Not Hiding our Talent but using the Lord’s Gift to the Uttermost to gain a Profit for Him

As believers in Christ, we are slaves of God, and we need to trade with our talent by using the gift the Lord gave us to the fullest extent, without any loss or waste, to bring profit for Him at His imminent return.

In the aspect of life, we are like virgins waiting for the Lord’s return, and He is our dear and beloved Bridegroom.

In the aspect of service, we are slaves of God, and we have been entrusted both with the Lord’s possessions and with at least one talent, one spiritual gift, to do business until He returns.

Each one of us has been given at least one talent, according to our own ability; we all are gifted, and we all are gifts to the Body.

However, we should not “bury our talent” by not using it to make a profit for the Lord; rather, we need to invest it, trade with it, and make sure we increase it so that, when the Lord returns, we would give an account to Him and show Him the increase, the profit.

Each one of us has a certain ability, which is not just our natural ability by birth, but it is constituted of God’s creation and our learning.

So if we’re born in a low and poor situation, we can’t use this as an excuse that we didn’t have access to education, etc and that’s why we have a small ability.

Rather, as we learn, develop our skills, and are educated, the more we get into the word of God, know the gospel, and love the Lord and the saints, the more our ability is increased.

Having an increased ability means that our function is also increased.

Furthermore, our natural strength and ability become useful to God only in resurrection; God does not accept our service to Him merely by our natural strength and with our natural ability – He wants these to pass through death so that they may be useful in resurrection.

Therefore, He arranges many situations, people, and environments to deal with us, to take us through death, and to help us increase our ability; if we cooperate with the Lord by exercising our spirit and saying Amen to His dealings, we will be useful to Him in resurrection.

Our natural ability needs to pass through the cross and come up in resurrection to be used by the Lord for the building up of His Body.

We thank and praise the Lord for giving us His possessions – His gospel, His word, His church, and His believers, together with the sinners (who also belong to Him).

We thank the Lord that we can cooperate with Him to have an increased ability, and we can allow the cross to operate to terminate our natural man and bring us through death into resurrection so that we may be useful to Him.

What we desire is to be the faithful and prudent slaves of God who do business until He comes, those who use the gift that the Lord gave us, and who do not waste our gift nor the Lord’s time but gain a profit for Him before His return.

We need to Use to the Uttermost the Gift the Lord gave us to Gain Increase and Profit for Him and His Kingdom

The Lord gave each one of us a gift, a spiritual gift, and He is expecting that we invest it, trade with it, and use it to the uttermost so that we may gain an increase and make a profit for Him and His kingdom (Matt. 25:16-17; 1 Tim. 4:14; 2 Tim. 1:6; 4:5b).

All the slaves of God have been given at least one talent, one spiritual gift, each according to his own ability; for us to trade with talents is for us to use the gift that the Lord has given us.

For us to gain other talents besides the talent that He gave us signifies that the gift we received from the Lord must be used to the fullest extent, without any loss or waste.

The parable in Matt. 25 is concerning three slaves: one was given five talents, another two, and another one, and when the Lord came, the one who had five gained another five, the one who had two gained another two, and the one who had just one didn’t make any profit – he only returned the one talent.

The Lord rewarded the ones who gained a profit for Him, and He disciplined the one who didn’t. Each one of us has been given a spiritual gift by the Lord, and we need to “trade with it”, that is, invest it and gain a profit for the Lord and His kingdom.

In Matt. 24 we see that, as slaves of God, we need to give food to those in His household, giving them food at the proper time.

We need to minister the nourishing word with the riches of Christ as the life supply to those in the house of God; when the Master returns and finds us so doing, He will give us a reward.

In Matt. 25, however, we as slaves of God need to trade with the talents the Lord gave us to cause them to multiply.

So on one hand we need to feed others by giving them food at the proper time, and on the other hand, we need to multiply the Lord’s possessions.

The Lord gave us His gospel, His Word, the church, and the saints, and all the sinners are also here; we need to invest our God-given ability to know and speak the gospel, know and teach the truth, build up the church, and edify the saints.

The more we preach the gospel, the more the Lord’s possessions are multiplied, for He will gain an increase in man.

The more we speak the truth and edify the saints by ministering to them the truth we are constituted with, the more the Lord’s possessions are increased, for as we minister the truths to others, the truths multiply.

The more we function in the church meetings for the building up of the church, the more the Lord’s possessions increase, for the church is built up and the Lord’s expression is strengthened.

This is our “job” in this world as slaves of God: we need to give our fellow slaves food by ministering Christ to them, and we need to use the gift the Lord gave us to the uttermost to increase the Lord’s possessions, doing business until He comes, so that we may gain the reward.

To trade our talent means that we use it; we don’t keep it but rather, we invest it, there’s an exchange here, a transmission.

We shouldn’t merely “keep” what the Lord gave us but let it go, transmit it to others, not neglecting the gift of God which is in us but flaming it into flame, making it stronger, bigger, brighter, and more burning (1 Tim. 1:6).

