“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 1 John 3:1 NIV
Question: what are you doing with the gift God has given you?
I absolutely love this verse from John. It’s is almost as if John has a discovery as he writes it, or just being so excited that he just cannot contain himself. Because, John repeats his point about being children of God, as he writes “And that is what we are!” But we can appreciate John’s writing here, because this thought is so big, so vast and difficult to understand, yet it is such a simple fact. Paul wrote that “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”Colossians 1:13-14 ESV. For all who have received Christ, it has already happened. It cannot be overstated. It is the divine gift of God, available to anyone. Question is,
Have you received it? Have you accepted the reality of this gift? And, have you realized what it means to be entrusted with this gift of God, for this life currently, and for eternity?
These are very important questions to think about. But, I want to take a bit of an unusual angle to this fact today, about what the gift of God means for us today. In Matthew 24, Jesus talks about the coming and end times, including His return. And, interestingly, in the following chapter, Matthew 25, He provides 2 very important parables that describe judgement, and then summarizes in more plain language how the judgment will be done. If we read these two chapters together, 24 and 25, we can get a very good sense of the times, of how His righteous judgment will take place. Let’s look briefly at the 2 parables in Matthew 25, at a macro level, to try to get a better sense of it. The first is the parable of the 10 virgins, probably familiar to most. But let’s read the first few verses ““Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.” Matthew 25:1-4 ESV. The key question of course is, What is the oil?
Bible commentator Ellicott wrote, “In the interpretation of the parable, the lamp or torch is obviously the outward life of holiness by which the disciple of Christ lets his light shine before men (Matthew 5:16), and the “oil” is the divine grace, or more definitely, the gift of the Holy Spirit, without which the torch first burns dimly and then expires. The foolish virgins neglected to seek that supply, either from the Great Giver, or through the human agencies by which He graciously imparts it.” The oil being the Holy Spirit. Paul says in his writings “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” Romans 8:5-9 ESV. So the point of the first parable is whether or not we have the Spirit, and live according to the Spirit and not the flesh. Jesus said to let “your light shine before men”, and not hide it.
The second parable of Matthew 25 is that of the talents. Let’s read the second parable beginning verses. ““For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.” Matthew 25:14-15 ESV. What He is saying here is that God decides what talents He gives to His children. 5, 2, or 1 in this case, and it is up to Him to decide. But all of His servants receive some talents to “manage”. And, as we connect this to the first parable, the talents are “the gifts” of the Holy Spirit. For those He entrusts more with, more is expected. But He is expecting that all will use and produce returns, or fruit, on His talents (remember these are His talents, and not ours). In the story, we learn that one of His servants buried the talent his master, whom the master called worthless when He returned. “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’” Matthew 25:29-30 ESV. Pretty direct and clear words.
The last section of Matthew 25, Jesus is more direct about the judgement, how He will judge righteously. Keeping in mind the two previous parables, let’s read a few verses. ““When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” Matthew 25:31-40 ESV. If we wonder what would be examples of the fruit of the Spirit, or talents, we see here a good list from Jesus Himself. It is practical, serving others.
I think the question Jesus is raising here for each of us to really internalize and reflect on, is that not only has God lavish us with love through His only begotten Son, but has also given us His Spirit and His talents to manage while we wait for Him to return; to produce results. Not by works, but by allowing the Spirit to work through us. It is an enormous gift, but also an enormous trust and responsibility He has given us as His children.
