Servants Count the Master's Silver TalentsBible World
19:13Luke 19:13
And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.
Christ, as the nobleman going to receive a kingdom and return, calls His servants and entrusts to each capital to trade with faithfully until He comes. All that a person is and has belongs to the Lord by creation and redemption, so the pound is a loan and not personal property, and any increase comes from Him and returns to Him with praise. Every soul in every age is given a work and abilities suited to capacity, so there are no idlers and none is excused, yet each is accountable only for what was actually received. To occupy means to put what is entrusted out to active use — laboring to save souls, communicating truth in word and deed, putting means to work for God rather than hoarding or spending on self, and being faithful in the smallest opportunity — and gifts so used increase while unused powers decay. The charge lasts only for present life while probation continues, for at His coming He will reckon with each servant personally, rewarding faithful, persevering, unselfish trading with approval and joy and condemning the slothful servant who buries his trust.
Parable Setting and Wording
The verse presents Christ as the nobleman who goes away to receive a kingdom, calling His ten servants, delivering to each one a pound, and charging them to trade with it till He comes, as a man going into a far country to receive a kingdom and return. The entrusting itself is an act of great mercy and love. The servant who hides his pound and charges his Lord with being austere, taking up where He laid not down and reaping where He did not sow, puts his own spirit upon his Lord, manifesting an avaricious, ungenerous and unjust spirit, a claimed discernment that is distrust of those serving God and jealousy of God, and his words show he does not know the Lord, while the principles leading him to rob God of the entrusted gift make him ungenerous and lead him to covet what is not his own.
Together with the hatred of the citizens and their refusal to have Him reign over them, the charge foretold the curse the Jewish nation would bring upon itself by refusing Jesus as its Prince. It also teaches service before triumph, for Christ had to suffer, be rejected and be crucified before His victory was complete, and His servants must labor and face conflict before being honored as conquerors. Christ entrusts His servants with His goods and commands them to work faithfully until He returns, using the light of truth and all placed in their care, knowing they must give God an account. He entrusts work to His servants to carry on during His absence.
To occupy means to trade, to improve in the sense of making progress and employing what has been given, and to put the talent out to the exchangers. Every man has talents, and only those who put them to use double them, by working with personal abilities for those around to bring souls to the Master. Using even one talent to bring one soul to heaven multiplies, for that soul will bring another and that one another, widening like circles from a pebble thrown into a lake until reaching the shore. His return calls for vigilant, faithful work joined with prayerful waiting and watching. Occupying till He comes also means waiting and watching and praying with a living daily connection with God complete, having grace today, and not being surfeited and drunken with the cares of this life so that day comes as a thief unready, and not being like the foolish virgins.
Till I come limits the duty to present life and opportunity while probation lasts, for it lasts only while life and the opportunity to labor continue. When every case is decided there will be no further opportunity to work for souls, and the command to keep working in the Master's vineyard ends only when the decree fixing the unjust, the filthy, the righteous and the holy goes forth and there is no more occasion to labor for souls. There is no second probation, and just now day by day and hour by hour every person is building for the last great day by trading on the Lord's money, working for time and for eternity, making records in the books of heaven and preparing reward or punishment proportionate to the work done. These gifts are the Master's property, not the servants' own, and must not be hoarded or used selfishly or extravagantly, but put to work to bring others salvation, support God's cause, and relieve widows and orphans, which glorifies God, while faithful, unselfish use brings blessing and joy at the harvest and each servant must give a personal account with the Master requiring His own with increase and rewards or punishments corresponding to use or abuse. The command binds every individual follower for the rest of life, even if only a few years remain, to awake and seek diligently, prayerfully, with intense interest and sacrifice to find lost souls like lost pearls buried in the rubbish of wicked cities full of iniquity and place them in the Saviour's hands, even when Satan says it is impossible to do them any good and even though the cities are sadly neglected and need a hundred workers where there is one.
Divine Ownership of Gifts
Every human being with mind, heart, soul and strength belongs to the Lord both by creation and by redemption, having been bought with a price through death to give life and immortality. No one therefore has a right to existence in himself, no one may claim himself as his own property, and no one may do as he pleases with himself. All money, time and talents belong to God and are only lent by Him to accomplish the work He has given to do, so that all that is handled is the Lord's. The command to occupy till He comes is His charge to keep using what He has lent until Christ returns, each person individually doing the work God gives, placing himself in readiness to do just what God appoints with self surrendered, using the powers as talents lent to do His will on earth to His glory, and each must give account of this stewardship.
