Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.
The verse reports the first servant coming to his returned master for reckoning, confessing that the capital belongs to the Lord and announcing a tenfold increase made by putting it to use in trading. No gain could have been made without the principal first advanced by the Lord, and it succeeds only through His power and grace, so the servant takes no credit but renders both principal and increase back to Him with all glory. The increase comes only by diligent trading rather than idleness, for exercising gifts in service suited to ability multiplies capability, usefulness, and blessing with greater responsibility for further use. Each servant must personally account for what was entrusted and what it produced, and faithful use in very little is commended and rewarded in proportion to improvement, as the first servant's faithfulness is rewarded with authority over ten cities. The entrusted pound represents all God lends as His own property, including means, abilities, opportunities, and knowledge, to be used for His glory rather than selfish ends, so that faithful stewardship advances His work, wins souls, and hastens Christ's coming.
Parable Setting and Wording
The reckoning takes place after the nobleman who went into a far country to receive a kingdom has returned, and the first of the servants comes to him to report what was done with the single pound entrusted to him. His report is that trading with that pound has produced ten more, which proves faithfulness in very little and is commended as good service and rewarded with authority over ten cities.
The servant's words confess that the capital is the Lord's and not his own, crediting the Master as the source and giving Him the glory rather than claiming personal merit. Without that first gift there would have been nothing with which to gain more, for the steward can use what is entrusted successfully only through God's power. Both principal and increase therefore belong ultimately to the Master and are to be given back to Him, so faithful use brings reward but gains no merit for earning heaven. God Himself originates the designs for the advancement of His work and provides His people with a surplus of means, so that when He calls for help they use what He entrusted to gain further increase for Him and return resources to His treasury.
The ten pounds report a tenfold increase earned by putting the master's money to use rather than hiding or hoarding it. The pound represents the means, influence, abilities, and resources Christ entrusts to His servants, who are to use them faithfully and according to their abilities until He returns. Entrusted resources are thus to be put to work for Christ's cause so that Christ receives what is His with increase, spreading the light of truth to those in darkness and producing further good for His work. Servants must answer to their Master for how they use what belongs to Him, and faithful labor brings reward in proportion to its zeal, fidelity, and success.
Capital and Glory Belong to God
The tenfold gain was possible only because a deposit had first been placed in the servant's hands, for there can be no interest without principal and no increase without entrusted capital advanced by the Lord. Successful trading with that trust comes only through His power and grace, without which the steward would have nothing with which to gain more. God cooperates with diligent, honest service and Himself increases the servant's talents, so that even faithful use of a small amount can grow through Christ's grace and each one's responsibility and expected return correspond to what was received.
The faithful servant therefore takes no credit to himself but gives all praise and glory to the Lord, confessing that both capital and gain are the Master's. The pound and its increase are to be rendered back to Him together, principal with interest, into His treasury at the time of trust and day of reckoning. The entrusted goods remain God's and not the servant's, and each must answer personally for whether they were improved or abused. That returned gain does not purchase heaven nor earn merit for the one who gained it.
God Himself originates the designs for the advancement of His work and provides His people a surplus of means for that purpose. When He calls for help, they are to use what He entrusted to them to gain further increase for Him, acknowledging that what has been gained comes from what He provided.
Diligent Trading Brings Increase
The servants cannot remain slothful or idle but must diligently trade with what has been entrusted to them, working with their gifts however small, watching for opportunity to represent the truth and win souls, and putting the Lord's goods to work wisely in service suited to their abilities. This accountability for faithful use and increase applies to every disciple and not to the minister alone, including a minister's wife who must earnestly use her God-given ability in united work with her husband to save souls rather than neglecting it for personal wishes, comfort, or natural preferences. Slothfulness in using the Lord's goods and selfishly withholding what belongs to Him retards His work.
Exercising talents increases capability and usefulness, for the more talents are exercised the greater the increase. Gifts used aright develop greater usefulness and fitness for service and can multiply their usefulness to save souls and glorify God, with each person receiving gifts and work suited to ability and accountable to return increase corresponding to what was entrusted. Faithful improvement brings blessing and increased responsibility for further use, since each increase brings responsibility for further use, while the Lord does not demand from one entrusted with one talent what He entrusted to another yet does not accept the talent left unimproved. By trading upon talents in connection with God, the faithful obtain power and place themselves where they can be laborers together with God, and this is an individual work to be sought with earnest effort for peace in Christ.
