Understanding Matthew 25:29 : “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away."

Beloved of God, Matthew 25:29 says: “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away."

Notice that the verse begins with "For." This means that it's context is found in the verses before it. Christ gave this word in Matthew 25:29 -- right after He told The Parable of the Ten Virgins (Five foolish and Five wise) and of course, The Parable of the Talents. We've probably heard this parable being interpreted in terms of:

“God gave you a wonderful voice (or whatever skills) but you refuse to use it for His glory by joining the church choir and winning souls so you'd better use your voice/skills for His benefit or be damned like that lazy servant that buried his talent."

See the two parables in Matthew 25:1-29. Here's the part with the servant who received one talent:

“…Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ “But his Lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. Therefore take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 25:24-30.

The servant who buried his talent sinned against the Lord and perished for it. The "Lord" here is a picture of our Lord God. Hold on to this servant's very warped opinion of the Lord as expressed in his response in the verse above. God is certainly not like "a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed." Psalms 89:14 says of Him:

"Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face."

God is the Righteous Judge. The sinner/failed servant's horribly wrong opinion about the nature of our Lord God is crucial to understanding this parable as well as the verse about the one who has being blessed with more. Isaiah 55:7-9 is where we see God's true nature which the servant was clueless about:

"Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord , And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts."

To think that God's ways and thoughts being higher than that of man refers to wicked people committing sins is to state the obvious. Everyone knows that God is not like man in that regard. Also to think that God wanting the unrighteous to forsake his thoughts refers to man curbing his sins by human effort is quite redundant. God knows that we cannot free ourselves from our sins on our own/by human effort. His word tells us that of ourselves, our will-power to live right much less double or gain interest on His talents is utterly useless and that there is no good whatsoever in man of himself as was Paul's experience in Romans 7:18-

“For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."

Like Peter who lied three times after knowing 100% that he could not do that kind of thing aka had the talent to produce the interest of truthfulness, what man has of himself is good intentions. “The road to hell is paved with good intentions" says a popular song. This is why God sent His own beloved Son to save us:

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21.

Also Titus 2:14- "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

God knows that the arm of flesh (human effort at forsaking sins, doubling talents or being godly) will fail. The ways and thoughts of man that God is talking about in Isaiah 55 is man's way of judging and man's opinion about Him which tends to be like that of the lazy servant. Man's way is:

"Do good, get good; do bad and God the harsh Taskmaster who is demanding that you obey and produce good by your own power will punish you and you will perish and not have everlasting life."

But this is not God's Way as we see in John 3:16 and Isaiah 55-

"Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the Lord , And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts."

God's way is to "have mercy" and to "abundantly pardon." Abundantly, according to Isaiah 55. This is not a question of:

"God gave you mercy but since you didn't accomplish your work in the goodness and mercy time-limit that God gave you, you will be punished."

God's mercy has no limit. For all who freely receive, His goodness and mercies never end:

"22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3.

God does not just give strength and expect us to be able to use it as a crutch via the arm of flesh that will fail. He becomes the Strength of all who put their trust in Him and not their arm of flesh-driven ability to use their "Talents."

It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance (changing your mind about God.) By Grace, perish that interpretation of "repentance" as beating your breast in regret, scrambling to make things right with God like Judas and promising God that you will not do it again. What willpower does one want to use to keep that promise? The same arm of flesh (human effort) that God's word says will fail? That is "Penance" aka paying for your sins. It is not "Repentance." Christ's death for our sins has no effect in the lives of such who try to pay for their sins, multiply their talents or become righteous by their own obedience-

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's Grace." Galatians 5:4.

Repentance entails turning away from man's hard thoughts about God which are akin to those of the lazy servant. It is seeing God not as a harsh Taskmaster who is just waiting in the wings to see you fail at keeping the law so that He can pounce on you but seeing Him more and more as our loving “Abba, Father” who delights in seeing and helping us to have good success. The lazy servant did not know His nature. It is His Grace (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour) who is Christ Himself (see Titus 2:11) that saves from sins and makes us committed to doing good deeds like the servants who received multiple talents. Titus 2:14 says of Him:

"He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

This is why we sing "Tis no longer I that liveth but Christ that liveth in me."

The lazy servant in the Parable of the Talents just did not know God's nature. He did not know God as the God of all Grace who has mercy and abundantly pardons, hence his inability to produce fruit. Romans 3 shows us how we get into His good books:

"26...for He himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law." Romans 3:26-28.

Then there's Isaiah's prophecy on Christ and the benefit of His suffering and death for us in Isaiah 53:11-

"After He has suffered, He will see the light of life. And He will be satisfied. My godly servant will make many people godly because of what He will accomplish. He will be punished for their sins." Isaiah 53:11.

