In the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about three men, each is given a certain amount of talents to use while the master of the house is away on a trip. Now in this story, a “talent” is a certain amount of money, whether of gold or of silver that he expected each man to use and to multiply. To one man the master gave five talents. He obviously knew how to spend his money well. To another man he gave two, and like the first, he too, knew how to use his money well. And to a third he only gave one talent. The master of the house was probably going to put this man to the test to see if he would be faithful with what he had been given. So the master took off on his trip. Upon his return, he called each man individually before him to see what he had done with what he was given. The first man doubled his amount. Instead of just five, he had invested and åhad doubled his amount of talents. “Well done, thou good and faithful servant”, said the master. “Because you have been faithful over a little, I will make you faithful over many.” The second man had also doubled his talents. Instead of two, he had four. Again the master said, “Well done thou good and faithful servant. Because you have been faithful over a little, I will make you faithful over many.” But the third man, knowing that his master would be wanting his money back, hid his one talent in the earth and therefore only presented the one talent that he had been given. This enraged the master. “You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I would be expecting you to use that talent to double its amount! You should have at least invested it into a bank. At least that way I could receive it back along with a little interest. Therefore, I will take what little talent you were given and give it to the man who had made ten talents and throw you out of my kingdom!” Well, we know that Jesus was telling us to use what He has given us so that we might glorify Him and help our fellow human beings.
But let’s take the story a little farther. According to one Bible dictionary, a “talent” figuratively signifies any gift or opportunity that God gives us so that by using it, we might glorify God and benefit our fellow man as well. Therefore, our talent might be our ability to play the piano or a guitar, or an instrument found in an orchestra. Or maybe our talent might be that we can sing and use our voice in a choir or perhaps to lighten the load of someone else who might be down or discouraged. Our talent might be carpentry, or we might have the knowledge and ability to work with electricity. Maybe we can write, and use our talent to write a book or tell a story. We might be an encourager and can encourage others to do what they want to do. Whatever your talent is, it has been given to you from God above and He wants you to use it to help those around you and at the same time, bring glory to the Lord. The Scripture says, “Every good and perfect gift is from God above”, James 1:17.
Let me tell you a story. A family had moved into a new city and neighborhood and had joined a certain church. Everyone in the church knew that this was a Christian family that loved the church and the Lord. Well, this church was in search of some new deacons to add to their board and so the head deacon, the pastor, and a few other deacons went to visit with the man of this house and offered him the position of becoming one of their new deacons. Do you know what this man told them? He told them, “Men, I’m flattered that you have come over here to ask me to serve as a deacon in the church, but please don’t ask me to do that! If you know of some widow in the church that needs a ride to the grocery store, I can do that and help her put her groceries in her house. Or if you know someone who needs some minor electrical work or plumbing work done, I can do that. But please don’t ask me to be a deacon. That is now what God has called me to do!” And so he turned them down. Do you see? Here was a man who knew what his talent was, helping someone in need. He didn’t want to be someone who could be sought after for some decision that needed to be made in the church or to serve on some committee, he just wanted to serve someone who was in need. That man knew what his service was and that is all he wanted to do, to serve the Lord in some tangible way that would benefit the one who needed his help.
