The Main Rule of Making Money, Said by Jesus in the Parable of the Talents
Income is one of the most exciting questions. What if Jesus was talking about money in His parable? How do earn more money relying on His words?
Talents?
The well-known parable about talents told by Jesus to his disciples is often interpreted one-sidedly. The problem is that we are used to this one-sided interpretation.
Thus, we do not take the parable of the master and the servants as it is. We take the popular interpretation.
To better understand the meaning of the parable, you should pay attention to the purpose for which Jesus tells it. In this way, He speaks of the second coming. No one knows where and when God the Son will come, except God the Father. Therefore believers must be ready all the time.
In order for the disciples to better understand the message of Jesus, He uses parables. The parable of the talents is one of them. But first, in the Gospel of Matthew, we find the parable of the ten virgins, of which five are prudent and five are foolish.
What might these images mean? Every virgin is given a lamp. A lamp is a vessel, a form, a void that everyone fills with their own meaning, or leaves empty. The vessel is our body, and we can fill it with healthy food or alcohol. The vessel is our mind, which we can fill with study, future plans, or evil intentions. The lamp is life given to us. And every day we fill it with deeds, thoughts, and feelings.
Obviously, a lamp is a kind of good that is given to us, as a form that we must fill with something ourselves. There are those who fill their lamp with something useful, and then it starts shining. And there are those who rely on others or put off good deeds until later, and at the most inopportune moment, they find that their lamp is not working.
An oil-filled lamp is a unity of form and meaning, like yin and yang. And we don’t know when at what hour we might need light, so we need a lot of oil, in reserve. The meaning of this parable is that it is better not to put it off, and fill your lamp every day, only in this way can it fulfill the function for which it was intended — to shine.
As we can see, the parable of the virgins and the lamps have very eloquent images. But can we really say that the oil in the lamp is our diligence, love, or some other chosen virtue? Oil in a lamp is a multifaceted image that rather expresses the principle of interaction between form and meaning, as well as how a person should dispose of the benefits received. But why, then, in the parable of talents, money (talent is a measure of silver) is mainly perceived as some kind of innate ability of a person?
Play or Lose. The Meaning of the Parable of The Talents
So what opportunities do you have?
Take a look around. A coin is an opportunity to go and give it to the money changers. Capital is the opportunity to double it.
In fact, even one talent of silver was very valuable by the standards of that time and was equal to 20 years of work. But one of the slaves did not use the opportunity to double the silver. Other servants used the money given to them and increased it. Just because you didn’t play doesn’t mean you won’t lose.
Silver buried in the ground is a missed opportunity. It could be a talent, a relationship, or an inheritance. It can be anything that has value, but you didn’t do anything about it.
Many smart books tell us to focus on our goals. And already with the goal in mind, think about the ways in which we want to achieve it. But sometimes we focus too much on the goal and then get frustrated if we don’t achieve it. In the parable of the talents, everything is much simpler. The parable tells us to use what we have. So you need to focus on what you have, not what you don’t have. If you use all that you have, you will be able to realize your maximum potential.
What’s Valuable and What’s Not?
If you have a coin, use it. But if you have ten, use ten coins.
Everything is very clear with coins. But life is not always so obvious. How to understand what is of great value? What could be more profitable?
What is valuable for you is not always valuable for others. Think about people. The value should be objective.
Didn’t Jesus think about the people when He fed those who were gathered for the sermon with bread and fish? He thought about people, about what is important to them, and took care not only about the spiritual component.
To focus on what is valuable to others means to think about other people. It means to show care, love, and support.
Focusing on what is valuable only to you can mean selfishness.
It is a very good situation when personal values coincide with the values of many people. This resonance can mean success.
You can ask yourself — Do I have values that will be of interest to society? How can I help people?
The value of your products or services can be divided into two main categories:
- Necessary (out of need, something you can’t do without) (fish and bread).
- At will (out of interest, what a person wants of his own free will) (sermon).
Love
Is it possible to forget about love in the pursuit of profit? Many people suffer from a genuine interest in alcohol, and some even really need it. But is the sale of alcohol a manifestation of love and care for a person?
Love should be in everything: in the business, you are doing, in the result, and in caring for people. Love is the reason and the goal.
God
If we remember that God is Love, everything becomes extremely clear. This statement only reinforces the words about love written above.
John 15:5
for apart from Me you can do nothing
And really, what good can we create without love?
The parable of the talents tells us that a person must be faithful to God. Not to money, not to his desires, or reasoning. To God.
How can you be faithful to God? By using the values that are given to you, by multiplying them. Even if you have not so much.
