The Parable of the Talents: Secrets of Matthew 25:14-30

We might think we don’t have much to offer. Or feel scared to try something and risk failing.

But these tips can help. We can:

• Ask God for help to see what talents we have.
• Ask how and where we can use our talents.
• Pray about how to use our talents for God’s glory.
• See where our church or our community needs our talents.
• Pray for wisdom about where to spend or save money.
• Think about what we have that could bless others.

Like all Bible parables (and onions), it has layers.

When we peel back those layers, we find practical guidance for living fulfilling, productive, and meaningful lives. It teaches us the importance of using our God-given gifts while we wait for Jesus to return. And at its core, it’s about understanding Jesus, His character, and His perfect plan for our lives.

Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll learn:

• The big picture of the parable of the talents
• The meaning of the parable and why it matters
• Understanding Bible themes of stewardship
• Why the third servant’s character matters
• How Jesus’ parable applies today

So let’s start peeling back the layers—starting with the basics.

The big picture of the parable of the talents

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A rich man was about to travel to a faraway country. But before he left, he gave everything he owned to his three servants. He gave ten talents to the first servant, five talents to the second servant, and one talent to the third servant.

Quick Fact: A talent was about 6,000 days’ wages (20 years’ worth of paychecks).¹ (That’s a hefty chunk of change.)

The first two servants invested their talents and doubled their profits. But then there was the third servant—sometimes referred to as the “lazy servant,” “slothful servant,” or “worthless servant.” He buried his master’s money in the ground and made absolutely nothing.

After a long time, the master returned. He found the first two servants were faithful with the company finances, so he gave them bonuses.

But the third servant immediately started making excuses for his actions. And he attacked his boss’ character while he was at it.

So the master gave him some intense (but fair) critique. He took back the talent, entrusting it to His first servant to invest instead. And oh yes, he fired the lazy servant.

Sounds harsh at first, but let’s dig a layer deeper.

The meaning of the parable and why it matters

Here’s the short answer. This parable helps us understand that everything we have is a gift from God. No matter how big or how small. And we’re responsible for how we use those gifts while we wait for Jesus to return.

Let’s see what that means in reality.

In the New Testament, Jesus told parables to simplify and drive home important points. He intentionally used symbolism or examples that were familiar to those He was speaking to.

So what points was He making with this parable?

First, let’s see what the details represent:

• The Master: Jesus
• Faraway country: Heaven
• Servants: People who claim to follow Jesus Christ (a.k.a. Christians)
• Talents (or minas, in Luke): could be money, gifts, skills, time, health, etc.
• Master’s return: Jesus’ return to earth at the Second Coming
• Settling accounts: When Jesus judges how His people used what He gave them

Next, it’s helpful to understand the timing.

Jesus told this parable when He was near Jerusalem. He was about to die for the sins of the world, get resurrected, and leave earth for heaven.

He starts by saying, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country…” (Matthew 25:14, NKJV, emphasis added).

Jesus knew His disciples didn’t understand that He was leaving. Most were still hoping He was about to take over Israel as king and start ruling and conquering.

Jesus wanted them—and everyone in the future—to know that even though He would ascend back to heaven, He would come back. And until then, His servants (the people who accept His gift of life) have responsibilities.

Going down a layer, we find even more themes, like:

1. Everything we have is a gift from God (we don’t truly own any of it).
2. No skill, gift, talent, or resource is too small to use for God.
3. Using our gifts for God blesses others, and ourselves.
4. The more we use what God gives us, the more we can gain.
5. To use our gifts well, we need to know God better.
6. Understanding God’s character creates confidence, not fear of failure.
7. Mistakes happen, but we can own our mistakes and ask for help.
8. God gives each of us only the amount of responsibility we can handle.
9. We reflect Christ and the kingdom of God by how we use our talents.

It’s not a complete list. But it does paint the picture of loving guidance from a caring father. Not someone waiting for the people He saved to slip up like the third servant seemed to think.

Understanding the Bible’s theme of stewardship

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First, what is a steward? According to The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, it’s “a person hired to perform household or personal services.”²

That means stewardship is the work of taking care of something for someone else. Stewards are not the owners but the caretakers of what the true owner entrusted to them.

What did Jesus entrust His people with? Well, let’s look again what the talents in the parable can represent.

• Money (the obvious)
• Talents and skills (like writing, healing, building, singing, etc.)
• Health (both mind and body)
• Time (the most precious resource)
• Gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7-11)
• Attitude, character, and speech³
• Influence

When Jesus went to heaven, He left His people in charge. The servants in the parable represented their master in business while he was gone. And Christians represent Jesus on earth while He’s in heaven.

Jesus holds Christians accountable for how they manage His gifts—whether they’re worth one dollar or one million dollars.

When God’s people are faithful with what He gives them to manage, He blesses their work and gives them more. But it’s not about overwhelming us with more work. It means God entrusts us more and more with important tasks, responsibilities, and opportunities.

“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy” (Matthew 25:23, CSB).

The two faithful servants in the story didn’t see their master’s goods as their own. They saw the talents as something for them to manage, improve, and return to Him later.

Their master recognized their hard work and responsibility. And he knew he could trust them with more responsibility.

The first two servants understood their master’s expectations better than the third servant. And it made them better stewards.

Let’s explore the third servant’s character in more detail.

Why the third servant’s character matters

It’s tempting to pity the third servant’s fate at the end of the parable. Or to find it unfair because he got the least amount of His master’s money. It can even make us think of the saying, “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”

“So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 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 25:28-30, ESV).

