The Parables of the Talents
By Buell H. Kazee
Morehead, Kentucky
Western Recorder, 1942THE COMMON understanding is that talents mean our several abilities with which we are endowed when we are born, or which we may achieve by training. For instance, the ability to teach, to sing, to act, to write, to lead, to make money, and so on. Many sermons have been preached and hour[s] of Sunday-school teaching and pages of Sunday-school lessons have urged us to dedicate our talents to God; to bring our natural gifts and, instead of using them for Satan, use them for the Lord. This sounds logical and makes a strong appeal to the flesh, but is it true?
Let us study the parable carefully. First, "talent" is a measure of money. I do not argue the question as to whether or not it could be figurative here. For my present purpose I will treat it as meaning our gifts or spiritual endowments. I do not believe that it means our natural abilities.
The "Master" is Christ. He owns us, and thus is our Master. The "servants" are those of God's children whom He calls to service. They are not worldlings or lost men, but servants. In 2 Timothy 2:24, Paul, in this sense, calls himself a "servant of Jesus Christ."
I THE MASTER was traveling into a "far country;" He was ascending on high. He delivered unto His servants His goods. He called His own servants, and delivered unto them His goods. This is explained in Ephesians 4:8; "When He ascended up on high . . . and gave gifts unto men." In Ephesians 4:11 Paul tells us of spiritually endowed men whom He gave to the churches. In 1 Corinthians 12 we find the endowments or general gifts from the Master to His servants. There are "diversities of gifts but the same Spirit" - "differences of administrations," "diversities of operations," etc. But all by the same Spirit - all from the Master.
He gave to one, the "word of wisdom," to another the "word of knowledge," to another "faith," to another "the gifts of healing," to another "the working of miracles," to another "prophecy," to another "discerning of spirits," to another "the interpretation of tongues." These examples show the manner in which Christ has bestowed His goods (gifts) on His servants.
He bestowed these gifts "according to their several abilities." These gifts were NOT the "several abilities" themselves, but were bestowed according to their several abilities. He does not ask his servants to dedicate to Him their several abilities; He bestows on them His own gifts "according to their several abilities."
It seems to me, then, that the "goods" which the Master left His servants are NOT to be taken as the natural abilities with which we are born.
Yet we have usually gone out with an appeal to the vanity and pride of worldlings, saying: "Bring your talents to the Lord and dedicate them to His glory." To the man who can make money we say: "You are a good business man. That is your talent. Dedicate it to the Lord and make money for Him." To the boy or girl who can sing we say: "You have a beautiful voice. The Devil would like to use it for himself. But dedicate it to God, and sing for His glory." Others with their various natural abilities we urge to dedicate their talents to God, and thus serve Him.
As examples for our appeal, we say: "Look at little David, the shepherd lad. He had practiced with a sling and stone, and was accurate with this weapon. Then one day he dedicated this talent to God, and slew Goliath." But let David himself express the truth about this: 1 Samuel 17:48 - "This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand." David's gift from God was faith, and if God used his accuracy with the sling and stone - which He did - it was fundamentally because of David's faith, not because of his skill.
Abraham's gift was faith. Daniel's gifts included spiritual purpose, power in prayer, faith, and prophetic discernment. Job's gift was patience. Moses' gift was the privilege of speaking with God and for God. Aaron's gift might be said to be the power of miracles. Joshua's gifts were courage and faith and spiritual obedience. Solomon's gifts were wisdom, long life, and wealth. Hosea's gift was the power of forgiving love. John's gift was the power of discerning love. The Apostles were endowed with various rich gifts of spiritual power and faith. Stephen was endowed with spiritual discernment and ardent courage. Whatever the gift, its use by God was conditioned on the faith which worketh by love, not of God's dependence on human gifts.
II WHAT we are concerned with in this parable has to do more with the New Testament age and since. The Holy Spirit is the Agent of Christ in dispensing spiritual gifts as the Master gives them. Perhaps the most striking example of what talents are and are not is seen in the life of Paul. Paul is the outstanding example of so much of God's deep truth!
Saul was the most learned man of his day in Greek and Roman culture and in Jewish tradition. He was an orator of ability, a forceful personality, a gifted leader, a man of courage. His mission to Damascus was a direct expression of his natural abilities. But his experience on Damascus road, shifted the emphasis of his life and teaching from natural talents to spiritual gifts. Instead of bringing his great learning and great power of speech, or parading his fine ancestry, and dedicating all these endowments of personality to God, you hear him saying:
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God, (1 Corinthians 2:1-5).What had Paul done with all his marked talents, which we would have admonished him to dedicate to God? He had thrown them away for this:But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew. [Then away with "natural talents! For] the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned . . . But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:7-8 & 10a).Now, does it not seem that there is the secret of "spiritual gifts?" And what can natural abilities of a man avail, if the natural man cannot receive the things of God, neither know them?If we offer our natural abilities to God, and tell Him that we wish to serve Him in this way, God might say: "It is Mine to choose how you will serve Me best. To let you use that which you can do best in the eyes of the world might bring glory to you instead of to Me. Bring the thing which you offer, which is fleshly ability, and I will put it to death. Then I will give you a spiritual gift of understanding which will express itself through you in ways that will glorify Me, but will not spotlight for human acclaim your natural gifts. This will honor Me, and will transform you from the self-glorifying mind of human nature."
As in the case of Paul, this may involve for us the laying down of our natural powers, and the substitution of a "weak thing to confound the strong," that God will choose as the spiritual gift He would have us use.
III A VOICE may be beautiful and well trained. But without the spiritual gift of understanding which can come from God alone, that voice tends to be as sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. The talent is a spiritual thing of the heart, rather than a particular fleshly aptitude. If this expresses itself through the voice, well and good. But it will in the personality behind the voice, if it is a spiritual gift, and not mere fleshly aptitude.
Why do we go out to men of ability and say: "Brother, God needs you. You have great talent. You could be a great blessing if you would dedicate it to God?" Why do we not say: "Friend, God can get along without you, but without God you are a failure. You will be forever lost if you do not trust His grace to save you. Thousands are going to Hell; God could let you go, too. But you have not a ghost of a show without Christ."
========================== [From the Western Recorder paper, June 11, 1942, pp. 6 & 12; via microfilm copy at the SBTS Archives; provided by Adam Winters, Archivist. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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