Increase comes by connecting with God so that mind, soul, and strength are controlled by the Holy Spirit in perfect harmony with His appointed agencies in molding character after the divine similitude. It comes by grasping a living faith in Christ's divinity, which brings divine power to overcome temper, disposition, and unbelief in the battle against evil. As people impart knowledge and talents to others in service, they receive more richly.
Gaining ten pounds means cultivating the seed sown by God by exercising God-given powers, heeding all light and instruction given, and being doers of the Word, so that by wisely improving capabilities they become doubled. It means working in His moral vineyard, wearing the yoke of Christ and lifting and bearing His burdens that seem heavy, and finding in that work that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. This is what is expected of disciples while He is away, fully understood only after resurrection and ascension when the Holy Spirit brought His words back to remembrance with power, and like seed sown it must struggle above the soil and spring up into life through mental and moral improvement and growing in grace and knowledge, or lose all power to germinate.
Gaining means unearthing the talent and putting it out to the exchangers by learning to minister effectually to others to make Christ known and enlighten souls perishing without Him, so that its use develops men for positions of trust and influence and accomplishes great good. Houses, land, and money are talents to be put to work for God's glory especially to advance His cause and save souls through diligent use, and even one soul rescued makes the labor worthwhile. Failing to gain means binding the talent in a napkin and burying it in the earth, standing as idlers in the marketplace and refusing to work in the vineyard while letting souls die, which is the slothful servant's example.
Hiding the pound in a napkin and burying it in the earth embezzles the Lord's goods and takes them away from His work and cause by diverting means into channels that bind it away from where the field is in greatest need. Means are His talent entrusted to build up and advance His work where need is greatest with no human restrictions binding it away. God sees all such misappropriation, regards it with displeasure, and cannot and will not sanction and prosper work carried on in that way.
Accountability and Final Reward
Each servant must give a personal account to the Master for both what was entrusted and what it produced, for the goods are the Lord's own and He expects them returned with increase. That use will be examined and investigated at His coming, which is soon. Faithful labor brings reward in proportion to its improvement and to its zeal, fidelity, and success, while abuse and misuse bring punishment. The first servant's tenfold gain proves faithfulness in very little, it is commended as good service and rewarded with authority over ten cities, and faithfulness with little is valued as faithfulness with much.
God entrusts according to each person's ability and judges according to what each has and not what he lacks. Each is accountable for gifts received and not for gifts never had, responsibility cannot be transferred to another, and smallness is no excuse for doing nothing, for even those given little, even the smallest trust used to the best account, can serve and are accepted. There is no second probation, and to expect another opportunity is a fatal delusion. Even now, day by day and hour by hour, people are trading on the Lord's money and building for the last great day, making their records in the books of heaven as responsible beings working for time and for eternity, and at His coming Christ will reckon with every servant and require results and an account of what was done with His goods from everyone.
Mere profession of faith has no value as genuine faith unless shown in works of love, and having a name on the church books does not secure entrance into heaven. Entrance depends on faithful trading with the Lord's goods by using opportunities for service, obeying known will, blessing the needy, carrying forward daily purifying work, sensing the worth of souls, helping in salvation, and developing Christian character, so the one who does nothing to help is in perilous condition and imperils the soul. Refusing to use what is entrusted, misusing it, or abusing it makes an unfaithful stewardship that leads to loss of blessing and, if persisted in, to punishment and separation from God. The time of trust is for returning gains to the Lord's treasury, and gifts that support His work will count among the results seen on the day of reward. Offerings are freely giving the Lord back His own goods already entrusted, even a small amount is accepted and is placed in the hands of Christ in the person of His afflicted brethren, and when people do their part in relieving suffering institutions without delay, heavenly angels are commissioned to help in the special need. The faithfulness with which the work is done decides each reward, so work done faithfully with but one talent is as valuable in God's sight as work done with five talents, and there is nothing insignificant in the work of God.
Stewardship in Life and Mission
The pound is what God lends as His own property, including means and money, houses and lands, influence and abilities, opportunities, spiritual advantages and knowledge, entrusted to be developed and put to faithful use for His glory rather than for selfish ends. It covers tithes, gifts, offerings, abilities and other entrusted resources, to be used with frugality and self-denial to help carry the message of truth beyond one's own neighborhood. The amount varies according to ability, but even a small gift can and must be put to work wisely in service suited to ability, and its smallness is no excuse for doing nothing. Increase is to be returned to Him with gain, and refusal to increase or misuse of what is entrusted leaves a person unprepared to give an account in the day of God.
