmask still more fully the vain pretences of hypocrites, and to demonstrate that fair speeches and outward forms, without the power of godliness, will stand us in no stead at the last day. The kingdom of heaven is as a man, &c. — The words kingdom of heaven are improperly supplied here. The sentence should rather run thus: For he (namely, the Son of man, mentioned in the preceding verse) is as a man travelling into a far country — Alluding to Christ’s withdrawing his bodily presence from his church when he ascended into heaven, or to that long-suffering by which he waits for the fruit of our works: who called his own servants — Τους ιδιους, his own, because created by his power, preserved by his providence, and purchased by his blood; and delivered unto them his goods — The goods of which he was the sole proprietor. Unto one he gave five talents — As being able to traffic with them; to another two — As not being sufficient to manage more; and to another one, as being still more infirm. So Origen. A talent being in value about 187l. 10s., he who was intrusted with five, received 937l. 10s.; and he who had two, 375l. sterling. And who knows whether, all circumstances considered, there be a greater disproportion than this in the talents of those who receive the most and those who receive the fewest? By the talents here we are to understand gifts or endowments conferred for a spiritual end, powers of body and mind, abilities natural and acquired, health, strength, long life, understanding, judgment, memory, learning, knowledge, eloquence, influence, and authority over others, wealth, privileges, or offices, civil or religious, and indeed every power and advantage of which a good or bad use may be made. To every man according to his several ability — Εκαστω κατα την ιδιαν δυναμιν, to each according to his individual or respective capacity, namely, to manage the sum, and according to the prospect there might reasonably be of his improving it. Or, according to the prudence, ability, and activity which he knew each to be possessed of.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29 For the kingdom of heaven ... - The “parable…
For the kingdom of heaven ... - The “parable of the talents” was spoken still further to illustrate the manner in which he would deal with people at his return to judgment. The words “the kingdom, of heaven” are not in the original, but are very properly inserted by the translators. The design of the parable is to teach that those who improve their talents or faculties in the cause of religion who improve them to their own salvation and in doing good to others shall be proportionally rewarded; but they who neglect their talents, and who neither secure their own salvation nor do good to others, will be punished. The kingdom of heaven is like such a man - that is, “God deals with people in his government as such a man did.”
His own servants - That is, such of them as he judged to be worthy of such a trust. These represent the apostles, Christian ministers, professing Christians, and perhaps all people. The going into a far country may represent the Lord Jesus going into heaven. He has given to all talents to improve, Eph 4:8; Eph 2:12.
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His goods - His property representing the offices, abilities, and opportunities for doing good, which he has given to his professed followers.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 24, 26, 29 But that the apostles and all men might learn…
But that the apostles and all men might learn how they ought to watch, and to prepare for the last day, he subjoins another instructive parable of the ten talents. It has a great affinity with that mentioned in St. Luke, xix. 11. But this last was spoken at a different time, place, and occasion. It differs also in some points. --- For even as a man, &c. This passage is to be understood of our divine Redeemer, who ascended to heaven encompassed by his human nature. The proper abode for the flesh is the earth; when, therefore, it is placed in the kingdom of God, it may be said to be gone into a far country. (St. Gregory) --- But when we speak of his divine nature, we cannot say that he is gone into a far country, but only when we speak of his humanity. (Origen)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v14
FOURTH SECTION
THE FINAL JUDGMENT AS RETRIBUTION ON INDIVIDUALS. THIRD PICTURE OF THE JUDGMENT. [THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS]
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Mat_25:14-30
14For the kingdom of heaven is [he is] 30 as a man travelling into a far country [going abroad, ἀνθρ. ἀποδημῶν], who [. He] called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. 15And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability [his own ability, κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν δύναμιν]; and straightway took his journey [he went abroad, ἀπεδήμησεν]. 16Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same [with them, ἐν αὐτοῖς], and made them 17[gained]31 other five talents. And likewise [Likewise also, Ὡσαύτως καί] he that had received two [the two, ὁ τὰ δύο],32 he also gained other two. 18But he that had received 19one [talent]33 went and digged [dug] in the earth, and hid34 his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. 20And so he that had received [the] five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them35 five talents more 21[other five talents beside them, ἄλλα πέντε τάλ. ἐκέρδησα ἐπ’ αὐτοῖς]. His lord said unto him, Well done, thou36 good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things:37 enter thou into the joy of thy 22lord. [And] He also that had received [the] two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. 23His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things:38 enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 24Then he which [who] had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strewed:39 25And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the 26earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine [thou hast thine own, ἔχεις τὸ σόν]. [And] His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strewed: [?]40 27Thou oughtest therefore to have put [thrown, βαλεῖν]41 my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury [interest].42 28Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which [that] hath [the] ten talents. 29For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. 30And cast ye the unprofitable servant into [the, τὸ] outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The Signification of the Parable of the Talents.—In this parable the idea of retribution, as affecting individual Christians, comes prominently forward; as the first referred that retribution to office-bearers in the Church, and the second to the Church itself as a whole. As there the former parable laid the stress upon the watchfulness, internal religion, here we have the requirement of watchfulness in persevering, unwearied fidelity and activity through the Spirit. [Compare the remarks of Trench: While the virgins were represented as waiting for the Lord, we have here the servants working for Him. There the inward spiritual rest of the Christian was described—here his external activity. There, by the end of the foolish virgins, we are warned against declensions and decays in the inward spiritual life—here against sluggishness and sloth in our outward vocation and work. That parable enforced the need of keeping the heart with all diligence—this the need of giving all diligence also to the outward work, if we would be found of Christ in peace at the day of His appearing. Alford likewise refers this parable to the active side of the Christian life, while the preceding parable sets forth the contemplative side. “There, the foolish virgins failed from thinking their part too easy—here the wicked servant fails from thinking his too hard. The parable is still concerned with Christians (τοὺς ἰδίους δούλους), and not the world at large. We must remember the relation of master and slave, in order to understand his delivering to them his property, and punishing them for not fructifying with it.” But this may be understood as well from the stand-point of free labor.—P. S.]
As it respects the relation of the parable of the Talents, to the parable of the Pounds (Minœ) in Luk_19:2-27, it is somewhat analogous to the relation of the parable of the marriage of the King’s Son, Mat_22:2, to the parable of the Supper, Luk_14:16. We must not be misled by the appearance of likeness into a denial of the fact, that we have to do here with an altogether new and different parable. Meyer says: “The analogous parable in Luke 19 is to be regarded as a modification, which arose, in evangelical tradition, of our present original and simpler parable. In its form in Luke, probably an original and independent parable (concerning the rebellious subjects) had become blended with that of the talents (comp. Strauss, i:636 sq.; Ewald, p. 339 sq.).” Such perfect confusion of parable with fiction would be discarded at once by a careful estimate of the practical doctrinal scope of the former. That would altogether set aside the following alternative (of Meyer): “If we entertain the thought that the parables in Luke and those in Matthew were delivered by Christ at different times, we must either admit the unnatural supposition that the simpler form in Matthew was the later (as Kern maintains), or contradict the narrative by assuming that Jesus delivered the parables in Matthew earlier than those in Luke (Schleiermacher, Neander).” The idea of “simpler” has nothing to do here, where, as even de Wette acknowledges, the parables are internally different in their scope. The differences are plain: 1. As to their respective motives. In Luke, Jesus designs to repel the supposition that the advent would soon, or immediately, in a chronological sense, make its appearance; in Matthew, He intends to quicken the expectation that, in a religious sense, it would soon come. 2. In the former, the Lord is a high-born noble, who was to receive a kingdom; here, He is simply a landowner. There, the Lord’s absence is distance in space; here, it is length of time (there: ἐπορεύθη εἰς χώρας μακράν; here: μετὰ χρόνον πολὺν ἔρχεται). There, the servants are ten, the number of the world’s age (see the ten virgins); here, they are three, the number of the Spirit. In the former, all the servants receive one pound—doubtless the one equal office of testimony; here, the first servant receives five talents, the second two, the third one—thus noting individually different endowment, diverse degrees of the gift of the Spirit and grace. There, the gain is not in relation to the pounds—there are ten pounds from the the one, five pounds from the one—because the result of official blessing may be past all reckoning; here, the gain is proportioned to the gift—five pounds from five, two from two—because the gift of the Spirit as such can have an objective blessing only according to its subjective degree. There, the last servant lays up the one pound, which mikes him equal to the rest, in a napkin, unused, signifying his idleness; here, he buries it in the earth, signifying the prostitution of spiritual gifts to the service of the world and the flesh. There, the recompense of fidelity is the extension of the charge and vocation, the being placed over ten and over five cities; here, it is an entrance into the joy of their Lord:—the former in harmony with official relation, and the latter in harmony with the personal spiritual life. There, the die servant was punished by the pound being taken from him (removal from office); here, he is cast into the outer darkness, condemned to eternal woe. In Luke, the parable closes with the nobleman being changed into a king, who punishes his rebellious servants; in Matthew, it closes with the just administration of the landowner—although the king comes into all the more glorious prominence in the last parable, Mat_25:31 seq. The resemblance in the tone of the wicked servant’s words, and the Lord’s rejoinder, can have no effect in disturbing our conviction of the distinctness of the two parables. And upon this point, it is to be carefully noted that the servant in Luke, in accordance with the official relation, wraps his pound in a napkin; while the servant in Matthew, in accordance with the spiritual relation, hides it in the earth; further, that the former ought to have put his gold into the bank (the office is given back to the Church); while the latter should have taken it to the exchangers (spiritual gifts are quickened by contact with earnest leaders and members of the Church). Thus the former parable sets before us simply the external, social, official side of the Christian calling; the latter, the internal and the individual. This explains the difference between the gain of fidelity in the one case and in the other: and, further, that the slothful servant in office and the slothful servant in the service of the Spirit for the most part coincide, although in individual traits they differ. Official vocation produces its outward results broadly through the world; and an apostle might gain half the population of the earth, or bring the whole generation under his own influence. On the other hand, the spiritual gift works inwardly in the spiritual domain. In this it gains just so much life as corresponds with its related capacity of the Spirit. Externally, this gain may seem less; but in the estimate of the kingdom of grace it is otherwise. It is a higher reward to enter into the joy of our Lord, than to be set over the cities in the other world. In harmony with this distinction, the one slothful servant did not work at all; the other hid his spiritual gift in the earth. This πονηρός, too, has a specific predicate attached to him, ὀκνηρός; and his requital is not merely discharge from office, but spiritual woe.
Mat_25:14. For he is as a man.—Here it is customary to explain the construction as an abrupt transition and an incomplete clause (an anantapodoton), as in Rom_5:12. But the previous verse is latently carried on in the sense: you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh; for He is, etc.
Delivered unto them his goods.—The spiritual blessing of His life and salvation. Christ entrusts to Christians in this world the treasure of His spiritual life.
Mat_25:15. To every man according to his own ability, κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν δίναμιν.—Spiritual gifts are regulated by the kind and degree of personal susceptibility and capacity. Compare the doctrine of the χαρίσματα 1 Corinthians 12 [“There is no Pelagianism in this; for each man’s powers are themselves the gift of God.” Alford. But the words ἑκάστῳ κατ’ ἰδίαν δύναμιν imply that every man has a natural endowment, a sacred trust and mission to fulfil in this world.—P. S.]
And straightway he went abroad.—The nearest possible approximation of the parable to the fact, that the ascension and Pentecost are closely connected; although the order is inverted.43 There had been, however, a preparatory bestowment of the Spirit before the ascension. See the farewell discourses in John, and Matthew 20. Meyer: “Straightway, without precise orders for the application of the money.” But some general orders are presupposed by the subsequent judgment; while the particular employment of the personal endowment is entrusted to the individual. Every one must know his peculiar vocation.
Ver 18. Hid his lord’s money.—Contrary to duty and to dignity. The money in the earth is the spirit in the flesh.
Mat_25:20. Gained beside them, ἐ π’ αὐτοῖς.—In addition to what was entrusted, and by means thereof. [Comp. the plainer statement in Luk_19:16 : “Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds,” and Joh_15:5 : “Without Me, ye can do nothing” Every gift of God may be doubled and even increased tenfold by faithful and conscientious use, while it may be lost by neglect. This is true of spiritual and temporal gifts of all kinds.—P. S.]
Mat_25:21. The Vulgate and Cod. A.44 read εὖγε, which may stand absolutely, as in Luk_19:17; the εὖ, on the other hand, as Meyer observes, must be connected with the verb. [Alford, however, thinks that εὖ, according to later Greek usage, need not be connected with ἐπὶ ὀλιγα ἦς πιστός, but may bear the sense of εὖγε: well done! as in the English Vers.—P. S.]
[I will set thee over much.—This implies new spheres of activity and usefulness in the kingdom of glory in heaven; or—according to Stier, Alford, and all who refer this and the preceding parable to the pre-millennial advent—in the millennium on earth.—P. S.]
Into the joy of thy Lord.—De Wette: “Kuinoel and others interpret after Est_9:17 (Sept.), where χαρά=מִשְּתֵּח, entertainment; better, probably, from the feast of joy which the lord would celebrate on his return; Fritzsche, after Chrysostom, of the Messianic blessedness,—the parable passing over into the reality.” Doubtless, the Lord’s joyful festival is meant; but this signifies the inheritance of Christ. [Alford refers the χαρά not to a feast, but to the joy arising from the completion of the work and labor of love, of which the first sabbatical rest of the creation was typical, Gen_1:31; Gen_2:2; Heb_4:3-11; Heb_12:2; Rev_3:21.—P. S.]
Mat_25:24. That thou reapest where thou hast not sown.—The picture of a hard, and withal selfish man. The saying shows: 1. That the servant, as a self-seeker, separated his own interest from his lord’s, and therefore reckoned his lord to be a self-seeker also; 2. that he promised himself no personal spiritual joy in trading with the entrusted pound; 3. that he would tacitly reproach his lord with having given him too little: 4. that he would not only self-righteously excuse his own slothfulness of spirit, but also overrule and censure his lord; 5. that, with all this, he realty held his master to be not an over-hard man, but an over-gentle man, against whom he could dare to use such language with impunity.—Where thou hast not strewed.—Meyer understands here again, as in Mat_21:43, a winnowing, against Erasmus, Beza, and others, who interpret the δια σκορπιζειν of sowing; thinking that otherwise there would be a tautological parallel. But the new idea introduced is that of intensification: sowing and reaping, abundantly scattering and bringing into the barn. In winnowing, it is the straw that is scattered, and not the wheat. [Alford directs attention to the connection of thought between the last parable of our Lord with His first on the Sower (Mat_13:3-9). He looks for fruit where He has sown, but not beyond the power of the soil. He expects not so much success, as faithfulness which does not depend on the absolute amount, but is measured by the degree of ability and opportunity. Hence He says: good and faithful (not: successful) servant.—P. S.]
Mat_25:25. And I was afraid.—De Wette and Meyer: He might have lost the talent in trading. But that would have been in some sense praiseworthy. His fear was more abject: he would not take trouble for the benefit of a selfish lord.*
Mat_25:26. Thou knewest that I reaped.—Kuinoel and de Wette: Concessively and ironically spoken; but according to Meyer, a question of surprise. Doubtless de Wette is right. The servant has condemned himself as a liar. If he really regarded his lord as a hard man, and yet would risk nothing in trade, he might have adopted a safe method of gain for his master, and placed the money into the hands of the changers. Thus at least the interest would have been secured.
Mat_25:27. Thrown my money to the bankers.—Meyer: Throw it on the money-table; βαλεῖν exhibits the sloth of his manner. The changers held a public bank among the ancients, at which they received and lent money. [Olshausen and Trench apply the τραπεζῖται to those stronger characters who may lead the more timid to the useful employment of gifts which they have not energy to use. Alford objects to this interpretation, and refers to the machinery of religious and charitable societies in our day as very much in the place of the τραπεζ͂ῖται.”—P. S.]
I might have received mine own.—If thou didst thus separate thy interest from mine, thou wast bound to give the money to the changers, that I might have received mine with interest. A striking rebuke ex concessis!
Mat_25:28. Take from him therefore.—The negative punishment, entering into the judgment of the servant himself: separation.—And give it to him that hath the ten talents—Thus even his judgment passes over into the praise of God.
Mat_25:29. For unto every one that hath.—See Mat_13:12, p. 240.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On the meaning of the parable, see the Exegetical Notes. All its individual traits are regulated by the different relation of the talents; as in Luke 19 they signify offices, and here the individual gifts of grace. Thus, the concluding circumstance, that the one pound is given to him who had ten pounds, has in the two cases a diverse significance. In Luke, the sense of the parable is this, that the neglected office devolved or passed over to the highest fidelity; in Matthew, the truth is set forth, that the unfaithfulness of the slothful servant increases the spiritual life of the faithful, as affording him matter of constant warning and spiritual meditation, and the means of enlarging his knowledge of the divine government of souls.
2. If we refer this parable to the doctrine of election, we find in it the unlimited differences which the Scripture teaches, as opposed to the unlimited contrast of destiny which the Augustinian doctrine of predestination maintains. Each has his special religious talent or capital (the ἰδία δύναμις, Mat_25:15) in his original nature, and this becomes to him in the Church a charisma or gift (ἔδωκεν ἑκάστῳ). The destination to salvation is thus universal: the capability and the call to fidelity in all the same, the measure of the gift is different, as are the degrees of glory. But if the least endowed in regard to fulness of life (for in reference to truth and fidelity no one is less endowed than another) scorns and neglects his pound, that was not his destiny, but is his fault. The less richly he was provided in himself, the more anxious should he have been to enrich himself by connection with the more eminent members of the Church. (Comp. the author’s Positive Dogmatik, p. 956 sqq.)
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The judgment of the Lord upon all the individual members of the Church: 1. Its rightful ground: the appointment and the obligation of the servants. 2. Its test: the true application of gifts. 3. Its universality: the most richly and the least endowed are brought to account. 4. Its requital: on the one hand, the praise and the joy of the Lord; on the other hand, the despoiling and casting out into the fellowship of the lost.—Thy gifts are entrusted to the day of reckoning.—Manifold gifts, but one duty and one spirit.—The endowment of a Christian is a call to work for the Lord.—Every one receives the pound of the heavenly spiritual life according to the measure of his capacity.—The double obligation which the absence of the Lord imposes upon Christians: 1. They are bound to fidelity, because the Lord is so far (and has committed to them all His interests in this world); 2. they are bound to fidelity, because He is so near (invisibly present in His gifts, and may come at any moment to reckon).—The grand and stimulating thought, that Christ has committed to His servants in this world all His goods.—The confidence of the Lord the source of His servants’ fidelity.—Trading with the riches of Christ the highest and noblest gain.—Christ’s business prospers only through fidelity.—The Church is a place of trade, the noblest and the richest.—The principles of commerce with spiritual gifts: 1. As regards God: giving up all, to gain all. 2. As it respects our neighbor: to give is more blessed than to receive. 3. As it respects ourselves: to gain the one thing needful in exchange for many things.45 4. As it respects the world: to give up the visible for the invisible.—Trading with spiritual gifts the most perilous and yet the safest commerce.—The praise and the reward of the faithful servants of Christ in the hour of reckoning: 1. The praise, of having been faithful over a little; 2. the reward, of being set over much, and of entering into the joy of the Lord.—The end of our spiritual work a divine rest forever, a Sabbath of God.—The wicked servant; or, let no man undervalue the gift which God has entrusted to him.—How far a grudge against Christ underlies all unfaithfulness in the use of spiritual gifts.—Man becomes wicked evermore through thinking evil of God.—The Christian becomes wicked evermore through thinking evil of Christ.—The self-seeker ascribes his own self-seeking to God also, to excuse himself.—The unfaithful are obliged to condemn themselves at last by their own excuses.—The frightful pit of earth in which the heavenly gifts of the Christians are buried.—The infinite spiritual woes which must be entailed by the prostitution of spiritual light to the service of the flesh.—The nameless work without which the slothful will have to do when the faithful rest.
Starke:—We men in the world are stewards of the manifold gifts of God, 1Co_4:1-4; Luk_16:2.—Hedinger: God distributes His gifts strangely, but holily: let no man think that he has received too little, Rom_12:6.—In the gifts of God no one must be vain, or envious; but every one must use his own portion to the glory of God and the good of his fellows.—God bestows his gifts and goods on men, not that they may be buried, wasted, appropriated to self, or imagined their own, but that they may faithfully trade with them, 1Co_12:7.—Of a steward nothing more is expected, and nothing less, than fidelity, 1Co_4:2.—Canstein: Few gifts may be turned to much account.—Truth does not shun the light, but comes to it, Joh_3:21.—He buries his Lord’s goods who seeks only his own.—He who neglects nothing in his Christianity, will have confidence in the day of judgment, 1Jn_3:21.—In the future reckoning no man will be forgotten or overlooked, 2Co_5:10.—To be called a good and faithful servant of God, is a title more honorable than any that this world can give, Psa_116:16.—The wicked servant does not know Jesus as a merciful Master, but as another Moses who requires more than man has strength for.—When we do not see the gracious countenance of God in Christ, God appears to us hard and fearful.—Slothfulness and baseness the two characteristics of the unfaithful servant.—Luther: His knavery consisted in this, that he condemns his Lord for hardness, and scorns the way of grace (self-denial).—How many, who now receive an unlimited number of honorable names, will one day be called, Thou fool!—Hedinger: He who makes a good use of the first beginnings of grace, will go on well and soon grow rich; he who lets his grace decline within him, will soon be without it altogether.
Braune:—There is no standing still, either progress and gain, or retrogress and loss. [Forward and finally all, or backward and finally nothing.]
Lisco:—The humility of the faithful servants, who attribute all blessing and increase not to themselves, but to the entrusted pounds.—It does not depend upon whether one has effected much or little according to the measure of his power and his sphere, but whether he has been faithful and diligent or not: the spirit is the main thing.—This servant represents such as excuse their neglect in various ways: by pleading the little which has been entrusted to them, or the fear they had of encountering the dangerous influences of the world, or the consequent necessity which they felt of retreating into solitude and quiet piety.
