Mateus 25

Mateus 25

Meyer - Matthew 25:24 He also that had received the one talent came.(R.V.) It is remarkable that the man who had one talent should hide it. If we had been told that he who had five had hidden one we should not have been surprised; but for the man who had only one to hide it!—this is startling; but it is true to life. The people whose talents and opportunities are very slight and slender are they who are tempted to do nothing at all. “I can do so very little; it will not make much difference if I do nothing: I shall not be missed; my tiny push is not needed to turn the scale.” That is the way they talk. They forget that an ounce-weight may turn the scales where hundred-weights are balanced. They do not realize that the last flake of white snow just oversets the gathering avalanche, and sends it into the vales beneath. Are you one of these slenderly-endowed ones? And are you doing all you can? Are you doing anything? Even though you cannot do much in your isolation, you might join with others and do much. You might invest your little all in the bank of the Church, and trade as part of that heavenly corporation. Oh, disinter your one talent! Be sure you have one; ask the Master where and what it is; place yourself at his disposal. If it is only to carry refreshment to the harvesters—do that. Be thou faithful in thy very little. We need not wait for the great future, to obtain this multiplication or withdrawal of our talents. They are already waxing or waning in our hands. There are many among us who, as life has progressed, have come into the use of powers of which at first they were perfectly ignorant; whilst others are losing, through misuse, the little they had. Limited But Useful I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. — 1 Corinthians 2:3 Today's Scripture : Matthew 25:24-28 Suzanne Bloch, an immigrant from Germany, often played chamber music with Albert Einstein and other prominent scientists. She said that Einstein, though an accomplished violinist, irritated his fellow musicians by not coming in on the beat. “You see,” Bloch explained, “he couldn’t count.” Einstein could project revolutionary theories about the cosmos, but he had difficulty with rhythmic counting. Despite his limitation, he remained an enthusiastic musician. Do we sometimes lament our limitations? We all have abilities, but we are also afflicted with inabilities. We may be tempted to use our limitations as an excuse for not doing the things God has enabled us to do. Just because we may not be gifted to speak in public or to sing in a choir doesn’t mean that we can sit on the spiritual sidelines doing nothing. Lord God, I humbly ask of You The strength to do Your will; I give to You my talents now Your purpose to fulfill. —Cetas Too many people make a mistake by burying their talents. QUESTION - What does “reaping where you have not sown” mean (Matthew 25:24)? GOTQUESTIONS.ORG ANSWER - Jesus presents the concept of “reaping where you have not sown” in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30). Through this story, Jesus prepares His disciples for future events after His death. He gives them practical guidance to help them live in continual readiness for the day of His return. In the parable, the master (who represents Jesus) is arranging to leave on a trip for an extended but unknown length of time. The master entrusts his great wealth to three of his servants. These servants are responsible to use what the master gives them wisely. The master divides his talents (units of money) among the three according to their abilities. The servants were expected to be wise stewards, carefully handling the master’s resources. The first two servants, who received larger portions of the master’s money, invested wisely and brought in a good return. They doubled the amount entrusted to them. These faithful servants obeyed and pleased their master and, in the end, were greatly rewarded (see Matthew 25: 20–23). However, the third servant, who received only a tiny portion of the master’s money, “dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money” (Matthew 25:18). Instead of investing his resources, he hid them. When the master called the third servant to give an account of how he had managed his one talent, the servant said, “Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours” (Matthew 25:24–25, NKJV). Fear of failure and lack of faith kept the third servant from obeying his master with the gifts, talents, and responsibilities under his care. These verses reveal that the unfaithful, lazy servant did not truly know His master’s heart. He saw him as a hard and shrewd taskmaster. His description of his master as “reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed” paints a picture of one who expects a return where no investment has been made. In other words, the servant felt his master expected too much from him. The lazy servant feared harsh punishment if he lost the master’s talent. So, rather than take even a tiny risk and invest the talent he had been given to advance his master’s estate, he