Being Faithful in using the Lord’s Gift by Caring for others to Minister Christ to them

We need to be faithful in using the Lord’s gift to the uttermost in caring for others to minister Christ to them.

We all need to invest the talent the Lord gave us by taking care of others, being concerned for them, and dispensing Christ into them so that the Lord will find us as faithful slaves at His return and reward us for our faithfulness in using His gift to the fullest extent. Amen!

The parable in Matt. 25:16-30 is both an encouragement and a warning to us as believers in Christ, for in it we see that we may be rewarded or disciplined by the Lord at His return, based on how we served Him and how much profit we made for Him.

The Lord has given each one of us talents, at least one talent; He has given each one a gift, and we need to use the gift we received from Him to the fullest extent, without any loss or waste.

The five talented one in this parable gained a profit of another five, the three talented one gained another three, but the one who had just one talent hid it and brought it back without any profit. Oh, Lord!

What does it mean to hide our talent in the earth and not bring profit to the Lord at His return?

It means that we don’t use the Lord’s gift to save people and to minister His riches to them. It means that, even though the Lord gave us a spiritual gift, and He has entrusted us with His possessions (the gospel, the truth, the church, the saints, and all the sinners), we neglected the gift the Lord gave us, and we let it lie waste under the cloak of certain earthly excuses.

We may hide our gift in the earth by being involved with the things of the earth such as our job, our health, our family, our business, etc, and we may take these preoccupations and our earning a living as the excuse.

The excuse may be quite logical, and especially in the world today with high demanding jobs and low pay, with people needing to take more than one job to support their family, it may sound reasonable that we don’t have time for the Lord or for caring for the saints.

But to the Lord, who is a “hard Master”, this is not reasonable, neither is it acceptable.

The Lord arranges things around us, He designs our environment, and He allows certain things to happen and particular situations to remain with us; however, He has also entrusted us with His possessions, He has given us a spiritual gift, and we can simply invest it for Him to gain an increase, a profit.

Our service to the Lord should be in the light of the Lord’s imminent return; we shouldn’t be so involved with the things of the earth that we hide the Lord’s gift or underuse it, neither should we excuse ourselves from not using our gift by pointing to our busyness and our material needs.

May we bring this to the Lord and pray much concerning this, even asking our Master to guide us and show us how to invest our talent, for we want to receive a reward at His return: we want to enter into His joy!

Using the Lord’s Gift by Caring for others and Ministering Christ into them to Gain a Profit for our Master

We all have received one talent from the Lord, and we need to use it. We shouldn’t make excuses for ourselves, saying that we don’t have time to do business for the Lord; rather, we should invest our talent and use it by caring for others with the view of ministering Christ to them.

The best way to use our talent is to take care of others; the Lord delivered to us His possessions – His gospel, His truth, the church, and the saints, so we should spend time with Him in His word, be filled with Him, and learn to care for others.

We need to become interested in others and be concerned for them; we shouldn’t be interested in their affairs but rather, we should be interested in them for the purpose of ministering Christ into them.

It is good to ask the Lord, especially before coming to a meeting or before meeting someone, that He would show us how to use our talent to care for others.

We may know of some dear young ones whose heart has grown cold, and we may know of some precious saints who didn’t meet for a while.

We need to pray for them, enjoy the Lord, and then go to visit them or call them, even invite them to our home for a meal.

We need to bring the saints, the new ones, the backslidden ones, and even the sinners around us before the Lord and ask Him who to take care of, who to be concerned for, so that we may invest our talent, using it to bring profit to the Lord as our Master.

As we spent time with the Lord, opening to Him regarding who to take care of, He will burden us; He will shine on us concerning some that we may visit, text, call, or invite over.

And as we contact these ones, as a result of prayer and fellowship with the Lord, we spontaneously use our talent.

We need to “deposit our money with the money changers” (Matt. 25:27) by caring for the new ones, the young ones, the backslidden ones, and being concerned for them with the view of ministering Christ to them.

When we use our talent (the gift the Lord gave us) in contacting others, when we care for others with the view of ministering something of Christ into them, we will gain a profit for the Lord.

The “bankers” or “money-changers” are the new ones, the weak ones, the young ones, and the backsliding ones; it’s not the leading brothers or the serving ones who are the bankers, but the weaker ones.

Maybe we know of someone who got offended with the church, or who is going through a very tough situation; such a one will be very much shepherded when a saint comes to him (not an elder or a serving one, but a regular saint) to talk to him, spend time with him, and pray with him and for him.

We may not be like the five-talented or three-talented ones, who are capable and can generate “business ideas” to invest and gain more; at least we can invest our one talent into these dear young ones, weak ones, backsliding ones, and in all the saints.

We may know of some dormant saints, some who lost their interest in the meetings, and some who just don’t have anyone who visits them or contacts them; we need to bring such ones in prayer before the Lord, and He will show us how to care for them and how to minister something of Christ into them.

As we contact and have fellowship with others by being one with the Lord in cherishing them with His presence and nourishing them with His riches, we will spontaneously use our talent. If each one of us uses our talent and cares for one person in the church life, it will make a big difference in the church life.

Then, when the Lord comes, He will recover what was His with interest as the profitable result that we gain for the Lord’s work by using the Lord’s gift. Amen, may we be such ones!