Gerlach:—Unbelieving despondency is always connected with slothfulness, when unbelief becomes a permanent condition.
Heubner:—Fidelity in little things is a pearl of great price.—There, thou hast thine own: perfect breach with God; he throws up his service altogether .—Wicked (πονηρέ) he is called, because his heart was false, attributing falsely to God this unloving hardness. His conscience smote him in secret, and testified to him that God was not as he painted Him.—When God lays much upon us, He offers us abundance of strength to do and to bear.
[Burkitt (condensed):—1. Christ the Lord of the universe, and owner of all His servants’ goods. 2. Talents: riches, honors; gifts of mind, wisdom, learning; gifts of grace. 3. Freedom of distribution to all, but in different measure. 4. Every talent is given to improve for our Master’s use. 5. Every one is accountable for every talent. 6. All faithful servants will be rewarded with the joy of their Lord. 7. No excuses shall serve the slothful or unfaithful servant at the bar of Christ. 8. The unfaithful servant will be punished (a) negatively, by the loss of his talent, (b) positively, by suffering the misery of hell with gnashing of teeth, i.e., rage and indignation against God, the saints, and against himself.—(Similar practical remarks with a more minute analysis, see in Matthew Henry.)—D. Brown (condensed):—1. Christ exhorts us in this parable, not “Wait for your Lord,” but “Occupy till I come.” Blessed is he whom the Lord shall find working (as well as watching, according to the preceding parable). 2. Christians are all servants of Christ, but differ in natural capacity, acquirements, providential position, influence, means, and opportunities. 3. Fidelity will be rewarded, not the amount or nature of the work. 4. Idleness and unprofitableness in the Lord’s service is sufficient to condemn.—W. Nast:—1. The talents of all men are free gifts of God, so that there is no room either for self-boasting, or for self-reproach; 2. they are given in trust, the Giver still retaining a claim upon them; 3. they are given to be employed and turned to the best account for the glory of the Giver.—P. S.]
Footnotes:
[30]Mat_25:14.—[The interpolation of the Authorized Version is unwarranted and unnecessary, and not found in the earlier English Versions. Lange inserts he is (viz., the Son of Man, ver 13); others: it is: Ewald and Conant omit all insertions, and translate simply: For as a man going abroad (Ewald: Denn sowie ein Verreisender, etc.). See Lange’s Exeg. Notes. Meyer in loc. takes ὥ σπερ as anantapodoton, as Mar_13:34; comp. Rom_5:12. It was intended to connect the whole parable with ὥσπε, and then to add a οὕτως with an apodosis such as: οὕτως καὶ ὁ υιὸς τοὺ ἀνθρώπου ποιήσει, or οὕτως ἔσται καὶ ἡ παρουσία το͂υ υἱοῦ τ. ἀνθο., which was given up on account of the length of the protasis. Alford thinks, the ellipsis is rightly supplied in the Authorized English Version.—P. S.]
[31]Mat_25:16.—[Codd. A. , B., C., D., L., Lachmann, and Tregelles, read: ἐνερδητεν, he gained. Alford thinks, it was inserted from Mat_25:17; Mat_25:22. The reading of the text, rec.: ἐροίησεν, is sustained by Cod. Sinait., and retained by Tischendorf and Alford. But the meaning is the same: he made, i.e., he produced, he gained, and was so rendered by the English Versions preceding that of the Bishops. See Conant in loc.—P. S.]
[32]Mat_25:17.—[Comp. ὁ τὰ πεντε, the fire, Mat_25:16. The λαβών is necessarily implied in the second clause, and hence the interpolation had received (or rather in the imperf.: received) is justified. The verb can be easily spared in Greek. Ewald imitates the Greek brevity in his version: Ebenso gewann auch der die zwei andere zwei. But this is too harsh, and would not do at all in English. Some MSS. add after δύο: τάλαντα λαβών, which is thrown out by the text. rec., Tischendorf, Alford, etc. Lachmann and Tregelles omit also the words: καὶ αὐτός, he also, in which they are sustained by Codd B., C., and also by Cod. Sinaiticus.—P. S.]
[33]Mat_25:18.—Lachmann adds τάλαντον after A. and ancient versions.
[34]Mat_25:18.—Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Tregelles, Alford], read: ἔκρυψε, for the lect. rec.: ἀπέκρυψε, according to most witnesses. [Cod. Sinait. likewise reads: ἔκρυψε.—P. S.]
[35]Mat_25:20.—The words: ἐ π’ αὐτοῖς, beside them [the enabling cause of his gain], here and in Mat_25:22 are omitted in Codd. B., D., L., al., [also in Cod. Sinait.], and stricken by Lachmann and Tischendorf. They may have been added to increase the modesty of the expression.
[36]Mat_25:21.—[Thou is an unnecessary interpolation, and should be omitted, as in Mat_25:23.—P. S.]
[37]Mat_25:21.—[Lit.: thou wast (hast been) faithful over little, I will set thee over much, ἐπὶ ὀλίγα ἦς πιστὸς, ἐπὶ παλλων σε καταστήσω. So the German Versions of Luther, de Wette, Ewald, Lange; also the English Versions of Coverdale, Kendrick, Conant.—P. S.]
[38]Mat_25:23.—[Comp. note 8. Mat_25:21.—]
[39]Mat_25:24.—[The British Bibles here and in Mat_25:26 read strawed, the rarer form for strew, streuen. I followed here, as elsewhere, the spelling of the Am. Bible—P. S.]
[40]Mat_25:26.—[A question of surprise and displeasure, and hence with an interrogation mark, as in the Lat. Vulg., Coverdale, Campbell, Conant, and nearly all the German Versions. De Wette and Lange, however, regard it as an ironical concession, in which case the punctuation of the Am. Bible Society’s edition (colon) is correct. The British Bibles have a period.—P. S.]
[41]Mat_25:27.—[Lange: hinwerfen. The verb βαλεῖν expresses not the worthlessness of the money which was a good gift of God, but the perfect ease with which it might have been made to produce interest in the hands of brokers and bankers, who then as now received money on deposit at interest and lent it to others at higher rates.—P. S.]
[42]Mat_25:27.—[Σὺν τόκῳ, from τόκος (τίκτω, τετοκα), birth; child; gain, interest, in the LXX for נֶשֶׁךְ. The passage implies the lawfulness of taking interest. There was a saying in the ancient Church, γίνεσθε δόκιαοι τραπεζῖται (Origen, on Matthew 22), which was attributed to Christ, and may possibly have been derived from this verse, as expressing the moral lesson of this and the kindred parable in Luke 19. See Suicer’s Thesaurus, sub τραπεζ.—P. S.]
[43][Comp. the remarks of Trench: “In the things earthly the householder’s distribution of the gifts naturally and of necessity precedes his departure; in the heavenly it is not altogether so; the Ascension, or departure, goes before Pentecost, or the distribution of gifts; yet the straightway still remains in full force: the interval between them was the smallest, one following hard upon the other, however the order was reversed. The four verses which follow (16–19) embrace the whole period intervening between the first and second coming of Christ.”—P. S.]
[44][There is an inconsistency between that pretended fear and this insolent speech, which betrays the falsehood of the πονηρὸς δοῦλος.—P. S.]
[45][In German: “Das Eine erkaufen um das Viele” (no doubt an allusion to Luk_10:32), which the Edinb. translator has upset thus: to sell one thing, to gain much! He probably mistook erkaufen for verkaufen.—P. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 PARABLE OF THE TALENTS, Mat_25:14-30.
PARABLE OF THE TALENTS, Mat_25:14-30.
The parable of the virgins illustrates the watch for the judgment in life or in death; so the parable of the talent teaches the duty of working while the day lasts.
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14. Man travelling into a far country — Our Lord ascending into heaven, until he comes to judge the quick and the dead. His own servants — The slaves of antiquity were frequently educated men, trained to the various kinds of business, and who toiled for the benefit of their masters.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 24, 27, 29 14. into a far country] These words do not…
14. into a far country] These words do not occur in the original, the word translated “travelling into a far country,” is rendered in the next verse “took his journey.”
delivered unto them his goods] Cp. Mar_13:34. “A man taking a far journey, who left his house and gave authority (rather, his authority) to his servants, and to every man his work.” Christ in His absence gives to each a portion of His own authority and of His own work on earth.
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A great deal of the commerce of antiquity was managed by slaves, who were thus often entrusted with responsible functions (cp. ch. Mat_24:45). In this case they are expected to use their Master’s money in trade or in cultivation of the soil, and to make as large an increase as possible.
14–30. The Parable of the Talents, in this Gospel only
The parable of the Pounds, Luk_19:12-27, is similar, but there are important points of distinction; (1) in regard to the occasions on which the two parables are given; (2) in the special incidents of each.
The lesson is still partly of watchfulness, it is still in the first instance for the apostles. But fresh thoughts enter into this parable: (1) There is work to be done in the time of waiting; the watching must not be idle or unemployed; (2) Even the least talented is responsible.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 (14) For the kingdom of heaven.—The italicised words are…
(14) For the kingdom of heaven.—The italicised words are introduced for the sake of grammatical completeness. The Greek runs simply, “For as a man . . . called his own servants,” with no formal close to the comparison. The parable thus introduced has obviously many points in common with that of the Pounds recorded by St. Luke (Luk_19:12-27), but the distinctive features of each are also so characteristic that it will be well to deal with each separately, and to reserve a comparison of the two till both have been interpreted.
The outward framework of the parable lies in the Eastern way of dealing with property in the absence of the owner. Two courses were open as an approximation to what we call investment. The more primitive and patriarchal way was for the absentee to make his slaves his agents. They were to till his land and sell the produce, or to use the money which he left with them as capital in trading. In such cases there was, of course, often an understanding that they should receive part of the profits, but being their master’s slaves, there was no formal contract. The other course was to take advantage of the banking, money-changing, money-lending system, of which the Phœnicians were the inventors, and which at the time was in full operation throughout the Roman empire The bankers received money on deposit and paid interest on it, and then lent it at a higher percentage, or employed it in trade, or (as did the publicani at Rome) in farming the revenues of a province. This was therefore the natural resource, as investment in stocks or companies is with us, for those who had not energy to engage in business.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv14–29 Vers. 14-30. Parable of the talents. (Peculiar to St.…
Vers. 14-30. Parable of the talents. (Peculiar to St. Matthew) Following on the lesson of watchfulness and inward personal preparation just given, this parable enforces the necessity of external work and man"s accountability to God for the due use of the special endowments which he has received. The former was concerned chiefly with the contemplative life, the waiting virgins; this chiefly with the active, the working servant; though, in fact, both states combine more or less in the good Christian, and the perfect disciple will unite in himself the characteristics of John and Peter, Mary and Martha. St. Luke (Luk_19:11-27) has recorded a somewhat analogous parable spoken by Christ on leaving the house of Zacchaeus, known as the parable of the pounds; and some critics have deemed that the two accounts relate to the same saying altered in some details, which are to be accounted for on the hypothesis that St. Luke has combined with our parable another on the rebellious citizens. That there are great resemblances between the two cannot be disputed, but the discrepancies are too marked to allow us to assume the unity of the two utterances. Christ often repeats himself, using the same figure, or illustration, or expression to enforce different truths or different phases of the same truth, as hero he may have desired more emphatically to impress on the disciples their special responsibilities. The variations in the two parables are briefly these: The scene and occasion are different; this was spoken to the disciples, that to the multitude; in one the lord is a noble who was to receive a kingdom, in the other he is simply a landowner; here his absence is a matter of local space, there it is a matter of time; the servants are ten in the one case, and three in the other; ill one we have pounds spoken of, in the other talents; in St. Luke each servant has the same sum delivered to him, in St. Matthew the amount is divided into talents, five, two, and one; in the "pounds" the servants show differing faithfulness with the same gifts, in the "talents" two of them display the same faithfulness with differing gifts; here the idle servant hides his money in a napkin, there he buries it in the earth; the conclusions also of the parables vary. Their object is not identical: the parable in our text illustrates the truth that we shall be judged according to that which we have received; the parable in St. Luke shows, to use Trench"s words, that "as men differ in fidelity, in zeal, in labour, so will they differ in the amount of their spiritual gain." The latter treats of the use of gifts common to all, whether bodily, mental, or spiritual, such as one faith, one baptism, reason, conscience, sacraments, the Word of God; the former is concerned with the exercise of endowments which have been bestowed according to the recipient"s capacity and his ability to make use of them, the question being, how he has employed his powers, opportunities, and circumstances, the particular advantages, examples, and means of grace given to him.
The parable of the talents.
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I THE MASTER AND HIS SERVANTS.
1. The Master"s departure. This parable is the complement of the last. The two together cover both sides of the Christian life the contemplative and the active. The burning lamp represents the life of faith and worship kindled by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The trading represents the outward life of active work for Christ. Under all ordinary circumstances the two must be combined. A living faith cannot exist in the heart without manifesting itself in outward work; while active work for Christ"s sake springs from that living faith, and loses all its worth and beauty if it becomes dissociated from faith and love. The two elements must coexist in all Christians; but they may be combined in different proportions, so that some are mainly men of action, others mainly men of contemplation. In large measure we must be both. We must keep the lamp of zeal and faith ever burning, and we must work for Christ. Christ himself was the man travelling into a far country. He was about to depart out of this world unto the Father. The parable relates primarily to the apostles, to whom it was spoken; then to the ministers of God"s Holy Word and sacraments, who are his servants, who must work for him in his Church; then to all Christians, for all belong to Christ, being bought with his blood, and all have work to do for him. The Master was about to depart. He called his own servants. We must remember that those servants were not like servants now, as free as their masters. They were slaves, bought with their master"s money; they belonged to him; their time, strength, ability, all were his.
2. The Master"s goods. He delivered his goods to his servants; they were to trade with them. Slaves often earned money for their masters in various trades or professions. He entrusted large sums to them five talents to one, three to another, one to a third. Here we notice one of the leading distinctions between this and the cognate parable in Luk 19:12-7. There each of the ten servants received the same sum, a pound, a mina; here the sums entrusted to the servants differ greatly. The two parables supplement one another. That in St. Luke teaches that the necessary means of grace are given in like measure to all the servants of the King. They show various degrees of zeal and diligence in the use of them. The rewards of the great day will vary according to those varying degrees of faithfulness. The parable of the talents teaches a somewhat different lesson. "There are diversities of gifts"; (1Co_12:4) "God hath set some in the Church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers;" "But all these worketh one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will." The talents must represent first and chiefly spiritual gifts, such as those first granted on the great Day of Pentecost, the gifts necessary for the apostles of Christ, and m various degrees for those who have been called to continue the apostles" work. Those gifts are not given to all God"s servants alike. The gifts of the Spirit differ; there are great differences in energy, zeal, strength of character, spiritual eloquence. "The Spirit divideth to every man severally as he will," according to the needs of the Church, according to the capacity of the individual servant. But, secondarily, the talents must also signify all the good gifts of God health, time, intellectual powers, earthly riches, station, influence; these and such-like are his gifts, entrusted to us for a while, to be used, not for our own enjoyment, but for his service. They are bestowed in widely different measure. Each man"s responsibility varies according to the greatness of the gifts entrusted to him.
3. The use made of them. Straightway (according to what seems to be the best arrangement of the text) he who had received five talents went and traded with them. He lost no time; he felt the greatness of his trust, and set to work at once to do his best for his lord. He was successful; he made other five talents. The second servant was equally industrious, and in proportion equally successful; each gained cent per cent; each did his master"s work faithfully. The third digged in the earth and hid his lord"s money. He knew that the profit of his trading would not be his own; he did not care to labour for his lord. He represents those who neglect spiritual gifts, who do not stir up the gift of God that is in them, who quench the Spirit; and secondarily, those who use the good things of this world simply for themselves, not for the glory of God and the good of their fellow men. The talent was bidden in the earth; buried amid worldly cares and worldly amusements. The unhappy man had received the grace of God in vain; he had wasted his earthly means upon his own selfish pleasures.
II THE RECKONING.
1. The first servant. The lord cometh after a long time (another hint that the second advent was not to be expected immediately), and reckoneth with his servants. The first, to whom five talents had been entrusted, had gained other five talents. He brings them; he attributes his gains entirely to his lord"s original gifts; "Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents." He had worked; but it was the lord who had enabled him to work, who bad given him the means. He represents the few highly gifted and eminently faithful Christians, such as St. Paul, who could say, "By the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." The Lord recognized his diligence: "Well done," he said, in those precious words which thrill through the Christian"s heart, filling him with high and blessed hope, "Well done, good and faithful servant." It is that highest praise, the praise of God, which the Christian should desire with all his heart and soul, heeding not the praise of men. He shall have that crowning praise who hath been faithful here, who ever regards himself as the Lord"s servant, set here to work for God; who regards his powers, his means, whatever they may be, as his Lord"s money, to be used in his Lord"s service. Those gifts are "few things." Even the five talents, the great personal gifts, the vast means of doing good, which have been bestowed on some of the Lord"s servants, are "few things," very small indeed compared with the glory and the blessedness reserved for the faithful. For those faithful ones shall be admitted into "the joy of their Lord," the Lord"s own joy, the joy that was set before him, for which he endured the cross, despising the shame. They shall sit with him in his throne; for he hath given them the glory which was given him of the Father. Heart of man cannot tell the entrancing rapture of that holiest joy.
2. The second servant. He too had done his best. His gains were less than those of the first servant, but he was not so richly endowed. He had been equally faithful; he had made the best use of his humbler gifts; he was as good and holy and noble-hearted a man as his more highly gifted brother. He is welcomed with the same high praise; he receives the like reward. It is faithfulness, not gifts, which will be considered in the great day. Many men of mean capacities and poor endowments will be among the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. "Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.
3. The third servant. He lingered to the last; his conscience was uneasy. But he could not escape his master"s eye; he must render his account. He comes at length, but not in humility and self-abasement, confessing his sinful negligence; he comes with false excuses, trying to shift the blame from himself upon his lord. He knew, he said, that his master was a hard man, harsh and exacting; he required from his servants more than they could render, more than he had enabled them to render. He feared him; he would not trade with his talent, lest in the risks and uncertainties of business he should lose some portion of it; but he had kept it safe: there it was. His master, he implied, had no right to ask for more. So men argue, or pretend to argue, now. They will not work for the glory of God or for the good of souls. The real reason is sloth, selfish sloth; they will work only for themselves. But, like the slothful servant, they have their excuses; they are unequal, they say, to the work to which God"s providence seems to call them; God"s demands are so large, so deep reaching; he requires more than weak human nature can give, more than ought to be expected of them. They shrink from undertaking religious work, lest by failure in that work they incur the wrath of God and bring themselves into danger. So they do nothing for God. They own that they had hidden the talent, the grace once given to them, but at any rate they had not wasted it in riotous living or lost it by misfortunes in trade. They were flee from gross offences. Their lives had been at least decent and respectable. Neither are they unbelievers; they own that the talent belonged to their Lord; he had given it them, and they would restore it. "There thou hast that is thine." They are no worse than others, they say, no worse than they have always been. They will not see that this excuse is false, that negative obedience is not sufficient. They are God"s servants; they belong to him; their time, health, strength, money, intellect, are not their own; all these things are God"s gifts, lent to them for a while; they must give an account of their use of them at the great day of reckoning.
4. The judgment. "Thou wicked and slothful servant." Those most awful words put into the clearest light the solemn truth that more than freedom from gross offences is needful for salvation. The slothful servant was wicked, for he had defrauded his lord; he had not given him that service which was his bounden duty; he had lived as if he were his own master, and had only himself to please. He was wicked, too, because he made these miserable excuses; because, instead of confessing his sin, he slandered his lord. The lord repeats the servant"s words in righteous indignation; he judges him out of his own mouth. If he had been such as the servant falsely said, fear, if not love, should have urged the man to do his duty. If he had feared the risks of trading, at least he should have put his lord"s money to the exchangers. The returns would have been small compared with the gains of the faithful servants; but even those small returns would have shown that the servant had taken some care of his lord"s interests. The Lord seems to imply that those small returns would have been accepted. Any real work for Christ is better than spiritual sloth. Some Christians are abundant in their labours; all must work if they would be saved; if they have not the energy of a St. Paul, they must help those who are foremost in Christian work with their alms and with their prayers. They must at the least show their interest in their Master"s cause in this way, if they are incapable of more active exertion. And work they must, every one, in accordance with their powers. "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required;" but he also to whom little is given must use that little in his Master"s service. The smallness of our gifts is no excuse for sloth. The most ignorant, the very poorest, can do something for their Lord. They may do much, for the value of the work is measured by its proportion to the worker"s powers. The second servant received the same reward as the first, though his earnings were in themselves far less. The poor widow"s two mites were more precious in the sight of God than the costly offerings of the rich. He that doth not use his talent must lose it. God"s gifts cannot be neglected with impunity. The Gift of God, if not stirred up by constant use, will be taken away. It will be given to those who have worked faithfully. Others will step into the places of the unfaithful, will do the work which they have neglected, and obtain the reward which might have been theirs if they had done their duty. For it is a law of God"s kingdom that "unto every one that hath shall be given" He giveth more grace grace for grace. Grace is ours when it is used; then it is wrought into the character; then we have it. "And to him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundantly. But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." He hath, and yet he hath not. God had given him that grace without which we can do nothing, but he hath not made it his own by diligent use. It must be taken from him in the righteous judgment of God. The grace of God cannot lie dormant in the heart. If it is not valued, if it is not used, it must be taken away. But the loss of the talent was not the only punishment. We hear again those dreadful words which the Lord had uttered twice already, (Mat_8:12 Mat_24:51) which he repeated, we may be sure, in mercy, to warn us of the sinner"s doom, "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
LESSONS.
1. We are all God"s servants; all alike have a work to do for him; all must do it.
2. All that we have is his, whether external gifts, or personal endowments, or gifts of the Spirit; all must be used in his service.