Those who have wealth must use it themselves in God's cause during their lifetime and render back both principal and interest when the Master calls them to account, rather than leave that stewardship for their children to do. That work of using abilities and income is their own work God left them to do, to be invested wisely to advance His cause and meet its needs according to ability.
Entrusted goods and talents are to be made productive and accounted for to their Owner, not wasted or devoted to selfish purposes. Means are the Lord's talent to be used to build up and advance His work where the field is in greatest need, with no human restrictions binding it away from the cause of God. Trading with the Master's goods means acting in His place, accepting responsibility and treating His interests as one's own for His purposes, so using gains for personal advantage perverts the trust. Entrusted riches are to be used in the Lord's service rather than for needless display, self-indulgence, glorifying self or indulging impulse, and their use tests faithfulness and will be investigated by the Owner. Hiding the pound in a napkin and burying it in the earth embezzles the Lord's goods by diverting means into channels that bind it away from where it is needed, which God sees with displeasure and will not sanction and prosper.
Faithful stewardship returns resources to God's treasury so His work can advance, souls can be won, truth can spread, and Christ's coming can be hastened, for the servant can rightly say the Lord's pound gained the increase. Means placed in people's hands are to be used for God's honor and glory to bring people to the knowledge of the truth, and using them to help save others gains further talents as those brought to the truth then use their own influence and means to work for others. Houses, land and money put to work for God's glory to advance His cause and save souls gain more through diligent use, and even one soul rescued makes the labor worthwhile.
Trading belongs to every professed disciple for making Christ known and enlightening souls perishing without Christ, not to the minister alone. It means using opportunities for service and for mental and moral improvement, growing in grace and knowledge, obeying God's known will, blessing the needy, carrying forward daily purifying and sanctifying work, sensing the worth of souls for whom Christ died, and helping in the work of salvation. A minister's wife is therefore to earnestly and faithfully use her God-given ability in united work with her husband to save souls, rather than neglecting that responsibility for personal wishes, comfort or natural preferences. Having a name on the church books does not secure heaven apart from such faithful trading, and doing nothing to help leaves one in peril.
The verse reports the first servant coming to his returned master for reckoning, confessing that the capital belongs to the Lord and announcing a tenfold increase made by putting it to use in trading.
No gain could have been made without the principal first advanced by the Lord, and it succeeds only through His power and grace, so the servant takes no credit but renders both principal and increase back to Him with all glory.
The increase comes only by diligent trading rather than idleness, for exercising gifts in service suited to ability multiplies capability, usefulness, and blessing with greater responsibility for further use.
Each servant must personally account for what was entrusted and what it produced, and faithful use in very little is commended and rewarded in proportion to improvement, as the first servant's faithfulness is rewarded with authority over ten cities.
The entrusted pound represents all God lends as His own property, including means, abilities, opportunities, and knowledge, to be used for His glory rather than selfish ends, so that faithful stewardship advances His work, wins souls, and hastens Christ's coming.
Parable Setting and Wording
The reckoning takes place after the nobleman who went into a far country to receive a kingdom has returned, and the first of the servants comes to him to report what was done with the single pound entrusted to him. His report is that trading with that pound has produced ten more, which proves faithfulness in very little and is commended as good service and rewarded with authority over ten cities.
The servant's words confess that the capital is the Lord's and not his own, crediting the Master as the source and giving Him the glory rather than claiming personal merit. Without that first gift there would have been nothing with which to gain more, for the steward can use what is entrusted successfully only through God's power. Both principal and increase therefore belong ultimately to the Master and are to be given back to Him, so faithful use brings reward but gains no merit for earning heaven. God Himself originates the designs for the advancement of His work and provides His people with a surplus of means, so that when He calls for help they use what He entrusted to gain further increase for Him and return resources to His treasury.
The ten pounds report a tenfold increase earned by putting the master's money to use rather than hiding or hoarding it. The pound represents the means, influence, abilities, and resources Christ entrusts to His servants, who are to use them faithfully and according to their abilities until He returns. Entrusted resources are thus to be put to work for Christ's cause so that Christ receives what is His with increase, spreading the light of truth to those in darkness and producing further good for His work. Servants must answer to their Master for how they use what belongs to Him, and faithful labor brings reward in proportion to its zeal, fidelity, and success.
