Talents: The Currency of The Kingdom

If one reads the Bible they will quickly see a pattern of people specifically set aside by God for specific tasks. These tasks are usually aligned with their natural inclinations. In the case of Nehemiah and Ezra they were gifted in administration and planning. Samson was gifted in strength and Luke was a great physician and historian. Even Jesus did what was necessary to fulfill the sovereign plan of God. It is no accident that these types of people ended up doing the things they did at the time and places they did. That is because the other pattern we see in the Bible is that God is sovereign and puts people and circumstances together where needed to accomplish His ends. At times it is difficult to see where the natural inclination ends and the true gifts begin.

Every Christian is responsible for making his own contribution for the good of other Christians and the world (1 Cor. 12:7, 11, 28). If they are in fact gifts in a traditional sense the people that possess them are therefore stewards of them. God is investing them in us for divine gain. The Bible is clear that we are to use our gifts (like finances) to get a better return on investment so to speak (Matthew 25:14-30). It is ironic and a play on words to call gifts a spiritual talent. A talent also being the word for a unit of weight and coin, used by the ancient Romans and Greeks. That’s because our gifts act as skills and currency in the world and God’s economy. The more talent we have the more the weight of responsibility comes to bear on the possessor of those talents. In Jesus’ Parable of the Talents (Bags of Gold) are given to a servant. The gold or finances are given to the servant with the expectation that they will be used and not just squirreled away. As goes the servant's finances (talents), so too the servant's gifts (talents).

[Insert ironic chuckle here]

The Giver of talents expects that every talent (gift or coin) shall be traded so as to gain something. If two are given, it is expected the trader will make other two; if ten are given, the result looked for is other ten, and so on. The fruit tree that occupies the fertilized soil, and has had most time, cost, and labor bestowed upon it, is expected to yield the most fruit. If given gifts it’s expected you’re a sound investment. No one gets talents/gifts by accident. To whom much is given, much is required. God had done great things for Eli and for David, and from them God expected greater returns of duty and obedience in their lives; but when they failed, God was sorely displeased with them and curses fell upon them. Solomon having received much offended God when he had no answerable returns to give God and instead pursued pagan wives and their gods.

God gives to some many gifts, both of nature and of grace. He gives some much more knowledge, learning, wisdom, riches, honors, offices, places, time, liberty and choices. Some may even get special providences and dispensations which others do not get. It isn’t that these people are lucky or more deserving so much as given much more responsibility. God will expect much more of those bequeathed these loads of talent than those he does not give them to. If no suitable returns are made on them it will provoke God. 

Regardless of one’s allotment of talents, no one is freed from making returns of duty to God. If you received many you will inevitably need to invest much more time and effort into gaining a return. It will require devotion of time, material and resources. Sometimes everything that person has...or more than they expect.

Every Christian should ask himself the question: For what am I best qualified? Upon discovering that talent or stumbling upon it the person should recognize that the discovery was in reality an indication from God in his providence that this area or gift is appointed to them for the duty of furthering God’s Kingdom (getting a return on investment). It may be to visit the sick or the disenfranchised. It may be the task of expressing sympathy with the destitute or the bereaved. Maybe it is to give aid to those in distress. Perhaps it is to counsel the naïve, gullible or inexperienced...those exposed to strong temptation. Perhaps something wholly different like carrying on spiritual conversation to blue collar and white collar alike to lift them to a greater spiritual understanding that they are not capable of on their own because they don’t study Scripture. It could be to be a prayer warrior for those that neglect prayer in their daily lives. The list goes on…there are endless needs of mankind living in a spiritually destitute world cut adrift from morality in sin.

Could it be that the very fact that talents, the gifts and the finances being unevenly distributed is intentional? What seems like a horrible injustice or irregularity is also part of the greater plan? What seems at first to a great irregularity is really the best means that could be devised for knitting and cementing together the body of Christians in one whole. Those Christians who are rich in gifts or finances know they are debtors to God who is their benefactor in both gift or finances (and salvation) through grace. The poor who God has made dependent on others are indebted to God for salvation and talents passed on to them from God through those rich among them. The rich are called upon to exercise grace on the poor just as God does to all men. The poor Christian understands their situation and so become bound to the rich Christian in gratitude. The rich conversely understand that destitution is only one bad decision or one day away. It should breed a divine humility in both. No one is promised good fortune in this life and rich and poor alike should be aware of this. Their roles could be reversed in an instant (read Job).

Foremost, the Parable of the Talents and passages on spiritual gifts teaches us the exact same thing. We are put on Earth to work and bring about the Kingdom of God through our work. That work will include gifts we are specifically endowed with to help complete said work. Talents being the primary currency to perpetuate God's Kingdom. God rewards those who put considerable effort into bettering their lives and the lives of those in community. Gifts/talents given to us when used and invest properly increase the return God invested in us. God does not command us to bury our talents and sit back, awaiting salvation. Rather, we are commanded to use what we have to make the world a better place. It is not each servant's job to compare gifts to those of the others, but instead we're to be grateful for and make the most what we did receive for our and other's benefit. We will be held accountable for how the talents were used. We should recognize the talents we receive, and make the most of them. Even seemingly small deposits can make a big difference when properly handled. In variably everyone will receive the same reward in the end: Salvation.

Addendum

As I scanned over this one last time, I realized that I was assuredly spending one of my talents that the Lord gave me. He bestowed on me a gift for words. As it is currency in the kingdom, like currency I pay it forward in ideas formed of words. I weave words and am a wordsmith. I start with a rough lump of an idea or ore and hammer/parse it away until a completed figure of thought or refined impression remains. 

A discussion on the interplay of the words talent and gift were not my intention when I began writing. I had merely intended to write on the spiritual gifts and try to distinguish where natural talent ended and God’s gift began. What is practiced skill? How much of this is God-given natural talent (Proverbs 22:6) ...and how much is the pure work of the Spirit? At what point on the continuum does/did the Spirit take over? 

Halfway through I began to see the irony and paradoxical nature of the words gift and talent and the reader got this post instead of my original intent. I realize now at the end, somewhere between the time I started typing and the end the Spirit took over. I didn’t write this (at all)…I’m not smart enough or talented enough. This addendum isn’t even the end I had envisioned when I started. Every time I type or write I just end up accumulating more written evidence of the Spirit working in me and through me to produce these ends. I take no credit for this post. I can’t, I failed English twice in high school. It was Him all along…from the first letter to the last…the Alpha and the Omega.