Thursday | 11 January 2018
Understanding talents
Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven ‘is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey.’ Talents are gifts of grace that come from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and are given by Christ. The talents refer to the four dimensions of God’s grace that come from Christ’s hand. These four dimensions of grace are the word, life, Spirit and love of God. Every son of God receives this grace through the ministry of messengers, who are in Christ’s hand as He walks among His lampstand churches.
Christ distributes talents to a person according to their abilities. These abilities are a feature of a person’s identity, which continues to be regenerated and renewed by the Holy Spirit. As children grow up, these abilities begin to be seen, and will develop through training, and application to discipline. However, abilities are not talents. It is true that Christ gives us talents according to abilities. But not everyone who has abilities receives multiple talents. Failure to recognise the difference between abilities and talents has been a source of confusion in the church. This confusion has given rise to presumption and corruption within Christian congregations.
A person receives the gift of talents from Christ after they have been born of God, and have come into the house of the Son through baptism. That is, talents are given to slaves of righteousness. Their slavehood to Christ results in their sanctification as a son of God. As a believer participates in the offering of Christ as a member of His body, they are also multiplying the grace of life as a son of God. Their eternal reward, or glory, in the new heavens and earth, depends upon the extent to which the talents they received in this age are multiplied.
Further Study:
Matthew 25:14-30 Daily Proverb:
Proverbs 11
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Ok, so I'd like to draw attention to the first paragraph. First, the writer (whoever it is, but I think it surely had to go through Vic 'the Vicious Hall' Hall's seal of approval before it could be printed and published
) claims that talents are gifts of grace that come from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and are given by Christ. This is weirdly redundant, and is it only Christ who has a role in giving the talents? Are the Father and the Holy Spirit totally unassociated with this process of giving?
That's the first flaw I see. Secondly... the writer claims that 'talents refer to the four dimensions of God's grace that come from Christ's hand. These four dimensions of grace are the word, life, Spirit and love of God.' Ok, this isn't too fishy, but the final sentence raises a major red flag... no, scratch that, maybe a few dozen red flags is more like it.
Every son of God receives this grace through the ministry of messengers, who are in Christ’s hand as He walks among His lampstand churches.
This sentence. This sentence is ALL ABOUT EXCLUSIVITY. This sentence is ALL ABOUT A SELECT ELITE FEW HAVING ALL THE POWER, AND HOGGING IT. So only 'messengers' have the 'special ministry' to give TALENTS to people in the congregations now, do they?! So now, God needs a middleman, does He, in order to give gifts of His grace, which through the Bible was clearly stated to be FREE and AVAILABLE TO ALL?! 'As He walks among His lampstand churches.' WRONG, Vic 'the Vicious Hall' Hall!!! God would like to walk among ALL His churches and not just your bloody exclusive 'lampstands'!!!
RFI!!! BCF!!! Wake up, you blind men stumbling about in the dark!!! Can you not see this is exclusivity, this is clearly UNBIBLICAL, and this is NOT teaching that will lead you on the path of life!!!