Thank You, Lord, for giving us at least one spiritual gift, one talent, for us to do business until You come and gain a profit for You and Your kingdom. We want to be faithful and prudent slaves who invest our talent by using our God-given gift to the uttermost. Amen, Lord, we fan into flame our gift to stir it up, enflame it, and make it stronger, brighter, and more burning for You. We don’t want to bury our gift but rather, function in our measure in the gospel, in speaking the truth, in building up the church, and in caring for the saints and edifying them. Amen, Lord, may we be those who give food to those in Your household, and may we use our gift to the uttermost to increase the Lord’s possessions, so that we may receive a reward at Your imminent return!

Not Hiding our Talent by Rendering the Lord’s Gift Useless and Not making Excuses for Ourselves

When we read the parable in Matt. 25:16-18, we may identify ourselves with and even agree with the slothful slave, who didn’t want to risk losing the talent given by the Lord, so he hid it in the earth, and then returned it to the Lord.

It makes sense, in a way, that we would not lose what the Lord gave us but rather, keep it, and then apologize to Him when He returns that we didn’t make a profit for Him.

But this is now how things work; this is not how the Lord does things.

In contrast to the five-talented and two-talented ones, the one-talented slave went off, dug in the earth, and hid his master’s money; this signifies that he didn’t use the Lord’s gift to save people and to minister Christ’s riches to them (Matt. 25:18, 27).

The earth signifies the world; the fact that the slothful slave dug in the earth and hid his talent there means that we may be involved with the world, and we bury the gift we have received from the Lord.

We may think we’re not as talented or gifted as brother So-and-so or sister So-and-so, so we invest ourselves in the worldly things, we make a career, and we take care of our family the best way we can, yet we don’t use the Lord’s gift.

It is very easy for the seemingly “least-gifted ones” to faith to make the proper use of their gift; they may think they don’t have such a great gift, so they are involved with the world and take care of so many things regarding their home and family, but they don’t invest their gift.

The one-talented slave seemed to do well in not losing his talent, and then he excused himself saying that he knew the Lord was a harsh man who expected a profit, but at least he didn’t lose his gift, his talent.

The Lord did agree that He expected a profit from His slaves, and He did not accept the excuses of the one-talented slave.

No matter what our excuse for not using our gift is, the Lord will not accept it; He expects a profit. He has given us everything we need, He has given us both His possessions and a spiritual gift, and we need to make sure we multiply the Lord’s gift and bring Him a profit.

Our service to the Lord must issue in the feeding and satisfaction of others and in the multiplication of the talent, He has given us.

The Lord doesn’t disagree that He is a strict Master, expecting a profit in return for what He has given us; He is strict in what He demands of His slaves for His work, and because we know this, we must invest the Lord’s gift and bring a profit. In a sense, the Lord doesn’t sow, but He expects to reap, and He doesn’t winnow, yet He claims the gathering.

We may make excuses for ourselves that it’s really hard to reap or gather anything, and we may even blame the Lord for us not being able to bring a profit for Him.

But the Lord will not listen to our excuses but instead, He will cut us off from His presence and take away the gift that He has given us. Oh, Lord! What a warning this is to us!

For us to hide our master’s money signifies that we render the Lord’s gift useless, letting it lie waste under the cloak of certain earthly excuses.

For us to make any excuse for not using the Lord’s gift is for us to hide the gift. We may say we have two or even three jobs, we have three or even four children to care for, and we are so busy that we can’t really use the Lord’s gift.

Especially in the world today where people are forced to have more than one job to make ends meet, in this complicated world where the young ones work long hours and are demanded to even work weekends, it is easy to get involved with the world, dig into the earth and bury our talent there.

There’s a tendency for many young working ones to avoid bearing responsibility in the church saying that they have a family, three children, two jobs, a loan, and a mortgage to pay…Oh, Lord!

May we be those serving the Lord in the light of the Lord’s imminent return by NOT digging into the earth to bury our talent but using the Lord’s gift, asking the Lord how to prioritize our time and energy, investing our talent, and bringing a profit to the Lord!

Lord Jesus, save us from rendering the Lord’s gift useless, letting it lie waste under the cloak of certain earthly excuses. Save us from burying the talent which You gave us. Oh Lord, may our service to You be in the light of Your imminent return. We enquire of You, dear Lord, with all our busyness and the demanding job we have in the world: how to prioritize our time, dear Lord, so that we make a profit for You with the gift You gave us? Oh Lord, even as we live at the end of this age, we want to invest the gift You gave us, use it to the uttermost, and make a profit for You! Save us from making excuses for ourselves. Save us from being involved with the world to the extent that we bury our talent Oh Lord Jesus, may we heed the warning of the coming discipline that will be ours if we bury our talent! We want to be the slaves who are faithful in service both to feed and satisfy others with the riches of Christ, and to use the Lord’s gift to multiply it!

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. 65 (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:
  – 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)
  – Lord, a talent I’ve received, / Lord, through my ability, / Lord, I now begin to trade immediately, / Lord, find me good and faithful serving Thee. (Song on, Watch! Be Ready!)
  – Soon our Lord will come His servants to reward; / Those who love Him then the crown will share. / Watchful we must be and treasure not the world, / Love and serve the Lord, His burden bear. (Hymns #956)