3. The joy of our Lord is blessed beyond the power of thought. Then work for Christ; it is faithful work, not apparent success, which determines the reward.
4. The condemnation of the slothful servant is awful exceedingly. Then work while there is time. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man The opening sentence in the original is anacoluthic, and our translators have supplied what they supposed to be wanting. The Greek has only, For just as a man, etc.; Vulgate, sicut enim homo. The other member of the comparison is not expressed. The Revised Version gives," It is as when a man." They who receive the possible interpolation at the end of ver. 13 would simply render, "For he (the Son of man) is as a man." The Authorized Version plainly affords the intended meaning in the words of the usual preface to such parables. (ver. 1 Mat_13:24, Mat_13:31, etc.) The conjunction "for" carries us back to the Lord"s solemn injunction, introducing a new illustration of the necessity of watchfulness. Travelling into a far country (apodhmwn , leaving home). Here our Lord, being about to withdraw his bodily presence from the earth and to ascend into heaven, represents himself as a man going into another country, and first putting his affairs in order and issuing instructions to his servants. (comp. Mat_21:3-5) Who called his own (tououv) servants. The sentence literally is, As a man... called his own bond servants. Those who specially belonged to him a figure of all Christians, members of Christ, doing him service as their Master. Delivered unto them his goods (ta uparconta autou , his possessions). This was not an absolute gift, as we see from subsequent proceedings, and from the well known relation of master and slave. The latter, generally speaking, could possess no property, but he was often employed to administer his master"s property for his lord"s advantage, or was set up in business on capital advanced by his owner, paying him all or a certain share of the profits. The money still was not the slave"s, and legally all that a slave acquired by whatsoever means belonged to his master, though custom had sanctioned a more equitable distribution. The "goods" delivered unto the lord"s servants represent the special privileges accorded to them differences of character, opportunities, education, etc., which they do not share in common with all men. This is one point, as above remarked, in which this parable varies from that of the "pounds." In both cases the gifts are figured by money a medium current and intelligible everywhere on earth.
Vers. 14-30. The parable of the talents.
This parable is naturally associated with that of the ten virgins. In both we have the time for preparation, the crisis of judgment, the differences of conduct, and subsequent results. But this second parable treats of higher responsibilities and graver issues. Here we have a specific trust; the duty is more than watching, it is diligent working; and the rewards and punishments are proportionately greater. We pass from the joys of the kingdom and the possibility of missing them, to the serious duties of the kingdom and the great honours and heavy penalties that follow obedience and negligence.
I THE TALENTS ENTRUSTED.
1. The significance of the talents. This parable has given a secondary meaning to the very word "talent" in the literature of Christendom a meaning which has come to supersede its original application, so that a talent with us is not a sum of money, but a power or faculty, and a talented person is a person highly endowed with natural gifts. In the large use of the word by our Lord the talent is anything that gives scope and facility for service intellect, wealth, position, etc.
2. The variety of the talent. Some are more richly endowed than others. Nothing is mere false to nature than the doctrinaire theory of equality. There is the greatest possible inequality, not only in the distribution of property which is often owing to man"s injustice, but in the providential bestowal of personal gifts.
3. The trust of the talents. The owner takes a journey into another country, and leaves his property with his servants. God is not really absent, but his presence is not apparent, and he leaves scope and freedom for the right use of what he has entrusted to men.
II THE SERVANTS" CONDUCT.
1. The diligent servants. Two do their best with what is committed to their charge, and work equally well, each just doubling his capital.
(1) God expects active service, and not merely negative innocence.
(2) Our powers and faculties are not our own; they are to be used for God.
(3) These gifts grow with use, and to ourselves the natural and the chief result of diligent service is the enlargement of our own powers.
(4) The best service must be proportionate to our natural gifts. The man with two talents can only make two more, not five; yet be works as well as his more gifted companion.
2. The slothful servant. This man had but one talent. If he had possessed more he might have been inspired to some enthusiasm.
(1) There is a temptation to neglect small gifts.
(2) It is wicked to be slothful.
(3) Inability is no excuse for indolence, because all have some powers for service.
III THE FINAL ACCOUNT. This must be rendered. The owner will return to his estate, though he may be long absent. God will call all his servants to account for the use they make of their powers and opportunities.
1. The reward of fidelity.
(1) This is for faithfulness in service, not merely in keeping what is committed to us.
(2) It takes the form of a larger trust.
2. The punishment of indolence. The idle man has his excuse, but it is a false one. The Master does not reap where he has not sown; for he gave the talents which were to be the seed of more wealth.
(1) Neglected gifts are withdrawn. If we will not use our faculties, we shall lose them.
(2) The indolent servant is east into darkness and despair. He might have done well. Not positive sin alone, but neglect to do our duty in God"s service, will be heavily punished. W.F.A.
Vers. 14-30. The parable of the talents.
There are three parables which illustrate the relation of work and wages in the kingdom of heaven the labourers in the vineyard, the pounds, and the talents. What this parable chiefly illustrates is that men are rewarded, not solely in proportion to the quantity of work produced, but that their ability and the means at their disposal are taken into account. And in order that this life be a fair field for the test of fidelity, two or three things are requisite, and these are noted in the parable.
I What is committed to our trust is no trifle, but the goods of our Lord all he has on earth whatever can produce on earth the fruit he himself wrought for and died for. There is no interest of his carried forward without the labour of men; if his servants cease to work, his cause on earth is at an end.
II The Master distributes his goods "according to the several ability" of his servants. Each gets what each can conveniently and effectively handle, and no one is expected to produce results out of proportion to his ability and his means.
III It is only "after a long time that the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them." They are not summoned to a reckoning while yet embarrassed by the novelty of their position; they have time to consider, to wait opportunities, to try experiments. The wise have time to lay up great gains, and even the foolish to have learnt wisdom.
It is not without significance that the servant who did nothing at all for his master was he who had received but one talent. This is the peculiar temptation of the man who has little ability. By showing no interest in that situation in life that God has seen fit he should fill, he would have us believe he is qualified for a higher. You are in the same condemnation when you refuse to do anything because you cannot do a great deal; when you refuse to help where you cannot lead; when you hesitate about aiding in some work because those with whom you would be associated in it do it better and show better in the doing of it than yourself. This miserable fear of being mediocre, how many a good work has it prevented or crippled! The insolence of this man"s words is not intentional. He reads off correctly his own state of mind, and fancies that his conduct is appropriate and innocent. All wrongness of conduct is at bottom based on a wrong view of God. Nothing so conduces to right action as right thoughts about God. If we think, with this servant, that God is hard, grudging to give, never really delighting in our efforts after good, and that whatever we attempt in our life he will coldly weigh and scorn, then manifestly we have no heart to labour for him. But this view of God is unpardonably wrong, for the very heartiness with which the other servants were greeted refutes it. Moreover, the action flowing from it is inconsistent. If the Master is so slow to recognize sincere effort, so oppressive in his exactions, why did you not at least put your money into the hands of men who would have found a use for it and paid you a good interest? There are numberless ways in which the most slenderly equipped among us can fulfil the suggestion here given. There is no lack of great works going on for our Lord to which we may safely attach ourselves, and in which our talent is rather invested for us than left to our o/on discretion. The parable does not acknowledge any servants who have absolutely nothing. There is something to be done which precisely you can do, something by doing which you will please him whose pleasure in you will fill your nature with gladness; it is given to you to increase your Lord"s goods. See, then, that you be not burying your talent. Money is made for circulation; so is grace. Yet some men might as well have no grace for all the good it does; it is carefully wrapped up, as if encounter with the world would fret its edges and lower its value. What, then, is the result of this? The great law is enforced, "To him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." And in the kingdom of Christ this law is self-acting, as it is also in our own bodies and in all matters physical. The muscle that is unused dwindles and disappears; no one needs to come and remove it; want of use removes it. So it is with every faculty bodily, mental, or spiritual. Yet how many think they can retain just so much godliness and no more! How many think they are hitting the right mean between over-righteousness and worldliness! This is proof that there is something radically wrong in their notion of the kingdom and work of Christ. You cannot possibly have just so much grace and no more; it must grow, or it will die. The reward is as certain, and provided for by the same great law, as the punishment. Beginning with such grace as you have, there lies before you the possibility of indefinite increase, if you do what you have power to do resolutely crush out what you know to be your weaknesses and faults, and seek to have your whole life gathered up into some ascertained and intelligible connection with Christ. This increase of grace is itself the reward, or at any rate the essential part of it. The talents gained are left in the hands that gained them, and wider opportunities for their use afforded. The faithful servant of Christ is always entering upon his reward, and entrance into heaven only marks the point at which his Lord expresses his approval, and raises him to a position of acknowledged trustworthiness, the position of one who has acquired an interest in the work, whose joy is his Lord"s joy joy in advancing man"s best interests, joy in the sight of others made righteously happy. There can be no reward more certain, for it begins here. No one need tell you there is no heaven; the kingdom of heaven is within you. It is also the best you could picture to yourself. The reward a person in sickness receives for careful attention to every prescription of his physician is that he becomes healthy. If you ask What is it that makes life worth living, which we can set before us as our sufficient reward and aim? the answer can only be that we have the hope of becoming satisfactory persons, of becoming perfect as our Father is perfect, who needs no reward, but delights in being and doing good, who loves, and is therefore blessed. D.
Vers. 14-30. The talents.
This, like the preceding parable, refers immediately to the professed followers of Christ. It probably has a special, though certainly not exclusive, application to ministers and those distinguished by office in the Churches. We have to consider
I THE TALENTS.
1. These are not the natural faculties.
(1) In the possession of these there is no difference of "one," "two," and "five." The Caucasian has no attribute that is not also possessed by the Hottentot. The premier enjoys no attribute that is not also enjoyed by the peasant.
(2) Were the talents our natural faculties, then would the privation of them amount to the extinction of our being. But the unprofitable servant survives his privation of his talent, to be punished for his slothfulness.
(3) The talents must not be confounded with the agents to whom they are entrusted for use. But the natural faculties go to constitute the agents.
2. They are the gifts of grace and providence.
(1) Foremost amongst these is the royal gift of the Holy Spirit. The lord travelling into the far country is Christ after his Passion ascending into the heavens. Thence he sent the baptism of his Spirit. (see Eph_4:8) This great Gift is distributed into
(a) the ordinary;
(b) the extraordinary.
There is a manifestation of the Spirit given to every man to profit withal.
(2) Whatever in the order of Providence may increase our influence.
(a) Property.
(b) Social status.
(c) Education.
(d) Patronage.
(e) Experience.
(3) Opportunities.
(a) Ordinances of the gospel Bibles, sabbaths, ministers.
(b) Circumstances of Providence, or occurrences called accidents.
(c) Relationships.
(d) Time.
Every moment has its grace; every grace has its employment; every employment is for eternity. Note: A talent of silver is worth All Christ"s gifts are rich and valuable. They are the purchase of his precious blood.
II THEIR CUSTODY.
1. God gives them diversely.
(1) To one he gives "five," to another "two," to another "one." This is arbitrary, of his own spontaneity, without consulting with the recipient. This he has an absolute right to do.
(2) Yet is his arbitrariness guided by wisdom. He gives "to each according to his several ability." He trusts us up to the limit of our own ability. Five talents would be too much for this man; one would be too little for this. God, who distributes, knows.
(3) Justice also is conspicuous in the distribution. No one is pressed beyond his powers. Who can say that the difference between the greatest and the least in the matter of opportunity is more than five to one? Plato, in his laws, allowed no man to possess an income of more than five times that of the poorest. This might be feasible with an adequate levelling up.
(4) No man has any right to complain that he has more or less than another. He that has much should not despise him that has little. He that has little should not envy him that has more. The man who improves his gifts, however small, will surely obtain the kingdom.
2. He gives them to be improved.
(1) Every gift and grace of God is capable of improvement.
(a) To the comfort and salvation of the recipient.
(b) For the benefit of his race.
(c) For the glory of his Maker.
(2) No talent must be buried. "Money is like manure, good for nothing in the heap; but it must be spread" (Bacon; see also Ecc_6:1, 2 Jam_5:3). That many Christians are too slothful to be useful is a melancholy fact. So perseveringly should we serve as not to outlive our character and our usefulness.
(3) Much more must no talent be abused. Yet to bury is to abuse. He who digs to hide his talent puts himself to more trouble to abuse God"s mercy than it would cost him to improve that mercy unto his salvation.
III THE RECKONING.
1. The diligent are rewarded.
(1) They can render their account with joy. For with the talents they had received "they went and traded." Note: A true Christian is a spiritual tradesman. (see Pro_3:15 Mat_3:4-5) Those who diligently improve their talents will have boldness in the day of judgment. (see 1Jn_2:28 1Jn_4:17)
(2) They receive commendation. They are praised for their goodness and faithfulness. If there be no merit, there is yet a rewardableness in our good deeds. They are promised a promotion. "I will set thee over many things." If the few things be "five talents," what must be the "many things," equivalent to "five cities," equivalent to "a hundredfold"! The servant over the few things is to be made ruler over many things. Note: Heaven is a place of order and government.
(3) They receive glory. "Enter into the joy of thy Lord." Christ, for the joy that was before him, endured the cross. That joy was the glorification of his humanity, both body and soul. It is also the glorification of the members of his Church, which is his mystical body and soul. This joy will fill the capacity of every member, whether he be a man of five talents or of two. Heightened capacity will still have perfect enjoyment. Christ"s servants are all princes. The crown, (2Ti_4:8) the throne, (Rev_3:21) the kingdom. (Mat_25:34)
2. The indolent are punished.
(1) They are reproached. "Wicked and slothful" is opposed to "good and faithful." Faithfulness rather than success is approved, and so is faithlessness rather than failure reproved. Note: The servant who had least entrusted to him is here represented as the unfaithful one, perhaps to impress upon us that we must not make the smallness of our gifts a pretext for indolence.
(2) The slothful servant, justifying himself on the ground of his master"s severity, expresses the views of the Author of all good that are taken by carnal minds. How awfully depraved is he that can charge his crimes upon his Maker! Note: The parable puts a weak excuse into the mouth of the slothful servant, to show that for neglect there is no apology.
(3) Hard thoughts of God beget fear (vers. 24, 25). Note the spirit of the slave. By refraining from expressing displeasure at the injustice of the slothful servant, our Lord teaches that the duty of serving him is incumbent even on the natural man.
(4) The indolent are deprived of their gifts and graces. "Take the talent from him." From the faithless minister, from the faithless Church member. "For from him that hath not even that which he hath shall be taken away." "He who hath this or that, and makes no use of it, may not improperly be said both to have it and not to have it" (Aristotle). Only what we use well becomes crystallized into a good character.
(5) The unprofitable are relegated to wrath (ver. 30). "Unprofitableness and omission of duty is damnable; unfaithfulness in us, who are but stewards and servants. To do no harm is praise fit for a stone, not for a man" (Baxter). "Cast ye out the unprofitable servant.
(a) "Into outer darkness." All outside heaven is darkness in eternity.
(b) "There shall be weeping," etc.; misery. J.A.M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John A. Broadus 1886 · Public Domain On v14 Mat 25:14-30.
Mat 25:14-30.
Be Ready To Give Account At The Coming Of Christ
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This is found in Matt. only, though a quite similar parable is given by Luke, (Luk 19:11-27) as spoken at Jericho, some five or six days earlier. On that occasion it had a special design, to indicate that the consummated reign of the Messiah would begin only at his return after an absence, and that then he would reward and punish men according to their behaviour during his absence; the illustration in that form exactly corresponded to the history of Archelaus. (See on "Mat 2:23".) Here those peculiar traits are dropped, and we have not a returning king, but simply a master, who returns from a long journey to reward and punish. It must not be inferred that Jesus is here taking pains to avoid calling the Messiah a king, for he does so immediately afterwards. (Mat 25:31, Mat 25:34) Some critics at once take for granted that Jesus spoke only one parable of this sort, and that either Luke or Matt. has reported inaccurately. But we have already remarked many times that such varied repetition on the part of a preacher who journeys about is perfectly natural. Meyer thinks it would be unnatural that the simpler should be the later form. It is amusing to watch the current propensity to explain every thing as an evolution from the simple to the complex. Certainly in preaching it is very common to produce a complex illustration adapted to certain surroundings, and on a second use in some other discourse to make it simpler and more general. Edersh. counts it difficult to believe that our Lord would give a parable in the presence of his disciples at Jericho, and then, a few days later, repeat it to the disciples in private; but theological instructors find frequent need of repeating to a class in an altered form what had been said in a sermon not long before.
Mat 25:14 f. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man, etc., Greek, lit., for just as a man, etc. The other member of the comparison is never formally stated, but it is understood without difficulty. Our Lord has given (since Mat 24:37) a series of illustrations to show the importance of watchful preparation for his coming—the days of Noah, one taken and the other left, the thief coming unexpectedly, the head-steward and his returning master, the foolish and the prudent virgins. In the latter case he said expressly (Mat 26:1) that the Messianic reign shall resemble the case of these virgins and the coming bridegroom, so he here goes on without further stating the matter to be illustrated. It is important to watch (Mat 25:13), for the Messiah’s second coming is like the ease of a man, etc. See a similar expression in Mar 13:34. Travelling into a far country, as in Mat 21:33; ’took, or went on, his journey,’ Mat 21:15, is the same Greek term. His own servants , as in Mat 22:6, those that belonged to him, doulos, slaves (see on "Mat 8:6"), from whom he might require and expect care for his interests. Trench : "Slaves in antiquity were often artisans, or were allowed otherwise to engage freely in business, paying, as it was frequently arranged, a fixed yearly sum to their master; or they had money committed to them wherewith to trade on his account, or with which to enlarge their business, and bring in to him a share of their profits." A similar course was sometimes pursued in our Southern States, during the existence of slavery. Five talents. A. talent of gold, see on "Mat 18:24", would be near twelve hundred dollars of our money, and with a purchasing power at least ten times as great. It was as if one should now put $60,000 in the hands of a dependent to preserve and increase. In the earlier parable (Luke 19) the sum stated is a "mina," about $17, so that ten minas would be one hundred and seventy, equal in purchasing power to say two thousand dollars. The sums used in the two illustrations are obviously round numbers. As talents in the parable represent whatever God gives us to use and improve, and as beyond comparison the most important of such gifts are our mental powers, so it has become common in English to call a man’s mental powers his talents, and hence to speak of a man of talent, or a talented man. A more or less similar use is found in German and Dutch, in French, Spanish, and Italian, even in modern Greek. To every man according to his several ability, or ’his own ability,’ viz., his capacity for preserving and increasing the funds intrusted to him. Compare Rom 12:6, 1Co 12:11 Eph 4:11. In the earlier parable this distinction was not made, but to each was given the same sum. (Luk 19:13)
Mat 25:16-18. The trusted servants go to work. Straightway should most probably be connected with what follows, as in Rev, Ver., rather than with what precedes, as in Com. Ver. and Com. Greek text. In Matt. this Greek word (Weiss) always connects with what follows it. The good and faithful servant (Mat 25:21), feeling his responsibility, went to work without delay. We naturally suppose that likewise, said of the second servant, includes this feature. Traded, literally worked, wrought (Wyc.), as in Mat 21:28; Mat 26:10; then in a technical sense, ’engaged in business,’ and so ’traded.’ The men who conduct large business operations have to work indeed. One of the popular delusions is shown in speaking of "the working classes," as if brain-work were not often far more intense and severe than mere hand-work. But the term "business men" proceeds on a like assumption that no one else is really busy. In the other parable (Luk 19:13-15) the Greek word used means directly ’engage in business,’ which was expressed in Old English by ’occupy’, (compare Eze 27:9, Eze 27:22) used here also by Cran. and Rheims, while Tyn. and Gem in Luke give ’buy and sell.’ Made. It is hard to decide whether we should read this word er ’gained,’ which has much better documentary evidence, but might easily here come from Mat 26:17, Mat 26:20, while ’made’ is also found in Luk 19:18, Rev. Ver. There is obviously no substantial difference. For lord, meaning master, see on "Mat 8:19".
Mat 25:19-23. The master returns and demands an account. The two faithful servants. After a long time. This was necessary in the illustration for doubling the capital by any safe business. In the application it intimates that the final coming of the Messiah is remote, but still the phrase is quite indefinite. There was nothing in it to show that the coming would not take place in their day, but only enough to show that they must go on diligently serving Christ under present conditions. Bruce well compares the correction addressed by Paul to those Thessalonians who supposed the Lord was certainly coming immediately, and inferred that it was useless to engage any more in the ordinary duties of life. (2Th 3:10-12) Well done is a good translation, found first in the Geneva version; but stress cannot be laid on ’done’ in contrast to the ’well doing’ of Gal 6:9; for ’done’ is not expressed in the Greek, but only implied in the word ’well.’ Tyndale and Cran. translate simply ’well,’ but this in modern English would be inadequate and ambiguous. Over a few things... over many things, implies that the master had vast capital and many kinds of business to be managed. We can hardly suppose here a conception remaining from the former parable, where a king was speaking, (Luk 19:17) for there the reward was to be made governor over ten cities; the two parables seem to be consistently distinct throughout. The joy of thy Lord is in the story the rejoicing and felicity consequent on the master’s return to his home. (compare Luk 15:22 ff.) But here the application quite overpasses the limits of the illustration. The noblest and purest earthly delight could but dimly picture the joy which will follow the Saviour’s final coming, for all that have been good and faithful servants, a joy unspeakably heightened by the fact that they will share in it with him; compare Heb 12:2 Rom 8:17.
The rhythmical repetition in Rom 8:22 f. of Rom 8:20 f. reminds one of Mat 7:26 f., and of the parallelism which characterizes the Old Test poetry. But what is more important, it commends and rewards the servant who has faithfully used the two talents in the same terms as the one who received the five talents There will doubtless be different capacities for sharing in the joy of our Lord, but every one will enjoy to the full. In the other parable the reward varies in exact accordance with the profit made upon the original trust, ten cities, five cities, as was natural in the case of a king appointing governors. Even here the wicked servant’s talent is not divided between the two others, but given to the first. In Mat 7:22 received is not expressed in the Greek, according to some of the best documents, but left to be understood; beside them rests on inferior evidence.
