Servants Count the Master's Silver TalentsBible World
25:17Matthew 25:17
And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
The one who had received two put what was entrusted to him to faithful, diligent, active use and gained two more in addition, doubling what he had received. Gifts are distributed according to each one's ability and capacity, God requires only proportionate gain so that improving two is expected of the one given two, and faithful improvement of two is equally honored and rewarded as that of five. The talents entrusted embrace every natural, mental, moral, spiritual and physical gift belonging to God, including time, strength, intellect, speech, influence, means and the light of saving truth, all held in trust to be cultivated and used for His work and glory. Gifts improve, multiply and double through earnest use in the Master's service, for as they are exercised God strengthens and enlarges capacity and power, while hiding them causes deterioration. After a long time the Master comes and reckons individually, examining work and improvement and rewarding faithfulness with commendation, greater trust and entrance into His joy, while neglect and misuse end in loss.
Narrative and Setting
The servant who had received two put what was entrusted to faithful, diligent, active and wise use and gained two other talents in addition, doubling it. This was diligent work with what had been entrusted rather than idle waiting, putting the master's money to use in his cause instead of burying or squandering it, for stewards must answer for their stewardship. He was accountable for what he had been given and, like the servant entrusted with five, was commended as faithful alongside him and welcomed into his master's joy, the difference in amount lessening nothing of his duty because talents belong to God and are to be used according to His Word for His work. Gaining the other two shows putting the Lord's talents out to the exchangers through self-denying, self-sacrificing zeal for the salvation of souls perishing in their sins, beginning missionary work at once after denying self and purifying the soul through belief of the truth. The talents entrusted are more than earthly, temporal employments and more than worldly goods, embracing eternal interests that must be kept in the reckoning, used to the glory of God and not buried in worldly enterprises, for ability to accumulate worldly goods gives no ground for satisfaction unless turned to account for Him who bestowed them.
The verse belongs to the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-23, representing the kingdom of heaven, the last of the many parables in Christ's public teachings to the disciples. It was spoken as warning about His second appearing in the clouds of heaven after a long day of teaching and warning, shortly before entering Gethsemane, early in the morning after He crossed the mount. Of that day and hour no one knows, not the angels of heaven, but the Father only, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. It was given especially for Christians living in the last days, following the ten virgins, teaching that securing eternal life calls for continued effort, vigilant watching and sanctified waiting, and that professing belief is not enough.
The instruction in Matthew 25:14-46 including this verse is to be studied by every person and compared with the life record. It requires close, critical self-examination of how each one is trading on the Lord's talents and what each church member is doing for the One who gave His life for the world, applied to the responsible use of physical, mental, and spiritual powers. This calls every man to put away boasting, because self-sufficiency is fearfully dangerous and leads men to make the words of Christ of no effect, trading instead in humble obedience without selfishness, worldly ambition, and human judgment. Having a name in the church book does not secure entrance into the kingdom of heaven, for God rewards servants who faithfully trade and increase what has been entrusted through diligent and conscientious use of what belongs to God to build up the cause of truth.
Christ the Master and Servants
The traveling man is Christ about to depart from earth to heaven, the absent Lord is Christ, and the bondservants, literally slaves, are those professing to have accepted His service. He entrusts His own means, His own goods and money, to His own servants as individual stewards, to every man according to his several ability when the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country. He calls each by name, and no earthly master, conference, council, institution, leader, or other person may absorb, control, appropriate, dictate to, or treat another as a machine, for even the humblest is entrusted as God's hired servant and must not bargain away or shift that stewardship to conference or council or any institution. The servant who received two is to trade with the same and gain other two, just as he who received five gains other five, putting his lord's money out to usury so that at his master's return he gives back principal and interest.
By pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world in giving Christ with all heaven, God has purchased the will, affections, mind, soul, body and spirit of every human being through creation and redemption at infinite price by His Son's precious blood and shameful death and sufferings, not with corruptible silver and gold. Believers and unbelievers alike are the Lord's property, bought to live no longer for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose again, to glorify God and do His will. What is received is therefore held in trust as His own goods, capital and money, not personal property to control at discretion, but lent to test usefulness, integrity and allegiance and to be sacredly employed in God's service and returned with increase when He requires them again at His hands and reckons after a long time. God has not given talents to merely a chosen few, priests and rulers alone, but to everyone He has committed some peculiar gift to be used in His service, including money, houses, lands, influence and means held separately or together, with weighty responsibilities and varied amounts, yet even the smallest gifts and smallest talent of means must be traded with by seeking Him for wisdom so His sacred trust is not used to glorify self or indulge selfish impulses. Everyone, whether serving God or pleasing himself, remains under obligation for the use of His gifts, and that the possessor does not acknowledge God's claims does not make his guilt less, for all must render account at the great Judgment-day and if he stands under the black banner of the prince of darkness through this life he will stand unconfessed by Christ in the day of final accounts.
Responsibility to trade is individual and cannot be handed, transferred, sold, merged, shifted to spouse, children, organization, balances, council, conference or publishing house, nor rightly measured and controlled by human judgment weighing another's gifts in human balances. Each must keep individuality and individual judgment, faithfully manage and invest one's own gifts to God's glory where one can, taking hold of one line of work after another as it presents itself, keeping spiritual senses awake to the wants of the cause, giving self and entrusted capital of means, praying to be divested of selfishness and seeking wisdom from God as Daniel sought it. No one is accountable for talents never received and none should complain of smallness of gifts, for God requires only proportionate gain and will not expect five talents' improvement from the man entrusted with two, but asks faithfulness with what is had, doing the best possible service for the Master. This includes the ability to write a book, which is moral and spiritual capital to be traded and increased and cannot be sold as if incapable, and it forbids shrinking through fear of criticism or loss or pleading unqualified and unfitted, for when caution fosters idleness or cowardice it keeps a person from fulfilling the trust, while consecration brings wisdom, tongue, and utterance that adversaries cannot gainsay or resist. The servant entrusted with two put them to work and gained two more, illustrating that a person is to use what God has entrusted rather than excuse inaction because others have more, and a small gift used faithfully with thorough trading, giving where need is seen, helping the suffering, meeting destitution and building humble houses of worship, returns with increase as a consecrated offering and is judged as faithful as one who improved five.
What Talents Are
The talents entrusted are more than earthly, temporal employments and more than worldly goods, embracing eternity and eternal interests that must be kept in the reckoning. They are natural or spiritual gifts and abilities, capabilities, opportunities, intellect, speech, wisdom, health, time, strength, pen, voice, influence, position, sympathy, affection, social advantages, humility, tried virtue, confidence, trust, clear testimony, tact, skill, judgment, cleverness, sense, equipment, genius, education, experience, and the light of saving truth. They belong to God as a loan from the Master to be invested in work for Him to advance His glory, a stewardship of His grace with endowments for a sacred, higher trust secured by Christ paying with His own blood and sufferings for servitude and entire obedience. Gaining other two with the two means using committed talents to the glory of God and not burying them in worldly enterprises, guarding, cultivating and developing them by exercise for His work, others' good and His glory, not selfish pleasure. Ability to accumulate worldly goods gives no ground for satisfaction unless turned to account for Him who bestowed the talents, and resting in that ability is delusion, while even the humblest service becomes a consecrated gift when exercised and employed in doing the Master's bidding. Each person has a duty to bear a share of the work and must be a faithful steward, for God gives every person gifts and holds each responsible for using and increasing them in service to Him and for the good of others, a responsibility that cannot be handed to someone else. Each capability must be improved and will be required with its increase, and those who fail to use their gifts for others consume rather than produce, while faithful service brings greater usefulness, whereas burying a talent and complaining that God is hard and exacting makes a servant unprofitable and slothful.
The talents include temporal means, possessions, money, wealth, houses, lands, property, revenue, silver and gold, financial, mental and mechanical power, not only ability to preach and teach. They are lent to test character and fitness for the kingdom, and the servants and the capital are the Lord's, not their own, purchased by His sufferings and blood for willing service, so they are responsible for its use or abuse. To gain other talents means to put influence and money actively to the glory of God and the good of His cause instead of pleasing self, trading with them and doubling what is committed by putting money out to usury for God, putting it into the cause to spread the truth. When truth lives in the receiver's heart he gives his substance to send the truth to others, and through his efforts, influence and means other souls embrace the truth and begin also to work for God, so wealth is to be dedicated to God's service that it may increase for His purposes and lay up treasure in heaven. Such constant use of means for God brings a crown in glory, with added stars and increased eternal reward for every soul saved through him. Rich and poor alike must put their means to work for God through practical benevolence, economy, self-denial and wise management for soul-saving, helping the needy, building humble meetinghouses, schools, sanitariums and missions, with salvation and relief of others given priority over every other concern, not hoarded, buried, spent on self, luxury, display, withheld from His cause to lie dormant in the earth, or left to strangers while the cause needs it.
The talents include probationary time with every hour, moment, day, month and year, and bodily capital of life, health, strength, mind, eyes, ears, knees, feet, organs, sinews, muscles and physical, mental and moral powers, more valuable than money and not purchasable with gold. God has entrusted these to every soul from the lowest and most poverty-stricken to the highest and wealthiest, that His name may be exalted and not man lauded and glorified, and they are not personal property but the Lord's to be returned to Him with usury. Gaining other talents is sincere, wholehearted labor instead of idleness, cooperating with God as Christ intended, watching keenly to discern God-given opportunities and doing no shiftless work, listening for God's commands, bowing the knees in heartfelt prayer, running the feet in the way of God's commandments, and investing means by receiving from God and rendering back what He lent in confidence for His name's glory. They are to be prized, preserved by obedience to health laws, cultivated and used for good in useful labor and missionary enterprise, making channels of usefulness by helping others, with even small advantages eagerly seized and time and speech as precious gifts entrusted for faithful service through close connection with Christ. No one should waste God-given time regretting having only one talent but should spend every moment using what was given, for the unfaithful steward merely wastes his Master's goods by letting idleness take the place of labor and by unfaithful appropriation, and that unfaithfulness will lose the soul, while faithful use brings God's blessing to rest upon the worker and prepares a person to meet Him in peace.