The pound is capital advanced by the Lord, a loan and not personal property to use as one pleases. No gain can be made unless there has first been a deposit, and there can be no interest without the principal, for any increase depends on what He first provides and all success in trading comes from Him. The faithful servant therefore takes no credit to himself and claims no personal merit, but gives Him all praise and glory and gives Him the credit, saying in effect Thou deliverest unto me Thy pound. The time of service is a day of trust followed by the Lord's day of reckoning, in which the entrusted resources, including tithes and offerings to be brought willingly and abundantly into His treasury according as He has prospered, are to be used diligently in His service and put to work for His cause.
The steward acts in the master's place, treating the master's interests as his own and using what has been entrusted for the master's purposes, and the trust is an honorable position. Using gains from the master's goods for personal advantage perverts that trust, for the gifts are not merely for personal or worldly gain but to support God's work and help bring others to the truth. Selfishly appropriating what belongs to God is covetousness, which is idolatry. Worldly cares and love of money can absorb a steward's attention, hide the light entrusted to him, and keep him from using influence and resources for others.
The entrusted gifts differ in amount from person to person according to varied capabilities, proportioned individually from the lowliest and most obscure to those in highest positions of trust, and responsibility increases with what has been received. They include physical, mental and moral powers, speech, memory, time, property, money, houses, lands, influence, the light of truth and all spiritual advantages, which are not our goods but the Master's entrusted capital to invest and increase as wise stewards. They are not reserved for a favorite few exalted in education or intellect, but talents in trust to every man with earnest, sacred, solemn work to do for the Master. Having little is no reason to do nothing and even one talent has a place of service, for each is responsible for using what has been given and should seek God's wisdom in doing so, including using both mental and physical powers well to advance God's work, build His kingdom, support missions and save souls rather than serve self-glory or selfish desires.
Universal Stewardship Charge
Christ gives every person in every age a work with abilities entrusted to be used faithfully until He returns. There can be no idlers in His vineyard and none is excused, for God has given talents in trust to every man and given to every man his work. The duty belongs not to ministers alone but to every soul who gives his heart to God, who is called to take up the work presented and keep laboring in His vineyard until He returns. It applies to a minister’s wife as well as to her husband, for she has an individual responsibility to work with him that must not be lightly set aside, willingly sacrificing natural wishes, pleasures, and tastes when doing so helps her serve others. The command calls for wise, diligent, earnest service aimed at saving souls and advancing God’s kingdom, putting entrusted gifts including speech, memory, influence, and property to faithful use for God’s glory, with increase through diligent work.
Wasted time, neglected opportunities, neglected duties, and unfinished duties are failures to carry out that charge, and every person’s work, stewardship, and record of service will face solemn scrutiny. The time to act is limited because death may be near, yet those who have fallen behind can still make faithful use of what remains. God-given powers grow weak when left unused, but God blesses the right use of these gifts. A servant means a worker, one who bears cares, burdens, and responsibilities, and those chosen by grace as His servants, united with Christ by living faith, are laborers together with God. The talents are not reserved for a favorite few exalted in education or intellect, but are endowments bestowed individually from the lowliest and most obscure to those in highest positions of trust, proportioned to varied capabilities.
Each is responsible only for what was actually given according to ability and capacity, not for what was never received or for what circumstances and abilities cannot provide. God does not require from one with little what He requires from one with much, and no one should complain that gifts are small. Even one talent used to the best account is accepted, and work entrusted to a servant with one talent is as valuable in God’s sight as work entrusted to one with five, for the Lord commends faithful use, not the size of the endowment. Faithful use of one entrusted gift can lead to further gifts and greater responsibility, and the light God gives and the talents entrusted multiply as they are shared and increase through trust in God, humility, and consecrated work by which He cooperates with His servants. This responsibility belongs to each person and cannot be transferred to another or taken over by human judgment, and the servant who hides his talent neglects work he could have done, since even greater resources would not have changed his unfaithfulness. Faithfulness in small opportunities matters, no task in God’s work is insignificant, what is entrusted must be put to use and increased and not merely returned unused, and the faithfulness with which each task is done determines its reward.
