This is part 2 in this series. Part 1 can be found here.

What God entrusts to us

For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. — Matthew 25:14

Jesus told a parable about a master who entrusted his possessions to his servants. In the story, the master represented God, and the servants represented Jesus’ followers—like you and me. We should ask then: What are God’s possessions that He entrusts to us?

Psalm 24:1 says that the earth belongs to the the Lord, including the people and everything dwelling therein. That’s a roundabout way of saying God owns everything. Perhaps the best way to think about for the purpose of this post is that all the people, places, and things of the earth belong to God.

Jesus is saying in this parable that God is giving each of us some of those people, places, and things to be responsible for during our time on the earth.

Earthly responsibility includes responsibility for our family and our ministry. But as mentioned in Part 1, we don’t struggle with understanding what it means to be good stewards of our family or our ministry. It seems self-evident.

Where we need guidance is in our work, and if the Parable of the Talents has immediate relevance to any of these three areas, it is our work. The very example Jesus gives that forms a metaphor for earthly responsibility is with regard to the labor of the three servants.

Responsibility flows toward competence

To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. — Matthew 25:15

The possessions the man entrusts to his servants are a measure of weight in silver or gold called “talents.” We don’t know exactly how much a talent was, except that it was a very large amount. So, to modernize the story, imagine the master giving to one servant five million dollars, to another two million dollars, and to a third, one million dollars.

So far, so good. But here is where it gets interesting. The first servant received five times as much responsibility as the third servant and more than twice as much as the second servant. As this distribution of responsibility is occurring, Jesus’ listeners were almost certainly wondering how the master determined how much to give each servant.

Then the answer comes: He gave to each according to his own ability.

The two parts of ability

The Greek word translated as ability here is “dynamis.” It refers to the capability, capacity, or power to accomplish something. “Ability” involves skill and craft, but it is more than skill. It involves capacity and capability as well.

The ability to do anything generally consists of two parts. The first, our innate ability—our natural gifting, hardwiring, and physical and mental capacity for the task. Some people are more gifted for certain tasks than others, but when it comes to work, and certainly with regard to the professions, innate ability on its own is rarely sufficient to do a job well. It must be developed. Innate ability that is not developed is merely potential.

 And that leads to the other part of ability. That is our developed ability—the skill and craft we have developed with our innate ability through training, experience, and practice. One who has only moderate natural talent may still become highly skilled through development, but no one becomes truly excellent without developed ability.  

Therefore, that the master gives to each according to his own ability should be comforting. It means the Lord doesn’t entrust us with more responsibility than we can competently discharge.

He calls us to develop our craft

At the same time, as we will see, the master rewards the servants according to what they accomplished. This demonstrates that we are called to develop our innate ability so we can be the best we can be.  In other words, we are stewards of our innate ability and how we develop that ability.

Interestingly, the world works the same way in how it distributes responsibility. That’s why professional athletes, actors, and CEOs who are regarded as the best generally command the highest salaries. In a tight playoff game, the coach is going to draw up the play so LeBron James gets the ball, not the reserve player who sees only a few minutes a night. Responsibility flow towards demonstrated ability both in the world and in the Kingdom.

Proverbs says it like this: 

Do you see a man skilled in work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men. — Proverbs 22:29.

So, rather than condemn this unequal distribution of responsibility, the Bible embraces it. The better you are at your job, the more responsibility that will be entrusted to you, and that is a good thing. 

 In other words, excellence is not vanity, and competence is not worldliness. Developed ability is stewardship.

Click here for Part 3. GS