The talents include the great truth of God, the light of Bible truth, justification and righteousness by faith, grace, the Holy Spirit, the Word, privileges, opportunities and measure of grace given especially to last-day people and to Israel as hereditary trusts, including the Sabbath and third angel's message and knowledge of present truth. Christ has entrusted every Christian, young or old, rich or poor, not only ordained ministers, with precious light and sacred truth as talents to be improved, and the light given must be shared with others so that God is glorified. Improving the talents means not serving, pleasing and glorifying self but living, practicing, teaching and displaying truth to those in darkness, presenting it to others, pointing sinners to the antidote for sin, building up the kingdom by raising souls ready to perish and seeking to save the lost, passing on light and blessings received so that giving makes room for further grace and truth. Trading means men and women of intelligence establishing themselves in needy cities and towns to lift up the cross and win souls without waiting for ordained ministers, making every possible effort to seek and save the lost and bring others to accept the truth. The knowledge of the truth is too precious to be hoarded and hid in the earth or under a bushel while millions are deceived, and burying means being indolent, neglecting that duty, and leaving men to sicken and die without a ray of saving light and without pardon, which makes them slothful servants who will not receive the benediction Well done and brings condemnation in the judgment when every motive is brought under scrutiny.
Specific entrusted abilities must be diligently used and not hidden, with every capability and time put to practical use. Influence is a talent to be cherished and used to lead people to Christ, and the physician's timely words to lead souls to Christ are a precious talent that should bear fruit, not be left unused. The ability to sing is a talent of influence that all should cultivate and use for God's glory, and musical ability is consecrated only when self-indulgence and friendship with the world are overcome. Talents are time, strength and ability, purchased with an infinite price and not owned for gratifying fancy and pride, improved by personal missionary work at home for those who cannot go abroad, especially in distributing tracts and papers that correctly represent the faith and getting the truth before others, and by helping people improve their homes, cultivate their land, and make progress. They are not excused from thought and close application of mind, nor to be wasted in needless stitching and trimming of clothing, but put to use in studying how best to glorify God and save and bless souls for whom Christ died, valuing opportunities and putting knowledge into practice in service to Christ, including the ability to write books for which account is required. Those who so diffuse light as children of the light gather strength and courage to their own souls and receive the approval of God, and their example can encourage others to do the same.
Given According to Ability
Distribution is not by caprice but according to each servant's several ability and capacity to wisely use and improve what is committed. Gifts are bestowed in accordance with the human agent's power to use them, with capabilities measured out and places designated where each can trade upon Christ's goods in cooperation with Christ for the salvation of souls. Men are set where they can lay up a good foundation by using bountiful provisions to relieve suffering humanity bought by the blood of the only begotten Son, and the world is a vineyard let out to husbandmen to return its fruit in its season. Each has his work to the same end and the same account, with capital lent for investment that is not personal property to be hoarded or spent as pleased, and God watches whether its use is wise and unselfish or for self-advancement, scrutinizing every returning talent and rewarding and punishing in proportion to improvement or abuse. The unfaithful buries his gift and remains only a consumer because he views God as a harsh judge and exacting creditor fearing he must give back all increase, whereas God is a rich giver, provider and fountain of inexpressible love.
The teaching is not for a gifted few, priests and rulers alone, or two or three only, for to one five, to another two, to another one means every man, woman and child possesses varied, peculiar gifts to be sanctified in his place. From lowest and most obscure to highest in position, from poorest and humblest to richest, young or old, with one, two or five, each in the family of God is to trade on moral and spiritual capital, working where he can and doing the best possible service, putting talents out to the exchangers and learning to acquire more. Differences in gifts or ways of working do not make one more worthy, talent is not confined to a favored class to look down on others as deficient, and value in God's sight lies not in number but in the way gifts are appreciated, employed and consecrated to His glory rather than to self. The smallest gift is not to be ignored or despised, for faithful, conscientious, right use multiplies power and strength as with Daniel who looked to God for wisdom and exercised every power until trusted in Babylon, and varied gifts together complete the church. No one is accountable for talents never had and none should complain of smallness, responsibility is individual and cannot be transferred or merged, and no man or council may place another's talent under human control or weigh gifts in balances of human judgment.
God requires only proportionate gain according to trusts bestowed, expecting only the improvement of two from the one given two and not five or ten. Greater endowment, light, opportunity and capital require greater returns, yet He does not require beyond proportion, nor from the poor what they do not have nor from the sick what weakness forbids, expecting returns only according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not. The servant able to wisely use two receives two, puts his lord's money out to usury, and must render the improvement of two by adding grace to grace on the plan of addition. The one talent used to the best account will be accepted, even one faithfully used would become two for further improvement, and one well used will gain others and these still others. Talents belong to God and are to be used according to His Word for His work, with time, influence, capabilities and skill tested, and gifts improve and multiply when used in the Master's service.
Faithful improvement of two is equally honored, commended and rewarded as of five or of one, for the servant who doubled two was commended as good and faithful and welcomed into his master's joy like the servant who gained five. Faithfulness is measured by improving what was received not by comparing sizes, and the man with a few pence who serves faithfully is judged as faithful as the one who improved pounds. Thorough work in small responsibilities qualifies for greater ones, with faithfulness over a few things leading to being made ruler over many things. Even small work done with fidelity is fully accepted like a rill though not a river, a shrub though not a tree, and a lamp though not a star, bringing a corresponding return that proves wise stewardship and worthiness for the true riches of everlasting life.
Trading Diligently and Doubling
The servant given two put them to diligent, wise, faithful, unselfish and earnest use in his master's service and gained two more, doubling what was entrusted instead of idly waiting, burying or squandering it. Gifts improve and multiply when so used, on the plan of addition by adding grace to grace and on the plan of multiplication, for as abilities are exercised God strengthens and enlarges capacity, usefulness, tact, skill, knowledge and power, while hiding causes deterioration. One traded upon gains another, two gain two more, and four make eight, as money put to work in sharing truth doubles by bringing one to faith who in turn brings others.
The present is trading time in which God-given capabilities, opportunities, light, ability and influence must be put out to the exchangers at once and returned with the increase the Lord demands, and what is left unused will still be required back. Putting to the exchangers means letting power, influence and means flow into the missionary channel to warn the world, beginning missionary work at once after denying self and purifying the soul through belief of the truth, with self-denying, self-sacrificing zeal for souls perishing in sins. Presenting the talents doubled at the Master's return means presenting souls gathered to Christ who in turn help save others, with the original gift and what it has gained, and the servant's fruits show this continual increase.
Enlarging farms and adding building to building is not doubling, for improved farms and buildings cannot be taken to heaven and will be consumed by the fires of the last days, while means invested to extend the work brings returns in souls. The talents are more than earthly, temporal employments and worldly goods, embracing eternal interests that must be kept in the reckoning, and they do not mean only ability to preach and teach but mean temporal means, possessions, money and other gifts lent as a loan from the Master to be invested in work for Him to advance His glory. Ability to accumulate worldly goods gives no ground for satisfaction unless turned to account for Him who bestowed the talents, and resting in that ability is delusion; to bury talents of means in earthly treasures, with heart, anxiety, labor, tact and skill cultivated for worldly possessions instead of heavenly things, and to count means given to broaden the work as lost, exalts the earthly above the eternal, occupies the heart as the devil wants, eclipses the eternal, and leaves the heart unable to estimate heavenly treasure. When truth lives in the receiver's heart he gives his substance to send the truth to others, and through his efforts, influence and means other souls embrace the truth and begin also to work for God, so that each soul brought to the truth can in turn use influence and means to help save others. Such constant use brings a crown in glory, with added stars and increased eternal reward for every soul saved, for God works in accordance with faith shown in this use, and even the humblest service becomes a consecrated gift when exercised in doing the Master's bidding.
Ability grows only when exercised and is learned by using it, so people should be given work, encouraged to begin, corrected as they go, and not held back seeking further preparation. This is shown when Moses became eloquent, patient and competent for the greatest work ever entrusted to mortal man, when Daniel received wisdom and became trusted in Babylon by exercising every power in dependence on God through watching and prayer, and when teachers, students and ministers grow in power, wisdom and knowledge by labor, study and meeting opposition. Every converted soul is appointed to witness, and light, ability and influence must shine forth in good works and in doing good, not merely in much talk and not for self-pleasing or self-advancement. Those who use what they have in perfect obedience, yoked with Christ as laborers together with God, develop characters of increasing consecration, efficiency and tact, and receive the same commendation and reward as those entrusted with more.
Faithful trading requires absolute surrender to God and consent to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, keeping the mind receptive through prayerful communion, openly acknowledging God as source of wisdom, consecrating soul and body, conquering passion, selfishness, natural inclination and worldly ambition, cooperating human effort with divine power, serving justly, mercifully and humbly, and looking to Jesus the author and finisher of faith. Such wholehearted service, free from self-seeking and made possible by Christ's life, strength and blood, uses what Christ gives to do good, persuade sinners to believe, sow seeds that bear fruit in righteousness, and create a strong influence for the truth. What God entrusts is to be developed through diligent, intelligent work and responsible service, so that people become producers rather than merely consumers, receiving from God daily so as to impart to others, with what is received accumulating as it is used to bless them. Surrender gives moral power by which entrusted talents are kept for God's service and their efficiency greatly multiplied, greatly simplifies the problem of life, weakens and cuts short struggles with the passions of the natural heart, and binds willing and obedient youth and aged to Christ as a golden cord bringing them safely through dark and intricate paths to the city of God. Even youth who have only common faculties can have talents increased until qualified for the position of trust to which God has called them when educated and disciplined under teachers actuated by high and pure principles. Failure to increase comes from not determining to overcome natural inclinations, not listening to the voice of God in His word, not barricading the soul against temptation, and not determining to do duty at all hazards, like one on a perilous journey who refuses any guide or instruction and goes on in a certain course of destruction.