And then there's Ephesians 2 --- "For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it." Ephesians 2:8-9

These verses tell us that we are not saved because we deployed our singing abilities/human effort to saving souls via joining the church choir. Or because we deployed our writing talent to the propagation of the gospel. We are saved by Grace --- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. Right living is a consequence of right believing.

Those verses on God's goodness seem to contradict Christ's word in Matthew 25:29 --the servants who received multiple talents worked hard to earn the Lord's favour. But we see the truth and perfect harmony between God's word in Matthew 25 and those verses on His goodness when we have Grace to see why Christ taught using Parables as illustrations. See why in Matthew 13:10-15-

"Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him, “Why do You use parables when You talk to the people?” Jesus answered, “The knowledge about the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. For the person who has something will be given more, so that he will have more than enough; but the person who has nothing will have taken away from him even the little he has. The reason I use parables in talking to them is that they look, but do not see, and they listen, but do not hear or understand. So the prophecy of Isaiah applies to them: ‘This people will listen and listen, but not understand; they will look and look, but not see, because their minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and have closed their eyes. Otherwise, their eyes would see, their ears would hear, their minds would understand, and they would turn to Me, says God, and I would heal them.’ Matthew 13:10-15.

Tucked in the above passage (in boldface) are those same words that Christ spoke in Matthew 25:29. Christ used parables when He talked to the people not to simplify truths about the Kingdom of Heaven but to hide them from those who are not his followers aka Pharisee-types whose lives are all are all about striving to be godly (be like God) by human effort. These ones reject Christ who suffered and died to make us godly and present their (self-)righteous works to God as the reason why He should bless them. But such works are not a acceptable to God. Isaiah 64:6 says they are like “a menstrual rag” in His sight.

The spirit of the antichrist is not necessarily anti-God as we see in the lives of the religious Jews as well as the Pharisees and teachers of religious law (Scribes) whose lives were all about obeying God's law, striving for godliness and shunning sins; they rejected Christ and sought to quell His message, just as many churchgoers who try to get right with God by their own obedience do today. Galatians 5:4 counsels us:

“For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God's Grace.”

Here's an illustration to help us understand Matthew 25:29 and what kingdom truths it hides:

Imagine a child needing a textbook for school. He doesn’t ask his father for this need- his class teacher has led him to believe that his father expects him to contribute some or all of the cost of the textbook before he can buy one for him. His teacher tells him that this is what his father wants and expects.

In order to earn the cost of the textbook and also please his father, the helpless kid does all sorts of things recommended by his class teacher who claims to know his father’s will, all of this in addition to his schoolwork. The class teacher does give him a textbook for all of his efforts, but it is a high-maintenance photocopy of the original! The pages are so badly stapled together that some words are illegible. He has to be extra-careful around liquids because spills caused the toner-based text to bleed and rendered some pages useless.

He struggles to maintain the textbook and wonders why some of his even naughty classmates who didn’t do any work to earn their books received brand-new and waterproof textbooks from their parent; they read/prepare for their exams with ease while he who struggled to pay for his textbook has to go about asking them: “Please, what is the sentence at the bottom of page 5?” whenever a trial/test was approaching. The kid suffers on in his lack and wonders why his father treats him this way despite all of his efforts at earning the textbook that will help him pass his exams.

Beloved, beware of "class teachers" aka antichrist pastors who claim to know the heart of God towards you His child in Christ. These ones portray God as a hard Taskmaster who will not bless you with all things unless you pay the price of fasting, sowing seed, striving to be godly etc with your labour and toiling. Proverbs 10:22 tells us the nature of our Lord God and His blessing:

“The blessing of the Lord–it makes [truly] rich, and He adds no sorrow with it [neither does toiling increase it]."

And how does God give us His blessing with Christ? It is freely. See this Romans 8:32-

"He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"

Freely and never because we fasted, sowed seed, gave to the needy or washed church toilet in exchange for His goodness. Christ is the Price of that "textbook" aka the blessing of God. When your believing is right, (like the kids who knew the love of their parents, asked, freely received original textbooks and so were able to prepare for and pass their tests with greater ease,) right living will follow.

Beloved of God, the kids who got their textbooks freely still studied for and wrote exams, but with ease; freely receiving from God does not mean living a life of godlessness and idleness as wicked class teachers (antichrist pastors) love to imply. You'll find that kids who know that they are loved and cared for by their parents are always eager to please their parents and don't want to do anything that will bring disgrace to them. But like the older brother of the prodigal son who thought his father should bless him because of his toil and labour and was angry with his father for freely giving to his wastrel brother, those those who depend on their "trade by barter" fasts, seeds and works to get God to bless often get angry /fret against God because things don't seem to go their way-

"People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the Lord." Proverbs 19:3.

