The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-8, titled "Questions and Answers--Part 36."  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. Copyright 2001 by John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

In one of your heaven sermons, you were talking about how we’re going to “serve” up in heaven. You said something about, "If we’re faithful in what we do on earth, we’re going to have more of a capacity to be faithful in heaven." Well, I was wondering; the story about the talents, where you have these three guys and the master gives them talents and stuff…and one of them is the most faithful or something, and he goes out and gets lots more talents and comes back and the master loves him to death. So, I was wondering if it’s going to be that [way], when we have a greater capacity to be faithful in heaven, it’s going to be the same way, like, with the talents?

Answer

Yes, it is. Remember the first guy? He was given five talents--made ten. The second guy was give two talents--doubled it. And then the last guy did nothing with his opportunity. All God asks is that you use the capacity He gives you to the fullest. There are some five-talent people, some ten-talent people, some four, some three, some seven, some eight, some whatever. All God asks is that you give Him all you have and in the life to come, He’ll maximize your capability there.

Now, do we all have different talents in the church? Sure we do. Do we hate each other for that? Do you resent somebody who can teach God’s Word? Does somebody who teaches God’s Word resent someone who is unusually gifted at, perhaps, sharing Christ with unsaved people? Does he resent somebody who gives generously as the gift of giving? Does that person resent someone who has the gift of...No! We see all the blending beautifully of God’s design. And we all know that whatever it is we do, we have that ability because who gave it to us? God! So we don’t take any credit anyway.

The same thing will be true in eternity. We’ll all have different functions and different standards of service, but nobody is going to be concerned about that. Everybody is going to understand that that was all a gift from God, and since there won’t be sin in there anyway, there couldn’t be any jealously or envy. So people say, “Well, boy, aren’t we all going to be exactly the same in heaven?” No, we’ll have all kinds of different capacities, dependant on how God designed us and how well we fulfill our design here, and that will determine how we will be useful to Him in the future.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
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