Fear of making mistakes or desire for an easier responsibility is no excuse for abandoning the work, for the servant who buried his talent acted from a false view of his Lord's character and failed to trust His mercy and grace. Those given responsibilities are to put abilities to work rather than retreat because the work is demanding or mistakes are possible, and are to step forward in peace despite cruel criticism, backbiting, envy and faultfinding. Having fewer cares and hindrances gives less excuse for failing to work in indolence, for faithfulness concerns present good, future good and eternal good, and neglect is a deceptive influence of Satan that must be removed so the person feels what God requires. A talent is put to use by speaking out instead of staying silent and shut up with oneself, and burying is being content to remain together with a few when one could speak to hundreds through the paper. This requires arousing to duty and being moved by a sense of duty and of important truth rather than by feelings, and not sinking down and giving up from little confidence in success when expected freedom is missing. The two are doubled when fretful, self-centered Christians stop nursing manufactured difficulties and a defective, deformed character, go to work in the great cause of truth, and do something good and noble to help another reclaim himself from himself, for in that labor self dies a natural death. Obeying the Word in the practical life lifts a grown-up baby above the cheap and common, forming a character fit for heaven instead of spoiling it, since God-given ability and its fruit belong to Him, each person is individually accountable and responsible for using what is entrusted and cannot place it under another's control, and carelessness or forgetfulness does not remove the account.
Reckoning Judgment and Reward
Each servant must return to the Master what was entrusted with its increase, principal with interest, His own with usury, for talents are lent capital, not personal property, soul, body and spirit bought with a price to be sacredly employed to do His will. After a long time the Master comes and reckons, and as bestowal was individual so the reckoning is individual, every person dealt with personally and required to give account whether improved or abused, even if only one talent left dormant or buried. He examines work, time, abilities, money, influence and received truth, scrutinizes every talent that returns to Him, for the doings and trusts of His servants are not unimportant, and when probation may close He bestows rewards. Reward is given in proportion to improvement of the trusts bestowed, faithful improvement in proportion to what was received, and punishment is awarded according as talents have been abused, with condemnation in proportion to grace and truth given when gifts are not improved. To gain other talents means to put influence and money actively to His glory and the good of His cause instead of pleasing self, while to bury them means to withhold them, let them lie dormant, hoard the Lord's goods or spend them as pleased, which displeases God and will be condemned when He requires His own with usury.
The investigation sifts purposes and motives, and the faithful servant returns the talents doubled, principal and interest together, showing himself a judicious as well as faithful and persevering worker. The reckoning requires careful thought and the highest use of intellect, and asks not about success in gathering money but about what was done with time, pen, voice, money, influence, and light and knowledge of truths heralding the second coming. People are judged and rewarded by faithfulness and works, held accountable not only for wrongdoing but for neglected duties, unimproved opportunities, good they could have done, abilities they could have developed, and souls lost through neglect. Responsibility stands in exact proportion to gifts, human judgments about who accomplished most often err, while humble work done as unto God counts more than show, and even small acts done from love are accepted and rewarded. Powers of intellect rightly directed turn many souls from error to truth and righteousness, and those souls labor for others so that influence and means constantly increase, bringing growth in truth, spirit and power, whereas to wrap talents in a napkin and hide them deprives Him of increase and will meet investigation when He inquires what use was made of lent talents.
Faithful use that doubles what was given brings the Master's satisfaction and the commendation of well done, good and faithful, with blessing and welcome into the joy of the Lord alongside the servant who gained five. Different amount entrusted does not lessen duty, for talents belong to God and are to be used according to His Word, gifts improve and multiply when used, on the plan of addition by adding grace to grace. Faithfulness over a few things leads to being made ruler over many things, promotion to greater trust and rulership, entrance into the true riches of everlasting life and treasure beside the throne that death cannot take. Reward is in exact proportion to fidelity, perseverance and earnest labor in trading with the Lord's goods, and talents used in this life remain uncorrupted to be employed on a wider plan in the future life, where work begun on earth reaches completion and endures through eternity.
Hiding, burying, wasting, misapplying, neglecting, idleness, half-hearted or selfish use in worldly enterprises, pleasure-loving, extravagant display, and shifting responsibility hinders the work, robs God, loses light and heavenly treasure, and destroys confidence. The present is trading time in which capabilities and opportunities must be put out to the exchangers at once through self-denying zeal for perishing souls, beginning missionary work at once after purifying the soul through belief of the truth, for having a name in the church book does not secure entrance into the kingdom. Talents embrace eternal interests to be kept in the reckoning, more than earthly employments and worldly goods, and gaining other two means using them to His glory and not burying them in worldly enterprises, for ability to accumulate goods gives no ground for satisfaction unless turned to His account. Such unfaithfulness ends in the reward of the wicked, slothful, unprofitable servant, with unused talents taken and given to him which hath ten, eternal loss, and standing unconfessed unless repented.
People are justified by faith but judged and rewarded according to the character of works, each case decided according to faithfulness. Genuine faith is shown by love expressed in works, mere profession without love has no value and does not count as genuine, while love shown through works is counted as genuine. Deeds done from love are accepted though eternal rewards are purchased by Christ and are not earned as merit, and service is through His grace and strength with divine power working with human effort so that credit belongs to God. Using abilities in good works develops and perfects Christian character, what is sown will be reaped in the life to come, the Holy Spirit strengthens people to use gifts in sharing truth, and a servant means a worker united with Christ by living faith as a laborer together with God who must improve character and ability according to privileges and opportunities, for faith works by love and purifies the soul to become His temple.
In the verse God is not a harsh judge and exacting creditor but a rich giver, rich provider and fountain of inexpressible love, who bestows gifts according to ability to use them, places men where they can trade upon His goods, remains owner of time, abilities and possessions, and requires account for their use. The world is a vineyard let out to husbandmen to return fruit in season, and faithful servants increase what is given by using bountiful provisions to relieve suffering humanity bought with the blood of His only begotten Son, while the unfaithful buries his gift and remains only a consumer because he views God as harsh and fears he must give back all increase. Loyal service is valued above scientific knowledge and status, workers who wisely use abilities advance His work while those who bury will be replaced, and success gives no ground for self-exaltation. Even a small gift faithfully used can accomplish its appointed work, faithfulness in little duties adds to His work while God multiplies influence and blesses unselfish diligence to make it fruitful, and misusing gifts calls for repentance and new commitment.
Saving Souls and Advancing Mission
The two entrusted are for saving souls for whom Christ died, and gain is souls won by putting capabilities and opportunities to work in the present trading time. Right use is interest for sinners, relieving suffering, enlightening others, sharing present truth, warning the world, and sustaining missionary and canvassing work, investing means, opportunities and abilities so that those won become stewards who win others in turn. Rescuing even one soul is worth the effort, since that soul is valued more than a world. Hiding is indifference to others while seeking merely to save one's own soul, and no one professing to love Jesus can long retain divine favor without interest for sinners; the indifferent will fail to secure even their own salvation, throwing away opportunity for a star-gemmed crown.
Putting to the exchangers means letting power, influence and means flow into the missionary channel through self-denying, self-sacrificing zeal begun at once after self-denial and purification of the soul through belief of the truth. Presenting the talents doubled at the Master's coming means presenting souls gathered to Jesus Christ, and God works in accordance with faith shown in such use. Enlarging farms and adding building to building is not doubling, for improved farms and buildings cannot be taken to heaven and will be consumed by the fires of the last days, while means invested to extend the work brings returns in souls. To bury talents of means in earthly treasures, cultivating heart, anxiety, labor, tact and skill for worldly possessions instead of heavenly things, and to count means given to broaden the work as lost, exalts the earthly above the eternal, occupies the heart as the devil wants, eclipses the eternal, and leaves the heart unable to estimate heavenly treasure.
The talents are more than earthly, temporal employments and more than worldly goods, embracing eternity and eternal interests that must be kept in the reckoning. They are a loan from the Master to be invested in work for Him to advance His glory, a stewardship of His grace with endowments for a sacred, higher trust secured by Christ paying with His own blood and sufferings for entire obedience and service. Ability to accumulate worldly goods gives no ground for satisfaction unless turned to account for Him who bestowed them, and resting in that ability is delusion. Even the humblest service becomes a consecrated gift when exercised in doing the Master's bidding and promoting His glory. God is not a harsh judge and exacting creditor but a rich giver, provider and fountain of love who bestows according to ability to use, places men where they can trade upon His goods and lay up a good foundation, letting out the world as a vineyard to husbandmen to return fruit in season by relieving the necessities of suffering beings bought with the blood of His only-begotten Son; the unfaithful servant buries his gift and remains only a consumer because he views God as harsh and fears he must give back all increase.
A name in the church book does not secure entrance into the kingdom, and faithful trading requires close, critical self-examination of how each is trading and what each church member is doing for the One who gave His life for the world. Those who know Bible truth and have received light must trade with it, put it into practice, present it to others, point sinners to the remedy and antidote for sin, and make every possible effort to seek and save the lost and build up the kingdom by raising souls ready to perish. Neglect makes slothful servants who fail to return entrusted talents, leave men to sicken and die without a ray of saving light and without pardon, and will not receive Well done, good and faithful servant. The knowledge of the truth is too precious to be hoarded and hid in the earth but must be used in winning souls, with men and women of intelligence establishing themselves in needy cities and towns to lift up the cross without waiting for ordained ministers and without seeking property.
Every Christian, young or old, rich or poor, not ordained ministers only, is entrusted with precious light and sacred truth including the precious truths of Scripture, the Sabbath and the third angel's message, to be shared wisely and diligently, lived and upheld as lights. Improving means not serving, pleasing and glorifying self but putting every capability to its uttermost in co-partnership with Christ in saving the world, with special urgency now, mixing faith with earnest prayer and putting to use every ray of light from the written word in obedience to the voice calling from heaven and demanding use. Each must ask whether he is a faithful steward of grace or is burying the light, for the use made decides personal destiny and whether greater gifts, even eternal riches, will be entrusted. Neglect to use brings condemnation in the judgment when every motive is brought under scrutiny. This duty begins with home responsibilities and then extends to neighborhood and church, to labor for cities, sell literature, open new fields, establish workers in needy places, redeem past neglect, and in Boston let light shine through the sanitarium and tent meetings.
