Like the tale of the Good Samaritan or the Unfruitful Fig Tree, the Parable of Talents is one Christ’s teachings to his disciples to instruct them of God’s will for Man’s life. Traditional Christian interpretation of the ‘Parable of Talents’ sees it as a didactic and cautionary tale told by Christ to his disciples illustrating the importance of taking risks for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Christ warns his followers to use their personal gifts or ‘talents’ to further God’s work. Failure to do so appropriately would result in severe judgment.
Others interpret the tale as illustrating good investment advice. As such, the ‘Parable of Talents’ is still applicable today with respect to being a good financial steward of your wealth. Even though many biblical scholars interpret the parable as being applicable to both money and human talent, this article will focus exclusively on the stewardship of money.
The Story
While I’ve included the actual verses from Mathew Chapter 25 in my analysis below, I’ve also included a synopsis:
A master leaves his house to travel abroad for an extended period of time. Just before leaving, he gives his three servants different amounts of precious metals (i.e. money) or ‘talents’ to oversee. He gives each servant according to his ability: one servant receives five talents, the second receives two, and the third receives only one talent, for a total of eight talents.
After returning, the master then asks each servant for an account of their stewardship of his property. The first and second servants report they put their talents to work, doubling the value of the master’s property. However, the third servant reports he buried the metal to keep it safe. The master admonishes the servant, calling him ‘wicked and slothful’, and explaining that he should have put the money in the bank where it would have drawn interest. In short, the third servant was a bad steward of his master’s property.
This post was published at Schiffgold on APRIL 4, 2017.
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