The work is Christ’s work, not man’s own, done in co-partnership as laborers together with God in a work of mercy and love just in Christ’s lines, and not merely attending to one’s own self or personal interests but entering a broader field. It is carried out through cooperation with God and empowered by the Spirit of Christ and by grace received from above, which cannot be bought, and not by intellect, education, money, eloquence, or power of intellect alone. Each person is to serve according to the knowledge received and to the very best knowledge possessed, accept and sense responsibility, and let light shine to those around them, which is doing God’s work by presenting obedience to the requirements, commandments, and law of Jesus Christ as freedom, liberty, and salvation that looses the bands of wickedness, lets the oppressed go free, and breaks every yoke. Doing this places men and women where they cooperate in the most perfect harmony with His appointed agencies in molding human character after the divine similitude, trading upon talents and thus increasing them and obtaining power thereby. God is robbed when men and women do not connect with Him in such a way that mind, soul, and strength are controlled by the Holy Spirit, and using the talents is an individual work to be sought with earnest effort for peace in Christ.
Obeying the charge engages all of one’s abilities and warms the heart to the work, enlisting all powers of the soul under Christian obligation. Talents are to be used as stewards of Christ’s grace under Christian duty to bless self and others to the glory of God, for one’s own good as well as for others, and teachers and students share in this high and important stewardship. It stands in contrast to play and amusement, for which Christ gave no example or instruction. It calls for earnest, diligent discharge of every obligation laid upon them in gratitude to God for the gift of His Son and everlasting life through faith.
Faithful Trading in Practice
Occupying is unceasing active service to save perishing souls until Christ comes, doing all in one's power and even what seems beyond one's power. It is unearthing the talent instead of burying it in a napkin in the earth in idleness and sleep, and putting it out to the exchangers by ministering to others, enlightening souls, and teaching church members to labor effectually. That faithful labor furnishes diligent workers for the harvest field and develops men for positions of trust and influence while accomplishing great good. It includes seeking diligently, prayerfully, with intense interest and sacrifice for lost souls as lost pearls buried in the rubbish of wicked, iniquitous, sadly neglected cities where Satan says no good can be done and where a hundred workers are needed for every one present. Using even one talent to bring one soul to heaven multiplies, for that soul will bring another and that one another, widening like circles from a pebble thrown into a lake until reaching the shore. Putting money out to usury in this sense is working for neighbors' interests, publishing the gospel of peace everywhere, showing decided interest in all the Redeemer's purchase, and converting souls who will go to work to convert others, with personal influence winning more souls.
Trading is using money, abilities, influence, knowledge, speech, memory and means to spread the light of present truth to those in darkness and error. Every converted soul is appointed witness and steward to trade on every talent of light, ability and influence, communicating what is known to those who do not know it. The light is to shine not in much talk only but in good works and perfect obedience used for the Lord and not for self-pleasing, presenting obedience to His requirements as liberty. What is imparted is received more richly, for the light multiplies as it is shared and faithful use of one gift leads to further gifts and greater responsibility. Such faithful use loosens attachment to temporal things, directs affection to eternal treasures, and develops characters of increasing consecration, efficiency and tact as laborers together with God. Talents left unused that might have been put out to the exchangers will be required again with the improvement required, and they are to be put to work to bring people to knowledge of the truth so they may increase.
Entrusted means are to be put to work for God and His cause rather than hoarded, buried, wasted on self, extravagance or needless display, or merely saved to be left for children to use. Through self-denial and self-sacrifice even those with no money can save something by denying inclination, and even gifts that seem too small become valuable when laid on the altar because God blesses them to surprising results. Tithes and offerings belong to this trading and are to be brought willingly and abundantly into the treasury according as He has prospered. Resources are to support missions, suffering institutions, the poor, widows and orphans, help others, show Christ's compassion and love, and prepare people for His coming, for large sums are needed. Burying resources in worldly possessions or spending them needlessly instead of investing them brings condemnation, while faithful use for saving souls brings approval and joy. Spending God's money on liquor, alcohol and self-gratification that destroys brain and nerve power and weakens reasoning is forbidden, and money kept for self is worthless when Christ comes.