Capital and Glory Belong to God
The tenfold gain was possible only because a deposit had first been placed in the servant's hands, for there can be no interest without principal and no increase without entrusted capital advanced by the Lord. Successful trading with that trust comes only through His power and grace, without which the steward would have nothing with which to gain more. God cooperates with diligent, honest service and Himself increases the servant's talents, so that even faithful use of a small amount can grow through Christ's grace and each one's responsibility and expected return correspond to what was received.
The faithful servant therefore takes no credit to himself but gives all praise and glory to the Lord, confessing that both capital and gain are the Master's. The pound and its increase are to be rendered back to Him together, principal with interest, into His treasury at the time of trust and day of reckoning. The entrusted goods remain God's and not the servant's, and each must answer personally for whether they were improved or abused. That returned gain does not purchase heaven nor earn merit for the one who gained it.
God Himself originates the designs for the advancement of His work and provides His people a surplus of means for that purpose. When He calls for help, they are to use what He entrusted to them to gain further increase for Him, acknowledging that what has been gained comes from what He provided.
Diligent Trading Brings Increase
The servants cannot remain slothful or idle but must diligently trade with what has been entrusted to them, working with their gifts however small, watching for opportunity to represent the truth and win souls, and putting the Lord's goods to work wisely in service suited to their abilities. This accountability for faithful use and increase applies to every disciple and not to the minister alone, including a minister's wife who must earnestly use her God-given ability in united work with her husband to save souls rather than neglecting it for personal wishes, comfort, or natural preferences. Slothfulness in using the Lord's goods and selfishly withholding what belongs to Him retards His work.
Exercising talents increases capability and usefulness, for the more talents are exercised the greater the increase. Gifts used aright develop greater usefulness and fitness for service and can multiply their usefulness to save souls and glorify God, with each person receiving gifts and work suited to ability and accountable to return increase corresponding to what was entrusted. Faithful improvement brings blessing and increased responsibility for further use, since each increase brings responsibility for further use, while the Lord does not demand from one entrusted with one talent what He entrusted to another yet does not accept the talent left unimproved. By trading upon talents in connection with God, the faithful obtain power and place themselves where they can be laborers together with God, and this is an individual work to be sought with earnest effort for peace in Christ.
Increase comes by connecting with God so that mind, soul, and strength are controlled by the Holy Spirit in perfect harmony with His appointed agencies in molding character after the divine similitude. It comes by grasping a living faith in Christ's divinity, which brings divine power to overcome temper, disposition, and unbelief in the battle against evil. As people impart knowledge and talents to others in service, they receive more richly.
Gaining ten pounds means cultivating the seed sown by God by exercising God-given powers, heeding all light and instruction given, and being doers of the Word, so that by wisely improving capabilities they become doubled. It means working in His moral vineyard, wearing the yoke of Christ and lifting and bearing His burdens that seem heavy, and finding in that work that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. This is what is expected of disciples while He is away, fully understood only after resurrection and ascension when the Holy Spirit brought His words back to remembrance with power, and like seed sown it must struggle above the soil and spring up into life through mental and moral improvement and growing in grace and knowledge, or lose all power to germinate.
Gaining means unearthing the talent and putting it out to the exchangers by learning to minister effectually to others to make Christ known and enlighten souls perishing without Him, so that its use develops men for positions of trust and influence and accomplishes great good. Houses, land, and money are talents to be put to work for God's glory especially to advance His cause and save souls through diligent use, and even one soul rescued makes the labor worthwhile. Failing to gain means binding the talent in a napkin and burying it in the earth, standing as idlers in the marketplace and refusing to work in the vineyard while letting souls die, which is the slothful servant's example.
Hiding the pound in a napkin and burying it in the earth embezzles the Lord's goods and takes them away from His work and cause by diverting means into channels that bind it away from where the field is in greatest need. Means are His talent entrusted to build up and advance His work where need is greatest with no human restrictions binding it away. God sees all such misappropriation, regards it with displeasure, and cannot and will not sanction and prosper work carried on in that way.
Accountability and Final Reward
Each servant must give a personal account to the Master for both what was entrusted and what it produced, for the goods are the Lord's own and He expects them returned with increase. That use will be examined and investigated at His coming, which is soon. Faithful labor brings reward in proportion to its improvement and to its zeal, fidelity, and success, while abuse and misuse bring punishment. The first servant's tenfold gain proves faithfulness in very little, it is commended as good service and rewarded with authority over ten cities, and faithfulness with little is valued as faithfulness with much.
