TALENT or NO TALENT (Mathew 22:37-40; 25:19,26; Mark 12:30-31; Ephesians 1:3,6; Luke 1:28)

Fate

I remember the story of a man who was making a product by hand, and though it was crafted to perfection, he could have put the same design on a lathe and produced hundreds of these items per day rather than the few that he carved through hours of labor. His religious philosophy was that if he was supposed to be more successful, or productive, it would just 'happen', if that was his 'fate'. If it wasn't his 'fate', then even if he did do something to be more of a producer and generate more income, he would simply lose it all and end up back where his 'fate' dictated he should be; so why change?

Success or Failure

How people see themselves dictates success or failure in their life. Jesus was asked by the religious leaders of the day, what is the first, in importance, or greatest commandment, and in response, Jesus said that the great, or first commandment (Matt.22:38; Mk.12:30) in the law is, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind (Matt.22:37), and with all your strength (Mk.12:30). The second is, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39;Mk.12:31). Jesus said, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (Matt.22:40), or, in other words, everything the law teaches is summed up in those two commandments of loving God and loving others. In fact, Paul, by the Spirit of God, summarizes the commandments as being fulfilled by loving your 'neighbor' (Rm.13:8-10).

Qualifier

The qualifying statement, in regards to loving others, is that you love others, 'as you love yourself'. 

"You must love your neighbor as you do yourself" (Williams, Matt.22:39;Mk.12:31).

"You shall love your neighbor as much as yourself" (Weymouth, Matt.22:39).

"You shall love your neighbor in the same manner as you do yourself" (Wuest, Matt.22:39).

Self-Love

Self love, or seeing yourself as having intrinsic value and importance, is crucial to being able to have healthy relationships with others, and to 'loving' others. If you see yourself as being valuable and important, you can also see that God, our Father, places similar worth on others, and you can then treat them with honor and respect, as God commands. In fact, if you don't have a healthy self-love, or value, assigned to yourself, by God, it is impossible to see anyone else with true value and importance.

Speaking Good

Knowing who we are in Christ, and who Christ is in us, is essential to establishing this sense of value and importance that God says we have. Ephesians 1:3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ". The word 'blessed', as it is used in it's different forms, in this verse, is the compound word (eulogeo), [2127], from (eu), 'good', and (logos), 'word', or 'to speak', and literally means, 'to speak good of', concerning someone or something. 

Ephesians 1:3, to paraphrase, "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who always speaks good concerning us, has spoken good concerning us, and has spoken specific good things concerning us in the spiritual realm, in the heavenlies, as to our legal position and authority in Christ".

How we see ourselves determines our success or failure in life.

Zig Ziglar is credited with saying, "You cannot consistently perform in a manner that is inconsistent with the way you see yourself"

Talents

The parable of the talents, as it is recorded in Matthew 25:14-30, always bothered me, that the servant with the one talent not only lost what he had, but was basically cast out into torment (Matt.25:30). It bothered me until I understood, in a historical context, what was given to each servant. A talent was the equivalent of 6000 denari. A denarius was payment for a day's wages. In other words, a talent was 6000 days of work, in trading value. If a person considers a 6 day work week, with rest on the sabbath, then that's 312 work days out of 52 weeks in a year, and if a basic metric of a couple of weeks of work is subtracted for holidays or celebrations, it would still leave 300 work days in a year. Divided into 6000, that's 20 years of work. In other words, even the servant with only the one talent, was still given the equivalent dollar value of 20 years of income, which was a HUGE amount of money!

Establishing Value

Once value is established it is easy to see how absolutely wicked this servant really was, especially when the scripture states that it was, "...after a long time the lord of those servants came and reckoned with them" (Matt.25:19). Potentially, this servant had years to do something with what he had, but made no attempt whatsoever, but went and dug a hole and hid 20 years worth of money in the dirt; and potentially, left it there for years. In the meantime, his fellow servants did something with what they had, and over the years, doubled the original investment that they received. The master rightly rebuked the wicked servant, citing the fact that he could have, at the very least, put his money in the bank and gained interest on the massive sum, but he chose to do nothing.

Reality vs Perception

The lord refers to the servant as the 'wicked and slothful servant' (Matt.25:26).The word 'slothful' is only used 3 times in the NT and 12 times in the LXX, [all of which are in Proverbs], referring to the person who refuses to work. The servant said he was afraid of the lord, and what the lord would supposedly do to him. He obviously had a distorted image of who the lord was, and didn't value or respect what the lord had given to him, and because of his image of himself, and the lord, did absolutely nothing. The seeming rationale of the 'wicked and slothful' servant, to justify his behavior, was, "Why should I do anything to benefit this 'hard' man"; as though that would only make the lord a more wicked man, with more power and influence, if additional wealth were added to his present fortune. In reality, the lord was a generous individual who elevated the servants with greater responsibility and reward, who had done something productive with what they had been given.

God's Image

The parable is an obvious illustration of our relationship with the Lord, and not only how we see God, but how we see ourselves. We are made in His image, after His likeness (Gen.1:26), and just like Caesar put his image on coins, God, our Father, has put His image, not only on us, but in us (Matt.22:20ff; Mk.12:16ff; Lk.20:24ff), since He personally lives in us.

His Favorite

Ephesians 1:6 says that "He has made us accepted" in the Beloved. That whole phrase is one word in the Greek and is only found in one other place in scripture, where the angel came to Mary and told her she was "highly favored" (Lk.1:28). A more accurate translation of the word (charitoo), 5487, would be, both concerning Mary, and ourselves, that we are His 'favorite' in the Beloved. We don't have to totally understand it, but according to scripture, we are each His 'favorite', as far as He is concerned.

If you understand how He sees you, then you will also understand not only how valuable and important you are to Him, but your image of the Father God, will also dramatically change. He is your creator, who has made you, in His image, and His opinion of you is the only one that really matters. What others think of you is of no consequence once you realize who you really are, in Christ, and you will also realize that He has no bad thoughts or bad words concerning you; it's all good. Once you understand the 'image' God, your Father, has of you, you will no longer bury your 'talent', but you will use it for God's glory and for your benefit.

You Are God's Best and God's Best is Yours