Faithfulness in small opportunities matters, for no task in God's work is insignificant and the faithfulness with which each task is done determines its reward. Work with one talent is as valuable in God's sight as work with five, and having little is no reason to do nothing. Talents are a personal stewardship to be used wisely where the Spirit indicates and not handed to others to decide or surrendered to another. Each is to seek God's wisdom, serve in the way best suited, work actively to increase usefulness, and meet the needs of His work and help others. All means belong to God, including money, houses and lands, to advance His work and build His kingdom rather than serve self-glory or selfish desires.
Gifts honestly put to work increase in capability and power, while powers left unused grow weak and capacities diminish. The more talents are exercised the greater the increase of capability, as seed must struggle above the soil and spring into life or lose all power to germinate. This calls for mental and moral improvement and growing in grace and in knowledge of Jesus Christ, watching for opportunity to represent truth and win souls. Those given spiritual advantages are accountable for using them, for neglecting them sacrifices spirituality and diminishes capacity. Persistent refusal to use them leads to loss and separation from God, though those who have fallen behind can still make faithful use of what remains while time lasts because death may be near.
Genuine trading is love shown by works, for mere profession of faith has no value and a name on church books does not secure entrance into the kingdom. It means using opportunities for service and for development of Christian character, obeying the known will of God, seeking to benefit and bless those needing help and encouragement, and doing something to help in salvation. It includes appreciating the daily work of purifying, refining and sanctification that lifts character higher, and sensing the worth of souls for whom Christ died, since neglect leaves one in peril. To occupy is to serve faithfully while maintaining vital living connection with Christ, which leads believers to love one another and display His character and unity. In that living faith in His divinity, grasped in humanity, lies power to overcome evil, bad tempers, wrong dispositions and unbelief in the battle faced.
Final Account and Reward
The coming of Christ is a reckoning when each servant must give a personal account of the trust and its gain, for what was lent as capital to trade with until He comes must be returned as principal with increase and usury. Responsibility in that account is measured according to what was actually given, whether the time to work was brief or long, and reward or punishment corresponds to faithful use or abuse. The examination covers time, resources, influence, knowledge, and all entrusted means and capabilities, because the property in hand belongs to the Master and is not for hoarding, selfish use, or shifting the work to children to do after death. The present life is the opportunity to employ it for good and for God's glory, especially in saving souls, before probation ends and no further working for souls remains.
Faithful, persevering, unselfish trading receives the Master's approval, blessing, and joy, including the joy of souls saved and a loosened hold on temporal things. The reward is proportionate to the work done, corresponding to effort, zeal, faithfulness, and success, as responsible beings working for time and eternity make their record in the books of heaven day by day and hour by hour. This duty rests on everyone who can reason, to serve according to ability, and wealth is not given for selfish pleasure, needless display, or extravagance. Hiding resources in worldly possessions and interests, spending them needlessly, or diverting wealth from God's work and the needs of others brings condemnation, represents failure to serve, and hinders the spread of His kingdom.
Fidelity in this life determines position and reward in the future life, for Christ is absent and all are tested by how they do the work given them in His absence, and that work decides destiny. The appointed judgment opens every secret thing, condemning every thought, work, and moral duty left undischarged because the omission affects God's plan and makes others suffer, while heaven notes the smallest faithful act done from a heart principle of obedience. Impenitence, selfishness, self-serving, and covetousness are guilt of the highest order that cannot be passed by, and those justified by faith are judged by works, since faith works by love and purifies the soul from moral defilement. Hence servants are to fear falling short of God's plan, be ever on duty, and labor always for the uplifting of those for whom He gave His life.
The slothful servant who hides his pound in a napkin and buries it in the earth embezzles the Lord's goods, takes them away from His cause, and misappropriates His money into channels that bind it away from where the field is in greatest need, under His displeasure and retarding His work. By charging his Lord with austerity, as taking up where He laid not down and reaping where He did not sow, he puts his own avaricious, ungenerous, unjust, distrustful, and jealous spirit upon his Lord, and his words show he does not know Him. The principles that lead him to rob God make him ungenerous and lead him to covet what is not his own, and hoarding the Lord's goods to do nothing with it costs the soul. Spending God's money on liquor, alcohol, and self-gratification destroys brain and nerve power and weakens the reasoning faculties needed to work with the Master and overcome, and money kept for self or lined in coffin and shroud is worthless when Christ comes to take those who love Him to Himself.