God entrusts according to each person's ability and judges according to what each has and not what he lacks. Each is accountable for gifts received and not for gifts never had, responsibility cannot be transferred to another, and smallness is no excuse for doing nothing, for even those given little, even the smallest trust used to the best account, can serve and are accepted. There is no second probation, and to expect another opportunity is a fatal delusion. Even now, day by day and hour by hour, people are trading on the Lord's money and building for the last great day, making their records in the books of heaven as responsible beings working for time and for eternity, and at His coming Christ will reckon with every servant and require results and an account of what was done with His goods from everyone.
Mere profession of faith has no value as genuine faith unless shown in works of love, and having a name on the church books does not secure entrance into heaven. Entrance depends on faithful trading with the Lord's goods by using opportunities for service, obeying known will, blessing the needy, carrying forward daily purifying work, sensing the worth of souls, helping in salvation, and developing Christian character, so the one who does nothing to help is in perilous condition and imperils the soul. Refusing to use what is entrusted, misusing it, or abusing it makes an unfaithful stewardship that leads to loss of blessing and, if persisted in, to punishment and separation from God. The time of trust is for returning gains to the Lord's treasury, and gifts that support His work will count among the results seen on the day of reward. Offerings are freely giving the Lord back His own goods already entrusted, even a small amount is accepted and is placed in the hands of Christ in the person of His afflicted brethren, and when people do their part in relieving suffering institutions without delay, heavenly angels are commissioned to help in the special need. The faithfulness with which the work is done decides each reward, so work done faithfully with but one talent is as valuable in God's sight as work done with five talents, and there is nothing insignificant in the work of God.
Stewardship in Life and Mission
The pound is what God lends as His own property, including means and money, houses and lands, influence and abilities, opportunities, spiritual advantages and knowledge, entrusted to be developed and put to faithful use for His glory rather than for selfish ends. It covers tithes, gifts, offerings, abilities and other entrusted resources, to be used with frugality and self-denial to help carry the message of truth beyond one's own neighborhood. The amount varies according to ability, but even a small gift can and must be put to work wisely in service suited to ability, and its smallness is no excuse for doing nothing. Increase is to be returned to Him with gain, and refusal to increase or misuse of what is entrusted leaves a person unprepared to give an account in the day of God.
Those who have wealth must use it themselves in God's cause during their lifetime and render back both principal and interest when the Master calls them to account, rather than leave that stewardship for their children to do. That work of using abilities and income is their own work God left them to do, to be invested wisely to advance His cause and meet its needs according to ability.
Entrusted goods and talents are to be made productive and accounted for to their Owner, not wasted or devoted to selfish purposes. Means are the Lord's talent to be used to build up and advance His work where the field is in greatest need, with no human restrictions binding it away from the cause of God. Trading with the Master's goods means acting in His place, accepting responsibility and treating His interests as one's own for His purposes, so using gains for personal advantage perverts the trust. Entrusted riches are to be used in the Lord's service rather than for needless display, self-indulgence, glorifying self or indulging impulse, and their use tests faithfulness and will be investigated by the Owner. Hiding the pound in a napkin and burying it in the earth embezzles the Lord's goods by diverting means into channels that bind it away from where it is needed, which God sees with displeasure and will not sanction and prosper.
Faithful stewardship returns resources to God's treasury so His work can advance, souls can be won, truth can spread, and Christ's coming can be hastened, for the servant can rightly say the Lord's pound gained the increase. Means placed in people's hands are to be used for God's honor and glory to bring people to the knowledge of the truth, and using them to help save others gains further talents as those brought to the truth then use their own influence and means to work for others. Houses, land and money put to work for God's glory to advance His cause and save souls gain more through diligent use, and even one soul rescued makes the labor worthwhile.
Trading belongs to every professed disciple for making Christ known and enlightening souls perishing without Christ, not to the minister alone. It means using opportunities for service and for mental and moral improvement, growing in grace and knowledge, obeying God's known will, blessing the needy, carrying forward daily purifying and sanctifying work, sensing the worth of souls for whom Christ died, and helping in the work of salvation. A minister's wife is therefore to earnestly and faithfully use her God-given ability in united work with her husband to save souls, rather than neglecting that responsibility for personal wishes, comfort or natural preferences. Having a name on the church books does not secure heaven apart from such faithful trading, and doing nothing to help leaves one in peril.