For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability, and straightway took his journey.

Matthew 25:14-15, KJV

Down through the years the English word "talent" has become synonymous with the word "ability". But this was not the meaning of the Greek word in the parable that Jesus gave, for the word "talent" in His time referred to a specific amount of money. Those who have studied such things give an estimate of 3,000 denarii for one talent, and a denarius was equivalent to a day's wages. 300 denarii would be a full year's wage (given time off for sabbaths and feast days). In the parable, the man given one talent was given the equivalent of ten year's wages, the two talent man was given twenty year's wages, and the five talent man was entrusted with a full fifty year's wages. Jesus told in the parable that they were given the talents according to their ability.

Considering the fact that in 2023 the average family income for the world is a little over $12,000 a year, you can quickly calculate where you are in the talent department. If you live in America, you are far enough above the world's average to likely place you in the "five talent" category for wages. Further, as recently as 1950, the average life span in our world was less than 50 years. Considering it is now around 72 years, you would have to say that we are in the five talent range for modern men when it comes to the number of years we have to live. 

So, what's the point? I hope that you have already seen it, for we who are blessed to live in the era that we do have been given and abundance of resources in the form of time and money. When you consider that our talents are resources, and that these resources are given according to our ability, we need to be giving serious thought as to what we are doing with these talents. Are we using them for God, or does He have to content Himself with the "scraps" of our leftovers? Do we look at money as ours, or do we see it as belonging to the Master? Is our time our own or, again, is it another resource that we understand must be used to the best of our ability?

If you are like me, you would have to admit that we have all too often fallen into the category of the man who buried his talent, but we really do need to consider this: at least he was just wasting one talent! What will be God's response to those who have wasted twice that amount or five times that amount or even more? We just have to read the end of the parable to find out, and the conclusion is far from pleasant. But fear of punishment should not be our main motivation, for there are people in this world who are very much counting on us to use our resources and abilities in such a way as to help them.

In other words, we are essentially given our talents and abilities to rescue those who are perishing. We have been commissioned by Jesus our Lord to seek and save the lost. Such an important task will require time and money, but God has given us an abundance of both. Add another talent category called opportunity, and we will come to this vital understanding: God has given you all of the time and money you need to help people whenever the opportunity should arise. If you find after reflection that you have not been as trustworthy with the talents that God has given you as you could have been, then welcome to the club. The question is what will you do with your God given talents now? Your eternity, and the eternities of those you have been entrusted to help, hang in the balance. 

We are the "five talent man"! What will we do with those talents?