USE IT OR LOSE IT

 “So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.” (Matthew 25:28-29)

This Parable deals with one of the most insistent problems of life the use and faithfulness of our abilities; with plain everyday fidelity to duty. It portrays the splendor and high reward of service. It pictures also the tragedy of laziness.

In the Parable of the Ten Virgins (vv. 1-13) the warning sounded is against negligence. Here it is against idleness and laziness. They are both dangers to our spiritual life and the work of God. In the Parable of the Ten Virgins, we are shown the danger of presumption; in the parable of the talents we are taught the danger of the lack of confidence and paralyzing fear. The virgins thought it was an easy thing to serve God. The man with one talent thought it was too hard.

In the strongest possible way, Jesus in this parable commends and applauds the service that we do for Him. Many of Jesus’ parables were meant to inspire us to action. He admires action and decision and gives them a high place in His evaluation of Christian qualities.

How, does God see us? In God’s sight, a man’s character and his real achievement in life are determined by the fidelity and energy with which he has used the abilities and talents with which He has endowed. The servant who gained ten pounds did not receive more honor or reward than the one who had gained five. Each received the same eager and hearty “well done, good and faithful servant!” All service ranks the same with God. There is no first or last. He judges by our unseen loyalties and fidelities.

The main point of the parable has to do with the man who hid his talent and brought no gain to his Lord. More than either of the other two servants, his situation corresponds to that of the great majority of us, with our small amounts of ability and wealth. It was no accident that the man who buried his talent was the one who had only one and not the one who had five or ten. The temptation to bury our abilities and fail to use them comes with peculiar force to those who have only an ordinary amount.

The warning of this parable is to the one who hides his talents from use. You will notice that it is not the man who wastes his substance in riotous living who is under condemnation. He simply failed to use his talent for his master’s benefit. But that failure was enough to cast him into outer darkness. This warning is to those who, are equipped for active service, yet they hid from it. Those who always answer: “I can’t,” “I’m too busy,” “I don’t have the time.” How much of the work of God is held back because of this? Are such people any different from the man who dug a hole and buried his talent?

“I was afraid”. In these words of excuse, the man gives voice to the main reason for the waste of ability and uselessness of multitudes of lives. How many make the excuse that they can do nothing when what they truly mean is that they don’t want to do anything! God is looking for people that will say “I cannot do everything, but I can do something. I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.” Some are afraid of making mistakes. The man who never made any mistakes never did anything else. Pele, the famous Brazilian soccer player once said: “You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” To reap the rewards, you have to take the risk.

The commonest form of burying our talent is by thinking and talking about what we would do if we were in other conditions or had larger opportunities, doing nothing meanwhile with the conditions and opportunities we have now. All such imaginings are a delusion and a drug to the conscience. They overlook two important truths: A man’s real achievement is measured by the use made of what he has, be it large or small and the only sure indication of what one would do with larger means or talents is by what he actually does with the smaller ones which are his now.

When the parable represents the talent as taken away, it shows us a law that holds true in the physical, economic, and intellectual world as well as in the spiritual. The arm which is never exercised loses its strength by degrees as muscles shrink. So the abilities and talents which God has given us fail if we do not exercise them. The capacity for enthusiasm, the appetite for spiritual things, the ability to see visions, the energy to work, the unselfish spirit of sacrifice, all these wither and droop when they are not put to use.