Mat 25:24-30. The wicked and slothful servant. A hard man, the Greek word for hard having metaphorical uses like our own. In Luk 19:21 f. the Greek is substantially equivalent, being austeros, rough, harsh, etc., which we borrow through the Latin as austere, but now use in a somewhat more restricted sense. The image in gathering where thou hast not strewed, or scattered, is not exactly the same as in reaping where thou hast not sown, but seems to mean the gathering of wheat that after it was cut had been scattered, in order to become more dry and ripe; or else gathering up from the threshing-floor what another had scattered there to be threshed. The servant knew, he said, that his master was hard and grasping, drawing gain from the labour of others He therefore pretends that he was afraid to invest the talent in business; for if he should make profit, the master would take it all (Goebel); and if he should lose the principal, he would be harshly treated, since one who so grasped after gain would have no patience under loss. So he returns the talent, as being all that would really have belonged to his master even if he bad engaged in profitable business. He does not recognize his position and duty as a servant, and tries to excuse himself by attacking his master’s character and disposition. Alford : "The foolish virgins failed from thinking their part too easy; the wicked servant fails from thinking his too hard." Hid thy talent in the earth, compare on Mat 13:4. In Luk 19:20 the servant having a much smaller sum in charge simply kept it "laid up in a napkin." There is a sort of spiteful fling in the words lo, there thou hast that is thine own, or thou hast thine own, Rev. Ver.—implying that the master had no right to expect more. Thou wicked and slothful servant. He wickedly misjudged and slandered his master, and tried to make that an excuse for his slothful failure to do as he had been commanded. The master retorts that his own excuse established his guilt. Granting the master’s character to be as represented, this would itself have indicated the propriety of at least lending out the money on interest So also in the earlier parable, Luk 19:23. Exchangers, or bankers. The Greek word is derived from the word for bank or bench on which money used to be received and paid out. These bankers also changed money, but they were something much higher than the small-change men of Mat 21:12. Plumptre: It was in the servant’s power "to take advantage of the banking, money-changing, money-lending system, of which the Phoenicians were the inventors, and which at the time was m full operation throughout the Roman Empire. The bankers received money on deposit, and paid interest on it, and then lent it at a higher percentage, or employed it in trade, or (as did the publicani at Rome) in farming the revenues of a province. This was therefore the natural resource, as investment in stocks or companies is with us, for those who had not energy to engage in business." The law of Moses forbade Israelites to charge interest against each other. (Exo 22:25 Lev 25:35-37 Deu 23:19) But Deu 23:20 allowed them to lend upon interest to Gentiles, and we may suppose this to have been a case of that sort, there being here no indication of nationality. Besides, the law was no doubt often disregarded or evaded in the dealings of Jews with each other, as we find in the time of Nehemiah. (Mat 5:10-12) Our Lord draws his illustrations from the actual conduct of men, sometimes from their wrong conduct (e.g., Luk 16:1 ff.; Luk 18:1 ff.). Usury, in Old English denoted simply what we now call interest, being the sum paid for the use of money, Latin usura; but by degrees came to signify exorbitant interest, as so many words have from evil practices acquired an evil sense. Our word ’interest’ derives its technical sense from the more general notion of profit. The Greek word here employed denotes what is born of money, what it brings forth or produces. The translation ought to be changed to ’interest,’ throughout the Old Testament Psa 15:5 refers to the law of Moses above mentioned, which is not binding upon Christians.
Mat 25:28. Bib. Comm: "God’s gifts are not left unproductive, because one to whom they are intrusted neglects his duty. So far as such gifts are transferable, they are often, as a matter of fact, taken away from him who does not use them aright, and given to another. Thus the kingly power which Saul misused was taken from him and given to David. Thus the kingdom of God was taken away from the Jews, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof."
Mat 25:29. Compare Luk 19:26. See on "Mat 13:10". This is a principle of the divine government having many applications.
As some would make hiding the talent in the earth mean sinking the spiritual in the carnal, or what not, so some understand putting the money to the bankers to mean contributing to charitable associations, etc. This last might be suggested as one application of the principle that persons who timidly shrink from personal exertions may indirectly promote spiritual work; but a single practical application of a general principle should not be put forward as an interpretation.
Mat 25:30. The unprofitable, or ’unserviceable,’ in colloquial phrase ’of no use’; before called wicked and slothful.’ If the man with one talent was blameworthy for making no increase, much more (Bruce) would that have applied to persons having two or five talents. Thus the guilt of uselessness holds true for high and low. Alas! how many professed Christians are utterly useless. Into (the) outer darkness, etc., (see on "Mat 22:11"), while the faithful servants share their master’s joy in his brightly lighted abode; the application of the image is to hell and heaven.
Homiletical And Practical
Mat 25:15. ’To each according to his ability.’ (1) Inequalities of human condition necessarily result from the inequalities of human character and conduct. (2) To have more of property or of other talents than one can manage for God’s glory, would be a burden and not a privilege. (3) The way to get a larger portion is to make wise use of what we have. (4) The best reward in eternity, will be the ability and opportunity to do grander work for Christ. (5) The faithful use of two talents will receive as hearty commendation as that of five; and the cup of joy will in each case be full. Yea, it would have been the same with the servant who received one talent, had he faithfully used it.
Mat 25:21. ’Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.’ (1) A joy unalloyed by sorrow. (2) A joy which is the reward of faithful service. (3) A joy which consists not in idle resting, but in higher and wider usefulness. (4) A joy shared with the Lord himself.
Mat 25:23. Jewish comm. (Midrash) on Exodus (Wet.): "God never bestows great things on men till he has first tried them by little things; e.g., Moses, David."
Mat 25:24. Calling God a hard master. (1) Men are often hard masters, but that does not prove that God is. (2) God gives to every servant some talent to improve—only in proportion as he has really sown does he claim to reap. (3) It is the wicked and slothful servant who complains of having a hard master. (4) To excuse our lack of service by accusing him whom we ought to serve, is but adding insult to injury. (5) We may delude ourselves with flimsy excuses, but we cannot deceive God, nor escape aggravated punishment.
Mat 25:25. The hid talent. (1) It is "his lord’s money" (Mat 25:18), entrusted for use and increase, and the servant has no right to hide it. (2) The reason for hiding may be professedly prudent fear, but is really sloth, disobedience, and lack of devotion to the master’s interests. (3) The risks involved in doing anything whatsoever, form no sufficient reason for doing nothing. (4) To return the hid talent is not giving the master his own, for he has a right to expect increase. Anon.: "One who receiving seed to sow, has at seed-time not sown it, inflicts loss upon his master; although he has not lost the seed, yet there is a loss in proportion as there might have been gain if be had sown at the fit time."
Mat 25:29. Chrys.: "He that hath a gift of word and teaching to profit thereby, and useth it not, will lose the gift also; but he that giveth diligence, will gain to himself the gift in more abundance; even as the other loseth what he had received."
Mat 25:30. The unprofitable servant. (1) Unprofitable because slothful. (2) Unprofitable, and therefore wicked. (3) Unprofitable and inexcusable (Mat 25:26 f.); if shrinking from one way, he might have been useful in some other. (4) Unprofitable, and for this severely punished.
Mat 25:14-30. Parable of the Talents. (1) Christians should gladly recognize that they are Christ’s "own servants," and must bend every energy to promote his cause in the world. (2) Christ commits to us as talents to be used in his service (a) our personal powers—of body—of intellect, imagination, passion, taste, conscience, will; (b) our attainments; (c) our possessions, and capacities for further acquisition; (d) our influence, through family, social, and business relations. (3) When Christ comes he will reward us for the faithful use of all these by admitting us into intimate and permanent intercourse with himself, and by heightened resources for glorifying him. (Mat 25:28.) (4) In the case of failure to improve our talents, many or few, complaints against Christ will be a poor excuse, only aggravating the offence. (5) To do no good in the world, to be simply useless and worthless, is to sin grievously against Christ; and only by incessant efforts to do good can we avoid doing positive evil. (6) The unprofitable servant will be punished by taking away his neglected resources for doing good (Mat 25:28), and by grievous and abiding suffering. (Mat 25:30.)
John A. Broadus, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew (American Baptist Publication Society, 1886) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v14 Who called his own servants, and delivered unto them…
Mat_25:14-30
Who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
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Life a journey
1. There is a variety of circumstances which will attend the believer in his journey through life.
2. Moreover travellers need not to be told that the weather during their different journeys is not uniformly the seine.
3. In point of affluence and fortune all the travellers to Canaan are not alike.
4. A passenger to Zion, like most travellers, must expect to meet with different kinds of company on the road.
5. When persons undertake a journey to a distant unknown country it is not unusual to have recourse to a guide.
5. Also a guard is necessary, as the way to heaven is infested with robbers.
6. There is no convenient travelling without a competent supply of provisions. (W. J. Hall, M. A.)
Unequal gifts
Let us see what Jesus Christ does not say.
1. He does not say that the Master loves those least to whom He gives least.
2. He does not say that the Master acts capriciously, but in wisdom.
3. He does not say that this inequality lasts beyond the time of trial, beyond the present life. Inequality
(1) A fact.
(2) A social bond.
(3) We should contend against all the inequalities of the present life which can hurt the moral destiny of our fellow creatures.
(4) The attitude which God takes towards humanity in the short period which we call history. He appears absent. (E. Bersier.)
The servants at work
1. The commendation of human industry which passed from the lips of Christ.
2. The gifts of God are multiplied in faithful hands. The gospel is life and power: it is prolific. Christ enlarges man. (E. Bersier.)
The account to be rendered
There is an account to be given. Mediocrity has its temptations:
1. Envy.
2. Ingratitude.
3. Contempt of duty.
4. After indolence the impiety which blasphemes. (E. Bersier.)
I. The office sustained, a servant of God.
1. Diversity of talent.
2. Diversity of sphere.
II. The character attached to the discharge of this office. Good and faithful.
1. In a desire to be governed by our Masters will.
2. Love to our Masters service.
3. Diligence in our Masters work.
4. Rejoicing in the Masters triumphs.
III. The recompense by which the office is to be crowned. A recompense of-
1. Acknowledgment.
2. Exaltation.
3. Pleasure, joy of thy Lord. (J. Parsons.)
The parable of the talents
I. That our divine redeemer is constituted the head and Lord of the Christian economy.
II. That in this exalted capacity he bestows a variety of talents upon the children of men. Time is a talent. Intellectual power is a talent. Moral capacity is a talent. Religious opportunity is a talent. Relative influence is a talent.
III. That he who has imparted these talents righteously demands their improvement.
IV. The period will arrive when he will come to demand an account. While the investigation will be inclusive, it will embrace each individual. It will be impartial. The result will be joyful and solemn. (G. Smith.)
Talents
What is it to trade with what God has given us, and how does the increase come?
1. Whatever God commits to us, gift or grace, has within itself a tendency to grow. The secret of worldly success is-
1. To set about at once to make the best use of whatever we have. God often puts a good thought into the mind; do not trifle, but make the best of it. Christ will come again. Love can be thus enlarged, the intellect, memory. Consecrated time becomes larger time. Specially happy the man who has put millions of minds into Gods bank. Money.
2. Make a good investment by investing in eternity.
3. You are sure of good security, the promise and fidelity of God. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Faithful service and its reward
This portion of the Divine word, while bearing on one great truth, was intentionally fitted to a great many truths. Such as the following:
I. As Christians, we are serving an unseen master. Our Lord is here compared to one who hath gone to a far country.
II. He hath gone to receive to himself a kingdom (Luk_19:12; Mat_25:21, etc.) The conflict is past and the labour is ended. He is exalted to the Fathers right hand, etc. His people acknowledge Him to be their king.
III. In the absence of this heavenly Prince a great and responsible charge is devolved upon his servants (Mat_25:14.) His servants are charged with perpetuating and administering the affairs of His kingdom. They are the living depositories of His truth. They are not only to conserve the truth, but to diffuse it, etc.
IV. It is a long time ere the lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. In some of its aspects life is short; in others it is long-very long. How long does it sometimes seem to watch with your Lord only one hour? And so, the slothful servant says, My Master delayeth His coming and the foolish virgins sink into sleep; and the soul who is like a bride adorned for her husband asks, Why are his chariot wheels so long in coming?
V. The results of were done for Christ remain. When the talents are used they grow by use, and increase for God.
VI. Varied and abundant rewards are reserved for the faithful servants of Christ. He who had gone into the far country comes back invested with honour and power to raise others to honour. He is ableto give rule. Putting aside the imagery, may we not picture what would be the actual blessedness of a faithful servant thus applauded, and thus more than repaid. No commendation like the Masters well done. Every faithful servant shall have praise of God. The holy felicity has within it the means of its own replenishment. It is His joy we go to share. Be thou faithful, etc. (S. MAll)
The replenishment of heavenly felicity
In the present world it cannot be denied that sweet as peace is, even peace may be monotonous; and coveted as joy is, it is the very nature of joy to subdue the appetite that gave to it its relish. But it is His joy we go to share. Eternity will seem as natural to you as time seems now. Heaven, with all its effulgence, will not dazzle you, and that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory wilt not for a moment be oppressive to your soul. But surely something of the felicity of that state would form part of your experience if you would only believe that, imperfect as you are, you are really dear to Christ. Oh, do not think that He will begin to love you when you reach a world where there is nothing but love. Your danger, your struggle, your sorrow, attract at least the sympathy of this Friend in heaven. Your services, they are not wholly disregarded. Jesus loves you-loves you as you are, and, in a measure, for what you are as well as for what you shall be. The potter values the clay while it is yet upon the wheel, and when it is far from having reached the shape of beauty he designs to give it. The refiner prizes the silver long before the dross is entirely purged away, and the masters countenance is reflected there. Oh, thou afflicted one, tossed to and fro and not comforted-poor, timid, heir of heaven-you call yourself only vileness; not thus do you seem to your Saviour. Since thou wast precious in My sight, He says, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee. (S. MAll.)
The entrusted talents
This parable, a needful complement to the story of the virgins; outward exertion must be combined with inward character. We must work as well as wait.
I. We have here an explanation of the diversity which exists between individuals in the matter of opportunity of service in the cause of the redeemer. We observe the fact that there is such a diversity. These talents do not denote the original endowments which men bring into the world with them, or the possessions into which they come by birth. These are gifts of God; but the reference here is rather to those opportunities which have been given to men in consequence of their abilities and environment. In His bestowment of spiritual opportunities Christ has regard to the natural abilities and providential surroundings of each man; and as in the sovereignity of God there is a diversity in the latter, so in the gracious administration of Christ, there is like diversity in the former. No man has more opportunities of service than he can avail himself of to the full. If Christ has given you one talent, it is because at present He sees you cannot handle more.
II. That new opportunities come to us with our improvement of those which we already have. By utilizing what we have, we get what we have not. The foundation of colossal fortunes have been laid in the taking advantage of little opportunities. The true method of increasing our sphere is to fill to overflowing that in which we are. So heaven shall give new opportunities of service to men who have made the most faithful use of earth. Faithful service widens opportunity.
III. The result of neglecting opportunity.
1. What is said concerning the man with one talent. It is not alleged that he wasted his masters goods; he simply neglected his opportunities. He was not notoriously wicked, but left undone what he had ability to do. Life is to be made productive. Many are content to do nothing because they cannot do some great thing. He who buried one talent would have buried five, his failure was in his character.
2. He cherished wrong views of God. All wrongness of conduct is based on a wrong view of God.
Two things are to be said:
1. The more rigorous God is supposed to be, the more surely He will punish unfaithfulness.
2. It is not true that God is thus austere. The love of God must constrain us.
IV. The sentence pronounced on the unprofitable servant. Here is a clear end of probation. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
The parable of the talents
I. The parable assumes that all who call Christ Lord and Master, will find some work to do for Him, and even some distinctively spiritual work. We have all some goods of Christs entrusted to us, and some capacity for using them. However inequitably this worlds goods may be divided, in the spiritual realm every man may take and do as much as he can. Who is to hinder us from being as self-denying, as lowly in spirit as we care to be? Our ability is the only measure and limit of our duty as well as of our right.
II. That the term of service is to be followed by a day of judgment, in which every mans work will be tried, and either approved or condemned.
III. The reward of faithful service will be enlarged capacity and scope for service. The Christian reward is above suspicion; it is the power to do more work. It is a reward after which all must yearn.
IV. The spirit and character of our service will depend on our conception of the Divine character and spirit.
V. That those who have but slender capacities for service may turn them to the best account by associating themselves with others, and helping in a common work. Help to work in some organization.
VI. That the rewards are not arbitrary, but reasonable and meritable. (S. Cox, D. D.)
Great talents and small
I. That becoming a Christian is merely going out to service. It is a voluntary service; not forced.
II. Different qualifications are given to different people.
III. The grace of God was intended to be accumulative. Take the one talent and make it two.
IV. Inferiority of gifts is no excuse for indolence.
V. There is going to be a day of solemn settlement.
VI. That our degrees of happiness in heaven will be graduated according to our degrees of usefulness on earth. (Dr. Talmage.)
Each man has his appropriate gift
You are to understand that there are different qualifications for different individuals. There is a great deal of ruinous comparison when a man says: Oh, if I only had that mans faith, or that mans money, or that mans eloquence, how I would serve God. Better take the faculty that God has given you and employ it in the right way. The rabbis used to say, that before the stone and timber were brought to Jerusalem for the Temple every stone and piece of timber was marked; so that before they started for Jerusalem, the architects knew in what place that particular piece of timber or stone should fit. And so I have to tell you we are all marked for some one place in the Great Temple of the Lord, and do not let us complain, saying: I would like to be the foundation stone, or the cap stone. Let us go into the very place where God intends us to be, and be satisfied with the position. (Dr. Talmage.)
Better to use one talent well than five wickedly
The man who kindled the fire under the burnt offering in the ancient temple had a duty as imperative as that of the high priest, in magnificent robes, walking into the Holy of Holies under the cloud of Jehovahs presence. Yes, the men with one talent are to save the world, or it will never be saved at all. The men with five or ten talents are tempted to toil chiefly for themselves, to build up their own great name, and work for their own aggrandizement, and do nothing for the alleviation of the worlds woes. The cedar of Lebanon standing on the mountain seems to hand down the storms out of the heavens to the earth, but it bears no fruit, while some dwarf pear-tree has more fruit on its branches than it can carry. Better to have one talent and put it to full use than five hundred wickedly neglected. (Dr. Talmage.)
Ordinary talents do most of the work
I am glad that the chief work of the Church in this day is being done by the men of one talent. Once in awhile, when a great fortress is to be taken, God will bring out a great field-piece and rake all with the fiery hail of destruction. But common muskets do most of the hard fighting. (Dr. Talmage.)
The grace of God was intended to be accumulative
When God plants an acorn, He means an oak, and when He plants a small amount of grace in the heart, He intends it to be growthful and enlarge until it overshadows the whole nature. (Dr. Talmage.)
The talents
I. What was committed to them.
1. It was a responsible trust.
2. It was not alike in the case of all. It differed not in nature, but in amount.
3. It was regulated by a certain principle-To every man according to his several ability.
II. What was done by them.
1. The faithful.
2. The slothful.
(1) A spirit of dissatisfaction;
(2) or this servant may have felt that it was in vain for him to exert himself, on the ground that his means were so limited.
(3) Again, this servant may have been one of those timid, over-cautious persons, who, lest they should do wrong, do nothing. We should add to our faith, fortitude.
III. The account required of them.
1. It was delayed for a considerable period.
2. Highly gratifying in the case of those who were first summoned.
(1) An emphatic expression of approval.
(2) Promotion to a state of high dignity and honour.
(3) The enjoyment of transporting bliss. The case of the other servant.
3. Unsatisfactory in its nature, and most serious in its results.
(1) A foolish plea.
(2) A withering rebuke.
(3) A peremptory command.
(4) A fearful doom. (Expository Outlines.)
One talent
I. The reason of his conduct.
1. He may have believed he could do nothing worth accomplishing with one talent.
2. He may have been envious of others.
3. Dissatisfaction with the distribution of the talents may have caused his inactivity.
4. Want of interest in his masters success.
5. He may have neglected his masters work for his own.
II. Whether any of these motives will justify him.
1. Does dissatisfaction with Gods government of the world constitute a just excuse for inactivity? Yes; if it is unjust. I have a right to resent injustice. Is Gods government unjust. Faith says No. Vain excuse.
(1) Because God had a right to do what He would with His own.
(2) Because the responsibility was proportioned to the gift.
2. Will his belief that no very great thing could be accomplished with one talent justify him.
(1) You misunderstand God if you think He takes no account of little things.
(2) He not only notices but prizes little things. The two mites.
(3) One-talented men are the true workers of the world.
(4) It is the multitude of them that builds up the mighty result.
3. But is the servant justified in supposing that his own interests must first be considered before his masters? Certainly there are many who are now pleading this: I will attend to Gods matters one day-my own absorb my attention now. No justification in this:
(1) Because God commands you to study His interests first.
(2) Because, you being merely His steward, this is just.
(3) Because, you being the creature of His hands and His servant, it is doubly just.
(4) Because this is the true way to advance your own interests. (See Trench on Parables, p. 281, for an apt illustration.)
III. Conclusion. Have any of you buried talents? Dig them up and begin this glorious career of working. (The Southern Pulpit.)
Human responsibility
I. All that we have, and, indeed, all that we are, belongs to God.
1. We have nothing that we can call our own-ourselves, our possessions, etc. We are servants-under authority, etc. Gods authority over us is entire and unlimited.
2. God has entrusted us with His goods-
(1) Minds and bodies endowed with numerous and admirable powers.
(2) More or less of worldly substance.
(3) Positions of influence and authority.
(4) The Sabbath, etc.