buried his treasure in the ground. Because he played it safe, he became an unprofitable servant. Jesus’ point is that readiness for His return involves being active, responsible, and obedient. It means doing good works that produce fruit and please Him (see Matthew 5:14–16; James 2:14–26). When the master in the parable returned, the two faithful servants were invited to celebrate and share in the master’s joy (Matthew 25:21, 23), but the unfaithful servant was not. The master said to him, “You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest” (Matthew 25:26–27, ESV). Jesus wanted His disciples to understand this truth: One day, the unfaithful will stand before Jesus to give an account of their lives. The unbelieving will hear their Master say, “If you knew I expected you to use the talent I entrusted you to further My kingdom, why did you do nothing? Why did you hide it? At the very least, you could have chosen a minimally risky option (e.g., putting the money in a bank and earning interest). No, even in that, you failed.” One valuable message in the Parable of the Talents is that living in readiness for Christ’s return involves wisely investing our lives—giving of our time, talents, and resources—in God’s kingdom. It is our privilege and honor to make the most of every opportunity to serve the Lord and work for the advancement of His kingdom. We cannot expect to be reaping a harvest where we have not sown seed. We should not look for returns where we have not invested. We must stay busy doing the Lord’s work until He returns (see John 9:4–5). Matthew 25:25 ‘And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.’ KJV Matthew 25:25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine. NKJ Matthew 25:25 `And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.' NET Matthew 25:25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.' BGT Matthew 25:25 καὶ φοβηθεὶς ἀπελθὼν ἔκρυψα τὸ τάλαντόν σου ἐν τῇ γῇ· ἴδε ἔχεις τὸ σόν. CSB Matthew 25:25 So I was afraid and went off and hid your talent in the ground. Look, you have what is yours.' ESV Matthew 25:25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' NIV Matthew 25:25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.' NLT Matthew 25:25 I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.' YLT Matthew 25:25 and having been afraid, having gone away, I hid thy talent in the earth; lo, thou hast thine own! MIT Matthew 25:25 So being afraid, I went and hid your unit of silver in the ground. Look! You have here what is yours. NJB Matthew 25:25 so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have it back." NRS Matthew 25:25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' RSV Matthew 25:25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' NAB Matthew 25:25 so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.' GWN Matthew 25:25 I was afraid. So I hid your two thousand dollars in the ground. Here's your money!' BBE Matthew 25:25 And I was in fear, and went away, and put your talent in the earth: here is what is yours. 2Sa 6:9-10 Pr 26:13 Isa 57:11 Ro 8:15 2Ti 1:6,7 Rev 21:8 Related Passages: 2 Samuel 6:9-10+ So David was afraid of the LORD that day; and he said, “How can the ark of the LORD come to me?” 10 And David was unwilling to move the ark of the LORD into the city of David with him; but David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. Proverbs 26:13 The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! A lion is in the open square!” Luke 19:21+ for I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man; you take up what you did not lay down and reap what you did not sow.’ Hebrews 11:6+ And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. LACKING FAITH PARALYZED BY FEAR And I was afraid (phobeo) - Here we see a contrast with the other 2 slaves. They had faith expressed by their willingness to invest the master's money. This slave had fear instead of faith! It would have been good is he had had a healthy, reverential fear, but that is not what his fear was in this case. The servant assumes the master is hard, unreasonable and unforgiving, and thus acts out of fear, not trust. This fear led him to bury the talent, playing it safe rather than risking failure. As an aside, he may have been afraid, but he was not afraid to slander his master, calling him a hard man! This slave represents people who misunderstand the character of God, seeing Him only as stern Judge and not as generous Giver. They respond to grace with fear instead of faith. They fail to act in faith because of their view of God as untrustworthy. In contrast, the first two slaves acted in faith, knowing that the master’s trust was an opportunity, not a threat. and went away (aperchomai) and hid your talent (talanton) in the ground. See, you have what is yours - Note that the verbs used for the first two slaves were "went and traded" whereas the verb describing this slave is he just "went away." One might call this the "safe sin of inaction," brought about by fear in place of faith. In due time time he will find out that there is no "safe sin!" John