In the first part of this chapter, we learned that we should always be on the alert, ready for the coming of Christ. In today’s parable, Jesus tells us that in addition to longing for His coming, we should also be busy about the work of the Kingdom. Specifically, we are to devote all that we are and all that we have to Him.

And right at the beginning, He makes it clear that it doesn’t really matter how much we have – how much money, how many abilities. The man who started out with two talents receives exactly the same reward as the one who started out with five. We are not to give ourselves over to envy or jealousy, comparing ourselves to one another.

But we are to consider that all our possessions and our abilities come from God and thus ultimately belong to Him. After all, even the unfaithful servant admits this in verse 25, when he says to his master, “Here, you have what is yours.”

So, what was it that made the unfaithful servant so hesitant to work for his master? It wasn’t his jealousy of others, and it wasn’t a delusion that he was not in fact a servant. It was his defective view of his master. He doesn’t want to work for someone he considers to be a hard, unfair man who takes what doesn’t belong to him. And if that’s how we see God, then we won’t want to work for His glory, and we won’t long for His coming, either.

But how can we possibly believe this, knowing that the Father gave up His only Son to save us? How can we believe God is a thief when Jesus gave up His own life for us? No, surely God is not only worthy of our affection but of our devotion. Surely He deserves all our efforts to serve Him and bring Him glory.

And if we love Him with all we are and all we have, with all our heart, and mind and soul as well as with all our strength, then we can look forward to the greatest possible reward at His coming – to enter into His joy, to be in the presence forever of Someone Who loves us so much.

Matthew 25:14-30 (ESV)

14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property.
15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.
17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more.
18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’
21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’
23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed,
25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’
26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?
27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.
28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.
29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’