Ministers, churches and leaders are called to trade upon their talents and work earnestly for those who do not know the truth, training members to labor, teaching them to lead others to truth, drawing out youthful efforts, and making room for every member to serve. They are not to gather all burdens, do all the talking and praying, confine labor to one locality, or hold learners back in long study at the expense of practical godliness. Christ commissions every believer to trade even where ministerial hands have not been laid, and restraining uneducated believers buries many talents. Faithful use includes giving means to support mission work and carry truth to neglected places, so workers are raised up and people brought into the church, for money put into circulation for this work is thereby multiplied.
Talents are entrusted for the good of the church to rightly represent Christ by well-chosen words, firm resistance of evil, meekness, lowliness, compassion and love, imparting what is received to reveal Christ and bring humanity under divine influence, which is to gain other talents. To grow careless, disregard requirements, abuse influence, misappropriate talents, become harsh, selfish, covetous and oppressive, or partake of the ungodly spirit, is to abuse His goods and refuse discipline; those who do this God cannot use, and after testing, if they will not repent, He removes them and gives their place to those who will better represent Him, working remarkably through the true and loyal. Punishment will surely come upon the unfaithful, severe in proportion to light had but not heeded. The church must not measure faith and position by the world, by human opinion, or by what she once was, but by what she would have been if continually onward and upward, improving conferred benefits and blessings until moral character and spiritual state correspond and fruit is perfect before God; clear light, including that of 1882, calls to account, and if talents are unimproved, fruit imperfect, and light become darkness, she will be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found wanting while hidden from her own state, seeing but not perceiving and hearing but not understanding, professing to know God and believe truth but in works denying Him by deeds adverse to truth and righteousness.
Faithfulness means using time, pen, voice, money, influence, property, strength, ability, and the light and knowledge of truths heralding the second coming for Christ in the person of the poor, the afflicted, the orphan, the fatherless, the sick, the hungry, and those destitute of clothing, to relieve disease and distress and make men wise unto salvation. The reckoning will not ask about success in gathering money but about what was done with these gifts, for they are held in trust and must serve God and help others rather than be spent selfishly or withheld from the needy. Every amount, whether one, two or five, must be used to advance Christ's work rather than spent on display, self-indulgence or selfish pleasure, which takes away opportunities to help others and withholds due honor from God. The decisions of the last judgment turn on such practical benevolence, every act of which Christ counts as done to Himself, recorded in heaven and bringing welcome into everlasting habitations. The servant must be able to account when the Master returns, presenting original means with its increase rather than hoarded or buried.
Entrusted money is to be invested where need is greatest to advance the work worldwide, providing facilities to learn truth and building plain meetinghouses, healing institutions, schools and sanitariums that prepare workers to serve others. Investing thus to save souls so talents are doubled at the Lord's coming is better than buying land for personal benefit. Time and talents are to be consecrated and used in missionary work for the good of others, supporting missions and new fields like the unworked South, Australia, England and London, and New York centers. Established fields should help new fields, transferring means instead of piling buildings in one place, so the work grows through self-sacrifice and cheerful giving, with wise, economical building with an eye single to God's glory. Those who have means are doubly responsible because means is entrusted by God, and all are accountable to forward the work in its various branches with all God-given energy, following the self-denying example of the chief Missionary who gave His life and went before to show the way, answering the cry from every quarter and from regions beyond by instructing those who do not know present truth and disseminating knowledge of Christ far hence among the Gentiles, binding souls by truth to the throne of God.
Faithful Stewardship in Life
Time, talents, ability and resources belong to God and are to be consecrated and put to wise, diligent use for His glory and the good and salvation of others in missionary work to proclaim the gospel, with every ability improved in work to save others without partiality toward either race. Even small advantages are to be eagerly seized, time and speech are precious gifts to be faithfully improved through close connection with Christ whose divine life enables service in His way, and time and mental powers are accountable trusts to be cultivated and used for good rather than neglected. Mental abilities are given to be exercised, developed and directed for the greatest good and God's glory, and privileges, time and abilities require an exact account, governing amusement and recreation to work with variation rather than ceaseless toil or trifling, allowing only amusement entered in faith with God's blessing that leaves one fit for secret prayer, devotion at the family altar and the prayer meeting. Wasting hours in idleness is sin, hours spent in selfish pleasure are lost for eternity, and idleness, self-gratification, pleasure, amusement, appetite, dress, ornamentation or worldly business that binds up means must give place to active service, for the soon coming requires work including schools, sanitariums, food factories and training, not excuse for idleness.
Receiving two means being led up step by step, educated and trained, and entrusted with smaller positions of trust and little things in God's work. Gaining other two means using those two wisely and judiciously, coming up with faithfulness in little things, thorough in everything undertaken, thinking deep and becoming master of duty, climbing every round of the ladder from least to much with solidity, intelligent knowledge, carefulness and thoroughness, instead of skimming the surface, inflating self, overestimating capability, and grasping for the highest round and heavier burdens without proving faithful. Only faithful improvement of the two qualifies for larger responsibilities and rulership over many things, for humble, cheerful, willing service to bless fellow men makes even one of smaller capability a channel of light and grace bringing blessing to himself, grace being given in proportion to capability to diffuse it so gifts returned correspond to gifts received and faithful use carries from strength to strength into God's approval. A person with only one talent has a work just as truly as one with five, so effort should be all the more earnest, no one should remain idle even with few talents, each is responsible for using what is entrusted, time and abilities wasted in idle pursuits make unprofitable servants, and faithful service brings blessing with wise trading on the one leading God to give ability to use a larger number.
Faithfulness matters in secular as well as religious service, business and the home, requiring diligence, perseverance, close attention and care, with idleness and careless habits leaving people unfit for efficient service to God. People with different gifts are accountable to use abilities and means to work with Christ and advance His cause, abilities are to be used in service including sharing the blessings of Christ's grace, and they must be used not for self-pleasing but to glorify God, with active service developing spiritual strength and opportunities to share truth and help others not neglected. Faithfully used abilities and resources can produce good and make a person fruitful in the Lord's work, yet possessing talent does not justify receiving wages disproportionate to work done, and those who have received much should use it responsibly rather than claim higher pay on its account or claim full pay for partial work. Present duties are to be done faithfully rather than reaching for a greater calling, whether in humble readily understood work or greater responsibilities, and parents are to train children to efficiency while ruling households aright.
Stewards are tested by entrusted talents as His stewards to trade with, receiving His goods including money, houses and lands to be regarded as the Lord's goods and used to advance His work and build up His kingdom, seeking Him for wisdom so the sacred trust is not used to glorify self or indulge selfish impulses, with even the smallest gifts and smallest talent of means not to be felt as nothing. Talents of means and influence are committed to be improved by trading till He comes with no time lost, success equaling industry, perseverance and zeal in applying capital, intellect rightly directed turning many souls from error to truth and righteousness who in turn labor for others so influence and means constantly increase and multiply. The faithful servant returns the talents doubled, principal and interest together, as a judicious as well as faithful and persevering worker, with reward in exact proportion to fidelity, perseverance and earnest effort, while wrapping talents in a napkin and hiding them in the earth in the world for selfish gain or burying them in worldly investments deprives Him of increase and meets investigation when the Master comes to inquire what use was made of lent talents and to sift purposes and motives. Entrusted resources are not to be hidden or treated as loss, shifting property to spouse or children does not remove responsibility, and stewards must dispose of property themselves while living with sound minds, prayer and counsel, giving surplus to God's cause and providing for afflicted or faithful children, rather than willing means to children to ease conscience, withholding until death which surrenders property to death rather than God, or placing means with unbelieving, reckless or worldly children to squander, for making a will does not end duty and misappropriating treasure harms children and brings poverty.
Improving talents to the utmost forms and perfects Christian character after the divine likeness fit for heaven, for God increases gifts entrusted to those who improve them through Christ's grace and strength, what is sown is reaped in the life to come where work begun on earth reaches completion and endures through eternity, and rightly used gifts bring eternal riches with every moment having eternal consequences to be cherished for holy purposes. Improvement is to be the life-work guided by correct experience, with life's true purpose in sacrificing personal interests for others and helping the brokenhearted, using abilities in every possible way for others' good, laboring unselfishly and watchfully while cultivating personal piety, since neither quiet meditation alone nor ceaseless activity alone completes Christian character. This requires studying the Bible, doing nearest fitting work as for the Master, seizing present opportunities, laboring amid perils without complaint, devising plans as the Waldenses did, keeping eyes on the final prize, and laying treasure in heaven by spending to do good and add souls, not putting it into buildings to make money.
Now is the period of stewardship when means, speech and influence are to be used in the Master's service and multiplied by wise investment with increased capabilities, God requiring full return and not accepting two in return for three, so even one with but one talent must gain another to have place in Christ's service and at last hear commendation. Financial means are to be put into circulation to advance the work and save people so the entrusted talent is multiplied, with kindly affections, generous impulses, spiritual insight and social advantages shared with all who need help and not reserved for friends, for merely possessing them unused increases responsibility and love shown only to a few is selfishness. Doing little for Christ, bearing no fruit and increasing in selfishness and unfaithfulness is hiding talents in the earth, and putting hope in the preacher and depending on his efforts to keep alive weak faith while complaining and expecting to be tended like sick children leaves the church weak, dependent and inefficient. Talents must never be perverted to do evil and destroy others or spread moral ruin scattering blight and woe, nor folded in a napkin and hidden away in the world, for hiding casts away the crown of life; balanced by religious principle, youth may strain every nerve to become strong men of firm principle fitted for high responsibilities, fulfilling life's grand mission only when every responsibility is fully accepted and faithfully discharged in love, unity, purity and holiness, with prayer, devotion and love for Scripture, to honor God before others and angels, support His cause, prepare workers, proclaim the last message, break deathlike slumber, meet Satan's power, avoid the Laodicean condition, work out destiny and receive joy, avoiding the last-day snare of burying in pursuit of money, mining stock and uncertain enterprises.