God's definition of "foolishness" above is totally different from man's definition of being dumb, slow or idiotic. See the definition of foolishness in the word of God whose ways and thoughts are higher than man's in Galatians 3-

"Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of His death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?" Galatians 3:1-‬3.

Foolishness is trying to please God, double one's talents, get His blessing (textbook) or trying to be godly (be like God) in His sight by human effort aka arm of flesh. Beloved, by Grace, let's not be found here. This care of having a change of heart concerning our heavenly Father and His Way of blessing and saving us is not something that can be attained by human effort either so cast all your care on Jesus. He always cares for you. He Himself will change your inner being.

The story about the kid whose teacher led him to slave away for his textbook hasn't quite ended. Did I mention that his father was the school principal and it was a boarding school? This kid met up with his father at home for the holidays and finally asked:

"Why Daddy? My grades suffered because I was working hard to pay for my book when I should have been resting like the other kids and yet you gave me just a photocopy that was barely legible. With my own money o! Because I could not read it, my grades suffered even more. I was very unproductive. But you gave my brother an original for free and so his grades surpassed mine. Why, Daddy? I worked really to pay for that textbook"

His father told him to look inside his backpack. Right there was his original copy of the textbook that his father had given to him at the beginning of the term! Previously forgotten memories of his father giving the textbook to him and his warning concerning teachers of "foolishness" who encourage students to pay for their own father's freely-given blessings flooded his heart. He burst out crying at the thought of the unnecessary and even harmful labour and toil that he went through just to have a useless and very high-maintenance photocopy of the Father's blessing. He saw that he had disregarded the original "textbook" which is free of charge for all who are God's children (- all who believe in Jesus Christ.) Now Matthew 25:29 which comes right after Christ told the Parable of the Talents begins to make sense:

"For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away."

See the AMPC: “For to everyone who has [and values his blessings and gifts from God, and has used them wisely], more will be given, and [he will be richly supplied so that] he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have [because he has ignored or disregarded his blessings and gifts from God], even what he does have will be taken away."

And how do we use these gifts wisely or with Wisdom? God's word always interprets God's word. Proverbs 28:26 tell us:

“A man is a fool to trust himself! But those who use God’s wisdom are safe.”

For all who believe, Corinthians tells us that Christ has been made to be for us Wisdom from God. It is impossible for those who depend on their own strength for the production of good/righteous works (interest on talents) to deceive themselves in this matter:

if you knew and believed that it is Christ in you doing the works and not your own might and power or trust in self, it would be difficult for you to point accusing fingers at others who are still struggling with sins/unproductive and threaten them with judgment if they don't change. Rather, you would see how helpless man is to overcome sins and produce good works and point such to Christ who saves from sins and transforms the sinner who truly believes to live right and do good deeds, as you say He is doing for you.

The one who uses the gifts wisely is the one who puts absolutely no confidence in human effort/self/arm of flesh for the attainment of godliness or for achieving good success. He trusts utterly in Christ as His Righteousness and Strength.

“Talent" in the parable represents God’s gift of righteousness to us in Christ. Why disregard/ hide it at the bottom of your backpack? We have God's word to remind us about this gift every single day. Christ instituted the Holy Communion so that we might remember that He is our Righteousness and Strength everytime we partake. Believe and depend on Him and you will bear much fruit. For all who believe that they freely have God's gift of everlasting righteousness through Christ's blood, all these things shall be added unto you. See Matthew 6:33 —

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Notice “His righteousness" and not ours from our puny attempts at obedience? For such who forsake trust in self and receive as well as utterly trust in Christ for righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, all these things are added, hence—

"For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away."

But to any who thinks that he is not righteous in God's sight and is rejecting Christ’s blood-bought righteousness for his own, even that (self-)righteousness that he thinks he has from trying to keep the law and doing good works is counted as less than rubbish in God's sight: Isaiah 64:6-

“We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in Your sight.”

The proceeds of such (self-) righteousness fade away and are even harmful. The servant that received one talent disregarded God's gift. He never saw it as belonging to him:

“…Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’

"

He is a picture of churchgoers who see God as a harsh Taskmaster who is just waiting for them to flout His law, eager to punish and will not bless them unless they barter with promises of obedience and all sorts of seeds and works. Such reject/bury God's gift of righteousness to us in Christ for their own righteousness from works of the law, but such works are not acceptable to God- Romans 3:20

“Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

God's love is demonstrated in His giving up His own Son for our salvation from sin and death. We love because He first loved us. Having a revelation of His everlasting love for us is how we get to bear much fruit. The servant who received one talent showed from his explanation for his lack of fruits that he did not know the Lord's Love neither did he value the proceed of Christ's sacrifice - God's gift of Righteousness.

