Stewardship in the Kingdom

March 5

In Matthew 25, Jesus makes another reference to eschatology in his Parable of the Virgins. Ten virgins waited for the groom to arrive for a wedding, five of whom had extra oil for their lamps. When the groom arrived, all of them trimmed their lamps, but the five foolish virgins, who didn’t have enough oil, begged the others to share their oil with them. Of course, the wise virgins had extra oil, but not enough to share. The foolish virgins went to buy oil, but when they returned and tried to enter the wedding feast, the groom said, “I don’t know you”, a throwback to what Jesus said in Matthew 7:23.

Half of the virgins were ready for the groom to arrive, and half were not ready. As I said in a previous devotional, believers must always be ready for Jesus’ return, though we don’t know when that will be. When Judgment Day comes, only those who are ready—only those who have a relationship with the Groom, those known by the Groom—will be forever with Him.

Next, Jesus tells His disciples the Parable of the Talents. Oftentimes, believers read this parable and think it’s unfair for the master to take the only talent he had given to one of the servants, while he celebrated the talents doubled by the other two servants. “Even what he has will be taken away.” (Matthew 25:29) Was the master unjust in punishing that servant?

As always, there are keys within this parable that help us makes sense of things when we see them. At the beginning, the master gave his own possessions to his servants “according to each one’s ability” (v. 15) This tells us that the master knew the ability of each of one of his servants. He knew better than to give five talents to the foolish servant, knowing he wouldn’t (and couldn’t) handle that weight of responsibility.

So how much was a talent? A talent was a measure of a precious metal. A talent weighed between 58 and 80 pounds. One source I checked said that one talent was worth about six thousand days’ wages. Given that there are three-hundred twelve workdays in a year (fifty-two weeks times six days per week), that’s a lot of money, and that’s just one talent!

The master gave the other servants two and five talents to steward, again according to each one’s ability. This was a very rich master! So, the master, having entrusted talents to each of these three servants, departed for a journey.

Jesus tells us that immediately the faithful servants went and put the talents to work, (vv. 15—17) while the foolish servant dug a hole in the ground and buried the single talent he had been given by his master.

When the master returned, he called his servants to give an account for what they had done with the talents entrusted to them. The servant who had been given five talents had doubled the five talents. The servant who had been given two talents also doubled his two talents. Both were rewarded for their faithfulness.

When the third servant was called to account, the servant blamed his laziness on the master. Obviously, this accusation was a lie, as we can see from the master’s entrusting the servants with so much. Then the foolish servant told how he had buried his talent, and the master rebuked him, saying he should have at least invested the talent at the bank to earn interest. Finally, the one talent which had been entrusted to the foolish servant was taken and given to the wisest of the servants, and the foolish servant was banished to the outer darkness.

So, why was the master just in his judgment? Notice, the talents belonged to the master:
v. 14 his possessions according to each’s ability
v. 18 his master’s money
v 25 your talent; you have what is yours
v. 26 my money
v. 27 my money; my money

The talent removed from the foolish servant was never his; all eight talents remained the property of the master throughout the parable. Again, all three servants had been entrusted with talents according to each one’s ability.

Application

The parable (and really, the whole chapter) is about stewardship.

God gives each believer at least one spiritual gift, in addition to being wired with an individual personality type. The combination of gift(s) and personality is unique, and no two believers are identical. Each of us contributes to the Kingdom differently, and according to each one’s ability.

What gift(s) and personality type did God give you? Based on the gift(s) and personality wiring God gave you, what does He expect of you? How can you use your gifting and individuality to the glory of God?

Are you a good steward of God’s goodness and generosity? If you have been foolish, now is a good time to put your gift(s) and personality to work.

© Copyright 2026 Craig Beaman