The one who had received two put what was entrusted to him to faithful, diligent, active use and gained two more in addition, doubling what he had received. Gifts are distributed according to each one's ability and capacity, God requires only proportionate gain so that improving two is expected of the one given two, and faithful improvement of two is equally honored and rewarded as that of five. The talents entrusted embrace every natural, mental, moral, spiritual and physical gift belonging to God, including time, strength, intellect, speech, influence, means and the light of saving truth, all held in trust to be cultivated and used for His work and glory. Gifts improve, multiply and double through earnest use in the Master's service, for as they are exercised God strengthens and enlarges capacity and power, while hiding them causes deterioration. After a long time the Master comes and reckons individually, examining work and improvement and rewarding faithfulness with commendation, greater trust and entrance into His joy, while neglect and misuse end in loss.
Narrative and Setting
The servant who had received two put what was entrusted to faithful, diligent, active and wise use and gained two other talents in addition, doubling it. This was diligent work with what had been entrusted rather than idle waiting, putting the master's money to use in his cause instead of burying or squandering it, for stewards must answer for their stewardship. He was accountable for what he had been given and, like the servant entrusted with five, was commended as faithful alongside him and welcomed into his master's joy, the difference in amount lessening nothing of his duty because talents belong to God and are to be used according to His Word for His work. Gaining the other two shows putting the Lord's talents out to the exchangers through self-denying, self-sacrificing zeal for the salvation of souls perishing in their sins, beginning missionary work at once after denying self and purifying the soul through belief of the truth. The talents entrusted are more than earthly, temporal employments and more than worldly goods, embracing eternal interests that must be kept in the reckoning, used to the glory of God and not buried in worldly enterprises, for ability to accumulate worldly goods gives no ground for satisfaction unless turned to account for Him who bestowed them.
The verse belongs to the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-23, representing the kingdom of heaven, the last of the many parables in Christ's public teachings to the disciples. It was spoken as warning about His second appearing in the clouds of heaven after a long day of teaching and warning, shortly before entering Gethsemane, early in the morning after He crossed the mount. Of that day and hour no one knows, not the angels of heaven, but the Father only, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. It was given especially for Christians living in the last days, following the ten virgins, teaching that securing eternal life calls for continued effort, vigilant watching and sanctified waiting, and that professing belief is not enough.
The instruction in Matthew 25:14-46 including this verse is to be studied by every person and compared with the life record. It requires close, critical self-examination of how each one is trading on the Lord's talents and what each church member is doing for the One who gave His life for the world, applied to the responsible use of physical, mental, and spiritual powers. This calls every man to put away boasting, because self-sufficiency is fearfully dangerous and leads men to make the words of Christ of no effect, trading instead in humble obedience without selfishness, worldly ambition, and human judgment. Having a name in the church book does not secure entrance into the kingdom of heaven, for God rewards servants who faithfully trade and increase what has been entrusted through diligent and conscientious use of what belongs to God to build up the cause of truth.
Christ the Master and Servants
The traveling man is Christ about to depart from earth to heaven, the absent Lord is Christ, and the bondservants, literally slaves, are those professing to have accepted His service. He entrusts His own means, His own goods and money, to His own servants as individual stewards, to every man according to his several ability when the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country. He calls each by name, and no earthly master, conference, council, institution, leader, or other person may absorb, control, appropriate, dictate to, or treat another as a machine, for even the humblest is entrusted as God's hired servant and must not bargain away or shift that stewardship to conference or council or any institution. The servant who received two is to trade with the same and gain other two, just as he who received five gains other five, putting his lord's money out to usury so that at his master's return he gives back principal and interest.
By pouring the whole treasury of heaven into this world in giving Christ with all heaven, God has purchased the will, affections, mind, soul, body and spirit of every human being through creation and redemption at infinite price by His Son's precious blood and shameful death and sufferings, not with corruptible silver and gold. Believers and unbelievers alike are the Lord's property, bought to live no longer for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose again, to glorify God and do His will. What is received is therefore held in trust as His own goods, capital and money, not personal property to control at discretion, but lent to test usefulness, integrity and allegiance and to be sacredly employed in God's service and returned with increase when He requires them again at His hands and reckons after a long time. God has not given talents to merely a chosen few, priests and rulers alone, but to everyone He has committed some peculiar gift to be used in His service, including money, houses, lands, influence and means held separately or together, with weighty responsibilities and varied amounts, yet even the smallest gifts and smallest talent of means must be traded with by seeking Him for wisdom so His sacred trust is not used to glorify self or indulge selfish impulses. Everyone, whether serving God or pleasing himself, remains under obligation for the use of His gifts, and that the possessor does not acknowledge God's claims does not make his guilt less, for all must render account at the great Judgment-day and if he stands under the black banner of the prince of darkness through this life he will stand unconfessed by Christ in the day of final accounts.
Responsibility to trade is individual and cannot be handed, transferred, sold, merged, shifted to spouse, children, organization, balances, council, conference or publishing house, nor rightly measured and controlled by human judgment weighing another's gifts in human balances. Each must keep individuality and individual judgment, faithfully manage and invest one's own gifts to God's glory where one can, taking hold of one line of work after another as it presents itself, keeping spiritual senses awake to the wants of the cause, giving self and entrusted capital of means, praying to be divested of selfishness and seeking wisdom from God as Daniel sought it. No one is accountable for talents never received and none should complain of smallness of gifts, for God requires only proportionate gain and will not expect five talents' improvement from the man entrusted with two, but asks faithfulness with what is had, doing the best possible service for the Master. This includes the ability to write a book, which is moral and spiritual capital to be traded and increased and cannot be sold as if incapable, and it forbids shrinking through fear of criticism or loss or pleading unqualified and unfitted, for when caution fosters idleness or cowardice it keeps a person from fulfilling the trust, while consecration brings wisdom, tongue, and utterance that adversaries cannot gainsay or resist. The servant entrusted with two put them to work and gained two more, illustrating that a person is to use what God has entrusted rather than excuse inaction because others have more, and a small gift used faithfully with thorough trading, giving where need is seen, helping the suffering, meeting destitution and building humble houses of worship, returns with increase as a consecrated offering and is judged as faithful as one who improved five.
What Talents Are
The talents entrusted are more than earthly, temporal employments and more than worldly goods, embracing eternity and eternal interests that must be kept in the reckoning. They are natural or spiritual gifts and abilities, capabilities, opportunities, intellect, speech, wisdom, health, time, strength, pen, voice, influence, position, sympathy, affection, social advantages, humility, tried virtue, confidence, trust, clear testimony, tact, skill, judgment, cleverness, sense, equipment, genius, education, experience, and the light of saving truth. They belong to God as a loan from the Master to be invested in work for Him to advance His glory, a stewardship of His grace with endowments for a sacred, higher trust secured by Christ paying with His own blood and sufferings for servitude and entire obedience. Gaining other two with the two means using committed talents to the glory of God and not burying them in worldly enterprises, guarding, cultivating and developing them by exercise for His work, others' good and His glory, not selfish pleasure. Ability to accumulate worldly goods gives no ground for satisfaction unless turned to account for Him who bestowed the talents, and resting in that ability is delusion, while even the humblest service becomes a consecrated gift when exercised and employed in doing the Master's bidding. Each person has a duty to bear a share of the work and must be a faithful steward, for God gives every person gifts and holds each responsible for using and increasing them in service to Him and for the good of others, a responsibility that cannot be handed to someone else. Each capability must be improved and will be required with its increase, and those who fail to use their gifts for others consume rather than produce, while faithful service brings greater usefulness, whereas burying a talent and complaining that God is hard and exacting makes a servant unprofitable and slothful.
The talents include temporal means, possessions, money, wealth, houses, lands, property, revenue, silver and gold, financial, mental and mechanical power, not only ability to preach and teach. They are lent to test character and fitness for the kingdom, and the servants and the capital are the Lord's, not their own, purchased by His sufferings and blood for willing service, so they are responsible for its use or abuse. To gain other talents means to put influence and money actively to the glory of God and the good of His cause instead of pleasing self, trading with them and doubling what is committed by putting money out to usury for God, putting it into the cause to spread the truth. When truth lives in the receiver's heart he gives his substance to send the truth to others, and through his efforts, influence and means other souls embrace the truth and begin also to work for God, so wealth is to be dedicated to God's service that it may increase for His purposes and lay up treasure in heaven. Such constant use of means for God brings a crown in glory, with added stars and increased eternal reward for every soul saved through him. Rich and poor alike must put their means to work for God through practical benevolence, economy, self-denial and wise management for soul-saving, helping the needy, building humble meetinghouses, schools, sanitariums and missions, with salvation and relief of others given priority over every other concern, not hoarded, buried, spent on self, luxury, display, withheld from His cause to lie dormant in the earth, or left to strangers while the cause needs it.
The talents include probationary time with every hour, moment, day, month and year, and bodily capital of life, health, strength, mind, eyes, ears, knees, feet, organs, sinews, muscles and physical, mental and moral powers, more valuable than money and not purchasable with gold. God has entrusted these to every soul from the lowest and most poverty-stricken to the highest and wealthiest, that His name may be exalted and not man lauded and glorified, and they are not personal property but the Lord's to be returned to Him with usury. Gaining other talents is sincere, wholehearted labor instead of idleness, cooperating with God as Christ intended, watching keenly to discern God-given opportunities and doing no shiftless work, listening for God's commands, bowing the knees in heartfelt prayer, running the feet in the way of God's commandments, and investing means by receiving from God and rendering back what He lent in confidence for His name's glory. They are to be prized, preserved by obedience to health laws, cultivated and used for good in useful labor and missionary enterprise, making channels of usefulness by helping others, with even small advantages eagerly seized and time and speech as precious gifts entrusted for faithful service through close connection with Christ. No one should waste God-given time regretting having only one talent but should spend every moment using what was given, for the unfaithful steward merely wastes his Master's goods by letting idleness take the place of labor and by unfaithful appropriation, and that unfaithfulness will lose the soul, while faithful use brings God's blessing to rest upon the worker and prepares a person to meet Him in peace.