Only when we are in union with Christ- utterly dependent on Him as our Righteousness and Strength - can we bear “much fruit" like the servants who received multiple talents. Christ says so in John 15:5 -

“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

See The Passion Translation: “I am the sprouting vine and you’re My branches. As you live in union with Me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you—but when you live separated from Me you are powerless.”

Good works are the evidences of our salvation in Christ. They are not conditions for salvation. None of self. All of Christ. Recall Revelation 21:1-4--

"1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone......4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Why will there be tears at this time? It is because when we come into the fullness of God's glory in Christ, many among us will see the futility of our past toiling and labour done in order to get God to bless. Many of us will finally see that it is those same attempts at trying to get right with God by keeping the law, fasts, seeds, and other laborious efforts which wicked class teachers (who twist Bible passages such as The Parable of the Talents) tell us to indulge in to get God's blessings that stands in the way of good success in Christ. Beloved, God Himself is telling us in His word today that He gives us all things freely with Christ. We have not even begun to scratch the surface of His goodness.

God is Love. Love finds fulfilment in giving. This is why Christ was refreshed after the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob (she was in an adulterous relationship the time!) took salvation from Him. Today, many people who claim to represent Christ will tell you that Christ cannot associate with such sinners because of their “condition.” His disciples left a tired Jesus at the well when they went to buy food but returned to meet a refreshed Jesus. He loves it when we FREELY take and take and take from Him. In Him, God fills us to overflowing with His goodness so much that we cannot but be blessed, cleansed from sins and self-consciousness, live right, and be a source of blessing to others- like the Samaritan woman. This woman who went to fetch water under the Middle-eastern sun and heat just to avoid the judging eyes of the many people that would be at the well in the cool of the morning which is the normal time for going to fetch water. Christ never judged her. He took her shame and condemnation away and she became one of the first evangelists; through her, her entire village heard about and believed Jesus. From her one conversation (Talent) with Christ, her entire village got saved.

This is Grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. For every demand made of us, even the demand to be productive branches, Christ the True Vine is the Supply.

Many among us act like that brother of the prodigal son who was angry at his father because, despite all of his hard work, he did not get any reward. But believer, this brother also got his own share of the Father's estate at the same time as his wayward brother! He already had it all. He must have forgotten, just like the "textbook" kid. See this Luke 15:12–

“11 And He said, “A man had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.’ So he divided his wealth between them.”

The older brother could have asked for or even taken a kid (for us- good health, prosperity, freedom from earthly ills, etc) to celebrate with his friends at anytime. Freely. It was already his. But he felt that he had to earn it. See the Father's response to the older brother:

31 “His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. 32 We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”

Beloved, the Lord God is telling us the same thing today. We who believe are joint heirs with Christ so let's stop being like that foolish child who chooses to trek to school in the pouring rain and on a route riddled with danger just to prove to her father that she wants to go to school, deserve his accolades or get him to pay her school fees - this after her father has provided her with a car and driver.

Many might think: "Those are kids. Adults must hold themselves to higher standards and at least put some effort (arm of flesh!) into getting God to bless." But see Christ in Matthew 18:3-

"Jesus called a little child to His side and set him on his feet in the middle of them all. “Believe Me,” He said, “unless you change your whole outlook and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. It is the man who can be as humble as this little child who is greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.""

Peter's experience shows us God's definition of humility. Peter's thought exalted itself against the knowledge of God —- he thought that Christ was wrong about his then upcoming denials. Just as many think they can increase their talents (produce righteous acts) by their own human effort and from their own righteousness. Like the lazy servant, these ones set aside or bury God's gift of righteousness to us in Christ and so, have no choice but to fail to produce good like Peter when he denied Christ.

Peter was chiseled and humbled by his trial. No wonder he wrote "humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God..." He experienced a glimpse into life outside the mighty hand of God that keeps us from devolving into heinous sins and utter lack of success.

Beloved, God is not interested in our silly efforts to save ourselves or getting Him to bless through useless fasts, seeds, labour and toiling. Christ is the Price of our textbook that is His goodness. His gift of Righteousness is our Talent. When you hear the Word of God, know that it is not to condemn you but to save you--

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." John 3:17

Even salvation from sins and the lack of good works. When your believing is right, right living will follow.