Christ, as the nobleman going to receive a kingdom and return, calls His servants and entrusts to each capital to trade with faithfully until He comes. All that a person is and has belongs to the Lord by creation and redemption, so the pound is a loan and not personal property, and any increase comes from Him and returns to Him with praise. Every soul in every age is given a work and abilities suited to capacity, so there are no idlers and none is excused, yet each is accountable only for what was actually received. To occupy means to put what is entrusted out to active use — laboring to save souls, communicating truth in word and deed, putting means to work for God rather than hoarding or spending on self, and being faithful in the smallest opportunity — and gifts so used increase while unused powers decay. The charge lasts only for present life while probation continues, for at His coming He will reckon with each servant personally, rewarding faithful, persevering, unselfish trading with approval and joy and condemning the slothful servant who buries his trust.
Parable Setting and Wording
The verse presents Christ as the nobleman who goes away to receive a kingdom, calling His ten servants, delivering to each one a pound, and charging them to trade with it till He comes, as a man going into a far country to receive a kingdom and return. The entrusting itself is an act of great mercy and love. The servant who hides his pound and charges his Lord with being austere, taking up where He laid not down and reaping where He did not sow, puts his own spirit upon his Lord, manifesting an avaricious, ungenerous and unjust spirit, a claimed discernment that is distrust of those serving God and jealousy of God, and his words show he does not know the Lord, while the principles leading him to rob God of the entrusted gift make him ungenerous and lead him to covet what is not his own.
Together with the hatred of the citizens and their refusal to have Him reign over them, the charge foretold the curse the Jewish nation would bring upon itself by refusing Jesus as its Prince. It also teaches service before triumph, for Christ had to suffer, be rejected and be crucified before His victory was complete, and His servants must labor and face conflict before being honored as conquerors. Christ entrusts His servants with His goods and commands them to work faithfully until He returns, using the light of truth and all placed in their care, knowing they must give God an account. He entrusts work to His servants to carry on during His absence.
To occupy means to trade, to improve in the sense of making progress and employing what has been given, and to put the talent out to the exchangers. Every man has talents, and only those who put them to use double them, by working with personal abilities for those around to bring souls to the Master. Using even one talent to bring one soul to heaven multiplies, for that soul will bring another and that one another, widening like circles from a pebble thrown into a lake until reaching the shore. His return calls for vigilant, faithful work joined with prayerful waiting and watching. Occupying till He comes also means waiting and watching and praying with a living daily connection with God complete, having grace today, and not being surfeited and drunken with the cares of this life so that day comes as a thief unready, and not being like the foolish virgins.
Till I come limits the duty to present life and opportunity while probation lasts, for it lasts only while life and the opportunity to labor continue. When every case is decided there will be no further opportunity to work for souls, and the command to keep working in the Master's vineyard ends only when the decree fixing the unjust, the filthy, the righteous and the holy goes forth and there is no more occasion to labor for souls. There is no second probation, and just now day by day and hour by hour every person is building for the last great day by trading on the Lord's money, working for time and for eternity, making records in the books of heaven and preparing reward or punishment proportionate to the work done. These gifts are the Master's property, not the servants' own, and must not be hoarded or used selfishly or extravagantly, but put to work to bring others salvation, support God's cause, and relieve widows and orphans, which glorifies God, while faithful, unselfish use brings blessing and joy at the harvest and each servant must give a personal account with the Master requiring His own with increase and rewards or punishments corresponding to use or abuse. The command binds every individual follower for the rest of life, even if only a few years remain, to awake and seek diligently, prayerfully, with intense interest and sacrifice to find lost souls like lost pearls buried in the rubbish of wicked cities full of iniquity and place them in the Saviour's hands, even when Satan says it is impossible to do them any good and even though the cities are sadly neglected and need a hundred workers where there is one.
Divine Ownership of Gifts
Every human being with mind, heart, soul and strength belongs to the Lord both by creation and by redemption, having been bought with a price through death to give life and immortality. No one therefore has a right to existence in himself, no one may claim himself as his own property, and no one may do as he pleases with himself. All money, time and talents belong to God and are only lent by Him to accomplish the work He has given to do, so that all that is handled is the Lord's. The command to occupy till He comes is His charge to keep using what He has lent until Christ returns, each person individually doing the work God gives, placing himself in readiness to do just what God appoints with self surrendered, using the powers as talents lent to do His will on earth to His glory, and each must give account of this stewardship.