But when we peel back the layers, we see it’s less about the money—it’s more about character:

• He had the least responsibility, so the bar was low…and he still didn’t even try to do anything.
• He didn’t see the talent—or any potential profit—as his master’s property.
• He didn’t act like he knew his master’s character (though he claimed to).
• He proved untrustworthy with even a small amount of money.
• He defended his unwise actions, lashed out, and didn’t apologize.

One key callout is that he didn’t understand his master’s character.

The servant called his master a “hard man” (Matthew 25:24, ESV). But the parable shows otherwise.

The master replies, “Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers…” (Matthew 25:27, ESV).

His master wasn’t expecting anything crazy. Only for the servant to do his job and put the money where it could make a difference. And the master was eager to teach.

When it came to the first two servants getting more talents, it might look like the rich were getting richer. But they were still only servants managing their master’s goods.
In the book Christ’s Object Lessons, Adventist Church cofounder Ellen White says:

“The man who neglected to improve his talent proved himself an unfaithful servant. Had he received five talents, he would have buried them as he buried the one. His misuse of the one talent showed that he despised the gifts of heaven.”⁴

The first two servants understood their master and knew to put their talents to use. Perhaps they’d spent more time learning from their master.

The third servant didn’t seem to understand his master or how the household worked. And he didn’t show any interest in learning. If he didn’t know how to use his talent, he could’ve asked his master or fellow servants for help.

So even though the third servant’s fate might feel unfair at first, it was the result of his own choices.

Now let’s learn why that matters for us today.

How Jesus’ parable applies to Christians today

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In the parable, Jesus gives us instructions for using what He’s given us for the good of His kingdom until He returns.

When Jesus returns (like the master in the parable), He’ll take His faithful servants to heaven. Then He’ll restore earth to its perfect state and bring us back here to live with Him for eternity (Revelation 21).

That’s what it means in the parable to “Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21, ESV).

But the third servant wasn’t working toward this. Like others who choose against Jesus, they would feel miserable in a world that operated on principles they aren’t interested in operating on. And Jesus knows that, so He’ll act for the good of His people and His kingdom.

By serving God and others with our talents, we step into His perfect plans for the world. We show by how we live now whether we’ll be happy, fulfilled, and faithful on the New Earth.

God created us in His own image—to live in harmony with His kingdom. He “saw all that He had made, and it was very good indeed” (Genesis 1:31, CSB).

God made good things, and He created us to make good things with what He gave us.

When God made the first humans, He told them to take care of His world. He put them in charge of things like gardening, animal care, creating families, and finding sustenance (Genesis 1:28-29, Genesis 2:15-24).

And that hasn’t changed.

It was part of God’s perfect plan. And even though sin entered the world (in Genesis 3), we still have responsibilities to manage for the kingdom of God.

Everything we have is a gift from God—time, money, houses, kids, pets, health, jobs, and so much more.

As Christians, God asks us to manage those things like they’re His—not ours.

And that includes the work we do, whether we’re fixing cars, singing songs, or selling shoes.

So managing talents really isn’t about money. That’s just one way to understand the concept. It’s about anything we have or can do that contributes to the world around us and reflects the character of Christ.

As Christians, we’re representatives of God’s kingdom. And we can use our influence (everything we have) to point people to—or away from—Jesus.⁴

And don’t forget the Gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:4–11, like wisdom, faith, and healing. The Bible says we each receive those gifts for the “common good” (Corinthians 12:7, ESV).

That’s right—for the common good.

When the third servant buried his talent in the ground, he might’ve kept from losing it. But it wasn’t helping him or anyone else.

It was like it never even existed.

So while one could make the connection that burying his talent was like an act of protection, or like putting it in a savings account, that wasn’t the case. The talent wasn’t at risk. And the stock market or other highly-volatile investment options didn’t exist yet, so there would be no reason to worry about losing the talent’s value by investing it.

It was more like stuffing his talent into the back of a closet and out of sight—with no intention of ever using it. And if we see that in the light of neglected skills and responsibilities, it’s no wonder the master was disappointed.

Psalm 139:14 says we are, “fearfully and wonderfully made” (ESV). God has good plans for our lives (Jeremiah 29:11). And He gives us the tools, talents, and resources to fulfill those plans.

The more we put God’s gifts to good use, the more we reveal to others how wonderful our God (and Master) is. We can be a blessing to others—and we’re blessed in turn.

And as we’ve learned, it’s not always about money. It can mean we gain more opportunities, talents, or faith.

If we make a profit, we have more to give. If we learn new things, we can teach someone else. And in the process, we grow, feel fulfilled, and have more confidence in who God made us.

Key takeaways

The parable of the talents shows we all have skills, talents, and resources to manage. It’s about serving God and others with what we have—even if it’s only the breath in our lungs.

Nothing we have is ours. It’s all God’s and He can give us more. So there’s less pressure to hold onto it with a death grip.

The only way to fail (according to this parable) is to deliberately do nothing.

It’s not about earning our way into heaven or working for God’s favor.

Jesus used the parable to teach us how to live and enjoy the life He planned for us before sin existed. Then we’ll be ready to share His joy in a perfect world when He returns.

Want to peel back the layers on more parables?

Related Articles

1. Dybdahl, Jon L. Andrews Study Bible, NKJV. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2010, 1286, note on Matthew 25:15. [↵]
2. The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus, Springfield, Mass: Merriam-Webster, 2005, p. 666. [↵]
3. White, G. Ellen, “Talents,” Christ’s Object Lessons, 1900. [↵]
4. White, G. Ellen, “Talents,” Christ’s Object Lessons, 2017, p. 230. [↵]

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