The Parable of the Talents

Jesus taught a parable which has become known as the parable of the talents.  I want to make it clear, at the outset, that a talent was a certain weight of precious metal.  In other words, the lord left two stewards with something to safeguard and invest while he was gone.  Jesus says that the lord gave to them according to their several ability, not that those were their abilities.  In any case, one of the stewards was given five talents, another two, and the third only one.

Some time ago, I was told that the one talent represented faith.  I suppose that makes sense, after all, faith is the one thing that all Christians have.  I am something of a skeptic by nature, though, and I wanted to see proof.  People were able to give all kinds of logical explanations and arguments, but I was stubborn, and nothing that anyone told me qualified in my mind as proof.

A week ago, though, I heard a sermon in Sunday morning service that I think, although it may still not really be ‘proof,’ it certainly comes much closer, and I now feel much more confident that the one talent was, indeed, faith.  This in spite of the fact that the sermon was not about the parable of the talents; in fact, the parable wasn’t even mentioned.

In 2 Peter, Peter tells us to add to our faith.  He tells us to “add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.“  Now, clearly, Peter isn’t going to tell us to add to something that some of might not have.  Further, what Peter says goes right along with what Jesus said in the parable:  The one who had five, gained another five, the one that had two, gained another two, and they were both recognized as good and faithful servants.  The one that was only given one didn’t do anything with it, and was rebuked for being wicked and slothful.  Peter tells us that the man who doesn’t have virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.  Peter goes on to admonish us to give diligence to make our calling and election sure, and that, if we do these things, we shall never fall. Now, everybody slips occasionally; nobody’s perfect; we all make mistakes.  Clearly, Peter is not suggesting that if we have faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, etc. that we will never mess up.  He’s talking about a much more important and permanent fall here, just as Jesus said of the slothful servant in the parable that he was cast into outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

In some ways, it doesn’t really seem fair; the third servant didn’t lose his faith, he just never did anything with it.  Mark Twain once said, “The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.”  What good is literacy if you do not put it to use?  By the same token, what good is faith if you don’t use it?  James told us repeatedly in James 2 that faith without works is dead.  He even makes the point that the devils have faith; what they don’t have is obedience.

Don’t misunderstand me:  Faith is the determining factor in salvation, but only if it the kind of faith that drives you to want to try to please God.  Someone who really believes the Gospel message will find themselves wanting to learn more about God, and His plan, and will want to tell everyone about His love.  We could never earn salvation, it is much too precious a gift.  We can, however prove ourselves to be completely unworthy of it.  And, again, don’t misunderstand me; we are unworthy of it, yet God offers it to us anyway.  But there will always be those that will take the gift for granted, and, in truth, treat it as something despised instead of something that is precious and must be protected at all costs and those people have no place with us.

After the parable of the talents, Jesus teaches us that on Judgment Day, the sheep (the obedient ones) will be on His right hand, and the goats (the ones that but all the time) will be on His left.  The sheep will be rewarded for what they did in this life, but the goats will go to eternal punishment for what they didn’t do.