The pound is capital advanced by the Lord, a loan and not personal property to use as one pleases. No gain can be made unless there has first been a deposit, and there can be no interest without the principal, for any increase depends on what He first provides and all success in trading comes from Him. The faithful servant therefore takes no credit to himself and claims no personal merit, but gives Him all praise and glory and gives Him the credit, saying in effect Thou deliverest unto me Thy pound. The time of service is a day of trust followed by the Lord's day of reckoning, in which the entrusted resources, including tithes and offerings to be brought willingly and abundantly into His treasury according as He has prospered, are to be used diligently in His service and put to work for His cause.
The steward acts in the master's place, treating the master's interests as his own and using what has been entrusted for the master's purposes, and the trust is an honorable position. Using gains from the master's goods for personal advantage perverts that trust, for the gifts are not merely for personal or worldly gain but to support God's work and help bring others to the truth. Selfishly appropriating what belongs to God is covetousness, which is idolatry. Worldly cares and love of money can absorb a steward's attention, hide the light entrusted to him, and keep him from using influence and resources for others.
The entrusted gifts differ in amount from person to person according to varied capabilities, proportioned individually from the lowliest and most obscure to those in highest positions of trust, and responsibility increases with what has been received. They include physical, mental and moral powers, speech, memory, time, property, money, houses, lands, influence, the light of truth and all spiritual advantages, which are not our goods but the Master's entrusted capital to invest and increase as wise stewards. They are not reserved for a favorite few exalted in education or intellect, but talents in trust to every man with earnest, sacred, solemn work to do for the Master. Having little is no reason to do nothing and even one talent has a place of service, for each is responsible for using what has been given and should seek God's wisdom in doing so, including using both mental and physical powers well to advance God's work, build His kingdom, support missions and save souls rather than serve self-glory or selfish desires.
Universal Stewardship Charge
Christ gives every person in every age a work with abilities entrusted to be used faithfully until He returns. There can be no idlers in His vineyard and none is excused, for God has given talents in trust to every man and given to every man his work. The duty belongs not to ministers alone but to every soul who gives his heart to God, who is called to take up the work presented and keep laboring in His vineyard until He returns. It applies to a minister’s wife as well as to her husband, for she has an individual responsibility to work with him that must not be lightly set aside, willingly sacrificing natural wishes, pleasures, and tastes when doing so helps her serve others. The command calls for wise, diligent, earnest service aimed at saving souls and advancing God’s kingdom, putting entrusted gifts including speech, memory, influence, and property to faithful use for God’s glory, with increase through diligent work.
Wasted time, neglected opportunities, neglected duties, and unfinished duties are failures to carry out that charge, and every person’s work, stewardship, and record of service will face solemn scrutiny. The time to act is limited because death may be near, yet those who have fallen behind can still make faithful use of what remains. God-given powers grow weak when left unused, but God blesses the right use of these gifts. A servant means a worker, one who bears cares, burdens, and responsibilities, and those chosen by grace as His servants, united with Christ by living faith, are laborers together with God. The talents are not reserved for a favorite few exalted in education or intellect, but are endowments bestowed individually from the lowliest and most obscure to those in highest positions of trust, proportioned to varied capabilities.
Each is responsible only for what was actually given according to ability and capacity, not for what was never received or for what circumstances and abilities cannot provide. God does not require from one with little what He requires from one with much, and no one should complain that gifts are small. Even one talent used to the best account is accepted, and work entrusted to a servant with one talent is as valuable in God’s sight as work entrusted to one with five, for the Lord commends faithful use, not the size of the endowment. Faithful use of one entrusted gift can lead to further gifts and greater responsibility, and the light God gives and the talents entrusted multiply as they are shared and increase through trust in God, humility, and consecrated work by which He cooperates with His servants. This responsibility belongs to each person and cannot be transferred to another or taken over by human judgment, and the servant who hides his talent neglects work he could have done, since even greater resources would not have changed his unfaithfulness. Faithfulness in small opportunities matters, no task in God’s work is insignificant, what is entrusted must be put to use and increased and not merely returned unused, and the faithfulness with which each task is done determines its reward.