Lord Jesus, we believe that You have given us a talent, a spiritual gift, and that You have entrusted us with Your possessions – the gospel, the truth, the church, and the saints, together with all the sinners, for all these are Yours. Amen, Lord, we don’t want to bury our talent by getting involved with earthly things. We want to use our talent to take care of others. Shine on us, Lord, and show us who to care for, who to be concerned for, with the view of ministering Christ to them. May we invest our talent with the new ones, the weak ones, the young ones, and the backsliding ones, so that we may gain a profit for You! May we contact and have fellowship with others by being one with the Lord in cherishing them with His presence and nourishing them with His riches, so that we may use our talent. Amen, Lord, we want to be those who bring in profit for You at Your return, so that we may enter into Your joy!

May we be those who Receive the Reward at the Lord’s Coming by being Faithful in Using His Gift to the Fullest Extent

When many believers hear of a “talent” which the Lord gave us, they may think of an ability such as singing, playing an instrument, speaking eloquently, doing miracles, etc.

But a talent or a spiritual gift doesn’t refer mainly to such things; rather, it refers to the gift that the Lord gave us, the spiritual gift which issues out of the divine life which grows and develops in each believer in Christ.

The more we grow in life, the more a certain function, a certain spiritual gift, is being developed.

And we need to spend much time with the Lord, enjoy Him, and discover what our spiritual gift is simply by functioning in the meetings, opening our mouth to speak to the saints and the new ones, and using our gift.

When the Lord comes back, He will settle accounts with us; this signifies the Lord’s judging at His judgment seat (2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10) in the air (within His parousia) where the believers’ living, conduct, and work will be judged for reward or punishment (1 Cor. 4:5; Matt. 16:27; 25:19; 1 Cor. 3:13-15).

With regards to our eternal salvation, we have no problem – we are eternally saved, and that’s settled.

However, whether we are suffering a dispensational discipline in the next age or we will be rewarded by the Lord at His return, that remains to be seen, for it depends on how we served the Lord in our lifetime on earth.

Each one of us will give an account to the Lord at His return, and His reward is not related to the size or quantity of our work, but to our faithfulness in using His gift to the fullest extent.

The reward will be Christ Himself as our crown of life, crown of righteousness, and crown of glory, for our enjoyment in the coming kingdom (Matt. 25:23; Rev. 2:10; James 1:12; 2 Tim. 4:8; 1 Pet. 5:4).

This is such a comforting word for us all, for we shouldn’t be jealous of the two or five-talented ones – God gave each one of us at least a talent, so we need to be faithful in using the Lord’s gift to the fullest extent to gain a profit for Him.

We may not be able to bring in five more talents with our one talent, but we can surely invest our one talent to bring in one more talent.

But if we just bring our one talent back to the Lord, no matter what our excuse is, He will scold us and punish us. Oh, Lord!

It’s not the amount or quantity that the Lord is looking for, but our faithfulness in using His gift.

We shouldn’t horde our gift; we shouldn’t hold it or hide it, but invest it, transmit it, by being interested in others, and it will collect some interest, and we will be rewarded by the Lord.

In the coming kingdom, the Lord’s gift will be taken away from the slothful believers, and they will be cast into outer darkness; however, the faithful believers’ gift will be increased, and they will enter into the joy of their master (Matt. 25:21, 23).

For us to be rewarded by the Lord at His return is for us to enter into the joy of our Master – the greatest reward we can receive, even greater than any glory or position, is to participate in the Lord’s reward.

Amen, this is what we desire, to participate in the joy of our Master!

May the Lord have mercy on us that we may be His faithful slaves who take care of their master’s commission to give food to His household and to exercise the Lord’s gift, the talent, which He has already given to us.

Lord Jesus, we want to be those faithful in using the Lord’s gift to the fullest extent by caring for others, being interested in them, and ministering Christ to them. May our service to You be in the light of Your return, realizing that Your coming will bring in either dispensational discipline or reward at Your judgment seat in the air. Oh Lord Jesus, have mercy on us that we may be the faithful slaves who use Your gift to the fullest extent and bring You profit at Your return. May we be those every day caring for others, investing our spiritual gift in being concerned for them and ministering Christ to them, so that we may be rewarded by You at Your return. Our desire is to enter into Your joy at Your second and imminent return!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Matthew, msg. 66 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Christian Life, the Church Life, the Consummation of the Age, and the Coming of the Lord (2020 fall ITERO), week 4, Being Faithful in Service.
• Further reading on this topic: Recommending, The parable of the talents, via Affirmation and Critique (the word of righteousness).
• Hymns on this topic:
  – We’d experience Christ daily, / Him we would constantly pursue. / Our pursuing has a purpose / To build His Body is our view. / Occupy us for Your Body. / Grace supplying, You afford. / Always bearing, always caring, / By Your grace we’d be outpoured. (Song on, Outpoured for His Body)
  – The day approaches; Jesus soon is coming. / Redeem the time; it must not slip away. / Lord, make us ready for the cry: “Behold Him!” / By using every moment of each day. (Hymns #1307)
  – For His servants Christ will come / And reward each faithful one; / Slothful ones will be undone— / Serve in time! / Make your single talent count, / All self’s problems now surmount, / Serve with Christ, the living fount— / Serve in time! (Hymns #1304)