Neville Turley

“….Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”  Matthew 25:21 (KJV)

How happy we will be if at the end of our life, our Lord welcomes us with those words too.  Our verse for today is to be found in the parable of the three servants. (Matthew 25:14-30)

The Lord compares the kingdom of heaven to a man who has to travel to a distant country.  Not wishing to leave his assets unattended, he gives to each of his three servants a portion to administer according to their ability.

One servant gets five talents, one two talents and the third gets one talent. After a long time, he returns home and calls them to account.  The first two had worked hard and doubled the investments entrusted to them.  The master praised their efforts and rewarded them accordingly.

The man with one talent had made no effort to make a profit at all.  Instead he made the lame excuse that knowing his master was strict and being afraid of him, he had buried the talent in the ground for safekeeping pending his master’s return.

The master is outraged by the servant’s behaviour.  He had even been too lazy to deposit the money to earn interest. He orders that the talent be taken away from him and given to the man who had 10 talents. The useless servant is condemned and damned.

God has also given to each of us talents according to our abilities.  We will be judged by how we develop and use them.  There is also a warning we must heed.  It is a case of use it or lose it.  The man who refused to use his 1 talent, lost it!

This parable is a challenge to all of us to take stock of our talents, skills and gifts and examine how we are using them in our service to our Sovereign Lord and Master.

Prayer: Almighty God, grant us wisdom that under the guidance of the Holy Spirit we may live our faith according to your will, now and always  Amen