Everyone got this Parable wrong!

[Helmut-WK]

Money is probably not a good one as the entity is seen mostly negatively in New Testament scriptures. Accumulation of money is more a bad thing than a good one.

I know of no church where this parable is explained as a parable about money. One may say that the "talents" acquired are not necessarily the same sort of talents as the "talents" given back to the Lord, so one may apply the parable to money (among other things) spent for the Lord. But the "profit for the Lord" is not monetary, I never heard such a doctrine in church.

A "prosperity gospel" that allows such an interpretation is a weird thing.

 

[Danthemailman]

The talents represent monetary value and are distributed according to ability (verse 15). The requirement is to invest in Christ. The first two servants deposited their money with the bankers (Matthew 25:27) but the third servant buried his money in the ground (verse 25). The third servant had been given abilities and the opportunity to believe and bear fruit in accordance, but had chosen to reject it.

The fact that the latter man in this parable is called "wicked" and "slothful" and an "unprofitable" servant (Matthew 25:30) who is "cast out into outer darkness," certainly indicates that he was not a true disciple of the master. True believers will produce fruit in varying degrees. All believers are fruitful, but not all are equally fruitful (Matthew 13:23). Those who produce no results at all are not truly converted.

This man's characterization of the master maligns him as "reaping and gathering" what he had no right to claim as his own. This slothful so-called servant does not represent a genuine believer, for it is obvious that this man had no true knowledge of the master. Two of these servants were children of God, but not the third. Children of God are not cast out into outer darkness. The fact that this man is called a "servant" does not necessarily mean that he was saved. The children of Israel/Jews were called the Lord’s servants, but they were not all saved.

*Isaiah 43:10 - "You are My witnesses," says the Lord, And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me.

*Leviticus 25:55 - For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

 

[Strong in Him]

Abilities is an acceptable interpretation, although it falls short in some cases.

Money is probably not a good one as the entity is seen mostly negatively in New Testament scriptures. Accumulation of money is more a bad thing than a good one.

It doesn't necessarily mean money for us today; but a talent, in those days, definitely was money.
As I said, the moral is that whatever you are given (implication, by God), you can either use and increase, or hide and risk losing it altogether. So the common application is; use your gifts etc for God.
Two of the men proved to be faithful in their stewardship of the money they were given. They used their initiative and business sense, increased it and made profits for their master. The final servant his the money he had been given. The master didn't lose out; he received exactly the same amount back. But he could have received more back - at the very least, interest from the bank.

 

[timewerx]

It doesn't necessarily mean money for us today; but a talent, in those days, definitely was money.
As I said, the moral is that whatever you are given (implication, by God), you can either use and increase, or hide and risk losing it altogether. So the common application is; use your gifts etc for God.
Two of the men proved to be faithful in their stewardship of the money they were given. They used their initiative and business sense, increased it and made profits for their master. The final servant his the money he had been given. The master didn't lose out; he received exactly the same amount back. But he could have received more back - at the very least, interest from the bank.

The deceitfulness of wealth, the love of money being the root of all evil.

And the lack of money in the beginning with Adam and Eve and the return to moneyless paradise when Jesus returns.

Is why I think the interpretation of money on that parable really falls short.

The good stewardship of money is ONLY determnined on where you spend your money not on how much you accummulate - Parable of the Widow's Mite.

Everything in context, it really can't be about money.

 

[Strong in Him]

The deceitfulness of wealth, the love of money being the root of all evil.

And the lack of money in the beginning with Adam and Eve and the return to moneyless paradise when Jesus returns.

Is why I think the interpretation of money on that parable really falls short.

The good stewardship of money is ONLY determnined on where you spend your money not on how much you accummulate - Parable of the Widow's Mite.

Everything in context, it really can't be about money.

Sorry, but either you didn't read or you didn't understand what I said.
In those days, a talent was money - fact.
Jesus told a parable about how 3 servants used, or not, the money they had been given. 2 of them used it wisely to make more money for their master; they used their initiative and business sense to increase their master's wealth. The last servant didn't; he was lazy, but he didn't even have the sense to put the money in the bank where it would have earned interest without him having to do anything. He was condemned for this. It would have taken very little effort to take the money to a bank, but he didn't; he buried it in the ground - which was risky because it could have been stolen - and then gave it back to his master.