The talents include the great truth of God, the light of Bible truth, justification and righteousness by faith, grace, the Holy Spirit, the Word, privileges, opportunities and measure of grace given especially to last-day people and to Israel as hereditary trusts, including the Sabbath and third angel's message and knowledge of present truth. Christ has entrusted every Christian, young or old, rich or poor, not only ordained ministers, with precious light and sacred truth as talents to be improved, and the light given must be shared with others so that God is glorified. Improving the talents means not serving, pleasing and glorifying self but living, practicing, teaching and displaying truth to those in darkness, presenting it to others, pointing sinners to the antidote for sin, building up the kingdom by raising souls ready to perish and seeking to save the lost, passing on light and blessings received so that giving makes room for further grace and truth. Trading means men and women of intelligence establishing themselves in needy cities and towns to lift up the cross and win souls without waiting for ordained ministers, making every possible effort to seek and save the lost and bring others to accept the truth. The knowledge of the truth is too precious to be hoarded and hid in the earth or under a bushel while millions are deceived, and burying means being indolent, neglecting that duty, and leaving men to sicken and die without a ray of saving light and without pardon, which makes them slothful servants who will not receive the benediction Well done and brings condemnation in the judgment when every motive is brought under scrutiny.
Specific entrusted abilities must be diligently used and not hidden, with every capability and time put to practical use. Influence is a talent to be cherished and used to lead people to Christ, and the physician's timely words to lead souls to Christ are a precious talent that should bear fruit, not be left unused. The ability to sing is a talent of influence that all should cultivate and use for God's glory, and musical ability is consecrated only when self-indulgence and friendship with the world are overcome. Talents are time, strength and ability, purchased with an infinite price and not owned for gratifying fancy and pride, improved by personal missionary work at home for those who cannot go abroad, especially in distributing tracts and papers that correctly represent the faith and getting the truth before others, and by helping people improve their homes, cultivate their land, and make progress. They are not excused from thought and close application of mind, nor to be wasted in needless stitching and trimming of clothing, but put to use in studying how best to glorify God and save and bless souls for whom Christ died, valuing opportunities and putting knowledge into practice in service to Christ, including the ability to write books for which account is required. Those who so diffuse light as children of the light gather strength and courage to their own souls and receive the approval of God, and their example can encourage others to do the same.
Given According to Ability
Distribution is not by caprice but according to each servant's several ability and capacity to wisely use and improve what is committed. Gifts are bestowed in accordance with the human agent's power to use them, with capabilities measured out and places designated where each can trade upon Christ's goods in cooperation with Christ for the salvation of souls. Men are set where they can lay up a good foundation by using bountiful provisions to relieve suffering humanity bought by the blood of the only begotten Son, and the world is a vineyard let out to husbandmen to return its fruit in its season. Each has his work to the same end and the same account, with capital lent for investment that is not personal property to be hoarded or spent as pleased, and God watches whether its use is wise and unselfish or for self-advancement, scrutinizing every returning talent and rewarding and punishing in proportion to improvement or abuse. The unfaithful buries his gift and remains only a consumer because he views God as a harsh judge and exacting creditor fearing he must give back all increase, whereas God is a rich giver, provider and fountain of inexpressible love.
The teaching is not for a gifted few, priests and rulers alone, or two or three only, for to one five, to another two, to another one means every man, woman and child possesses varied, peculiar gifts to be sanctified in his place. From lowest and most obscure to highest in position, from poorest and humblest to richest, young or old, with one, two or five, each in the family of God is to trade on moral and spiritual capital, working where he can and doing the best possible service, putting talents out to the exchangers and learning to acquire more. Differences in gifts or ways of working do not make one more worthy, talent is not confined to a favored class to look down on others as deficient, and value in God's sight lies not in number but in the way gifts are appreciated, employed and consecrated to His glory rather than to self. The smallest gift is not to be ignored or despised, for faithful, conscientious, right use multiplies power and strength as with Daniel who looked to God for wisdom and exercised every power until trusted in Babylon, and varied gifts together complete the church. No one is accountable for talents never had and none should complain of smallness, responsibility is individual and cannot be transferred or merged, and no man or council may place another's talent under human control or weigh gifts in balances of human judgment.
God requires only proportionate gain according to trusts bestowed, expecting only the improvement of two from the one given two and not five or ten. Greater endowment, light, opportunity and capital require greater returns, yet He does not require beyond proportion, nor from the poor what they do not have nor from the sick what weakness forbids, expecting returns only according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not. The servant able to wisely use two receives two, puts his lord's money out to usury, and must render the improvement of two by adding grace to grace on the plan of addition. The one talent used to the best account will be accepted, even one faithfully used would become two for further improvement, and one well used will gain others and these still others. Talents belong to God and are to be used according to His Word for His work, with time, influence, capabilities and skill tested, and gifts improve and multiply when used in the Master's service.
Faithful improvement of two is equally honored, commended and rewarded as of five or of one, for the servant who doubled two was commended as good and faithful and welcomed into his master's joy like the servant who gained five. Faithfulness is measured by improving what was received not by comparing sizes, and the man with a few pence who serves faithfully is judged as faithful as the one who improved pounds. Thorough work in small responsibilities qualifies for greater ones, with faithfulness over a few things leading to being made ruler over many things. Even small work done with fidelity is fully accepted like a rill though not a river, a shrub though not a tree, and a lamp though not a star, bringing a corresponding return that proves wise stewardship and worthiness for the true riches of everlasting life.
Trading Diligently and Doubling
The servant given two put them to diligent, wise, faithful, unselfish and earnest use in his master's service and gained two more, doubling what was entrusted instead of idly waiting, burying or squandering it. Gifts improve and multiply when so used, on the plan of addition by adding grace to grace and on the plan of multiplication, for as abilities are exercised God strengthens and enlarges capacity, usefulness, tact, skill, knowledge and power, while hiding causes deterioration. One traded upon gains another, two gain two more, and four make eight, as money put to work in sharing truth doubles by bringing one to faith who in turn brings others.
The present is trading time in which God-given capabilities, opportunities, light, ability and influence must be put out to the exchangers at once and returned with the increase the Lord demands, and what is left unused will still be required back. Putting to the exchangers means letting power, influence and means flow into the missionary channel to warn the world, beginning missionary work at once after denying self and purifying the soul through belief of the truth, with self-denying, self-sacrificing zeal for souls perishing in sins. Presenting the talents doubled at the Master's return means presenting souls gathered to Christ who in turn help save others, with the original gift and what it has gained, and the servant's fruits show this continual increase.
Enlarging farms and adding building to building is not doubling, for improved farms and buildings cannot be taken to heaven and will be consumed by the fires of the last days, while means invested to extend the work brings returns in souls. The talents are more than earthly, temporal employments and worldly goods, embracing eternal interests that must be kept in the reckoning, and they do not mean only ability to preach and teach but mean temporal means, possessions, money and other gifts lent as a loan from the Master to be invested in work for Him to advance His glory. Ability to accumulate worldly goods gives no ground for satisfaction unless turned to account for Him who bestowed the talents, and resting in that ability is delusion; to bury talents of means in earthly treasures, with heart, anxiety, labor, tact and skill cultivated for worldly possessions instead of heavenly things, and to count means given to broaden the work as lost, exalts the earthly above the eternal, occupies the heart as the devil wants, eclipses the eternal, and leaves the heart unable to estimate heavenly treasure. When truth lives in the receiver's heart he gives his substance to send the truth to others, and through his efforts, influence and means other souls embrace the truth and begin also to work for God, so that each soul brought to the truth can in turn use influence and means to help save others. Such constant use brings a crown in glory, with added stars and increased eternal reward for every soul saved, for God works in accordance with faith shown in this use, and even the humblest service becomes a consecrated gift when exercised in doing the Master's bidding.
Ability grows only when exercised and is learned by using it, so people should be given work, encouraged to begin, corrected as they go, and not held back seeking further preparation. This is shown when Moses became eloquent, patient and competent for the greatest work ever entrusted to mortal man, when Daniel received wisdom and became trusted in Babylon by exercising every power in dependence on God through watching and prayer, and when teachers, students and ministers grow in power, wisdom and knowledge by labor, study and meeting opposition. Every converted soul is appointed to witness, and light, ability and influence must shine forth in good works and in doing good, not merely in much talk and not for self-pleasing or self-advancement. Those who use what they have in perfect obedience, yoked with Christ as laborers together with God, develop characters of increasing consecration, efficiency and tact, and receive the same commendation and reward as those entrusted with more.
Faithful trading requires absolute surrender to God and consent to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, keeping the mind receptive through prayerful communion, openly acknowledging God as source of wisdom, consecrating soul and body, conquering passion, selfishness, natural inclination and worldly ambition, cooperating human effort with divine power, serving justly, mercifully and humbly, and looking to Jesus the author and finisher of faith. Such wholehearted service, free from self-seeking and made possible by Christ's life, strength and blood, uses what Christ gives to do good, persuade sinners to believe, sow seeds that bear fruit in righteousness, and create a strong influence for the truth. What God entrusts is to be developed through diligent, intelligent work and responsible service, so that people become producers rather than merely consumers, receiving from God daily so as to impart to others, with what is received accumulating as it is used to bless them. Surrender gives moral power by which entrusted talents are kept for God's service and their efficiency greatly multiplied, greatly simplifies the problem of life, weakens and cuts short struggles with the passions of the natural heart, and binds willing and obedient youth and aged to Christ as a golden cord bringing them safely through dark and intricate paths to the city of God. Even youth who have only common faculties can have talents increased until qualified for the position of trust to which God has called them when educated and disciplined under teachers actuated by high and pure principles. Failure to increase comes from not determining to overcome natural inclinations, not listening to the voice of God in His word, not barricading the soul against temptation, and not determining to do duty at all hazards, like one on a perilous journey who refuses any guide or instruction and goes on in a certain course of destruction.