II. The distribution of the talents in different numbers or proportions.
1. Whether the term talents should be applied to all the powers, possessions, and opportunities for usefulness which the Lord of heaven confers upon His servants, or only those which are most eminent and valuable in the possession of each of them, admits of doubt.
2. Their unequal distribution illustrates in various ways the Divine perfections. It manifests His sovereignty, in doing as He pleases with His own; His goodness, as we have no claim or merit; His wisdom, in their adaptation to each.
III. The talents are improvable. They may be increased in value by wisdom and fidelity in their consecration to the Redeemers service.
IV. The certainty of the day of reckoning, however it may be delayed. The results of death and judgment and eternity are not the less sure because some wish they were doubtful or uncertain, nor are they the less near because some choose to think of them as distant.
V. The treatment of the good and faithful servants. As their diligence and their faithfulness had been alike, a similar reward is given to each, and both are commended in the very same words. Confessed, unnumbered sins must, from the nature of the case, be rewards, not of debt, but of grace. What a generous Master we have! His Well done! will be honour and bliss that shall captivate and enrapture as can no earthly delights.
VI. The doom of the servant who had but one talent, and hid it in the earth, is minutely described. The ground of his condemnation. His sin was slothfulness. All his pleas were poor pretences. It was right that he should be deprived, while others were enriched. There can be no valid excuse for not serving God. (T. D. Crothers.)
Fidelity in the service of God
Explain the nature of fidelity.
I. Fidelity requires A knowledge of our obligations, and, therefore, those who wish to be faithful will endeavour to obtain clear and correct views of what they are bound to do.
II. It requires an enlightened view of the grounds of those obligations. Without this there can be no rational desire or fixed purpose to discharge them.
III. It requires superiority over all conflicting tendencies. A man may have a desire to do his duty, and he may have a general purpose to perform it, but then may be too weak to withstand temptation. Fidelity in the service of God requires, therefore:
1. A knowledge of what He would have us do, as men, in all our relations of life, as Christians or as ministers.
2. Such views of our relation to Christ, and our obligations to Him, as shall awaken in us the desire to do His will, and lead us to form the purpose that we will in all cases endeavour to perform it.
3. Such a strength of this desire and such firmness of this purpose as render them actually controlling over our whole inward and outward life.
IV. From this statement of the duty it is plain-
1. That it is a very simple one.
2. It is a very comprehensive duty. It, in fact, includes all others.
3. It is one of constant obligation.
4. It is obviously exceedingly difficult. It supposes the renunciation of ourselves and of the world. (C. Hodge, D. D.)
The masters approval of the faithful servant
I. His character.
1. A good and faithful servant accepts his position as a servant, with all that is included in that position.
2. He bears the work-burden of his servitude.
3. He renders service with hearty goodwill.
4. He is obedient to his master.
5. He has his masters interest ever before him.
6. He is profitable to his master.
II. The conduct upon which this character is based. Thou hast been faithful over a few things.
III. The commendation and reward. Well done.
1. This is real commendation, not doubtful.
2. This is complete and full commendation.
3. This is useful commendation.
It is not an encumbrance, like a robe of state or an official chain of gold, but it is as a strong girdle for the loins. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord.
1. The joy of the Lord on His return to His servants.
2. The joy of the Lord in the goodness and fidelity of His servants.
3. The joy of the Lord in commending and rewarding His servants.
4. The whole personal joy of the Lord, so far as it can be shared by His servants.
5. The joy set before Him when He endured the cross.
6. The joy of finished work and completed suffering, of the joy provided in that kingdom which is joy.
This text teaches
1. What the Christians are expected to be-servants.
2. What we are expected to do.
3. What we may expect to obtain.
4. Supplies a present test of character and motive to service, (S. Martin.)
The good and faithful servant
I. The approved servant described.
1. Good.
(1) Good in nature.
(2) Good in principle.
(3) Good in motive.
(4) In fruitfulness.
2. Faithful.
(1) To God.
(2) To himself.
(3) To others.
II. The approved servant commended. Well done.
1. Surprise.
2. Humility.
3. Adoration.
4. Love. (H. March.)
The good servant
1. He is commended.
2. Promoted.
3. Admitted to joys unspeakable. (W. Jowett, M. A.)
The faithful servant and his reward
The parable of the ten virgins shows us our duty to ourselves; the parable to the servants our duty to others, etc. The one parable cries Watch! The other cries Work!
I. Look at the faithful servant. There are several things respecting him illustrating our own position.
1. He was a servant; one who is dependent upon, and responsible to another. Whatever our position, this is the character of every one of us. Men often speak as if God had no claim upon sinners. The man who hid his talent was as much a servant as he who by diligent trading made his five talents into ten. We are all servants, whether we own our Master or not, etc. Ascertain the character you bear.
2. He was entrusted with some of his masters property. So are we.
3. The talents bestowed upon the servants varied in their number. So it is with us.
4. They are given to us to be used according to the will of the proprietor-we may invest them, or waste them, or hide them.
5. They are entrusted to us for a limited period; the extent of that period is unknown.
II. Let us look at the conduct of the servant. He was not elated with pride because he had more than others, nor was he depressed with envy because he had less. He realized his responsibility, and at once set to work, etc. He was good and faithful, referring to his character and conduct. While faithful to his master, he was good to his brethren, and the manifestation of his goodness is seen in the revelation that follows, Faith without works is dead, etc.
III. Look at the faithful, servants reward. Gives his account with joy.
1. Has his masters approval.
2. He is raised to a higher position.
3. He was admitted to his masters presence-a honour beyond our comprehension. Apply the subject. (Charles Garrett.)
The unprofitable servant
I. The individual referred to is described as acting in the capacity of a servant. This denotes responsibility. Knows his Lords will. He possesses capability.
II. His sin. He did not squander the talent. His sin was knowing to do good and doing it not. He was of a phlegmatic constitution of body and mind. He did not seek the aid of Gods grace. What a lamentable state of mind to wish to get to heaven, and yet to turn in a bad temper from the only path that leads to it! But is God a hard Master? Ask the Christian who experiences in his heart the power of the religion he professes. Ask Nature.
III. His end. Outer darkness. (R. Jones, B. A.)
The discharged servant
There is, perhaps, no position more painful for a good and kind master to be placed in, no duty so painful for him to fulfil, as the being compelled to discharge a servant for misbehaviour, whatever the nature of the offence may be. There is something sad, and almost solemn, as the hour of departure draws nigh in which the servant is about to quit the threshold of the home where he has, it may be, served for years. At such a moment sins of omission and commission can scarcely fail to rise up in memorys glass slowly and upbraidingly before the downcast mind. It is then the obstinacy within relents, the hardness melts, the pride of the heart is abased, when it is too late. How apparent, then, is the folly of disobedience. Then is seen how useless were all those promises of amendment drowned in the opium of forgetfulness, or strangled in the birth by the complicated influences of procrastination. At such an hour, too, the value of the place he is leaving rises up before the minds eye in a way never experienced before. As the foot is lingering for the last time on the step of the masters door, the comforts of a quiet and peaceful.home are then contrasted with the cold and forlorn aspect of things without. Now if this be the case in regard to the affairs of this world, how much more forcibly does it apply to the next scene of existence? Here we must imagine no longer an earthly, but a heavenly Master, about to dismiss, not a servant merely that fills his or her respective place in a common household, but a man considered as a rational and accountable being. (R. Jones, B. A. )
The sin of unprofitableness
I. Unprofitableness implies a mind unlike that of God, and therefore unfit for communion with God.
1. The mind of the unprofitable one is marked by indifference to the welfare of others.
2. The goodness of Deity is not merely negative; it seeks to bless mankind.
II. Unprofitableness will exclude the soul from heaven; it is a frustration of the merciful designs of God. (E. Gibbon, M. A.)
The unprofitable servant
I. The excuse set up by the unprofitable servant for his neglect. It is general. I know that thou art a hard man. This is the language of the disobedient heart with reference to the merciful parent of the universe. The service is framed to meet our moral happiness. The ways of wisdom axe ways of pleasantness. The excuse uses an audacious tone; God is unreasonable, and expects the impossible, and does not put forth the needful agencies.
II. The sentence pronounced on him.
1. Supposing there was truth in his accusation, why did he not adopt the course less injurious to his Master?
2. Deprivation-Take, therefore, the talent from him. Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness. (D. Moore, M. A.)
The wicked and slothful servant
I. His profession.
1. The name, servant of the Lord, is most honourable.
2. It is a most comprehensive name.
How comes it that any whose dispositions thus widely differ should be found among the professed followers of Christ?
1. They have false notions of what constitutes a genuine servant of the Lord.
2. They have low thoughts of God.
II. His character.
1. He had been slothful.
2. He was therefore wicked.
(1) He was wicked because unfaithful to his trust.
(2) Because cherishing dishonouring thoughts of his Master.
(3) Because he acted contrary to his own avowed convictions.
III. His doom.
1. A just doom.
2. This will be the doom of many.
(1) To every individual is given at least one talent.
(2) Of even one talent a strict account will be required.
(3) This should lead us to self-examination and prayer. (H. March.)
The capacity of religion extirpated by disuse
Many persons read this parable of the talents, I believe, very much as if it related only to gifts external to the person; or, if to gifts that are personal, to such only as are called talents in the lower and merely man-ward relations and uses of life, such as the understanding, reason, etc. But the great Teachers meaning reaches higher than this, and comprehends more, namely, those talents which go to exalt the subject in its God-ward relations. The main stress of His doctrine hinges, I conceive, on our responsibility as regards the capacity of religion itself; for this, in highest pre-eminence, is the talent, the royal gift of man. In pursuing the subject presented, two points will naturally engage our attention.
I. The capacity for religion is a talent, the highest talent we have. We mean by a talent, the capacity for doing or becoming something, as for learning, speaking, trade, command. Our talents are as numerous, therefore, and various as the effects we may operate. We have talents of the body, too, and talents of the mind, or soul. All those which can be used, or which come into play, in earthly subjects, and apart from God and religion, are natural; and those which relate immediately to God, and things unseen as connected with God, are religious. The religious talents compose the whole God-ward side of faculty in us. They are such especially as come into exercise in the matter of religious faith and experience, and nowhere else.
1. The want of God-a receptivity for God.
2. Inspiration-a capacity to be permeated, illumined, guided, exalted by God or the Spirit of God within, and yet so as not to be any the less completely ourselves.
3. The spiritual sense, or the power of Divine apprehension.
4. The capacity of religious love.
5. The power of faith a power of knowing God. Their true place and order in the soul is-
(1) At the head of all its other powers, holding them subordinate.
(2) All the other talents fall into a stunted and partially disabled state when they are not shone upon, kept in warmth, and raised in grade by the talents of religion.
(3) All the greatest things ever done in the world have been done by the instigations and holy elevations of the religious capacity. This, therefore, is the real summit of our humanity.
II. The religious talent or capacity is one that, by total disuse and the overgrowth of others, is finally extirpated. Few men living without God are aware of any such possibility, and still less of the tremendous fact itself. On the contrary, they imagine that they are getting above religion, growing too competent and wise to be longer subjected to its authority, or incommoded by its requirements. The teaching of Scripture, To him that hath shall be given, etc. This spiritual extirpation is referable to two great laws or causes.
1. To the neglect of the talent or capacities of religion. All living members, whether of body or mind, require use or exercise. It is necessary to their development, and without it they even die.
2. To the operation of that immense overgrowth or over-activity which is kept up in the other powers. Is it wrong to assume that your religious senses were proportionately much stronger and more active in childhood than it is now?
Thus onward the thoughts that crowd upon us, standing before a subject like this, are practical and serious.
1. How manifestly hideous the process going on in human souls under the power of sin. It is a process of real and fixed deformity.
2. There is no genuine culture, no proper education, which does not include religion.
3. Let no one comfort himself in the intense activity of his mind on the subject of religion. That is one of the great things to be dreaded. To be always thinking, debating, scheming in reference to the great question of religion, without using any of the talents that belong more appropriately to God and the receiving of God, is just the way to extirpate the talents most rapidly, and so to close up the mind in spiritual darkness.
4. Make little of the hope that the Holy Spirit will at some time open your closed or consciously closing faculties.
5. This truth wears no look of promise, in regard to the future condition of bad men.
6. How clear is it that the earliest time in religion is the best time. The peculiar blessing and the hopeful advantage of youth. A great share of those who believe embrace Christ in their youth. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)
God blesses those who improve their privileges
I. What is implied in mens faithfully improving divine blessings.
1. This implies their acknowledging that all their favours come from God. As long as men disregard the hand of the Giver, they will certainly despise His gifts.
2. A proper improvement of Divine favours implies a grateful sense of Divine goodness. The slothful servant did not thank his Master for the one talent.
3. A faithful improvement of Divine favours implies a cheerful and unreserved consecration of them to Him who gave them.
4. Faithfully improving Divine favours implies employing them in the service of God..
II. That those who faithfully improve the blessings which God bestows upon them may reasonably expect further marks of his favour.
1. The faithful improvement of Divine favours affords the highest enjoyment of them. Men never enjoy their talents buried or abused.
2. The faithful improvement of Divine favours in time past prepares men for the reception of more and richer blessings in time to come. Masters bestow their best favours upon their best servants.
3. God has promised to reward past fidelity with future favours.
4. Gods conduct confirms the declarations of His Word. He has in all ages bestowed peculiar advantages upon those who have improved the temporal and spiritual blessings
He has given.
1. All the blessings we possess have been sent in mercy.
2. If God will reward only those who improve His favours in His service, then men are unwise and criminal in converting them to their own use.
3. Men ought to be more concerned to improve Gods favours than to gain the possession of them.
4. Those who abuse Gods favours have reason to expect that He will diminish them. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Laying ourselves out for God
Therefore you should keep a constant reckoning how you lay out yourselves for God. (T. Manton.)
Christ absent from us
It was needful that Christ, should go from us for a while; for He would not govern the world by sense, but by faith. (T. Manton.)
Diversity in service
Every one hath his service and opportunity to do something for God; all offered to the tabernacle gold, or silver, or brass, or shittim-wood, or goats hair, or badgers skins. So, as Christ went to Jerusalem, some strewed the way with garments, others cut down branches, some cried Hosanna; that was all they could do. (T. Manton.)
Diversity in ability
There is a diversity as to the measure and degrees. Every barque that saileth to heaven doth not draw a like depth. (T. Manton.)
Our account with God
Who made thee to differ? (Rom_12:35). For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things. The sun oweth nothing to the stars, nor the fountain to the streams. Our account must be answerable to our receipts; there is a proportion of return expected. (T. Manton.)
Diversity of talent helpful to service
God will have this difference for the beauty and order of the whole; variety is more grateful. Hills and valleys make the world beautiful; so do distinct orders, ranks, and degrees of men. All eye or all belly is monstrous.; difference with proportion maketh beauty; therefore one excelleth another, and several gifts and ranks there are for the service of the whole. (T. Manton.)
As divers countries have divers commodities, and one needeth another; one aboundeth with wines, some have spices, others have skins, and commodities in other kinds, that by commerce and traffic there might be society maintained among mankind; so God in His Church hath given to one gifts, to another grace, to maintain a holy society and spiritual commerce among themselves. (T. Manton.)
Use the talent we have
It was a good saying of Epictetus in Arrian, Si essem luscinia, etc. If I were a nightingale, I would sing as a nightingale: Si essem alauda, etc. If I were a lark, I would piere as a lark; but now I am a man, I will glorify God as a man. But alas! how often do men of the best endowments miscarry. (T. Manton.)
Satanic abuse of great talents
The devil loveth to go to work with the sharpest tools. God hath given great abilities to some above others, to enable them for his service. Now the devil, to despite God the more, turneth his own weapons against himself. (T. Manton.)
Talents given for activity
Strength is not to be wasted in sin and vanity, but employed for God. It is better it should be worn out with labours than eaten out with rust. (T. Manton.)
Trading for God, not self
Applause, vainglory, and suchlike carnal motions and ends may set some men on work, and make them prostitute
the service of Christ to their own lusts. This is not to trade as factors for God, but to set up for ourselves. (T. Manton.)
A gift and a trust
As a gift, they call for our thankfulness; as a trust, for our faithfulness. (T. Manton.)
Dread of God natural in the carnal mind
Fear is more natural in the carnal mind, because a bad conscience is very suspicious, and our sense of Gods benefits is not so great as the sense of our bad deservings is quick and lively. (T. Manton.)
A picture of the devil
The best picture that could be taken of the devil would be by the characters of malice, falsehood, and envy. But God is justice itself, goodness itself, mercy itself, as it is expressed in Scripture. (T. Manton.)
The unprofitable are destroyed
(Mat_7:19), Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Not only the poisonous, but the barren tree. (T. Manton.)
The sinner self-condemned
Grant the sinners supposition, it bindeth the duty upon him, and so he cuts his throat with his own sword. (T. Manton.)
Doing better than excusing
Certainly it is better be doing than excusing. Doing is safe, but excuses are but a patch upon a sore place. (T. Manton.)
Private conceits
You must not lift up your private conceits against the wisdom of God. (T. Manton.)
Nothing idle in nature
In the whole course of nature nothing is idle; the sun and the stars do perpetually move and roll up and down; the earth bringeth forth; the seas have their ebbings and flowings, and the rivers their courses; the angels are described with wings, as ready to fulfil Gods commandment, and run to do His pleasure. It were an unworthy thing, among so many examples and patterns of diligence, for man alone to be idle. (T. Manton.)
The sovereignty of the Divine endowments
Now, most men quarrel with this. But mark, the thing that you complain of in God is the very thing that you love in yourselves. Every man likes to feel that he has a night to do with his own as he pleases. We all like to be little sovereigns. You will give your money freely and liberally to the poor; but if any man should impertinently urge that he had a claim upon your charity, would you give unto him? Certainly not; and who shall impeach the greatness of your generosity in so doing? It is even as that parable, that we have in one of the Evangelists, where, after the men had toiled, some of them twelve hours, some of them six, and some of them but one, the Lord gave every man a penny. Oh! I would meekly bow my head, and say, My Lord, hast Thou given me one talent? then I bless Thee for it, and I pray Thee bestow upon me grace to use it rightly. Hast Thou given to my brother ten talents? I thank Thee for the greatness of Thy kindness towards him; but I neither envy him, nor complain of Thee. Oh! for a spirit that bows always before the sovereignty of God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Variety Gods law
God gives to one five, and to another two talents, because the Creator is a lover of variety. It was said that order is heavens first law; surely variety is the second; for in all Gods works, there is the most beautiful diversity. Look ye towards the heavens at night: all the stars shine not with the same brilliance, nor are they placed in straight lines, like the lamps of our streets. Then turn your eyes below: see in the vegetable world, how many great distinctions there are, ranging from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall, or the moss that is smaller still. See how from the huge mammoth tree, that seems as if beneath its branches it might shade an army, down to the tiny lichen, God hath made everything beautiful, but everything full of variety. Look on any one tree, if you please: see how every leaf differs from its fellow-how even the little tiny buds that are at this hour bursting at the scent of the approaching perfume of spring, differ from each other-not two of them alike. Look again, upon the animated world: God Hath not made every creature like unto another. How wide the range-from the colossal elephant to the coney that burrows in the rock-from the whale that makes the deep hoary with its lashing, to the tiny minnow that skims the brook; God hath made all things different, and we see variety everywhere. I doubt not it is the same, even in heaven, for there there are thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers-different ranks of angels, perhaps, rising tier upon tier. One star different from another star in glory. And why should not the same rule stand good in manhood (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Talents for small spheres
God hath a deeper reason than this. God gives to some men but few talents, because He has many small spheres, and He would have these filled. There is a great ocean, and it needs inhabitants. O Lord, Thou hast made Leviathan to swim therein. There is a secret grotto, a hidden cavern, far away in the depths of the sea; its entrance is but small; if there were nought but a Leviathan, it must remain untenanted for ever: a little fish is made, and that small place becomes an ocean unto it. There are a thousand sprays and twigs upon the trees of the forest; were all eagles, how would the forests be made glad with song, and how could each twig bear its songster? But because God would have each twig have its own music, He has made the little songster to sit upon it. Each sphere must have the creature to occupy it adapted to the size of the sphere. God always acts economically. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Few talents will have to be accounted for
If you had but little, God required but little of you; why, then, did you not render that? If any man holds a house at a rental of a pound a year, let it be never so small a house for the money, if he brings not his rent there is not one half the excuse for him that there would be if his rent had been a hundred pounds, and he had failed to bring it. You shall be the more inexcusable on account of the little that was required of you. Let me, then, address you, and remind you that you must be brought to account. (C. H. Spurgeon)
Improvement of talents
The right use of the Divine blessings is well represented by his trading or occupying with his Masters property. This not to be understood in a way of merit, for when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants. But the image of trading fitly sets forth the course of active improvement of every gift, which the true Christian pursues, his diligence and industry in his calling, and the common utility which is thereby promoted. Whatever is bestowed on him, he considers net as his own, but as his Lords. He employs it, therefore, with the scrupulous conscientiousness of a faithful servant. He does not waste his gifts in idleness, abuse them to self-confidence and pride, or lessen and destroy them by rash and ambitious schemes. He does not rest with complacency in the barren thought that he possesses them. He does not display them with ostentation. He does not compare himself with others, or endeavour to ascertain whether his talents are more or less than those of his neighbour. He does not interfere with a province not assigned to him, or hinder the work of his fellowservants, or require everything to be done in his own way, or quarrel with those who differ from him in their mode of acting. But his concern is to trade with his talents. Whatever will tend to the discharge of his personal and relative duties, whatever will instruct the ignorant, relieve the distressed, assist the needy, guide the inquiring, comfort the sorrowful, reclaim the wandering, and confirm and encourage the sincere-all this, with a due regard to circumstances, and in the fear of God, he considers his proper vocation. Whatever use he can make of any circumstances in which he is placed, any office he holds, any influence he has gained, any knowledge he acquires, any parts or accomplishments which he possesses, any favour God has given him with others, any occasions or incidents which present themselves he straightway turns to account, even as the merchant traffics with his commodities. Above all, he employs the means of salvation to his own personal benefit. He repents of his sins, and trusts in the sacrifice of Christ for pardon and justification before God. He values the Bible, prizes the Sabbath, derives improvement from pious example, profits by Divine chastisement, and learns from the mistakes and sins of others, and thus uses every advantage for spiritual instruction with fidelity and thankfulness. If he be a minister of the sanctuary he considers all his opportunities for saving souls, all his ability for discharging, his high office, as a solemn trust deposited with him, and for which he must give an account. (Bishop Daniel Wilson.)
