Mat 25:24 | KingComments | STEP | There is a big contrast between the slave with one talent and the other two slaves. The slave with one talent also comes to his master, but his story is different. He speaks to the master as a hard master. He has observed things about his master and formulated his own completely misplaced conclusion. He has judged his master from a disobedient and lazy attitude. Then you will get scared. Out of fear he has despised his master’s talent. He didn’t want it when he got it and he still doesn’t want it. He brings it to his master to hand it back to him as a worthless and even contemptible talent. The master designates the slave as wicked and lazy. He is a “wicked” slave because he did not do what his master said. He is a “lazy” slave because he did not make any effort. He put his own interest above that of his master. The master says to him that the knowledge he believed to possess about his master should have led him to act wisely. Then he would not have put that money in the ground, but, at the very least, brought it to the bank. At least then it would still have generated interest. But people who are wicked and lazy come to the wrong conclusions and those conclusions encourage them to act wrongly. The master determines that the one talent should be given to him who has ten. The master lets him keep the profits of the five and he gets one more. That one talent is better spent on him. The Lord always acts according to this principle. He who has and acts faithfully with it, gets more and comes to abundance. He who does not have, has what he thinks he has taken from him. What he has, he owns wrongly. It is not his property, because it is his master’s who has given it to him to act with it. The slave is thrown into the outer darkness because of his uselessness. How bad it is to be useless. We may sometimes feel useless, but we are not. Therefore this parable is an exhortation to work with what the Lord has given us. Those who think they have received ‘only’ one talent must be extra vigilant against the danger of being wicked and lazy. The Lord distributes sovereignly and it is the love for the Lord that motivates us to work for Him with every talent we have received from Him. The outer darkness is the place farthest removed from God. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. In that outer darkness man is completely left to himself, without one ray of light. He can only weep and gnash his teeth there because of the remorse that he was wicked and lazy during his life. That remorse will torment him forever.

‏ Matthew 25:24

The Wicked, Lazy Slave

There is a big contrast between the slave with one talent and the other two slaves. The slave with one talent also comes to his master, but his story is different. He speaks to the master as a hard master. He has observed things about his master and formulated his own completely misplaced conclusion. He has judged his master from a disobedient and lazy attitude. Then you will get scared. Out of fear he has despised his master’s talent. He didn’t want it when he got it and he still doesn’t want it. He brings it to his master to hand it back to him as a worthless and even contemptible talent.

The master designates the slave as wicked and lazy. He is a “wicked” slave because he did not do what his master said. He is a “lazy” slave because he did not make any effort. He put his own interest above that of his master. The master says to him that the knowledge he believed to possess about his master should have led him to act wisely. Then he would not have put that money in the ground, but, at the very least, brought it to the bank. At least then it would still have generated interest. But people who are wicked and lazy come to the wrong conclusions and those conclusions encourage them to act wrongly.

The master determines that the one talent should be given to him who has ten. The master lets him keep the profits of the five and he gets one more. That one talent is better spent on him. The Lord always acts according to this principle. He who has and acts faithfully with it, gets more and comes to abundance. He who does not have, has what he thinks he has taken from him. What he has, he owns wrongly. It is not his property, because it is his master’s who has given it to him to act with it.

The slave is thrown into the outer darkness because of his uselessness. How bad it is to be useless. We may sometimes feel useless, but we are not. Therefore this parable is an exhortation to work with what the Lord has given us. Those who think they have received ‘only’ one talent must be extra vigilant against the danger of being wicked and lazy. The Lord distributes sovereignly and it is the love for the Lord that motivates us to work for Him with every talent we have received from Him.

The outer darkness is the place farthest removed from God. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. In that outer darkness man is completely left to himself, without one ray of light. He can only weep and gnash his teeth there because of the remorse that he was wicked and lazy during his life. That remorse will torment him forever.