The work is Christ’s work, not man’s own, done in co-partnership as laborers together with God in a work of mercy and love just in Christ’s lines, and not merely attending to one’s own self or personal interests but entering a broader field. It is carried out through cooperation with God and empowered by the Spirit of Christ and by grace received from above, which cannot be bought, and not by intellect, education, money, eloquence, or power of intellect alone. Each person is to serve according to the knowledge received and to the very best knowledge possessed, accept and sense responsibility, and let light shine to those around them, which is doing God’s work by presenting obedience to the requirements, commandments, and law of Jesus Christ as freedom, liberty, and salvation that looses the bands of wickedness, lets the oppressed go free, and breaks every yoke. Doing this places men and women where they cooperate in the most perfect harmony with His appointed agencies in molding human character after the divine similitude, trading upon talents and thus increasing them and obtaining power thereby. God is robbed when men and women do not connect with Him in such a way that mind, soul, and strength are controlled by the Holy Spirit, and using the talents is an individual work to be sought with earnest effort for peace in Christ.
Obeying the charge engages all of one’s abilities and warms the heart to the work, enlisting all powers of the soul under Christian obligation. Talents are to be used as stewards of Christ’s grace under Christian duty to bless self and others to the glory of God, for one’s own good as well as for others, and teachers and students share in this high and important stewardship. It stands in contrast to play and amusement, for which Christ gave no example or instruction. It calls for earnest, diligent discharge of every obligation laid upon them in gratitude to God for the gift of His Son and everlasting life through faith.
Faithful Trading in Practice
Occupying is unceasing active service to save perishing souls until Christ comes, doing all in one's power and even what seems beyond one's power. It is unearthing the talent instead of burying it in a napkin in the earth in idleness and sleep, and putting it out to the exchangers by ministering to others, enlightening souls, and teaching church members to labor effectually. That faithful labor furnishes diligent workers for the harvest field and develops men for positions of trust and influence while accomplishing great good. It includes seeking diligently, prayerfully, with intense interest and sacrifice for lost souls as lost pearls buried in the rubbish of wicked, iniquitous, sadly neglected cities where Satan says no good can be done and where a hundred workers are needed for every one present. Using even one talent to bring one soul to heaven multiplies, for that soul will bring another and that one another, widening like circles from a pebble thrown into a lake until reaching the shore. Putting money out to usury in this sense is working for neighbors' interests, publishing the gospel of peace everywhere, showing decided interest in all the Redeemer's purchase, and converting souls who will go to work to convert others, with personal influence winning more souls.
Trading is using money, abilities, influence, knowledge, speech, memory and means to spread the light of present truth to those in darkness and error. Every converted soul is appointed witness and steward to trade on every talent of light, ability and influence, communicating what is known to those who do not know it. The light is to shine not in much talk only but in good works and perfect obedience used for the Lord and not for self-pleasing, presenting obedience to His requirements as liberty. What is imparted is received more richly, for the light multiplies as it is shared and faithful use of one gift leads to further gifts and greater responsibility. Such faithful use loosens attachment to temporal things, directs affection to eternal treasures, and develops characters of increasing consecration, efficiency and tact as laborers together with God. Talents left unused that might have been put out to the exchangers will be required again with the improvement required, and they are to be put to work to bring people to knowledge of the truth so they may increase.
Entrusted means are to be put to work for God and His cause rather than hoarded, buried, wasted on self, extravagance or needless display, or merely saved to be left for children to use. Through self-denial and self-sacrifice even those with no money can save something by denying inclination, and even gifts that seem too small become valuable when laid on the altar because God blesses them to surprising results. Tithes and offerings belong to this trading and are to be brought willingly and abundantly into the treasury according as He has prospered. Resources are to support missions, suffering institutions, the poor, widows and orphans, help others, show Christ's compassion and love, and prepare people for His coming, for large sums are needed. Burying resources in worldly possessions or spending them needlessly instead of investing them brings condemnation, while faithful use for saving souls brings approval and joy. Spending God's money on liquor, alcohol and self-gratification that destroys brain and nerve power and weakens reasoning is forbidden, and money kept for self is worthless when Christ comes.
