Part of the trouble with the unfaithful servant in the parable of the talents is a works-based theology. The servant believed that he could save himself through works. In Matthew 16:25, Jesus said, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”
The unfaithful servant tried to save himself through works and lost everything, even his own soul. The faithful servants did not work for their own profit. We must not miss this important point. They labored with the master’s talents and gave both the talents and the increase to the master upon his return. In other words, the faithful servants labored selflessly and kept nothing for themselves. They trusted that the master would be righteous and just and pay them for their labor. In return for their faithfulness, they were entrusted with multiplied talents.
In contrast, the unfaithful servant trusted in his own works rather than in the goodness of the master. Outwardly, it is difficult to find fault with the unfaithful servant. His objection was based on a perceived harshness from the master had he lost the single talent entrusted to him. Can we blame him if the master would be as harsh as he described?
The parable, however, turns on the faithfulness of the servants. At the core of the parable is trust. The master entrusted his possessions to the servants. Thus, the servants should have at least dealt with the possessions in the same manner as the master would have. It is from this concept that we understand stewardship. Everything we enjoy is not our own but belongs to God. We are to at least deal with God’s possessions in the same manner He would have had He retained the possessions and not entrusted them to us.
The unfaithfulness of the slothful servant is, in the words of Joseph Benson, “negative goodness.” Many hope upon good works, having an outward appearance of faultlessness. They do no iniquity outwardly. The sin is inward and deadly.
There is no virtue in not doing wrong. Virtue springs from doing what is right, and there is sin in not doing right. We understand such sins to be of omission – omitting to do what should have been done. We tend to think of sin as of commission, meaning intentional and willful acts committed. On the contrary, sins of omission may spring from intentionally and wilfully omitting action.
The unfaithful servant was self-righteous. We can feel secure in ourselves and, therefore, not seek diligence in obedience to Christ nor improve upon our current state. Self-righteousness leads to spiritual blindness.
Faithfulness requires improving what is entrusted to us. We can apply this to increasing in righteousness, Christian perfection, and holiness. Redemption through the cross of Christ was entrusted to us, and we are to grow in grace to become more Christlike.
The principle of continually improving what is entrusted to us is taught through the unfaithful servant. An improvement of some kind was required, even if it was mere interest in the bank. Along with improvement is a standard of measurement. By what standard are we improving, and by what measurement can we gauge our improvement? The standard is the holiness of Christ.
The unfaithful servant claimed, “See, you have what is yours.” Matthew 25:25 However, this was not true. An improvement was required, and the servant only returned the talent. An improvement of the talent also belonged to the master, and the servant deprived the master of what rightfully belonged to him. Thus, the servant shortchanged the master.
We see the principles of the parable practically applied in the prudent investor rule. The rule is the legal principle which guides a trustee’s management of trust property. Specifically, an individual to whom property is entrusted must act prudently when investing the property. A prudent trustee is one who either invests assets as the trust grantor would have or by the prudent investor rule standard.
A prudent investor is one who expects a return on investment. Thus, for a trustee to be faithful, there must be a return on assets entrusted to him. By this, we can understand what the master in the parable expected of the servants. An increase or improvement was required.
We can then apply this back to our relationship with Christ and the principles of the parable. What are the objectives of Christ? It is through Christ that we are entrusted with His possessions, and He places a type of prudent investor rule upon us for the stewardship of His possessions. Before we can ascertain Christ’s standard of faithfulness, we must understand His objectives. We can know these objectives through Scripture and careful study and application of Scripture.
Many well-intentioned individuals have fallen into the trap of the unfaithful servant. It is not on works that we achieve acceptance in Christ. We gain acceptance before God first through belief on Christ and then through the inward work and aid of the Holy Spirit to reform and transform the heart.
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