If I could have Jesus sit at my kitchen table, I would love to ask him about the issue of "faithfulness". Every one of us would love to hear "Well done, good and faithful servant" on the other side. But what does faithfulness look like to Him? Jesus tells us in Matthew 25:14-30 through the parable of the talents. This is fascinating because His explanation here might not be what one would expect. Faithfulness is not just the typical "absence of doing wrong". Oh no...it's much more than that.

I love Dr. Thomas Constable's summation of this parable: "Faithfulness involves using what God has entrusted to one to advance His interests in the world. It involves making a spiritual profit with the deposit God has entrusted to each disciple."

So to unpack this a little....The master was going on a journey. While he was gone, he entrusted talents to 3 servants. A talent was a unit of exchange. 5 could be as much as a person in that time would make in a lifetime! Each servant got a different amount, according to their ability. Those who were given more were expected to gain more. What was true then is still true now, greater privilege means greater responsibility.

Immediately the slaves with 5 and 2 talents got to work. They took what they had and used it for the master's benefit. The third slave played it safe by burying the money. When the master came back, the first 2 were commended with the words, "Well done, good and faithful servant." The last slave didn't fare so well. The master had entrusted something of His, and this slave had not done with it as the master expected. He wasn't willing to risk. He played it safe, and as a result accomplished nothing for his master's benefit. In the end, he lost not only the talent but also joy in his master's presence.

So comparisons are pretty easy here. The master is God. He has put within all of our hands different talents....some more, some less but all expected to be used to build His kingdom and not our own. What would talents be for us? Here again, I defer to Dr. Constable: "We should understand the talents to be all the working capital that God entrusts to His disciples. To limit the talents to spiritual gifts, natural abilities, the gospel, opportunities for service, money or whatever, limits the scope of what Jesus probably intended. All of these things constitute what God has given His servants to use for His glory."

*Faithfulness involves understanding that all we have is His, and that it is working capital we use to build His kingdom.

*Faithfulness is willing to trust God and take risks with those things. To do that means we must walk by faith and not by sight.

It's unfortunate when people think that faithfulness in their Christian experience is a focus on staying away from the "thou shalt not's". They want to play it safe like the third slave. That's not the way to have a great impact with the life we've been given. God has the most exciting, purposeful life planned for each one of us...and it involves advancing His kingdom by using what He has put into our hands. Faithfulness is putting that to work for Him. It's risky and it requires great trust. But it's a ride like no other....