Faithfulness in small opportunities matters, for no task in God's work is insignificant and the faithfulness with which each task is done determines its reward. Work with one talent is as valuable in God's sight as work with five, and having little is no reason to do nothing. Talents are a personal stewardship to be used wisely where the Spirit indicates and not handed to others to decide or surrendered to another. Each is to seek God's wisdom, serve in the way best suited, work actively to increase usefulness, and meet the needs of His work and help others. All means belong to God, including money, houses and lands, to advance His work and build His kingdom rather than serve self-glory or selfish desires.
Gifts honestly put to work increase in capability and power, while powers left unused grow weak and capacities diminish. The more talents are exercised the greater the increase of capability, as seed must struggle above the soil and spring into life or lose all power to germinate. This calls for mental and moral improvement and growing in grace and in knowledge of Jesus Christ, watching for opportunity to represent truth and win souls. Those given spiritual advantages are accountable for using them, for neglecting them sacrifices spirituality and diminishes capacity. Persistent refusal to use them leads to loss and separation from God, though those who have fallen behind can still make faithful use of what remains while time lasts because death may be near.
Genuine trading is love shown by works, for mere profession of faith has no value and a name on church books does not secure entrance into the kingdom. It means using opportunities for service and for development of Christian character, obeying the known will of God, seeking to benefit and bless those needing help and encouragement, and doing something to help in salvation. It includes appreciating the daily work of purifying, refining and sanctification that lifts character higher, and sensing the worth of souls for whom Christ died, since neglect leaves one in peril. To occupy is to serve faithfully while maintaining vital living connection with Christ, which leads believers to love one another and display His character and unity. In that living faith in His divinity, grasped in humanity, lies power to overcome evil, bad tempers, wrong dispositions and unbelief in the battle faced.
Final Account and Reward
The coming of Christ is a reckoning when each servant must give a personal account of the trust and its gain, for what was lent as capital to trade with until He comes must be returned as principal with increase and usury. Responsibility in that account is measured according to what was actually given, whether the time to work was brief or long, and reward or punishment corresponds to faithful use or abuse. The examination covers time, resources, influence, knowledge, and all entrusted means and capabilities, because the property in hand belongs to the Master and is not for hoarding, selfish use, or shifting the work to children to do after death. The present life is the opportunity to employ it for good and for God's glory, especially in saving souls, before probation ends and no further working for souls remains.
Faithful, persevering, unselfish trading receives the Master's approval, blessing, and joy, including the joy of souls saved and a loosened hold on temporal things. The reward is proportionate to the work done, corresponding to effort, zeal, faithfulness, and success, as responsible beings working for time and eternity make their record in the books of heaven day by day and hour by hour. This duty rests on everyone who can reason, to serve according to ability, and wealth is not given for selfish pleasure, needless display, or extravagance. Hiding resources in worldly possessions and interests, spending them needlessly, or diverting wealth from God's work and the needs of others brings condemnation, represents failure to serve, and hinders the spread of His kingdom.
Fidelity in this life determines position and reward in the future life, for Christ is absent and all are tested by how they do the work given them in His absence, and that work decides destiny. The appointed judgment opens every secret thing, condemning every thought, work, and moral duty left undischarged because the omission affects God's plan and makes others suffer, while heaven notes the smallest faithful act done from a heart principle of obedience. Impenitence, selfishness, self-serving, and covetousness are guilt of the highest order that cannot be passed by, and those justified by faith are judged by works, since faith works by love and purifies the soul from moral defilement. Hence servants are to fear falling short of God's plan, be ever on duty, and labor always for the uplifting of those for whom He gave His life.
The slothful servant who hides his pound in a napkin and buries it in the earth embezzles the Lord's goods, takes them away from His cause, and misappropriates His money into channels that bind it away from where the field is in greatest need, under His displeasure and retarding His work. By charging his Lord with austerity, as taking up where He laid not down and reaping where He did not sow, he puts his own avaricious, ungenerous, unjust, distrustful, and jealous spirit upon his Lord, and his words show he does not know Him. The principles that lead him to rob God make him ungenerous and lead him to covet what is not his own, and hoarding the Lord's goods to do nothing with it costs the soul. Spending God's money on liquor, alcohol, and self-gratification destroys brain and nerve power and weakens the reasoning faculties needed to work with the Master and overcome, and money kept for self or lined in coffin and shroud is worthless when Christ comes to take those who love Him to Himself.