Matthew 25:30 | 1751
25:10 e Rev 19:9
25:13 f Mt 24:42, 44; Mk 13:35; Lk 12:40
25:14 g Mt 21:33; Lk 19:12
25:15 h Mt 18:24, 25 25:19 i Mt 18:23
25:21 j ver 23; Mt 24:45, 47; Lk 16:10
25:23 k ver 21
25:29 l Mt 13:12; Mk 4:25;
Lk 8:18; 19:26
25:30 m Mt 8:12
10“ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bride groom ar rived. The vir gins who were ready went in with him to the wed ding ban quet. e And the door was shut. 11“ Later the oth ers also came.‘ Lord, Lord,’ they said,‘ open the door for us!’ 12“ But he re plied,‘ Truly I tell you, I don’ t know you.’ 13“ There fore keep watch, be cause you do not know the day or the hour. f
The Parable of the Bags of Gold
25:14-30Ref— Lk 19:12-27
14“ Again, it will be like a man go ing on a jour ney, g who called his ser vants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to an other two bags, and to an other one bag, a each ac cord ing to his abil ity. h Then he went on his jour ney. 16 The man who had re ceived five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had re ceived one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’ s money.
19“ Af ter a long time the mas ter of those ser vants re turned and set tled ac counts with them. i 20 The man who had re ceived five bags of gold brought the other five.‘ Mas ter,’ he said,‘ you en trusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’
21“ His mas ter re plied,‘ Well done, good and faith ful ser vant! You have been faith ful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. j Come and share your mas ter’ s happiness!’
22“ The man with two bags of gold also came.‘ Mas ter,’ he said,‘ you en trusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.’
23“ His mas ter re plied,‘ Well done, good and faith ful ser vant! You have been faith ful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. k Come and share your mas ter’ s happiness!’
24“ Then the man who had re ceived one bag of gold came.‘ Mas ter,’ he said,‘ I knew that you are a hard man, har vest ing where you have not sown and gath er ing where you have not scat tered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what be longs to you.’
26“ His mas ter re plied,‘ You wicked, lazy ser vant! So you knew that I har vest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scat tered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on de posit with the bank ers, so that when I re turned I would have re ceived it back with interest.
28“‘ So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For who ever has will be given more, and they will have an abun dance. Who ever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. l 30 And throw that worth less ser vant outside, into the dark ness, where there will be weep ing and gnash ing of teeth.’ m
a 15 Greek five talents... two talents... one talent; also throughout this parable; a talent was worth about 20 years of a day laborer’ s wage.
25:10 – 13 By the time the unprepared girls return with their extra oil, the procession has already arrived at the groom’ s home and gone inside. At a real wedding, the late arrivals would have been publicly shamed but probably let in. But this is a parable, teaching spiritual lessons. Jesus insists that once he has returned it will be too late to repent. One must not wait to choose how to respond to him. And the salvation of one person cannot be transferred, like oil, to another. No bridegroom would ever claim not to know who some of the bridesmaids were( v. 12), but at the spiritual level of the story Christ declares,“ I don’ t know you,” perhaps suggesting there was never a genuine relationship at all between God and these alleged disciples. True believers will prepare in case discipleship proves more arduous than they expect. 25:14 – 30 The Parable of the Bags of Gold / Talents. If Jesus’ followers can never know when he will return, they must always be good stewards of all the gifts and abilities he has given them. 25:15 bags of gold.“ Talents,” originally a unit of currency worth about 20 years of a day laborer’ s wage( see note on 18:24). Not all people receive the same abilities or gifts from God, but everyone is responsible for making good use of what they have been given. For a similar parable, see Luke 19:12 – 27. 25:18 dug a hole in the ground. People often buried money in the ground under or near their homes for safekeeping. But in so doing there was no chance that their holdings could grow at all. 25:20 – 23 Each of the first two servants makes a 100 percent return on his investment, extraordinary by ancient standards, and each receives the master’ s effusive praise. 25:24 – 25 The third servant claims to have feared losing his master’ s money, which can easily happen with investments. He accuses the master of being harsh and unfair, though nothing elsewhere in the parable suggests that this accusation is valid. 25:26 – 27 The servant stands condemned by his own logic. The master points out that if he really were so harsh, then the man should have feared all the more not trying to earn more money with what had been entrusted to him. At least he could have deposited it with local bankers so it would have earned some modest amount of interest without the risks that accompanied other forms of investment. 25:28 – 30 Because a“ bag of gold”( talent) was more literally a gold ingot, it could not easily be broken in two. The worthless slave’ s original talent is given to the first slave, but the second slave was just as faithful, even though he receives no extra talent. So nothing should be read into these details about varying rewards for God’ s faithful followers. The point is simply that being ready for Christ’ s coming involves more than playing it safe and doing little or nothing. It demands the kind of service that produces results.“ Whoever has” and“ whoever does not have”( v. 29) must refer to the period of time after they have been given their“ talents” to steward. Verse 30 makes it clear that Jesus’ real point is a spiritual one since the fate of the faithless slave is eternal punishment( cf. note on 8:12).