Articles
What Reward Awaits You?
Is it OK to be a one talent person?
In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus tells us a parable, in which He teaches that God expects us to use what we have been given to achieve a return for Him. A talent in this parable was a sum of money, but if we interchanged our definition of a talent, the story loses no power.
Most of you know the story, the master is going away and entrusts one servant with five talents, one with two, and a third with only one. We can think more in terms of an employer and employee if we want this in our western way of thinking. When the master returns, the fellow he entrusted with five had worked and made five more. He was rewarded. The guy entrusted with two had gained two more. He was likewise rewarded along with the first. Then it came time for the guy who only had been given one.
He has done nothing with it except kept it safely stored away, and he returned it just as he received it, having gained nothing more, and having not used it to even try to gain more. He was reprimanded by his master because he should have at least deposited it in the bank so it could gain interest. The parable seems to leave the impression that if he had gained at least some return, he would have been equally rewarded.
Now, we asked the question above, is it OK to be a one talent person? I certainly hope so, because I'm pretty sure there are a lot more one talent people than there are two, five or ten. Not many of us are rich, not many overly talented with physical abilities and only a hand-full are Einsteins. That leaves the rest of us!
The story says each was given according to their ability, and only expected to return according to their ability. God doesn't expect a Joe Normal like me to have the influence that the Apostle Peter had, BUT God does expect me to use whatever he has given me to grow His Kingdom and spread His Good News with whatever ability I do have.
Being a one talent person is not bad, likely we are in the majority. What's bad is when our one talent goes to waste because we don't think it has sufficient importance in the big picture. Let us utilize the talents God has given to us, and put them to use in growing His Kingdom.
Are we using what God has given us? Are we going to meet God someday and only give Him back what He gave us, or will we at least have earned some interest? Don't blow off that question, because Jesus ends the parable by saying that the unproductive servant was a "worthless slave" and his fate would be to "throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