Multiplied talent
It is not only enjoined upon us if we would be Christians to occupy with our gifts, but to multiply them. The industrious servant of God will do this. He learns as he goes on; he gains more experience; he overcomes difficulties. He not only does more than when he first began, but he does things better. He contrives to do more good continually. He does not rest contented with the ordinary plans of others, but enters on undiscovered ground and marks out new regions of usefulness. He looks around him for occasions of doing good to others and getting good himself, of learning or teaching, acting or enduring for God and his neighbour. (Bishop Daniel Wilson.)
The householder and his servants
I. The talents entrusted to the management of the servants.
1. The man travelling represents our Lord, the absolute Owner of all things, Lord and Redeemer of His Church.
2. The servants represent the professed disciples and members of Christ, the visible body of the faithful, particularly the ministers and stewards of His mysteries.
3. The talents represent the various powers and blessings which Christ has assigned to us for the salvation of our souls, the benefit of our fellow-men, and the glory of His name.
II. The right employment of the talents by the faithful servants.
1. The faithful servant of Christ studies to do his Lords will, and has a delight in the work.
2. Shrinks from no trouble or danger, estimating all he can do for such a Master as nothing.
3. Aims at approving himself to his Master, not to the world.
4. Laments lost opportunities.
5. Walks wisely in the management of his concerns.
6. Begins immediately, proceeds diligently, works contentedly, and perseveres cheerfully.
III. The faithful servants reward.
1. He receives the commendation of his Master.
2. Made ruler over many things.
3. Enters into the joy of his Lord.
IV. The slothful servant.
1. His character. It is not said that he wasted his Lords goods; simply that he buried them-made no use of them, and this was enough to condemn him.
2. His doom. (Bishop Daniel Wilson.)
Well used talents prepare for enjoyment in heaven
This parable shows plainly enough that your talents are to be put to use and gain usury for the Lender. They must be kept well rubbed with work if they are to shine brightly in their heavenly setting. I do not believe with those people who seem to think it will be all as one a thousand years hence, whether we cultivate our minds in this life or not, and that it matters nothing how small our knowledge may be. All is good if turned to a right account, and the acquirements of this life may enlarge our spiritual capacities for another. And I cannot help thinking that, to some extent, our power of seeing and appreciating the hidden things of the next life will depend on the exercise and growth of our faculties in this. (N. Macleod, D. D.)
God is never niggardly in His gifts
In considering our life, with its duties and responsibilities, there are two mistakes, into both of which, though they are contradictory the one to the other, we commonly fall.
1. We often feel that very little has been entrusted to us, that our gifts are few, our opportunities of cultivating them fewer still. We need therefore to remember that in the parable even the slave who is least gifted and trusted receives one talent, and that a Hebrew talent was equivalent to some £350-a very large sum to be entrusted to a slave. Our Master is no niggard, He gives liberally to all. All things are ours-the pure, bright heaven, the fruitful earth, the golden splendours of the sun and the silver splendours of the moon, the fragrant flowers and the songs of birds, the social affections, the Word of Life, and the common salvation; and, though the capacity to appropriate and use these heavenly gifts may vary, yet what man is there, capable of using them at all, but will confess that he has received many things, and things of inestimable value, at the Masters hand?
2. But then, if we acknowledge that we have received many and great gifts, we are too apt to forget that the large sum of good in which we rejoice is made up of many trivial contributions. We need to be reminded that the one talent of the parable was equivalent to sixty mince, to three thousand shekels, to some eighty thousand of our pence, and that the only way to get its full profit out of the talent was to use every shekel and every penny well. Great single opportunities are very rare; we cannot often find a good investment for heavy sums; but we may wisely employ a few pence or a few shekels every day. The talents of the parable may stand for high gifts, such as faith, love, obedience; but we cannot keep these faculties always at their utmost stretch, nor live at the heroic level day after day. It is by a perpetual use of them in the daily round and common task of life, in the discharge of small recurring duties and the endurance of the little temptations which are never absent, that we develop them to the fulness of their stature. And it surely is a very comfortable and helpful thought, that if hour by hour we try to do the work of the hour well, to be honest and diligent in business, to rule our tempers in the home, to help a needy or sympathize with an afflicted, neighbour, to teach our class with patient care, to sing a song of praise with the heart and the understanding-that in the discharge of these and the like trivial duties we are serving God, trading with the Masters money; that by these small gradual accumulations we are doubling the talent which He has put into our hands. (S. Cox, D. D.)
The man with one talent needed
The world greatly needs men of one talent, and there are ways in which such men are often of surpassing usefulness. Hur was probably a man with only one talent, and yet it was partly through his help that the prayers of Moses prevailed against the enemies of Israel. The heroes of Thermopylae were for the most part also men of one talent, yet the splendour of their glorious heroism still illumines the world. In the case of many a shipwreck the man with one talent, the rough, honest sailor who helps the women and children to escape and then himself remains behind to die is in truth not far from the kingdom of God, not far from its inner shrine, not far from the great Cross of Calvary … As a matter of fact, men with one talent are often surprisingly near to the men with five talents. In the realm of the spirit extremes often meet. Men with one talent are often vicarious sufferers. Nature makes experiments on them, as on some worthless body, for the benefit of the whole human race. They are used as stepping-stones on which others may rise to higher things. They act as humble pioneers to the loftiest and most successful pilgrims … It is easy enough to see that there is often something sublime in the devotion of the man with one talent. Great in nothing else, he is often really grand in his unswerving and unlimited loyalty to a nature higher than his own. And this devotion has a vast uplifting influence. (A. H. Crawford, M. A.)
Latent possibilities in the man with one talent
We never really know what our talents are till we begin to use them. The noblest powers are often the most slowly developed. Saul is amongst the prophets sometimes. Elisha is often called from the plough. The dunce acquires undying fame. The very same want of depth in the soil which causes the good seed to spring up quickly also causes it ere long to wither away. When there is little to evolve evolution is a rapid process, but when there is much to evolve the process is a slow one. Cathedrals are not built in a day. The soul is like the phoenix-from the withered ashes of a wasted past it soars aloft into the glad strength of an immortal life. (A. H. Crawford, M. A.)
Encouragement for the man with one talent
All men have at least one talent. The elements of the noble and the sublime exist to some extent in each of us. Even now, in the midst of his humble work, on the rough face of the man with one talent there is cast from time to time the sublime and awful shadow of his inescapable destiny, of that great day of the Lord when all created souls shall be transfigured and glorified by the splendours of the Eternal, when the dead, small and great, stand before God. If the poor man with one talent shall hereafter stand there, surely he is good enough to stand hand in hand with any of his brethren now on earth! (A. H. Crawford, M. A.)
Importance of little things
Human endowment and human performance, the few things, get their significance from their relation to the many things-the great, thronging facts and principles and laws of the kingdom of God. The most persistent and varied activity and the largest achievements of the greatest men are but small in themselves considered, but they are points where the vast economy of the kingdom of God-that something which is vaguely indicated by many things, the joy of the Lord emerges into the region of our human life and touches it. That which is out of sight is more and greater than that which pushes out into our view. That point of rock which rises out of the hillside is, to the geologist, not merely a distinct stone-it tells him the dip and quality of the great strata underground which buttress the hills. Obedience, responsibility, duty, work, love, trust-all that makes up Christian life here-are sides and manifestations of the unseen, spiritual universe. Godliness has promise, not only of the life that now is, but of that which is to come-has the promise which one part of a thing gives of the other part. Godliness is a part of the life to come. Godliness is God revealing Himself in human character. Follow back godliness and you come to God. The boy who is learning his alphabet is handling the same elements which enter into the plays of Shakespeare or the dialogues of Plato. He has begun upon literature when he has learned A B C. It is a little thing in itself for him to learn twenty-six letters, but it is a very great thing when you consider the alphabet as the medium of the worlds thought. Even so the largest endowment and result are but a few things, but they acquire a tremendous and eternal importance as integral parts of the great moral economy of God. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.)
Faithfulness is on the direct line of mastery
Fidelity tends and leads up to mastery. Success is a thing of stages and aggregations, and it is of vastly more consequence that the man should be rightly pointed-set in the direction of a larger, Divine success, than that he should achieve what he undertakes here. If there is no larger, purer, more spiritual kingdom than this there is no such thing as real success. If there is such a kingdom, and if the earthly sphere of Christian life and work is a part of it, then the success may well lie beyond the line of our human vision, and be too large for our little inch-rules. The great principle holds-fidelity leads up to mastery. You see it illustrated daily. You see the faithful journeyman advanced to the foremanship, the plodding student become an authority; you see men of moderate ability becoming powers in business or in manufacturing by steady devotion to one thing. The thing itself may be small; their perseverance magnifies it: and they themselves grow into the ability to handle larger things through their fidelity to the smaller interest. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.)
Faithfulness the main thing
This parable turns on moral quality rather than on ability. Its key-note is not five talents, nor two talents, nor one talent, but faithfulness to all three. It is faithfulness, and not amount, which links the talent to the joy of the Lord, the few things to the many. The amount of ability is not the first thing for us to consider; it is the faithful use of whatever ability we have. To use aright we must be right. Vigorous use of talent is not necessarily right use, for unfaithfulness is vigorous also. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.)
The unused talent passes from the servant who would not use it to the one who will
A landlord has two farms lying together-the one is admirably managed, the other is left almost to itself, with the least possible management, and becomes the talk of the whole country-side for poor crops and untidiness. No one asks what the landlord will do when the leases are out. It is a matter of course that he dismisses the careless tenant, and puts his farm into the hands of the skilful and diligent farmer. He enforces the law of the text. In the kingdom of Christ this law is self-acting. To bury our talent and so keep it as originally given is an impossibility. To have just so much grace and no more is an impossibility. It must either be circulating and so multiplying, or it ceases to be. It must grow or it will die. Hence it is that in your own souls you perhaps are finding that, no matter what effort you make, you cannot enter as heartily into holy services and occupations as once you did, but are finding your old joy and assurance honey-combed by unbelieving thoughts. Hence it is that the susceptibility to right feeling you had in boyhood has gone from you. You did not mean to become unfeeling, but only shrank from acting as feeling dictated. But he who blows out the flame finds that the heat and the glow die out of themselves. (Marcus Dods, D. D.)
The law of spiritual capital
It is a law with the operation of which we are familiar in nature and in the commercial world. It is he who has even a little capital to begin with, and who makes a right use of it, who soon leaves far behind the man who has none, or who neglects to invest what he has. And the more this capital grows, the more rapidly and the more easily is it increased. After a certain point it seems to increase by virtue of its own momentum. So in certain sicknesses, as soon as the crisis of the disease is past and a little health has been funded again in the patients constitution, this rapidly grows to complete recovery. So with popularity, it begins one scarce knows how, but once begun, the tide flows apace. You may scarcely be able to say why one statesman or one author should be so immeasurably more popular than others; but so it is that, when once a beginning is made, tribute flows in naturally, as water from all sides settle in a hollow. It is this same law which regulates our attainment in the service of Christ. However little grace we seem to have to begin with it is this we must invest, and so nurse it into size and strength. Each time we use the grace we have by responding to the demands made upon it, it returns to us increased. Our capital grows by an inevitable law. The efforts of young or inexperienced Christians to give utterance to the life that is in them may often be awkward, like the movements of most young animals. They may be able to begin only in a very small way, so small a way that sensitive persons are frequently ashamed to begin at all. Having received Christ they are conscious of new desires and of a new strength; they have a regard for Christ, and were they to assert this regard in the circumstances which call for its assertion their regard would be deepened. They have a desire to serve Him, and were they to do so in those small matters with which they have daily concern their desire and ability would be increased. Grace of any kind invested in the actual opportunities of life cannot come back to us as small as it was, but enlarged and strengthened. Such grace, then, as we have, such knowledge as we have of what is due to others, to ourselves, and to God, let us give free expression to. Such investments of Christian principle as are within our reach let us make; such manifestations of a Christian temper and mind as our circumstances daily demand let us exhibit, and it must come to pass that we increase in grace. There is no other way whatever of becoming richly endowed in spirit than by trading with whatever we have to begin with. We cannot leap into a fortune in spiritual things; rich saints cannot bequeath us what their life-long toil has won; they cannot even lend us so that we may begin on borrowed capita]. In the spiritual life all must be genuine; we must work our own way upwards, and by humbly and wisely laying out whatever we now possess make it more or be for ever poor. (Marcus Dods, D. D.)
The man with two talents
He has his own peculiar interest as he stands in the little group of three before the master. He is significant, we may almost say, because of his insignificance. As the master puts the money in their hands we can see them look at it, and can guess what they think about it. The man to whom five talents are given is surprised that he should receive so much. He is exhilarated and inspired, or perhaps, on the other hand, he is paralyzed and overcome. The man to whom one talent is given is startled at the smallness of the trust. He, too, feels a positive emotion, Either he is stung to energy and determines that he will do something strong and good even with this little gift, or else he is crushed into despair. Is this then all of which his master thinks him worthy? Both of these men are interesting. They represent extremes. But the man of two talents stands and looks at his trust, and it is just about what he might have expected. It is neither very great nor very small. It does not exalt him, and it does not make him ashamed. He turns away, and goes out to use it with a calm, unexcited face. He is the type of common mediocrity. He is the average man. He presents the type to which we almost all belong. There are none of us probably who are conscious of anything which separates us as notably superior to the great mass of our fellow-men. On the other hand, it is not probable that many of us count ourselves distinctly below the average of human life. We do not lay claim to the five talents; we will not confess to the one. It is as men and women of two talents that we ordinarily count ourselves and ask to be counted by our brethren. Therefore this quiet, commonplace, unnoticed man, going his faithful way in his dull dress which makes no mark and draws no eye, doing his duty insignificantly and thoroughly, winning so unobtrusively at last his masters praise, ought to be interesting to us all. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
The predominance of mediocrity
The average man is by far the most numerous man. The man who goes beyond the average, the man who falls short of the average, both of them, by their very definition, are exceptions. They are the outskirts and fringes, the capes and promontories of humanity. The great continent of human life is made up of the average existences, the mass of two-talented capacity and action.
1. It is so even in the simplest and most superficial matter of the possession of wealth. The great fortunes, with their splendid opportunities and their tremendous responsibilities, rise like gigantic mountains which everybody sees out of the general level of comfortable life. On the other hand, excessive poverty, actual suffering for the necessaries of life, terrible as it is, is comparatively rare. A part of its terribleness comes from its rarity. The great -multitude of men are neither very rich nor very poor. The real character and strength of a community lies neither in its millionaires nor in its paupers, but in the men of middle life who neither have more money than they know how to spend, nor are pressed and embarrassed for the necessities of life.
2. The same is true in the matter of joy and sorrow. The great mass of men during the greater part of their lives are neither exultant and triumphant with delight, nor are they crushed and broken down with grief. They do not go shouting their rapture to the skies, and they do not go wailing their misery to the sympathetic winds. They are moderately happy. Joy flecked and toned down by troubles; troubles constantly relieved and lighted up by joy; that is their general condition; that seems to be their best capacity. The power of the intensest joy and the intensest pain belongs only to rare, peculiar men.
3. Mental capacity. Most men are neither sages nor fools. Few men are either scholars or dunces.
4. Popularity and fame. Those whom the world praises and those whom all men despise are both of them exceptional. You can count them easily. The great multitude whom you cannot begin to count, who fill the vast middle-ground of the great picture of humanity, is made up of men who are simply well enough liked by their fellow-men. They are crowned with no garlands, and they are pelted with no stones. They have their share of kindly interest and esteem. You cannot well think of them as either losing that or as gaining much beyond it.
5. Character and religion. Here, too, it is the average Shut fills the eye. Where are the heroes? You can find them if you look. Where are the rascals? You can find them too. Where are the saints? They shine where no true mans eyes can fail to see them. And the blasphemers likewise no one can shut out of his ears. But the great host of men: do you not know how little reason they give you to expect of them either great goodness or great wickedness? You do not look to see their faces kindle when you talk to them of Christ. You do not either look to see them grow scornful or angry at His name. You do not count upon their going to the stake for principle. But you do count upon their paying their honest debts. You have to shut your thoughts about them in to this world, for when you think of them in eternity heaven seems as much too good for them as hell seems too bad. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
Dangers of mediocrity
It is not always an easy thing for men to make up their minds to mediocrity. It is a young mans right, almost his duty, to hope, almost to believe, that he has singular capacity, and is not merely another repetition of the constantly repeated average of men. To see those dreams and visions of youth gradually fade away; little by little to discover that one has no such exceptional capacity; to try one and another of the adventurous ways which lead to the highest heights and the great prizes, and find the feet unequal to them; to come back at last to the great trodden highway, and plodon among the undistinguished millions-that is often very hard. The fight is fought, the defeat is met, in silence; but it is no less, it is more terrible. The hour in which it becomes clear to a young man that that is to be his life, that there is nothing else for him to do except to swell the great average of humanity, is often filled with dangers. Let us see what some of them are.
1. He has to make up his mind to do without both of the different kinds of inspiration which come to the men who are better off and the men who are worse off than he is. The man of five talents excites admiration and expectation; the man of one talent has an incentive to do great things in spite of difficulties; but to the middle man, the man who is neither very much nor very little-the man who has two talents, but only two-both of these forms of impulse are denied. He is neither high enough to hear the calling of the stars, nor low enough to feel the tumult of the earthquake. What wonder, then, if he often falls asleep for sheer lack of sting and spur? What wonder if he does the moderato things that seem to be within his power unenthusiastically, and then stops, making no demand upon himself since other men make no demand upon him?
2. A want of definiteness and distinctness. Genius, lay its very intensity, decrees a special path of fire for its vivid power. Conscious limitation, on the other hand, knows there is no hope for it except in one direction. Both have the strength which comes by narrowness. But the man who knows himself to be only moderately strong is apt to think that his strength has no peculiar mission. The commonplace man is the discursive man. He has neither the impetuosity of the torrent nor the direct gravitation of the single drop of water. He lies a loose and sluggish pool, and flows nowhither, and grows stagnant by and by.
3. The constant danger of being made light of by other men. Becoming uninteresting to others, he loses interest in himself. He attracts no reverence, and he enlists no pity. He finds himself unnoticed. He must originate out of himself all that he comes to. He hangs between the heaven and the earth, and is fed out of neither. What he does seems to be of no consequence, because it wakens no emotion in his brethren. He has no influence on other men, and so there is no effluence, no putting forth of life from him. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
The advantages of mediocrity
It is in the quality more than in the quantity of talents that their true value lies. Given by God they constitute a true, direct, and sacred connection and channel of intercourse between your soul and His. Forget your brethren and think of Him, and realize your direct relationship to Him. When you have done that you may come back into the mass again and see what are the special advantages which belong to a faithful life lived in the average condition, lived with the average capacities of mare
1. Such a life brings out and makes manifest the solid strength which belongs to the simple qualities of manhood. Types of power which can only be developed in supreme joy or supreme sorrow enthrall our imagination; and then some plain man comes who knows not either rapture or despair, who simply has his daily work to do, his friends to help, his enemies to forgive, his children to love and train, his trials to bear, his temptations to conquer, his soul to save; and what a healthiness he brings into our standards, with what a genuine refreshment he fills our hearts. Behold how great are these primary eternal qualities-patience, hope, kindness, intelligence, trust, self-sacrifice. We do not accept them because we cannot have something finer. They show us their intrinsic fineness, and we do them reverence. The arctic frost! The torrid heat! Behold the true strength, the real life of the planet is not in these. It is in the temperate lands that the grape ripens and the wheat turns calmly yellow in the constant sun.
2. The man conscious of mediocrity has the advantage of displaying in his life and character the intrinsic and essential life of human nature. He is one with his fellow-men, and it is he who-being faithful, pure, serene, brave, hopeful-has power to make his brethren all that he tries himself to be.
3. May not the average life find a self-surrender to the help of other lives more easy, and make that surrender more complete, just in proportion as it is released from that desire for self-assertion, that consciousness of being something which is worthy of mens observation, that self-love which must haunt the lives of those who, in any way, on either side, find themselves separated from the great bulk of their fellow-creatures?
4. And is it not true that all that assertion of the intrinsic value of every life which is the very essence of our Christian faith, all that redemption of the soul, in the profoundest and the truest sense, which was the work of Christ, must come with special welcome and appreciation and delight to any man who feels his insignificance and is in danger of losing himself in the vague mass of his fellows? Christ redeems him. Christ says, Behold yourself in Me, and see that you are not insignificant. Christ says, I died for you. Set thus upon his feet, made a new man, or made to be the man he is, with what gratitude and faith and obedience must that man follow the Christ who is his Saviour! (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
The average man
I. His dangers.
1. He will be surely tempted to ape greatness.
2. He will be tempted to underrate himself.
3. He may lose himself in the crowd.
II. The encouragements.
1. He has the necessary talents.
2. God designed to do most of His work in the world through the average man.
3. The magnificent reward that awaits him. (F. E. Clark.)
A hard man
The servants in our parables seem to have erred from an opposite excess of temperament. His melancholy broodings prevented the unprofitable servant from a right use of his masters talent; the virgins were over sanguine that their oil would hold out.
I. Observe this man.
1. He has begun with less than the others had. The melancholic mind is apt to exaggerate this fact.
2. Yet he was treated according to his ability. He was not expected to render more than he could.
3. We see the influence of his temperament in disparagement of the largeness of his Lords purposes and dealings; he interprets everything after his own spirit. Toil for such a master must be thankless and graceless indeed.
