It's a good question to be asking!
In the parable, the immediate answer seems to be money (v18). But I think it's fair to cast the net wider. Elsewhere, Jesus talks about giving up our lives to serve him (e.g Luke 9:23-26), so ultimately God has entrusted us with life itself. Our lives are a gift from God, and are therefore only properly used when used in his service.
But what exactly does it mean to serve God? Well, in the next section of Matthew 25, Jesus talks about how we should use our lives in caring for other (sometimes persecuted) Christians - feeding, clothing, being hospitable, caring when sick, visiting when imprisoned for the faith. When we do these things for fellow believers ('these brothers of mine' refers to Christians, not everyone), we do them for God himself. So serving one-another in the church family is serving God, and we all have the necessary 'talent' to do some of these very practical and simple things!
It's also true that we need to be willing to share our knowledge of Jesus in both word and deed - either one without the other is plain hypocrisy.
Thursday, 6 August 2009
ReplyDeleteWhat's God entrusted to me?
It's a good question to be asking!
A good answer. I understand a little more, say, 5/10.
Perhaps to raise the score a bit, we should not forget that Jesus called Matthew himself in Matt 9:9-13, and we are called to carry His message also to the "Matthews" of today, hopefully inviting them into the family and even better, they accept that invitation.
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