Fear of making mistakes or desire for an easier responsibility is no excuse for abandoning the work, for the servant who buried his talent acted from a false view of his Lord's character and failed to trust His mercy and grace. Those given responsibilities are to put abilities to work rather than retreat because the work is demanding or mistakes are possible, and are to step forward in peace despite cruel criticism, backbiting, envy and faultfinding. Having fewer cares and hindrances gives less excuse for failing to work in indolence, for faithfulness concerns present good, future good and eternal good, and neglect is a deceptive influence of Satan that must be removed so the person feels what God requires. A talent is put to use by speaking out instead of staying silent and shut up with oneself, and burying is being content to remain together with a few when one could speak to hundreds through the paper. This requires arousing to duty and being moved by a sense of duty and of important truth rather than by feelings, and not sinking down and giving up from little confidence in success when expected freedom is missing. The two are doubled when fretful, self-centered Christians stop nursing manufactured difficulties and a defective, deformed character, go to work in the great cause of truth, and do something good and noble to help another reclaim himself from himself, for in that labor self dies a natural death. Obeying the Word in the practical life lifts a grown-up baby above the cheap and common, forming a character fit for heaven instead of spoiling it, since God-given ability and its fruit belong to Him, each person is individually accountable and responsible for using what is entrusted and cannot place it under another's control, and carelessness or forgetfulness does not remove the account.
Reckoning Judgment and Reward
Each servant must return to the Master what was entrusted with its increase, principal with interest, His own with usury, for talents are lent capital, not personal property, soul, body and spirit bought with a price to be sacredly employed to do His will. After a long time the Master comes and reckons, and as bestowal was individual so the reckoning is individual, every person dealt with personally and required to give account whether improved or abused, even if only one talent left dormant or buried. He examines work, time, abilities, money, influence and received truth, scrutinizes every talent that returns to Him, for the doings and trusts of His servants are not unimportant, and when probation may close He bestows rewards. Reward is given in proportion to improvement of the trusts bestowed, faithful improvement in proportion to what was received, and punishment is awarded according as talents have been abused, with condemnation in proportion to grace and truth given when gifts are not improved. To gain other talents means to put influence and money actively to His glory and the good of His cause instead of pleasing self, while to bury them means to withhold them, let them lie dormant, hoard the Lord's goods or spend them as pleased, which displeases God and will be condemned when He requires His own with usury.
The investigation sifts purposes and motives, and the faithful servant returns the talents doubled, principal and interest together, showing himself a judicious as well as faithful and persevering worker. The reckoning requires careful thought and the highest use of intellect, and asks not about success in gathering money but about what was done with time, pen, voice, money, influence, and light and knowledge of truths heralding the second coming. People are judged and rewarded by faithfulness and works, held accountable not only for wrongdoing but for neglected duties, unimproved opportunities, good they could have done, abilities they could have developed, and souls lost through neglect. Responsibility stands in exact proportion to gifts, human judgments about who accomplished most often err, while humble work done as unto God counts more than show, and even small acts done from love are accepted and rewarded. Powers of intellect rightly directed turn many souls from error to truth and righteousness, and those souls labor for others so that influence and means constantly increase, bringing growth in truth, spirit and power, whereas to wrap talents in a napkin and hide them deprives Him of increase and will meet investigation when He inquires what use was made of lent talents.
Faithful use that doubles what was given brings the Master's satisfaction and the commendation of well done, good and faithful, with blessing and welcome into the joy of the Lord alongside the servant who gained five. Different amount entrusted does not lessen duty, for talents belong to God and are to be used according to His Word, gifts improve and multiply when used, on the plan of addition by adding grace to grace. Faithfulness over a few things leads to being made ruler over many things, promotion to greater trust and rulership, entrance into the true riches of everlasting life and treasure beside the throne that death cannot take. Reward is in exact proportion to fidelity, perseverance and earnest labor in trading with the Lord's goods, and talents used in this life remain uncorrupted to be employed on a wider plan in the future life, where work begun on earth reaches completion and endures through eternity.
Hiding, burying, wasting, misapplying, neglecting, idleness, half-hearted or selfish use in worldly enterprises, pleasure-loving, extravagant display, and shifting responsibility hinders the work, robs God, loses light and heavenly treasure, and destroys confidence. The present is trading time in which capabilities and opportunities must be put out to the exchangers at once through self-denying zeal for perishing souls, beginning missionary work at once after purifying the soul through belief of the truth, for having a name in the church book does not secure entrance into the kingdom. Talents embrace eternal interests to be kept in the reckoning, more than earthly employments and worldly goods, and gaining other two means using them to His glory and not burying them in worldly enterprises, for ability to accumulate goods gives no ground for satisfaction unless turned to His account. Such unfaithfulness ends in the reward of the wicked, slothful, unprofitable servant, with unused talents taken and given to him which hath ten, eternal loss, and standing unconfessed unless repented.
People are justified by faith but judged and rewarded according to the character of works, each case decided according to faithfulness. Genuine faith is shown by love expressed in works, mere profession without love has no value and does not count as genuine, while love shown through works is counted as genuine. Deeds done from love are accepted though eternal rewards are purchased by Christ and are not earned as merit, and service is through His grace and strength with divine power working with human effort so that credit belongs to God. Using abilities in good works develops and perfects Christian character, what is sown will be reaped in the life to come, the Holy Spirit strengthens people to use gifts in sharing truth, and a servant means a worker united with Christ by living faith as a laborer together with God who must improve character and ability according to privileges and opportunities, for faith works by love and purifies the soul to become His temple.
In the verse God is not a harsh judge and exacting creditor but a rich giver, rich provider and fountain of inexpressible love, who bestows gifts according to ability to use them, places men where they can trade upon His goods, remains owner of time, abilities and possessions, and requires account for their use. The world is a vineyard let out to husbandmen to return fruit in season, and faithful servants increase what is given by using bountiful provisions to relieve suffering humanity bought with the blood of His only begotten Son, while the unfaithful buries his gift and remains only a consumer because he views God as harsh and fears he must give back all increase. Loyal service is valued above scientific knowledge and status, workers who wisely use abilities advance His work while those who bury will be replaced, and success gives no ground for self-exaltation. Even a small gift faithfully used can accomplish its appointed work, faithfulness in little duties adds to His work while God multiplies influence and blesses unselfish diligence to make it fruitful, and misusing gifts calls for repentance and new commitment.
Saving Souls and Advancing Mission
The two entrusted are for saving souls for whom Christ died, and gain is souls won by putting capabilities and opportunities to work in the present trading time. Right use is interest for sinners, relieving suffering, enlightening others, sharing present truth, warning the world, and sustaining missionary and canvassing work, investing means, opportunities and abilities so that those won become stewards who win others in turn. Rescuing even one soul is worth the effort, since that soul is valued more than a world. Hiding is indifference to others while seeking merely to save one's own soul, and no one professing to love Jesus can long retain divine favor without interest for sinners; the indifferent will fail to secure even their own salvation, throwing away opportunity for a star-gemmed crown.
Putting to the exchangers means letting power, influence and means flow into the missionary channel through self-denying, self-sacrificing zeal begun at once after self-denial and purification of the soul through belief of the truth. Presenting the talents doubled at the Master's coming means presenting souls gathered to Jesus Christ, and God works in accordance with faith shown in such use. Enlarging farms and adding building to building is not doubling, for improved farms and buildings cannot be taken to heaven and will be consumed by the fires of the last days, while means invested to extend the work brings returns in souls. To bury talents of means in earthly treasures, cultivating heart, anxiety, labor, tact and skill for worldly possessions instead of heavenly things, and to count means given to broaden the work as lost, exalts the earthly above the eternal, occupies the heart as the devil wants, eclipses the eternal, and leaves the heart unable to estimate heavenly treasure.
The talents are more than earthly, temporal employments and more than worldly goods, embracing eternity and eternal interests that must be kept in the reckoning. They are a loan from the Master to be invested in work for Him to advance His glory, a stewardship of His grace with endowments for a sacred, higher trust secured by Christ paying with His own blood and sufferings for entire obedience and service. Ability to accumulate worldly goods gives no ground for satisfaction unless turned to account for Him who bestowed them, and resting in that ability is delusion. Even the humblest service becomes a consecrated gift when exercised in doing the Master's bidding and promoting His glory. God is not a harsh judge and exacting creditor but a rich giver, provider and fountain of love who bestows according to ability to use, places men where they can trade upon His goods and lay up a good foundation, letting out the world as a vineyard to husbandmen to return fruit in season by relieving the necessities of suffering beings bought with the blood of His only-begotten Son; the unfaithful servant buries his gift and remains only a consumer because he views God as harsh and fears he must give back all increase.
A name in the church book does not secure entrance into the kingdom, and faithful trading requires close, critical self-examination of how each is trading and what each church member is doing for the One who gave His life for the world. Those who know Bible truth and have received light must trade with it, put it into practice, present it to others, point sinners to the remedy and antidote for sin, and make every possible effort to seek and save the lost and build up the kingdom by raising souls ready to perish. Neglect makes slothful servants who fail to return entrusted talents, leave men to sicken and die without a ray of saving light and without pardon, and will not receive Well done, good and faithful servant. The knowledge of the truth is too precious to be hoarded and hid in the earth but must be used in winning souls, with men and women of intelligence establishing themselves in needy cities and towns to lift up the cross without waiting for ordained ministers and without seeking property.
Every Christian, young or old, rich or poor, not ordained ministers only, is entrusted with precious light and sacred truth including the precious truths of Scripture, the Sabbath and the third angel's message, to be shared wisely and diligently, lived and upheld as lights. Improving means not serving, pleasing and glorifying self but putting every capability to its uttermost in co-partnership with Christ in saving the world, with special urgency now, mixing faith with earnest prayer and putting to use every ray of light from the written word in obedience to the voice calling from heaven and demanding use. Each must ask whether he is a faithful steward of grace or is burying the light, for the use made decides personal destiny and whether greater gifts, even eternal riches, will be entrusted. Neglect to use brings condemnation in the judgment when every motive is brought under scrutiny. This duty begins with home responsibilities and then extends to neighborhood and church, to labor for cities, sell literature, open new fields, establish workers in needy places, redeem past neglect, and in Boston let light shine through the sanitarium and tent meetings.
