Talents – What does that mean? - How are we affected? What do we do with our talents?

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. )

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 man's faith, or that man's money, or that man's 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. )

Christ's 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. Christ's 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. Christ's 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. Christ's expectation concerning His talents.

1. Service by their use.

2. Culture by their use.

IV. Christ's 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. )

Talents - What is it to trade with what God has given us, and how does the increase come?

•  Whatever God commits to us, gift or grace, has within itself a tendency to grow. The secret of worldly success is—

•  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 God's bank. Money.

•  Make a good investment by investing in eternity.

•  You are sure of good security, the promise and fidelity of God. ( J. Vaughan, M. A. )

One talent -   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 master's success.

5.  He may have neglected his master's work for his own.

Human responsibility

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. God's 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.

Improvement of talents

The right use of the Divine blessings is well represented by his trading or occupying with his Master's property.

Whatever is bestowed on him, he considers net as his own, but as his Lord's.

• 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.

One to discharge of his personal and relative duties (his vocation):

• instruct &/or relieve the distressed,
• assist the needy & guide the inquiring
• comfort the sorrowful & reclaim the wandering
• confirm and encourage the sincere

While doing this and more with a due regard to circumstances, and in the fear of God.

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. )

The talents are improvable. They may be increased in value by wisdom and fidelity in their consecration to the Redeemer's service.

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.

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.

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. )

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.” T he 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. )