II. Looking at the man, therefore, as representing the peculiar dangers attaching to certain temperaments, I think we see sufficiently the nature of the warning he furnishes us.
1. It is essential to all profitable service of our Master, that it shall be hearty service. What heart can there be in any such labour as shall have no generous thoughts of Him for whom it is done. We must get a better conception of God, and create in our souls a healthful moral incentive to doing right.
2. Again, to be a profitable service, it must be felt also to be a service that shall react upon ourselves. It must improve us as well as glorify God. God puts joy and consolation into any duty; he who does the duty has the joy.
III. The wrong conception of god which gave strength to the melancholy and enervating tendencies of this dark-souled servant in his relations with his master. Have we put this hard man upon the throne of the universe? This conception of God is at the bottom of most of the hindrances in the way of Divine faith. It is the hard man that comes to throw a false light upon our conception of the atonement; so much suffering for so much sin. Is this the God that Jesus Christ depicted?
IV. The phrases introduced to darken the picture are worthy of notice. Reaping where thou hast not sown. Gathering where thou hast not strawed. What a contrast to the Refiner in Malachi. To the diseased vision all things are distorted.
1. We may all at times have intervals of gloom corresponding to those which our text has suggested.
2. Do not darken your life by fear. Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.
3. God is love. (G. J. Proctor.)
Christs talents
In Eastern lands, and ancient times, slaves were artizans, workmen, whose profit belonged to their master. The apostle Paul thought of himself as a slave put in trust, placed under trusts.
I. Christs talents. Such we are to regard all gifts, powers, or possessions that are entrusted to us. Our special talent is that one thing in which we stand out distinct from others.
II. Christs apportionment of His talents. Two rules decide the apportionment.
1. The talent must match the capacity.
2. The talents put together must secure ability for all the work which Christ wants done.
III. Christs expectation concerning His talents.
1. Service by their use.
2. Culture by their use.
IV. Christs judgment of those entrusted with His talents.
1. Judgment is the same for all trusts.
2. It is based on quality, not results.
3. The judgment is severe, not on those who tried and failed, but on those who never tried.
4. The reward is simply other and larger trusts. (Selected.)
Trading with talents
A trader either trades with his own, or with another mans stock, whose servant he is. Now no man hath any stock or talent of his own, but all their talents which they are required to improve and trade with are the Lords.
1. Hast thou a rational soul, wisdom, knowledge, and great understanding? It was given unto thee by the Lord.
2. Hast thou riches, or much wealth? It is the Lords money.
3. Hast thou acquired parts, great learning? This is also thy Masters goods.
4. Have you the gospel and the ministration of the word? It is the Lords trust.
5. Have you faithful ministers? They are the Lords.
6. Have you precious talent of time and the opportunities of time? This you are entrusted with by the Lord.
7. Have you health, strength, and advantages to attend upon the word and means of grace above many? All this is from the Lord.
8. Have you spiritual gifts and saving grace? Those talents you have received from the Lord.
9. Are you fathers or masters, and so have authority over families, children, servants? These are the Lords trusts. Traders ought to know the worth of those commodities put into their hands. Traders must not be timorous in laying out their money. Traders should know where to buy, of whom, and who to trade with. Traders must know the terms on which they are to trade. Traders must know in whose name they trade. Traders must trust, or they will have little or no trade at all. Traders must keep their accounts well. Some traders give more attention to their private affairs than to their business. Some traders break, and expose such that are faithful dealers to loss and shame. (Benjamin Keach.)
Our trust of talents
I. God has committed to men a variety of gifts or talents. By what is here called talents, is to be understood all such blessings and privileges as providence favours us with. What God requires from every man is according to what His providence has imparted to him.
II. All our talents, more or less, all the gifts of God to men, may and must be improved. They were conferred for this very purpose. The blessings of providence are no blessings to us if we want wisdom or will to make a right use of them.
III. The reward will be in proportion to the actual improvement which men make of the talents entrusted to them.
IV. In the day of judgment Divine justice will be displayed in such manner as will strike every sinner dumb, as will silence every excuse, and quite confound him. (E. Sandercock.)
The joy of the Lords service
When Richard Cameron, one of the noblest of our Scottish martyrs, had fallen mortally wounded on Airdsmoss, he said, I am dying, happy, happy; and if I had a thousand lives I would willingly lay them all down one after another for Christ. Oh, He is near me; I think I see Him! I am just coming, Lord Jesus. And he added, Tell my parents not to weep, but continue steadfast in the faith, and not to fear a suffering lot for Christ.
The reward of fidelity
I. The different capacities, advantages, and situations of men, are owing in general to the wise providence of God.
II. It is of little importance to us what our station in life is, or what the duties belonging to it; but of the greatest whether we perform or neglect them.
III. It is not of so great moment how long, or how short, our time and service are, as how well we have fulfilled them. (S. Brown.)
Divers talents
Some have abilities superior in kind, others in degree; some excel in strength of body, others of mind; some in judgment, others in imagination and memory; some are fit for contemplation, others for action; some to design, others to execute; some to govern nations, enact laws, and administer justice, others for inferior and private, yet necessary and useful employments. This variety is designed to fill up the various places and offices, which are proper in the great community of the world. (S. Brown.)
Parable of talents
Doctrine
I. That Christ Jesus is the great Lord and Owner.
II. That Christ, at His departure, appointed every man his work; and, at His ascension, gave gifts unto men, to be employed for His glory till He come again.
III. That it pleases the Lord to dispense His gifts variously among His people; to some more, to some fewer, talents. All have some talent. There is diversity, however
(1) Of employments and offices;
(2) In the kind of gifts;
(3) As to the measures and degrees. The account must be answerable to our receipts. (T. Manton.)
Varieties of gifts
Some are able to lay down the truth soundly; others able to apply it forcibly. Some have the gift of prayer and utterance, others are able to inform the judgment and convince gainsayers. Some to clear up doctrines, others to stir affections. Among hearers, some have more wisdom, some more knowledge, some more affection. Amongst the penmen of Scripture there is a great variety; John is sublime and seraphical; Paul spiritual and argumentative; Peter, in an easy, fluent, and mild way; Isaiah more court-like and lofty; Jeremiah more priest-like and grave. Among the saving gifts there is a diversity of graces, though all have all in some measure. The new creature is not maimed, yet some are more eminent, some for one grace some for another. Abraham for faith, Job for patience, Moses for meekness, Timothy for temperance. Every grace working according to the diversity of tempers, some are modest and mild, others bold and zealous; some are mourning for sin, others raised in the admiration of the grace of God in Christ; others exemplary for strictness and weanedness from the delights of the animal life. (T. Manton.)
Hiding, not wasting, Gods trusts
Mark, he not said he did embezzle his talent, as many waste their substance in riotous living, quench brave parts in excess, sin away many precious advantages of ordinances and education and powerful convictions. He did not misemploy his talent, as some do their wealth, others their wit, to scoff at religion, or to put a varnish on the devils cause; their power to oppress and crush the good. The precious gifts that many have, are like the sword in a madmans hand, they use them to hurt and mischief. No such thing is charged upon this evil and naughty servant. Tis fault enough to hide our talents, though we do not abuse them. (T. Manton.)
Modesty not to invalidate talent
It is true that the violet loves the shade, but then it manages to bloom there-to thrive and multiply. It makes itself known by its delicate, agreeable perfume. It does not hide itself in the earth. No flower is more sought for, and in an invalids room none more grateful. There are some Christians like towering cedars, some like branching oaks, some like willows by the water-courses. There are others like spring flowers; they are so modest and bashful that you must seek them and bring them into the light. They much prefer the shade. But, as we none of us live to ourselves, such a disposition must not be looked upon with too much favour. Modesty may become a disease. If a lady is so bashful that she never dare venture into the streets without a thick veil over her features, her sensitiveness of organization must be diseased. So in Christian congregations, there is a reserve about some which needs to be broken down. They never emerge into the daylight. They are timid, full of distrust-a distrust which almost amounts to self-excommunication. Now, the subject which suggested itself to my mind as I read these words was this-The temptation to depreciate small abilities and scanty opportunities. (R. Thomas.)
The increase of talent
A merchant going abroad for a time gave respectively to two of his friends two sacks of wheat each, to take care of, against his return. Years passed; he came back, and applied for them again. The first took him into his Storehouse, and showed him the bags of grain; but they were mildewed and worthless. The other led him out into the open country, and pointed out field after field of waving corn, the produce of the two sacks given to him. Said the merchant, as he gazed, You have indeed been a faithful friend; give me two sacks of that wheat. The rest shall be thine. I leave you to make your own application of the allegory. (R. Thomas.)
The law of use and neglect in the kingdom of heaven
The other day I met with a curious myth illustrative of this point. It comes from the East, from Mohammedanism; but it is very expressive. A tribe of men dwelt on the shores of the Dead Sea. They had forgotten all about truth, and had taken up with lies; and were fast verging towards the saddest possible condition. Whereupon it pleased a kind Providence to send them the prophet Moses with an instructive word of warning. But no-the men of the Dead Sea discovered that there was no comeliness in this Moses-no truth in his words; they received him with scoffs and jeers. Moses withdrew, but the laws of nature did not withdraw. The men of the Dead Sea, says the narrative, when next he visited them, were all changed into apes; sitting on the trees there, grinning now in the most unaffected manner, gibbering and chattering very genuine nonsense. There they sit and chatter to this hour, only, I believe, every Sabbath there returns to them a bewildered, half consciousness, half reminiscence, seeming to have some distant idea that once they were of another order, They made no use of their souls, and so they have lost them. Their worship on the Sabbath now is to roost there, and half remember that they once had souls. There is no little truth in this old Moslem myth. They made no use of their souls, and so have lost them. Brethren, that is Gods law. We keep what we use. We lose what we neglect to use. (R. Thomas.)
The pleasure of small abilities
Why is it not possible for us to acknowledge the abilities God has given to others, and render them their due without our coveting them ourselves? We have none of us been overlooked. If He has not given us the greater, He has given us the less, and if not the less then the least, and for each there is the fit and natural sphere of exercise. It is as much pleasure to the linnet to sing its unpretentious song as for the lark to mount high above the corn fields on a bright sunny morning, and pour down its flood of melody on the earth. It is as much pleasure to the sparrow-hawk to steal along the hedgerows as for the eagle to cleave the sky in the wildest storm. If God has given us small capabilities, He has likewise given us the position adapted to them, and in that position we may find the sweetest pleasure and the greatest usefulness of which we are capable. (R. Thomas.)
Talents for service not ornament
Man is not placed upon the earth merely to be a passive recipient of the favours of heaven. He is here in the capacity of a servant; and what is a servant for if not to serve? Some of us imagine sometimes, I fear, that we are here to occupy a kind of ornamental position in the church. I remember to have read of Oliver Cromwell that, on one occasion he was visiting one of the great churches of our land, and discovered in the niches of one of its side chapels a number of silver statues. What are these? demanded he sternly of the trembling dean who was showing him round the church. Please your highness, was the reply, they are the twelve apostles. The twelve apostles are they? Well take them away at once, and melt them down and coin them into money that, like their Master, they may go about doing good. Such is the mission that God has given to each one of us. The world we live in is not a great play-ground, but a vast harvest field, where every man, each in his own particular sphere, must thrust in the sickle and reap. None of us can say, like those of whom our Saviour speaks, standing in the market-place, No man hath hired me. (R. Morton.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29 14. For the kingdom of heaven is as a…
14. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country. Compare Mark 13:34–36; Luke 19:11–27. Christ's departure from the earth to heaven is referred to. Called his own servants. The church members or disciples. Delivered unto them his goods. This applies to the trust of the entire interests of the kingdom of our Savior to his servants on the earth.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v14 Mat_25:14. For the kingdom of heaven, etc.—See R.V. Servants.—Slaves.…
CRITICAL NOTES
Mat_25:14. For the kingdom of heaven, etc.—See R.V. Servants.—Slaves. Delivered unto them his goods.—The outward framework of the parable lies in the Eastern way of dealing with property in the absence of the owner. Two courses were open as an approximation to what we call investment. The more primitive and patriarchal way was for the absentee to make his slaves his agents. They were to till his land and sell the produce, or to use the money which he left with them as capital in trading. In such cases there was, of course, often an understanding that they should receive part of the profits, but being their master’s slaves, there was no formal contract. The other course was to take advantage of the banking, money-changing, money-lending system, of which the Phœnicians were the inventors, and which at the time was in full operation throughout the Roman empire. The bankers received money on deposit and paid interest on it, and then lent it at a higher percentage, or employed it in trade, or (as did the publicani at Rome) in farming the revenues of a province. This was therefore the natural resource, as investment in stocks or companies is with us, for those who had not energy to engage in business (Plumptre).
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Mat_25:15. Talents.—Value uncertain.—See note on chap. Mat_18:24.
Mat_25:24. An hard man.—The word “hard” points to stiffness of character (Plumptre). Reaping where thou hast not sown.—The sense is obvious: “I knew thou wast one whom it was impossible to serve, one whom nothing would please; exacting what was impracticable, and dissatisfied with what was attainable” (Brown). But Dr. Morison paraphrases thus: “Not only reaping thine own fields, and leaving no gleanings for the poor behind, but unscrupulously passing the boundary line that separates thy fields from the fields of thy neighbours, and thrusting thy sickle, whenever thou hast an opportunity, into their standing corn. Sir, thou art so hard as to be not only ungenerous, but positively unjust.” Gathering where thou hast not strawed.—Where thou didst not scatter (R.V.). Gathering into the garner from another’s threshing-floor, where thou bast not winnowed (Meyer).
Mat_25:26. Thou knewest that I reap, etc.—We must suppose the infusion of such tones as would express the most indignant querying or amazement (Morison).
Mat_25:27. Exchangers.—Bankers (R.V.). Literally, “to those who stand at tables,” because the bankers had tables before them (Carr). Usury.—Of old just meant interest, and was an unexceptionable term. It denoted the commission that was given for the use of borrowed money (Morison).
Mat_25:29. Unto every one that hath, etc.—See note on chap. Mat_13:12.
Mat_25:30. Outer darkness, etc.—See note on chap. Mat_8:12.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Mat_25:14-30
Diligence.—There is one striking point of resemblance between this portion of Scripture and that which goes before it. Both speak in the same awful way of what follows “the end” (cf. Mat_25:30 with Mat_24:51). There is one striking point of difference also. Nothing is said here, as so often before (Mat_24:36; Mat_24:42; Mat_24:44; Mat_24:50; Mat_25:13), of the uncertainty of the exact time of “the end.” Accordingly, it is not so much watchfulness in waiting for the end, as diligence in preparing for it, that seems insisted on here. “The end being such as it is, do you work meanwhile as men ought to work with such an issue in view.” How this should be done is then shown us by showing us, first, How Christ and His church are really related meanwhile; secondly, How some men fancy they are; and thirdly, What this proves of themselves.
I. The real relation (during the Saviour’s absence) between Himself and His church.—It is one on His part, in the first place, of absolute sovereignty and authority. God has appointed Him to be “Head over all.” Therefore, especially so “to His church” (Eph_1:22). Sooner or later, “all” must bow before Him (Php_2:10). His “people” are expected to acknowledge this now. They are not only His servants—they are “His own servants” (Mat_25:14)—known to be His. His by creation—His by redemption—His by inheritance, too. His very “bondmen,” in short. In consequence of this, the relation, on their part, is one of corresponding honour and responsibility. This sovereign Lord puts these His servants into a position of trust. He puts “His goods” in their charge (Mat_25:14). He does so, which is very much more, during His own absence from home (ibid., and end of 15). Also, He does this with a marked amount of discrimination and care. Nothing whatever is laid on any servant beyond his power to discharge. He is too good a Master to desire anything else; too wise to do it. “To every man according to his several ability”; some more, some less; none more than enough (Mat_25:15; cf. Rev_2:24; Joh_16:12, etc.). Hence, therefore, the relation is one involving, next, a solemn day of account. It may be “a long time” before their Master comes back. That is a question with which they have little to do. Matters much too deep for their consideration have to determine that point. What they may be sure of is, that, when He does come, it will be with that object in view. What more befitting, indeed, on both sides of the case, when he who trusts meets those whom he has trusted, than that they should go into the case? And hence, once more, if the issue be favourable, a day of special triumph and joy. The confidence that has been responded to loyally is treated with greater confidence still. The honour that has been honourably dealt with is crowned with more honour still (Mat_25:21; Mat_25:23). How vividly the parable puts this before us! Most of all, perhaps, in the words with which, in all such cases, the Master’s recognition concludes. “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Hitherto thou hast found joy in serving Me faithfully. Find it now in taking thy place by My side. What faithful “bondman” can even imagine anything better than this?
II. What is thought about this same relation by some—by some, even, who yet regard themselves as loyal servants and true. One such only—as though even one such were more than enough—is pourtrayed to us here. His thoughts are shown us, on the one hand, by that which he did. Receiving, as he had, only a fractional part—one-half in one case and one-fifth in the other—of the amount received by his fellow-servants, he did not make use even of that which he had. Instead of this, he simply treated it as though it were wholly his own, and not “his lord’s money” at all (see Mat_25:18). A line of action significant, of course, of equal hate and mistrust. “I wish that the trust had never been mine. I desire to forget it as far as I can. In any case, let it be out of my sight.” This evil servant’s thoughts are shown us, on the other hand, and that even more forcibly, by that which he said. See from his words, for example, what he thought of his master, and his relation to himself—viz., as a “hard master” and an unjust one, asking more than he ought (Mat_25:24); and not only so, but as being so much in the habit of doing so, that nothing better was to be looked for at his hands (Mat_25:25). What he thought, on the other hand, of his relation to his master, and of what was due in consequence from himself: “Lo, there thou hast that is thine.” In other words, “Thou expectedst me to increase the deposit. I consider that I ought to be thanked for not making it less.”
III. What all this proves about such.—How it shows, first, what such “servants” are. How wicked in action!—really “robbing” their Lord, because preventing Him from obtaining what was really His due, and what, also, He would have otherwise gained (Mat_25:27, where observe expression σὺν τόκῳ, and cf. 1Co_9:7). How wicked in heart!—their secret slothfulness being really in contempt of their Lord’s interests and welfare and will, and due, in fact, to bitter dislike of Himself. How it shows, next, what kind of treatment such servants must expect to receive—how they must expect to be classed, on the one hand, with open transgressors and opponents, and to share the same doom (beginning Mat_25:30; Mat_13:41-42). Also, how awful a doom that is! What terrible loss in it, on the one side (Mat_25:28-29)! What terrible pain on the other (end of Mat_25:30)! And yet, for all that, having a certain awful symmetry and proportion about it! Can even the worst fate be too bad for those who thus, practically, charge unrighteousness upon God?
From these considerations observe:—
1. How serious a thing it is for those who name the name of the Saviour not to be “abounding” in His work. What blindness of judgment, what perversion of will, what blasphemous thoughts, what an awful end, it implies! “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.”
2. How great a privilege it is for us to be permitted to do anything for Him! To be trusted by Him at all, being such as we are! To have the opportunity, in any manner, of “adorning” His “doctrine”! To be enabled to do so in any degree! And to have the prospect of hearing the least done in this way fully acknowledged at last! Is not this the utmost that any faithful “bondservant” can really desire? Or any prince, indeed, for the matter of that?
3. How wise it is to seek for the guidance of Christ Himself on this point! “Lord, what wouldest Thou have me to do? The direction of our “diligence” is not less important than either its zeal or amount.
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Mat_25:14-30. The talents.—This parable illustrates the great principle which regulates the distribution of rewards and punishments in the kingdom of God—the principle that men shall be judged according to the means at their disposal.
1. The “talents” represent everything over and above natural ability, by which men can advance the interests of the kingdom; position, opportunities, and especially the measure of grace given to each man. All the interests of Christ upon earth are entrusted to His people. And every servant of His is endowed with means enough to accomplish his own share in Christ’s work.
2. In order that the judgment may be fair, the reckoning is not made until “after a long time.” We are not called upon to show fruit before autumn. The Lord does not quickly return in a captious spirit, but delays till the wise have had time to lay up great gains, and even the foolish to have learnt wisdom. So with ourselves; we cannot complain if strict account be taken at the end, because we really have time to learn how to serve our Lord. We have time to repair bad beginnings, to take thought, to make up in some degree for lost time.
3. It is not without significance that the servant who did nothing at all for his master was he who had received but one talent. No doubt those who have great ability are liable to temptations of their own; they may be more ambitious, and may find it difficult to serve their Master with means which they see would bring in to themselves profits of a kind they covet. But such men are, at all events, not tempted to bury their talent. This is the peculiar temptation of the man who has little ability, and sullenly retires from a service in which he cannot shine and play a conspicuous part.
4. The insolence of this man’s words is not intentional. He reads off correctly his own state of mind, and fancies that his conduct was appropriate and innocent. All wrongness of conduct is, at bottom, based on a wrong view of God.
5. But this view of God is unpardonably narrow, and the action flowing from it is, after all, inconsistent. It is unpardonably wrong, and the very heartiness with which these other servants were greeted refutes it. You hear the hearty “Well done!” ringing through the whole palace—there is no hesitating scrutiny, no reminding them they had, after all, merely done what it was their duty to do. Not at all—it is the genial, generous outburst of a man who likes to praise, and hates to find people at fault.
6. There are numberless ways in which the most slenderly equipped among us can fulfil the suggestion here given, and put our talent to the exchangers, into the hands of men who can use it. There is no lack of great works going on for our Lord to which we may safely attach ourselves, and in which our talent is rather used by the leaders of the work, invested for us, than left to our own discretion.
7. The law which is exhibited in this parabolic representation is also explicitly announced in the words: “For unto every one that hath,” etc. This may be called the law of spiritual capital.—M. Dods, D.D.