Ministers, churches and leaders are called to trade upon their talents and work earnestly for those who do not know the truth, training members to labor, teaching them to lead others to truth, drawing out youthful efforts, and making room for every member to serve. They are not to gather all burdens, do all the talking and praying, confine labor to one locality, or hold learners back in long study at the expense of practical godliness. Christ commissions every believer to trade even where ministerial hands have not been laid, and restraining uneducated believers buries many talents. Faithful use includes giving means to support mission work and carry truth to neglected places, so workers are raised up and people brought into the church, for money put into circulation for this work is thereby multiplied.
Talents are entrusted for the good of the church to rightly represent Christ by well-chosen words, firm resistance of evil, meekness, lowliness, compassion and love, imparting what is received to reveal Christ and bring humanity under divine influence, which is to gain other talents. To grow careless, disregard requirements, abuse influence, misappropriate talents, become harsh, selfish, covetous and oppressive, or partake of the ungodly spirit, is to abuse His goods and refuse discipline; those who do this God cannot use, and after testing, if they will not repent, He removes them and gives their place to those who will better represent Him, working remarkably through the true and loyal. Punishment will surely come upon the unfaithful, severe in proportion to light had but not heeded. The church must not measure faith and position by the world, by human opinion, or by what she once was, but by what she would have been if continually onward and upward, improving conferred benefits and blessings until moral character and spiritual state correspond and fruit is perfect before God; clear light, including that of 1882, calls to account, and if talents are unimproved, fruit imperfect, and light become darkness, she will be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found wanting while hidden from her own state, seeing but not perceiving and hearing but not understanding, professing to know God and believe truth but in works denying Him by deeds adverse to truth and righteousness.
Faithfulness means using time, pen, voice, money, influence, property, strength, ability, and the light and knowledge of truths heralding the second coming for Christ in the person of the poor, the afflicted, the orphan, the fatherless, the sick, the hungry, and those destitute of clothing, to relieve disease and distress and make men wise unto salvation. The reckoning will not ask about success in gathering money but about what was done with these gifts, for they are held in trust and must serve God and help others rather than be spent selfishly or withheld from the needy. Every amount, whether one, two or five, must be used to advance Christ's work rather than spent on display, self-indulgence or selfish pleasure, which takes away opportunities to help others and withholds due honor from God. The decisions of the last judgment turn on such practical benevolence, every act of which Christ counts as done to Himself, recorded in heaven and bringing welcome into everlasting habitations. The servant must be able to account when the Master returns, presenting original means with its increase rather than hoarded or buried.
Entrusted money is to be invested where need is greatest to advance the work worldwide, providing facilities to learn truth and building plain meetinghouses, healing institutions, schools and sanitariums that prepare workers to serve others. Investing thus to save souls so talents are doubled at the Lord's coming is better than buying land for personal benefit. Time and talents are to be consecrated and used in missionary work for the good of others, supporting missions and new fields like the unworked South, Australia, England and London, and New York centers. Established fields should help new fields, transferring means instead of piling buildings in one place, so the work grows through self-sacrifice and cheerful giving, with wise, economical building with an eye single to God's glory. Those who have means are doubly responsible because means is entrusted by God, and all are accountable to forward the work in its various branches with all God-given energy, following the self-denying example of the chief Missionary who gave His life and went before to show the way, answering the cry from every quarter and from regions beyond by instructing those who do not know present truth and disseminating knowledge of Christ far hence among the Gentiles, binding souls by truth to the throne of God.
Faithful Stewardship in Life
Time, talents, ability and resources belong to God and are to be consecrated and put to wise, diligent use for His glory and the good and salvation of others in missionary work to proclaim the gospel, with every ability improved in work to save others without partiality toward either race. Even small advantages are to be eagerly seized, time and speech are precious gifts to be faithfully improved through close connection with Christ whose divine life enables service in His way, and time and mental powers are accountable trusts to be cultivated and used for good rather than neglected. Mental abilities are given to be exercised, developed and directed for the greatest good and God's glory, and privileges, time and abilities require an exact account, governing amusement and recreation to work with variation rather than ceaseless toil or trifling, allowing only amusement entered in faith with God's blessing that leaves one fit for secret prayer, devotion at the family altar and the prayer meeting. Wasting hours in idleness is sin, hours spent in selfish pleasure are lost for eternity, and idleness, self-gratification, pleasure, amusement, appetite, dress, ornamentation or worldly business that binds up means must give place to active service, for the soon coming requires work including schools, sanitariums, food factories and training, not excuse for idleness.
Receiving two means being led up step by step, educated and trained, and entrusted with smaller positions of trust and little things in God's work. Gaining other two means using those two wisely and judiciously, coming up with faithfulness in little things, thorough in everything undertaken, thinking deep and becoming master of duty, climbing every round of the ladder from least to much with solidity, intelligent knowledge, carefulness and thoroughness, instead of skimming the surface, inflating self, overestimating capability, and grasping for the highest round and heavier burdens without proving faithful. Only faithful improvement of the two qualifies for larger responsibilities and rulership over many things, for humble, cheerful, willing service to bless fellow men makes even one of smaller capability a channel of light and grace bringing blessing to himself, grace being given in proportion to capability to diffuse it so gifts returned correspond to gifts received and faithful use carries from strength to strength into God's approval. A person with only one talent has a work just as truly as one with five, so effort should be all the more earnest, no one should remain idle even with few talents, each is responsible for using what is entrusted, time and abilities wasted in idle pursuits make unprofitable servants, and faithful service brings blessing with wise trading on the one leading God to give ability to use a larger number.
Faithfulness matters in secular as well as religious service, business and the home, requiring diligence, perseverance, close attention and care, with idleness and careless habits leaving people unfit for efficient service to God. People with different gifts are accountable to use abilities and means to work with Christ and advance His cause, abilities are to be used in service including sharing the blessings of Christ's grace, and they must be used not for self-pleasing but to glorify God, with active service developing spiritual strength and opportunities to share truth and help others not neglected. Faithfully used abilities and resources can produce good and make a person fruitful in the Lord's work, yet possessing talent does not justify receiving wages disproportionate to work done, and those who have received much should use it responsibly rather than claim higher pay on its account or claim full pay for partial work. Present duties are to be done faithfully rather than reaching for a greater calling, whether in humble readily understood work or greater responsibilities, and parents are to train children to efficiency while ruling households aright.
Stewards are tested by entrusted talents as His stewards to trade with, receiving His goods including money, houses and lands to be regarded as the Lord's goods and used to advance His work and build up His kingdom, seeking Him for wisdom so the sacred trust is not used to glorify self or indulge selfish impulses, with even the smallest gifts and smallest talent of means not to be felt as nothing. Talents of means and influence are committed to be improved by trading till He comes with no time lost, success equaling industry, perseverance and zeal in applying capital, intellect rightly directed turning many souls from error to truth and righteousness who in turn labor for others so influence and means constantly increase and multiply. The faithful servant returns the talents doubled, principal and interest together, as a judicious as well as faithful and persevering worker, with reward in exact proportion to fidelity, perseverance and earnest effort, while wrapping talents in a napkin and hiding them in the earth in the world for selfish gain or burying them in worldly investments deprives Him of increase and meets investigation when the Master comes to inquire what use was made of lent talents and to sift purposes and motives. Entrusted resources are not to be hidden or treated as loss, shifting property to spouse or children does not remove responsibility, and stewards must dispose of property themselves while living with sound minds, prayer and counsel, giving surplus to God's cause and providing for afflicted or faithful children, rather than willing means to children to ease conscience, withholding until death which surrenders property to death rather than God, or placing means with unbelieving, reckless or worldly children to squander, for making a will does not end duty and misappropriating treasure harms children and brings poverty.
Improving talents to the utmost forms and perfects Christian character after the divine likeness fit for heaven, for God increases gifts entrusted to those who improve them through Christ's grace and strength, what is sown is reaped in the life to come where work begun on earth reaches completion and endures through eternity, and rightly used gifts bring eternal riches with every moment having eternal consequences to be cherished for holy purposes. Improvement is to be the life-work guided by correct experience, with life's true purpose in sacrificing personal interests for others and helping the brokenhearted, using abilities in every possible way for others' good, laboring unselfishly and watchfully while cultivating personal piety, since neither quiet meditation alone nor ceaseless activity alone completes Christian character. This requires studying the Bible, doing nearest fitting work as for the Master, seizing present opportunities, laboring amid perils without complaint, devising plans as the Waldenses did, keeping eyes on the final prize, and laying treasure in heaven by spending to do good and add souls, not putting it into buildings to make money.
Now is the period of stewardship when means, speech and influence are to be used in the Master's service and multiplied by wise investment with increased capabilities, God requiring full return and not accepting two in return for three, so even one with but one talent must gain another to have place in Christ's service and at last hear commendation. Financial means are to be put into circulation to advance the work and save people so the entrusted talent is multiplied, with kindly affections, generous impulses, spiritual insight and social advantages shared with all who need help and not reserved for friends, for merely possessing them unused increases responsibility and love shown only to a few is selfishness. Doing little for Christ, bearing no fruit and increasing in selfishness and unfaithfulness is hiding talents in the earth, and putting hope in the preacher and depending on his efforts to keep alive weak faith while complaining and expecting to be tended like sick children leaves the church weak, dependent and inefficient. Talents must never be perverted to do evil and destroy others or spread moral ruin scattering blight and woe, nor folded in a napkin and hidden away in the world, for hiding casts away the crown of life; balanced by religious principle, youth may strain every nerve to become strong men of firm principle fitted for high responsibilities, fulfilling life's grand mission only when every responsibility is fully accepted and faithfully discharged in love, unity, purity and holiness, with prayer, devotion and love for Scripture, to honor God before others and angels, support His cause, prepare workers, proclaim the last message, break deathlike slumber, meet Satan's power, avoid the Laodicean condition, work out destiny and receive joy, avoiding the last-day snare of burying in pursuit of money, mining stock and uncertain enterprises.