My Daily Pause

Words can talk us into things we shouldn’t do.

The words of fools will ruin them;
their own words will trap them. – Proverbs 18:7 NCV

Words have a way of flowing out easily and whether we like it or not, describe exactly what is on the heart. (Matthew 15:18)

We can also use enough words to ease into sinful lifestyles:

• We fool ourselves into justifying our actions
• We fool ourselves into believing we are actually doing good
• We fool ourselves into believing our own falsehoods

Upon closer examination, the justifications for error and sin do not hold up to the scrutiny of God’s word. In Proverbs 10:14 we see the need to gain knowledge through study so that we avoid this trap:

The wise lay up knowledge…

Good command of the Scriptures helps prevent us from being a victim of words of a fool. The tongue is described by James to be as powerful as a ship’s rudder or the bit in a horse’s mouth. (James 3) He also shows us that power works for both good and bad.

In the end, it is not possible to live in a way pleasing to God by trying to fool him with good intentions and flawed reasoning. That’s a trap that will only fool ourselves.

And the trap is difficult to escape.

Etching of the Parable of the Talents from the Bowyer Bible

In a previous article about the “One Talent Servant,” we looked at the excuses the servant made to explain how he failed his master. Based on the lessons learned from The Parable of the Talents, (Matthew 25:14-30) we come to understand that we can get lost in a sea of excuses and never really see the problem.

What are the root causes of the one talent servant’s failure?

It was not because of the workload or reward potential. The key to this passage is that each servant was given “according to his ability.” (Matthew 25:15) When the accounting time came, the five talent and two talent servants were rewarded equally.

The amount they were given and the amount they returned did not come into play, because they tried their best.

God only expects from us what we are equipped to handle at any given time.

But he also expects us to get to work with whatever we have!

We can quickly examine the attitude of the one talent servant and see at least three problems:

• He had a low opinion of the master – The servant had no love or understanding of what the master planned
• He did not believe the master was fair – Why should he have gotten only one talent to manage?
• He was lazy – He didn’t even look into some very safe uses for the money

That laziness is one that can sneak up on a person. It is a very scary thought to realize that when he (Christ) comes, the lazy will be cast out, not because they did not believe, or because they had rebelled, but because they had neglected their opportunities.

For the Christian expecting the return of the Master, it is a good idea to take a little inventory.

What do I have?

What can I do?

Am I using these things as well as I can for the Master?

Am I making “one talent” excuses?

When we can answer those questions honestly, we can begin converting ourselves from a “one talent servant” into a two talent servant!

Etching of the Parable of the Talents from the Bowyer Bible

The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) points out something that might trouble many of us.

There are no excuses.

In this parable, the master goes away on a journey and leaves three servants an amount of money (or talents as it is written) “each according to his ability.” (Matthew 25:15) Two made good profits with what they were given while one hid his money.

The one that buried his talent is a reflection of so many in the church:

• Many do not participate because they don’t have a certain skill.
• Many don’t participate because they don’t have much to offer.
• Many don’t participate because they are afraid to mess up.

Rather than take what he had and try to make more (because everyone has to start somewhere,) the one talent guy played the victim and was a non-starter.

Just Start

The two that made good use of the master’s money doubled it according the text. (Matthew 25:20, 22) If these were good economic times where they could make a 12% annual return, it would still have taken six years to double the money.

That’s a long time.

That means the one talent servant presumably sat around for a long time and did nothing.

The correct approach for him would have been to take what he had and grow it. Start out with safe actions. Begin with the basics. Even that will cause growth.

Then keep going

No matter where we are in our Christian walk, there is more to do and there are more needs. The requirement to grow what the Master has entrusted us with is still with us. He doesn’t expect us all to be five talent servants, but he expects our best efforts.

The Good Samaritan – ~1633 – Rembrandt (1606–1669)

“Helping others” is a touchy subject among most people.

Each individual has their own definition of what it means to help, how much they can help and indeed, who deserves help.

So who do we help and how do we know when we are Scripturally required to do so?

Outside of the framework of the church, it is argued politically how much help should come from the government. Appeals to human decency are weighed against abuses of the system of redistribution. The only clear result is people take sides and argue more about it – and we still have people in need.

Inside the framework of the church, many get tired of the requests for help. The constant flow of “needs” and “misfortunes” from the communities surrounding a church facility make it hard to distinguish between the occasional real need and those working the system. In order to protect the resources of the church from “thieves,” they are often distributed too sparingly – and we still have people in need.

How do we, as individuals or the church, deal with this? Loving our neighbor is a mandate that is equal to loving God. (Matthew 22:39)

Jesus wrapped a lesson on how to help others and to what extent in the parable of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-37) This parable is the gold standard of what it means to “Love thy Neighbor” by showing unlimited compassion for a complete stranger.

It takes that level compassion to properly show our love to God!

Each person should work through the idea of helping others on their own. Here are some relevant Scriptures to help with that:

• Luke 6:38 – How generous giving is rewarded
• Galatians 6:10 – The church is instructed to “do good to all“, but especially other Christians.
• 2 Thessalonians 3:10 – Often used as a reason NOT to help others, but the context is much more than that. Be careful here.
• James 2:15 – Telling someone you’ll pray for their situation (or they just need to have faith in God) isn’t very helpful when they are hungry. One needs to take some action.
• Acts 2:45 – The new Christians were selling stuff they owned to help sustain other new Christians as the church grew.

I’ve given just the main verses, don’t forget to go look at the context for each of these. The context definitely key.

As to what to tell you the answer is, I’ll leave the Scriptures to do that. “Helping others” is a lifelong pursuit that a Christian has to grow into. To get to the level of the Good Samaritan, we all have a lot of growing to do!

Ananias Restoring Paul’s Sight – 1631 – Pietro da Cortona

The events that led up to Paul’s baptism and conversion were pretty extreme. (Acts 9:1-18) In a matter of days he went from hunting those who believed Jesus was Christ to proving Jesus was Christ. (Acts 9:19-25)

Lucky for us, God doesn’t have to take that kind of action anymore.

Now, we have everything God wants us to know printed and bound and readily accessible. We can sit and read about the events that led up to Christ and the spread of the Gospel in the comfort of our home.

We can see the pain in the minds of the prophets.

We can see the doubt of the children of Israel.

We can see the excitement that Jesus brought to those that needed him.

We can see the urgency of Paul’s message.

Not only is the printed word readily available, we have digital alternatives that are often free. In devices that fit in our pocket, we can have any translation, word search for scriptures and attach personal notes to the text. It seems like having a Bible is no big deal anymore.

God put a lot of people through a lot of trouble to get the word out and confirm its truth.

And it worked!

In light of all that … Shouldn’t we make Bible study a higher priority?