Parables do not have to be taken literally to teach us truth - this one doesn't mean that God will give us bags of money and then be pleased with us when we make even more. But he has given us skills, talents and opportunities and he wants us to use them for good and not waste them; the moral of the parable is that if we are given something by someone else, we have a responsibility to use it.

Paul teaches this when he teaches about Spiritual gifts; if someone's gift is serving, let him serve, if it is teaching, let him teach, if it is giving, let him give generously, Romans 12:6-8. God DOES give some people the ability to make money - so that they can share it and provide for others and the church. But the parable of the talents is not about us having money.

 

[timewerx]

Sorry, but either you didn't read or you didn't understand what I said.
In those days, a talent was money - fact.
Jesus told a parable about how 3 servants used, or not, the money they had been given. 2 of them used it wisely to make more money for their master; they used their initiative and business sense to increase their master's wealth. The last servant didn't; he was lazy, but he didn't even have the sense to put the money in the bank where it would have earned interest without him having to do anything. He was condemned for this. It would have taken very little effort to take the money to a bank, but he didn't; he buried it in the ground - which was risky because it could have been stolen - and then gave it back to his master.

Parables do not have to be taken literally to teach us truth - this one doesn't mean that God will give us bags of money and then be pleased with us when we make even more. But he has given us skills, talents and opportunities and he wants us to use them for good and not waste them; the moral of the parable is that if we are given something by someone else, we have a responsibility to use it.

Paul teaches this when he teaches about Spiritual gifts; if someone's gift is serving, let him serve, if it is teaching, let him teach, if it is giving, let him give generously, Romans 12:6-8. God DOES give some people the ability to make money - so that they can share it and provide for others and the church. But the parable of the talents is not about us having money.

"Abilities" interpretation is probably okay....

However, one big problem is that it doesn't always live up to the interpretation in practice.

We do have pretty strong examples in the New Testament that Jesus always favor disciples who care more about the Truth than springing into action.

Two disciples who love the Truth more than anything is Mary Magdalene and John the Beloved. Ironically, the rest seemed envious of these two for earning Christ's favor despite having done the least (in the eyes of men)....

But then again, "the first will be the last and the last will be the first applies here".

The way of the world is "grab the opportunity, right now..." fast, paced, getting ahead, only concerned for the reward (or avoiding the negative consequences of missing it).....

It isn't the Christian way.

 

[Strong in Him]

"Abilities" interpretation is probably okay....

However, one big problem is that it doesn't always live up to the interpretation in practice.

The MORAL of the parable is that if you are given something, you can either use it wisely, make the most of it, put it to work or whatever and increase it, or you can bury it. If we are given things, we can use them for other people's benefits and share, or hide them and keep them all to ourselves.

We could apply that to our skills and abilities, or money, our homes, food, clothes etc. A popular fund raising event when I was young, and I think it is still done today, was to give children money and see how much more they could make from it. E.g buying ingredients with it to make cakes which you then sell; using it to buy seeds and selling the plants, or buy cleaning materials and then going to clean people's houses. If you were given £5 and you made £25 from selling cakes, then that was a profit of £20 which went to charity. On top of that was the challenge to be as inventive as possible and make as much money as possible.
Or you might say that God has given you the gift of music, for example - do you then share that gift with others, use it for their enjoyment and benefit, or keep it just for you and hide it from everyone else?
Some people might say, "the Lord has given me two houses. I'm going to use one to help other people; either by selling it and giving the money away, or by turning it into a homeless shelter/charity shop or whatever.

 

[timewerx]

The MORAL of the parable is that if you are given something, you can either use it wisely, make the most of it, put it to work or whatever and increase it, or you can bury it. If we are given things, we can use them for other people's benefits and share, or hide them and keep them all to ourselves.

Unfortunately, many who takes this interpretation seriously, spring into action without careful thought of the consequences of their actions.

So they end up doing more harm than good, despite having the best intentions for everyone.

The results speak for itself why Christianity only have very little impact to our world despite being the majority religion. It's been a huge waste of effort and resources.

