In the Message bible, it’s entitled as “The Story About Investment”. It’s basically really about investment. Although it’s popularly called the Parable of the Talent. Talent is a monetary currency in Israel at the time.
Matthew 25:14-30
14-18 “It’s also like a man going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five thousand dollars, to another two thousand, to a third one thousand, depending on their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master’s investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master’s money.
19-21 “After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given five thousand dollars showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’22-23 “The servant with the two thousand showed how he also had doubled his master’s investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’
24-25 “The servant given one thousand said, ‘Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.’
26-27 “The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.
28-30 “‘Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this “play-it-safe” who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.’
In the story – the master invested a certain amount of money to his workers each according to his ability. I believe this “ability” isn’t just about skills or hardwork, but also about the character of the worker.
The master gave 5,000 and 2,000 dollars to the first and second worker respectively, and 1,000 to the third. I believe the third one isn’t the best employee and the master knows this. But still he delegated an amount, giving him a chance to prove himself one last time.
Investment is not just about money. But also about health, decisions, wife, husband, education just about everything. And this is for all for the King and the Kingdom.
Although there are Christians who criticize other Christians who uses this Bible verse on economic prosperity. I disagree with these type of close-minded Christians. This is also about economic prosperity or about investing in a literal business.
There are basically two types of investment – good and bad – but for us Christians, there is no good or bad, only lessons. The bad will turn into good sooner or later.
What was my bad and good investment? There are a lot. But I will tell you one for each.
My bad investment would be when I chose architecture as my course in college. I was more of an art person, but mistakenly took architecture. I basically wasted my parents’ money. Wrong decisions would often lead to not so good consquences.
It’s not easy telling what my good investment was, funny, but it’s true.But I think getting to stock market investing last July of this year was probably a good investment.
Again, investment is not just about money, but also health, education and so on just I have mentioned above.
Health – my food diet now consists of vegetables. When I was a child, I hated vegetables like a plague. Cancer and other diseases occur in our bodies because of the wrong choice of food we eat regularly.
Education – make sure the course you’re taking is something that you love to do or intend to become as a doctor or architect in the future. Better study hard, don’t be such as lazy dork or you’ll become a dumb professional or employee.
Relationship – when looking for wife or husband it is best that the partner will multiply you as person. If you are good at something, for example you are good in singing, your wife or husband encourages you in every way.
Even having a friend or friends, it’s ideal that they’re a good influence to make us better.
Money management – When I bought my DSLR camera, I didn’t just buy for leisure or hobby, I bought so I could make money out of it. As a bonus, I also do it for hobby and leisure. This is investment.
Jesus expects us to multiply positively, not the negative, until he comes back.