The relation between this parable and the preceding one.—The first represents the church as waiting, the second as working, for her Lord; the first shows the necessity of a constant supply of inward grace, the second the need of unremitting outward activity; the teaching of the first is, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life”; of the second, “Do good as ye have opportunity;” “Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The parable of the Virgins comes appropriately before that of the Talents, inasmuch as a Christian’s inner life should be his first care, the outer life being wholly dependent on it. “Keep thy heart with all diligence” is the first command, “Do thy work with all diligence” the second. The first parable calls aloud to every member of the church “Be wise”; the second follows it with another call, as urgent as the first, “Be faithful.”—J. M. Gibson, D.D.
Is this another version of the parable of the Pounds (Luk_19:11-27)?—It is a strange instance of superficial reading that it should ever have been supposed to be but another version of Luke’s parable of the pounds. The very resemblances of the two are meant to give force to their differences, which are fundamental. They are the converse of each other; that of the pounds teaching that men who have the same gifts entrusted to them may make a widely different use of these, and will be rewarded differently, in strictly graduated proportion to their unlike diligence. The lesson of the parable before us, on the other hand, is that men with dissimilar gifts may employ them with equal diligence; and that, if they do, their reward shall be the same, however great the endowments of one, and slender those of another. A reader who has missed that distinction must be very shortsighted, or sworn to make out a case against the Gospels.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mat_25:16-17. Industry.—I. Its high importance rests on the fact that it is so plain a duty.
II. It is a duty which is the Divine remedy and safeguard against an infinite amount of evil.
III. It is a duty, with a far-reaching purpose and reward.—E. C. Wickham.
Business.—The busiest are the happiest. “Employment so certainly produces cheerfulness,” says Bishop Hall, “that I have known a man come home in high spirits from a funeral because he had the management of it.” “Work is the salt of life.”—Thwing.
Mat_25:18. Omitting small duties.—He who waits to do a great deal at once will never do anything.—S. Johnson.
God can bring large results from small beginnings.—You may count the apples on a tree, but you can never count the trees in an apple. You may count the acorns on an oak, but not the oaks in an acorn. Let no one despise the day of small powers. The clock that will not strike one shall not strike twelve.—Dr. Hurlbut.
Mat_25:19. Personal responsibility.—
I. Nature and extent of responsibility.—
1. Proportioned to natural endowments.
2. Its extent determined by possessions.
3. Affected by our relations in life.
4. Is equal to our opportunities.
II. Reckoning with the faithful servant.—
1. Talents the gift of God.
2. Immediate and faithful improvement.
3. Happy account rendered.
4. Approved and rewarded.
III. Reckoning with the unfaithful servant.—
1. His false reasoning.
2. No improvement of the talent.
3. Account rendered with shame and guilt.
4. He was dispossessed and punished.—Homiletic Review.
Mat_25:20-21. Fidelity and recompense.—The teaching of this parable is for us all.
I. It implies a common responsibility for the use of talents which have been universally distributed, although not in equal measure.
II. This responsibility is all-pervading; it extends to the whole man and to the whole life.
III. The recompense of fidelity.—Faithfulness is rewarded:
1. By increased power—every duty performed makes future duty easier.
2. By increased responsibility—found faithful in a farthing, the man is made “ruler over many things.” And this is God’s law of recompense, to reward work well done by more and greater work.—W. M. Punshon, LL.D.
Mat_25:21. The joy of the Lord.—I. The character.—
1. A servant.
2. A good servant.
3. A faithful servant.
4. A diligent servant.
5. A persevering servant.
II. The reward.—
1. The joy of rest.
2. The joy of conquest.
3. The joy of home.
4. The joy of society.
5. The joy of discovery.
6. The joy of his Lord. Joy
(1) procured,
(2) bestowed,
(3) possessed,
(4) arising from the vision and fruition of his Lord,
(5) issuing in the glory of his Lord.
7. Proportionate joy, (Luk_19:16, etc.).
8. Uninterrupted joy.
9. Eternal joy.—D. in Wesley Banner.
The faithful servant’s reward.—“Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” The words are almost too strong for the framework of the parable. A human master would hardly use such language to his slaves. But here, as yet more in the parable that follows, the reality breaks through the symbol, and we hear the voice of the Divine Master speaking to His servants and He bids them share His joy, for that joy also had its source (as He told them but a few hours later) in loyal and faithful service, in having “kept His Father’s commandments” (Joh_15:10-11).—E. H. Plumptre, D.D.
Mat_25:22-23. Small capabilities.—I. God gives to some but small capabilities.
II. The purpose which is served in this unequal distribution of gifts.
1. Variety is one great characteristic of God’s workmanship.
2. The work for one to do requires the exercise of five talents, the work for another the exercise of only two, and for another the exercise of only one.
III. We must account to God for the use of our two talents, or for the exercise of our one talent, as much as others must account for the exercise of their five talents.
IV. When two talents are faithfully used there is the same commendation and reward as when five talents are faithfully used.—S. G. Matthews, B.A.
Mat_25:23. The joy of the Lord.—I. The state of the blessed is a state of joy.—Not only because all tears shall then be wiped away, but all the springs of comfort shall be opened to them, and the fountains of joy broken up; where there is the vision and fruition of God, a perfection of holiness, and the society of the blessed, there cannot but be a fulness of joy.
II. This joy is the joy of our Lord—the joy which He Himself has purchased and provided for them—the joy of the redeemed, bought with the sorrow of the Redeemer; it is the joy which He Himself is in the possession of, and which He had His eye upon when He endured the cross, and despised the shame; it is the joy which He Himself is the fountain and centre of; it is the joy of our Lord, for it is joy in the Lord, who is our exceeding joy.
III. Glorified saints shall enter into this joy; that is, shall have a full and complete possession of it. Here the joy of the Lord enters into His saints, in the earnest of the Spirit; shortly they shall enter into it, and shall be in it to eternity, as in their element.—M. Henry.
Mat_25:24-30. Trifling with talents.—The unprofitable servant.—
I. His character.
II. His condemnation.—Wickedness does not consist in gross sins only. Negative evil is as much a sin as positive, and the sins are more dangerous.
1. Because there is less hope of reformation.—They are mostly fixed with self-conceit.
2. Because they are most numerous.—Every moment unemployed for God is a sin.
3. Because they are hardest to repair.—A lost opportunity never returns.
III. His sentence.—
1. Severe.
2. Merited.
3. A greater loss, for he had to give up what he had.—B. in Homilist.
Slothfulness linked with a desire to be honest.—There was in this man some sense of right governed by the principle of honesty. But this was not strong enough to conquer the prevailing passion of his life—namely, his sloth-fulness.
I. His honesty is seen in the fact that he considers himself responsible to his master for the talent that had been given him.—If he did not seek to improve his talent, he evidently desired to give it back having the same value as when he got it. This man is the type of the person whom we all know—the easy-going, the inoffensive, and the well-meaning man. He is one who does not care to be troubled much about any religious duty, however pressing it may be. He will place no obstacle in the way of others to do good, but he himself will not move one foot in that direction.
II. His honesty can be seen also in the care that he took not to lose his talent.—He was too fond of ease, idleness had too great a charm for him, to think of making any use of his talent. He wanted to go to heaven, but he would take no yoke, he would bear no burden.
III. Thus far the honesty of this man’s conscience has exerted some influence over his life; but the influence has been that of fear, and not of love.—If our religion be a religion of fear merely, it will be barren as this man’s was.
IV. This man unwittingly condemns himself in giving in his account.—And so will every man who sins in a similar manner condemn himself, for the excuse framed to shield his slothfulness can never be a valid one.
V. This man is reproved and condemned, not for being a robber, blasphemer, or unbeliever, but for doing nothing.—Slothfulness in spiritual matters is a sin in the sight of God.—W. Collins Davies, B.A.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v26 Mat 25:14 - Mat 25:30.
Matthew
TRADERS FOR THE MASTER
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Mat 25:14 - Mat 25:30.
The parable of the Ten Virgins said nothing about their working whilst they waited. This one sets forth that side of the duties of the servants in their master’s absence, and so completes the former. It is clearly in its true historical connection here, and is closely knit to both the preceding and following context. It is a strange instance of superficial reading that it should ever have been supposed to be but another version of Luke’s parable of the pounds. The very resemblances of the two are meant to give force to their differences, which are fundamental. They are the converse of each other. That of the pounds teaches that men who have the same gifts intrusted to them may make a widely different use of these, and will be rewarded differently, in strictly graduated proportion to their unlike diligence. The lesson of the parable before us, on the other hand, is that men with dissimilar gifts may employ them with equal diligence; and that, if they do, their reward shall be the same, however great the endowments of one, and slender those of another. A reader who has missed that distinction must be very shortsighted, or sworn to make out a case against the Gospels.
I. We may consider the lent capital and the business done with it.
Masters nowadays do not give servants their money to trade with, when they leave home; but the incident is true to the old-world relations of master and slave. Our Lord’s consciousness of His near departure, which throbs in all this context, comes out emphatically here. He is preparing His disciples for the time when they will have to work without Him, like the managers of some branch house of business whose principal has gone abroad. What are the ‘talents’ with which He will start them on their own account? We have taken the word into common language, however little we remember the teaching of the parable as to the hand that gives ‘men of talent’ their endowments. But the natural powers usually called by the name are not what Christ means here, though the principles of the parable may be extended to include them. For these powers are the ‘ability’ according to which the talents are given. But the talents themselves are the spiritual knowledge and endowments which are properly the gifts of the ascended Lord to His Church. Two important lessons as to these are conveyed. First, that they are distributed in varying measure, and that not arbitrarily, by the mere will of the giver, but according to his discernment of what each servant can profitably administer. The ‘ability’ which settles their amount is not more closely defined. It may include natural faculty, for Christ’s gifts usually follow the line of that; and the larger the nature, the more of Him it can contain. But it also includes spiritual receptiveness and faithfulness, which increase the absorbing power. The capacity to receive will also be the capacity to administer, and it will be fully filled.
The second lesson taught is that spiritual gifts are given for trading with. In other words, they are here considered not so much as blessings to the possessor as his stock-in-trade, which he can employ for the Master’s enrichment. We are all tempted to think of them mostly as given us for our own blessing and joy; and the reminder is never unseasonable that a Christian receives nothing for himself alone. God hath shined into our hearts, that we may give to others the light of the knowledge which has flashed glad day into our darkness. The Master intrusts us with a portion of His wealth, not for expending on ourselves, but for trading with.
A third principle here is that the right use of His gifts increases them in our hands. ‘Money makes money.’ The five talents grow to ten, the two to four. The surest way to increase our possession of Christ’s grace is to try to impart it. There is no better way of strengthening our own faith than to seek to make others share in it. Christian convictions, spoken, are confirmed, but muffled in silence are weakened. ‘There is that scattereth and yet increaseth.’ Seed heaped and locked up in a granary breeds weevils and moths; flung broadcast over the furrows, it multiplies into seed that can be sown again, and bread that feeds the sower. So we have in this part of the parable almost the complete summary of the principles on which, the purposes for which, and the results to faithful use with which, Christ gives His gifts.
The conduct of the slenderly endowed servant who hides his talent will be considered farther on.
II. We note the faithful servants’ balance-sheet and reward.
Our Lord again sounds the note of delay-’After a long time’-an indefinite phrase which we know carries centuries in its folds, how many more we know not nor are intended to know. The two faithful servants present their balance-sheet in identical words, and receive the same commendation and reward. Their speech is in sharp contrast with the idle one’s excuse, inasmuch as it puts a glad acknowledgment of the lord’s giving in the forefront, as if to teach that the thankful recognition of his liberality underlies all joyful and successful service, and deepens while it makes glad the sense of responsibility. The cords of love are silken; and he who begins with setting before himself the largeness of Christ’s gifts to him, will not fail in using these so as to increase them. In the light of that day, the servant sees more clearly than when he was at work the results of his work. We do not know what the year’s profits have been till stock-taking and balancing-time comes. Here we often say, ‘I have laboured in vain.’ There we shall say, ‘I have gained five talents.’
The verbatim repetition of the same words to both servants teaches the great lesson of this parable as contrasted with that of the pounds, that where there has been the same faithful work, with different amounts of capital, there will be the same reward. Our Master does not care about quantity, but about quality and motive. The slave with a few shillings, enough to stock meagrely a little stall, may show as much business capacity, diligence, and fidelity, as if he had millions to work with. Christ rewards not actions, but the graces which are made visible in actions; and these can be as well seen in the tiniest as in the largest deeds. The light that streams through a pin-prick is the same that pours through the widest window. The crystals of a salt present the same facets, flashing back the sun at the same angles, whether they be large or microscopically small. Therefore the judgment of Christ, which is simply the utterance of fact, takes no heed of the extent but only of the kind of service, and puts on the same level of recompense all who, with however widely varying powers, were one in spirit, in diligence, and devotion. The eulogium on the servants is not ‘successful’ or ‘brilliant,’ but ‘faithful,’ and both alike get it.
The words of the lord fall into three parts. First comes his generous and hearty praise,-the brief and emphatic monosyllable ‘Well,’ and the characterisation of the servants as ‘good and faithful.’ Praise from Christ’s lips is praise indeed; and here He pours it out in no grudging or scanty measure, but with warmth and evident delight. His heart glows with pleasure, and His commendation is musical with the utterance of His own joy in His servants. He ‘rejoices over them with singing’; and more gladly than a fond mother speaks honeyed words of approval to her darling, of whose goodness she is proud, does He praise these two. When we are tempted to disparage our slender powers as compared with those of His more conspicuous servants, and to suppose that all which we do is nought, let us think of this merciful and loving estimate of our poor service. For such words from such lips, life itself were wisely flung away; but such words from such lips will be spoken in recognition of many a piece of service less high and heroic than a martyr’s. ‘Good and faithful’ refers not to the more general notion of goodness, but to the special excellence of a servant, and the latter word seems to define the former. Fidelity is the grace which He praises,-manifested in the recognition that the capital was a loan, given to be traded with for Him, and to be brought back increased to Him. He is faithful who ever keeps in view, and acts on, the conditions on which, and the purposes for which, he has received his spiritual wealth; and ‘he who is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much.’
The second part of the lord’s words is the appointment to higher office, as the reward of faithfulness. Here on earth, the tools come, in the long run, to the hands that can use them, and the best reward of faithfulness in a narrower sphere is to be lifted to a wider. Promotion means more to do; and if the world were rightly organised, the road to advancement would be diligence; and the higher a man climbed, the wider would be the horizon of his labour. It is so in Christ’s kingdom, and should be so in His visible Church. It will be so in heaven. Clearly this saying implies the active theory of the future life, and the continuance in some ministry of love, unknown to us, of the energies which were trained in the small transactions of earth. ‘If five talents are “a few things,” how great the “many things” will be!’ In the parable of the pounds, the servant is made a ruler; here being ‘set over’ seems rather still to point to the place of a steward or servant. The sphere is enlarged, but the office is unaltered. The manager who conducted a small trade rightly will be advanced to the superintendence of a larger business.
‘We doubt not that for one so true
There must be other, nobler work to do,’
and that in that work the same law will continue to operate, and faithfulness be crowned with ever-growing capacities and tasks through a dateless eternity.
The last words of the lord pass beyond our poor attempts at commenting. No eye can look undazzled at the sun. When Christ was near the Cross, He left His disciples a strange bequest at such a moment,-His joy; and that is their brightest portion here, even though it be shaded with many sorrows. The enthroned Christ welcomes all who have known ‘the fellowship of His sufferings’ into the fulness of His heavenly joy, unshaded, unbroken, unspeakable; and they pass into it as into an encompassing atmosphere, or some broad land of peace and abundance. Sympathy with His purposes leads to such oneness with Him that His joy is ours, both in its occasions and in its rapture. ‘Thou makest them drink of the river of Thy pleasures,’ and the lord and the servant drink from the same cup.
III. The excuse and punishment of the indolent servant.
His excuse is his reason. He did think hardly of his lord, and, even though he had His gift in his hand to confute him, he slandered Him in his heart as harsh and exacting. To many men the requirements of religion are more prominent than its gifts, and God is thought of as demanding rather than as ‘the giving God.’ Such thoughts paralyse action. Fear is barren, love is fruitful. Nothing grows on the mountain of curses, which frowns black over against the sunny slopes of the mountain of blessing with its blushing grapes. The indolence was illogical, for, if the master was such as was thought, the more reason for diligence; but fear is a bad reasoner, and the absurd gap between the premises and the conclusion is matched by one of the very same width in every life that thinks of God as rigidly requiring obedience, which, therefore, it does not give! Still another error is in the indolent servant’s words. He flings down the hoarded talent with ‘Lo, thou hast thine own.’ He was mistaken. Talents hid are not, when dug up, as heavy as they were when buried. This gold does rust, and a life not devoted to God is never carried back to Him unspoiled.
The lord’s answer again falls into three parts, corresponding to that to the faithful servants. First comes the stern characterisation of the man. As with the others’ goodness, his badness is defined by the second epithet. It is slothfulness. Is that all? Yes; it does not need active opposition to pull down destruction on one’s head. Simple indolence is enough, the negative sin of not doing or being what we ought. Ungirt loins, unlit lamps, unused talents, sink a man like lead. Doing nothing is enough for ruin.
The remarkable answer to the servant’s charge seems to teach us that timid souls, conscious of slender endowments, and pressed by the heavy sense of responsibility, and shrinking from Christian enterprises, for fear of incurring heavier condemnation, may yet find means of using their little capital. The bankers, who invest the collective contributions of small capitalists to advantage, may, or may not, be intended to be translated into the Church; but, at any rate, the principle of united service is here recommended to those who feel too weak for independent action. Slim houses in a row hold each other up; and, if we cannot strike out a path for ourselves, let us seek strength and safety in numbers.
The fate of the indolent servant has a double horror. It is loss and suffering. The talent is taken from the slack hands and coward heart that would not use it, and given to the man who had shown he could and would. Gifts unemployed for Christ are stripped off a soul yonder. How much will go from many a richly endowed spirit, which here flashed with unconsecrated genius and force! We do not need to wait for eternity to see that true possession, which is use, increases powers, and that disuse, which is equivalent to not possessing, robs of them. The blacksmith’s arm, the scout’s eye, the craftsman’s delicate finger, the student’s intellect, the sensualist’s passions, all illustrate the law on its one side; and the dying out of faculties and tastes, and even of intuitions and conscience, by reason of simple disuse, are melancholy instances of it on the other. But the solemn words of this condemnation seem to point to a far more awful energy in its working in the future, when everything that has not been consecrated by employment for Jesus shall be taken away, and the soul, stripped of its garb, shall ‘be found naked.’ How far that process of divesting may affect faculties, without touching the life, who can tell? Enough to see with awe that a spirit may be cut, as it were, to the quick, and still exist.
But loss is not all the indolent servant’s doom. Once more, like the slow toll of a funeral bell, we hear the dread sentence of ejection to the ‘mirk midnight’ without, where are tears undried and passion unavailing. There is something very awful in the monotonous repetition of that sentence so often in these last discourses of Christ’s. The most loving lips that ever spoke, in love, shaped this form of words, so heart-touching in its wailing, but decisive, proclamation of blackness, homelessness, and sorrow, and cannot but toll them over and over again into our ears, in sad knowledge of our forgetfulness and unbelief,-if perchance we may listen and be warned, and, having heard the sound thereof, may never know the reality of that death in life which is the sure end of the indolent who were blind to His gifts, and therefore would not listen to His requirements.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv14, 21, 23 the kingdom of heaven is
the kingdom of heaven is
Omit the italicised words, "the kingdom of heaven is".
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv14, 19, 24 The Parable of the Talents.
The Parable of the Talents.
The talents entrusted:
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v. 14. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
v. 15. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
v. 16. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
v. 17. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
v. 18. But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money.
The transition from the previous parable to this one is very abrupt, indicating a very close connection in thought. It is the question of faithfulness and its test in the judgment of the last great day. Since the hour of the Lord’s return is unknown to us, and since He will require a reckoning from us, therefore the lesson of this parable is so important. The master, in preparing for his journey, called his own servants, his favorite slaves, of whose faithfulness and willingness to serve he was convinced, and gave his wealth into their keeping, entrusting to one of them five talents, each talent of silver being worth about 41,200, to a second two, and to a third only one. He had carefully observed them, and was convinced that the amount given to each to do business with corresponded with his business ability. After the master had left, the first servant lost no time in investing the money he had received profitably. So well did he succeed in his business ventures that he had soon doubled his capital. In the same way the second servant gained two talents by the judicious investment of the two entrusted to him. But the third servant lacked both energy and enterprise. He dug a hole in the ground, and hid the talent of silver there.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14, 17, 19, 22, 24, 26, 28 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus tells a parable about faithful and unfaithful servants to illustrate that his disciples should remain faithful during his absence and be prepared for his return. (See: Parables)
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it is like
"the kingdom of heaven is like" (See: Matthew 13:24)
was about to go
"was ready to go" or "was to go soon"
gave over to them his wealth
"put them in charge of his wealth"
his wealth
"his property"
five talents
"five talents of gold." Avoid translating this into modern money. A "talent" of gold was worth twenty years' wages. The parable is contrasting the relative amounts of five, two, and one, as well as the large amount of wealth involved. AT: "five bags of gold" or "five bags of gold, each worth 20 years' wages" (See: Biblical Money)
to another he gave two ... gave one talent
The word "talents" is understood from the previous phrase. AT: "to another he gave two talents of gold ... gave one talent of gold" or "to another he gave two bags of gold ... gave one bag of gold" (See: Ellipsis)
according to his own ability
The implicit information can be stated explicitly. AT: "according to each servant's skill in managing wealth" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
made another five talents
"out of his investments, he earned another five talents"
translationWords
servant
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv14, 19, 21, 24, 29 25:14-30 This parable teaches that the Lord expects his…
25:14-30 This parable teaches that the Lord expects his servants to be faithful to the task given to them while waiting for his return. The delay of Christ’s return will cause some to turn to evil deeds (24:48-49), some to inactivity (25:3), and some to fearful passivity (25:18).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.