BURY NOT YOUR TALENT – The Church Of Christ, 15 Grey Street, Warri

Text: Matthew 25:14-30

By: Bro. James Eghele

The parable of the talent, as well as the parable of the ten virgins Matt. 25:1-13 taught watchfulness, while the parable of the talents teaches the necessity of work. The parable of ten virgins teaches the lesson of preparation and the parable of the talents teaches us how this preparation can be made.

This parable is applicable to the Church for Jesus began by saying for the “kingdom of heaven is as” see Matt. 16:18-19. From the study of Matthew 25:14-30, let us observe;

Every person has a talent none went away empty. In like manner in the church there is work to be done by every member – I Cor 12:12-27, Eph 4:7-16.

We do not all have the same talents. Some have more ability than others, thus the master distributes the talents to every man according to his several ability see verse 15-

In the parable of the sower, the soil differed in their productivity see Matt. 13:23. The Lord is fair. In the parable the master did not expect as much of the one talent man as of the two and five talent men. However though, the Lord does not expect more of us than we are able to do, he does not less than we are able to do. Here is a sobering question- “am I really doing my best?”

The Lord is the giver of talents in the parable, the master, representative of the Lord, delivered the talent (see verse 14). Since talent are given unto us by the Lord, we are but stewards of them. Such obtaining:
We are made humble. We are nothing of ourselves.
We are to be faithful see I Corinthians 4:2
We know that there will be a reckoning.
the use made of our talent like the five and two talent men we can go to work, shoulder our responsibilities and do our best(I Corinth 15:58, Eph. 2:8-10, Matt. 20:1-16 & 21:28, James 1:25, John 9:4, Eccl 9:10) or like the one talent man represent the majority. In every congregation where you have five or two talent men who works and shoulder his responsibility, you will have several more one talent men who bury their talents. This one talent was not a drunkard or a thief or an unmerciful person. He did not squandered his master talent. What was wrong with him? He buried his talent. This is a serious offense but what caused the one talent man to bury his talent? Whatever it was such will cause people to so act today.
He had a wrong conception of his Lord (verse 24). He accused his Lord of being hard and unreasonable. People today think of Christ as a hard taskmaster and as being unreasonable. They ask, why do we have to go to Church so much? Or why do we have to give so much? Or why do we have to deny ourselves of so many pleasures? Yes and how we do hear people to excusing themselves by saying I am afraid I will make a mistake, or I am afraid someone can do it better than i, or am afraid I will do more harm than good etc but what was he afraid of?

Was he afraid he could not make it big as others? Let us beware of the attitude if I can’t be the captain, I won’t play at all; if I can’t sing the song I won’t sing at all. (See III John 9). He was afraid of work, verse 26 he was lazy, and his master called him slothful. See Proverbs 26:13-15; 18:9; 24:30-34, 19:15; Eccl 10:18; Romans 12:11, Hebrews 6:12 and Proverbs 6:6-11.
He was afraid of his master (vs 24-25). In our relationship with Christ, we must have reverential fear (Acts 10:34-35) but, never slavish fear (I John 4:18). Instead of be fearful, let us believe that we can do all things through Christ. (Phil 4:13). Let us remember that no one can be victorious against us if God be for us (Romans 8:31).do not forget the fearful will be cast into hell. (Rev 21:8) fear is divinely prohibited (Luke 12: 4-5) he failed to see that his talent was useful and needed. Though he had fourteen! This proclaims verily, that every talent is vital in the divine economy. Building great things takes fingers that are skilled, but also, hands to lay the foundation. When everyman’s talent is needed to build the temple.