 

[Strong in Him]

Unfortunately, many who takes this interpretation seriously, spring into action without careful thought of the consequences of their actions.

In what way

So they end up doing more harm than good, despite having the best intentions for everyone.

How does the message, "use the gifts that you have been given, rather than hiding them, and keeping them for yourself, hurt anyone?

The results speak for itself why Christianity only have very little impact to our world despite being the majority religion.

The thing that has an impact on the world is when Christians use the gifts that God has given them - and in doing so, are given, or discover, others and end up doing far more than they ever thought they could.
If you use what you have been given, you will be given more, - "those who have much will receive more." You have proved faithful with a few things, you will be given responsibility for many.

I don't understand how you say that this does harm and is a waste of resources.

 

[timewerx]

How does the message, "use the gifts that you have been given, rather than hiding them, and keeping them for yourself, hurt anyone?

It falls way too short in achieving an ideal result. It often misses the mark. Most end up acting (using their abilities) based upon a doctrine that's never been collectively held in scrutiny for thousands of years.

So Yes, it's a huge problem. It explains the many problems we have in Christianity today, include many deep divisions, many denominations, corruption among our ranks, worldliness, etc.

Truth First before trying to use our abilities. The ONLY ability that would probably matter with the Truth is Critical Thinking. Most Christians despise the idea due to association with Atheists, unbelievers, etc. But the hypocrisy of this position is that even Christians use critical thinking in other areas of their life. They don't realize it also applies to seeking the Truth, studying the Bible, etc. If it's worthless, why use it all?

In this world of lies, knowing the Truth can take a quite a bit of time. Many Christians don't have the patience to endure such a long time of "uselessness". They have been brainwashed by the fast-tracked ways of this world which is wrong.

Their ways belie the importance of this wisdom:

Proverbs 14:15
The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps.

 

[Strong in Him]

It falls way too short in achieving an ideal result. It often misses the mark.

What mark?
That's the message of the parable.

Most end up acting (using their abilities) based upon a doctrine that's never been collectively held in scrutiny for thousands of years.

I'm not sure what you mean by that.

So Yes, it's a huge problem.

Clearly you see it as a huge problem. I disagree with your interpretation - and I don't fully understand what you are saying - so I don't.

It explains the many problems we have in Christianity today, include many deep divisions, many denominations, corruption among our ranks, worldliness, etc.

How so?

[QUOTE="timewerx, post: 74260745, member: 314730"
Truth First before trying to use our abilities. [/QUOTE]

Abilities and gifts that we are given by GOD, which we should use for his work, Ephesians 4:11, and which one day we will have to give an account of how we used them, 1 Corinthians 3:12-14, 2 Corinthians 5:10.

[QUOTE="timewerx, post: 74260745, member: 314730"
The ONLY ability that would probably matter with the Truth is Critical Thinking. Most Christians despise the idea due to association with Atheists, unbelievers, etc. But the hypocrisy of this position is that even Christians use critical thinking in other areas of their life. They don't realize it also applies to seeking the Truth, studying the Bible, etc. If it's worthless, why use it all?
[/QUOTE]

Sorry, but I've no idea what you mean.
The parable doesn't mention truth, wisdom, studying the Bible or anything else - I don't know where you have got that from.
You say that everyone is wrong about this parable - implication, you're the ONLY one who understands it. But you seem to be giving it a meaning that isn't there; maybe it's not surprising that you are the only one who understands your own reasoning.

 

[bbbbbbb]

I have been away over the weekend and have just returned and am catching up on this very interesting thread. The nub of the matter seems to be that there are a variety of interpretations of this parable which compare money (talents) with other things (abilities, love, faith, and, yes, Truth). None of these interpretations can be disproven because the parable itself is not given an interpretation in the Bible. None, therefore, are the only possible, valid interpretation. In fact, one can come up with a multitude of other interpretations which, logically, are as valid, even though they are not very "spiritual". For example, if you think money is evil, then the master is evil because he is the one with the money and who requires his servants to make more money for him. Thus, he is guilty of not only having money, but loving it as well. If the master is interpreted as being God, then God is evil.

Chew on that for a while and see how you like that interpretation.

 

[friend of]

You're not wrong but you're not the only person who's right either