The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Nelly Kaye of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, from the tape, GC 1301-E, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 7." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1976. All Rights Reserved.
Question
How do you interpret the parable of Matthew 25:14-30 [The Parable of the
Talents]?
Answer
And this is a parable that has caused some interpretive problems, but let me just go through it hastily without getting a lot of detail just tell you what it’s about.
“For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants,” You’ll notice the kingdom of heaven is in italics there. Which means it was added to clarify that He is talking about the kingdom. The kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven is like a man who takes a long trip and calls his servants and delivers them his goods. In other words, he’s going to entrust his estate to his servants. “To one he gave five talents,” maybe a $160 or so, maybe $200 with inflation. “To another he gave two talents, to another one, to every man according to his ability and he went away. Then he that had received the five talents traded with the same, and made five more. And likewise he that had received two, he also gained two more. But he that had received one went and dug in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the man came back and started to take account. The man with five came,” in verse 20, “and brought another five. He said, 'Lord you gave me five talents I have gained besides five more.' His lord said, 'Well done good and faithful servant. You’ve been faithful over a few things I will make you ruler over many things, enter the joy of your lord.' He also that had received two talents came and said, 'Lord, you delivered to me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents besides. His lord said, 'Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”
Now what you have here is simple, the master is Christ, the servants are subjects in His kingdom, and I think in His broad kingdom, His universal kingdom. They’re just human beings and their talents are capacities for glorifying God. And God has said to them you have capacity to glorify Me. The capacity may vary. And the first two servants took their capacity to glorify their Lord and they did it. And when He came back He said I will make you ruler over many. What He is really doing to them is saying the kingdom is like this, if you will take advantage of opportunity that God gives you to glorify Him, you will be a part of His kingdom. And when He says enter the joy of your Lord, He is saying you have been saved. That is the point of salvation. They’re not Christians until then. They are human beings who are given the opportunity to invest their life in glorifying God. When they do it they become a part of His Kingdom, and they receive His eternal joy. It’s like the catechism says, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and...” what? “...enjoy Him forever.” You glorify Me, I’ll give you joy.
But there's a third man here. And he symbolizes the unbelieving people of the world. And he said, “Lord,” verse 24, “I know you are an hard man, reaping where you haven't sown, and gathering where you have not...” and he gives a lot of this dialogue about his mistrust of God. “And I was afraid, and I hid it in the earth,” in other words, he did nothing with the opportunity to glorify God. To glorify and honor His Lord. “You wicked, slothful servant, you knew that I reaped where I sowed not, and gathered where I had not spread, you should therefore have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with interest. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it to him which hath ten talents. For everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away that which he hath. And cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” That’s obviously hell.
Question (continued)
Does this mean the man lost his salvation?
Answer
No, he never gained it. The Lord never said to him, "You shall rule over many in My kingdom" and He never said, "You'll enter into joy of the Lord. Because the man never used the opportunity for glorifying God that God gave him. Now that’s the simple explanation of the parable.
And believe me folks, the best way to interpret a parable is as simple as possible. The further tangled into the parable you get the more problems you are going to have. You know there are sermons on what the five talents were, talent one was this, and talent…there’s no sense in that, just take the general thrust of the story in most cases. And don’t try to make something out of every little, tiny, thing. The general thrust, we’ve tried to cover in just the statement that we’ve made.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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