Time for the Kingdom (1)
“‘So 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.’” Matthew 25.28, 29
Enough time?
People never seem to have enough time to do everything they want to do.
“Where does the time go?” we ask, as if somehow the moments of our lives were slipping away without our noticing.
“I just don’t have the time!” is the complaint we hear from many when challenged to a more demanding life of discipleship and service in the Kingdom of God.
“What time is it?” Here’s a question we should ponder beyond the momentary answer it seeks. For these are the last days. The Kingdom economy is expanding and going forward, and all who believe in Jesus, all who have made the Kingdom turn are called to seek the Kingdom and glory of God at every moment. The secrets of the Kingdom are being revealed before our very eyes, at every moment. Thus the answer to the question, “What time is it?” must ever be, “Time for the Kingdom of God.”
Of course, it’s true that we all have just exactly the same amount of time. But if I understand the parable of the talents correctly, it is possible to gain more time than others, or at least, to make better use of the time available to us so that it seems like we have more time. But this means understanding the purpose of time and the intentions of Him Who grants it to us moment by moment.
And understanding time and its proper use is one of the secrets of the Kingdom which it is our privilege to know.
The parable of the talents
The parable of the talents (Matt. 25.14-30) relates the familiar story of three servants entrusted with unequal amounts of their master’s wealth and charged with the duty of making more of it. Two succeed, while one squanders the opportunity by timidly hiding his talent rather than investing it for his master’s benefit.
At the end of the parable, the master chides the unfaithful servant and takes his amount of money from him and gives it to the one who made the best use of the money entrusted to him. Thus, the parable ends with Jesus explaining, “to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance.”
Jonathan Edwards, that great Puritan preacher and theologian, explained that of all the gifts God gives to His people, excepting that of salvation, the gift of time is the most precious. Everything we are and do takes place in time. Each of us has just as much time as all the rest of us—24 hours in every day. But some people seem to have more time than others, which is apparent by what they are able to accomplish with the time they have.
The gift of time
I worked one summer with a master builder and craftsman named Ernie Daniels. Ernie loved the Lord and always did all his work as unto the Lord. He knew every tool and its proper use, and there wasn’t a construction or repair task that Ernie had not accomplished at some point in his career.
One day Ernie had several tasks to take care of, which he felt he could accomplish on his own. So he gave me one task to do—reverse a wrongly-installed door knob and lock in a hotel door. When I’d finished that, he said, I could spend the rest of the day cleaning up the workshop.
Simple enough, I thought.
Except that I’d never done this task before and, once I got the doorknob apart, I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to get it back on correctly. It took me nearly the entire morning to complete this simple task! I felt the pressure of time slipping away from me, knowing that Ernie expected me to wrap this up quickly so that I could use the rest of my time getting the workshop in order.
By the time I finally got back to the workshop, Ernie was already there and had cleaned the whole place up without me. He graciously laughed at my ineptitude and assured me it was OK. Ernie understood that I was not trained to use my time in this kind of work, and so it made sense that, since he was, and was vastly more experienced in such tasks than I, he would get more out of his time than I would.
Following Jesus Christ is just like this—except that believers do not have the excuse of saying, like I did to Ernie, “This just isn’t what I do well.” All believers are called to follow Jesus Christ, all the time of their lives, and to devote all their time to growing in Him and bearing fruit for His Kingdom. The gift of time has always been precious, but in these last days, the time of our lives is the arena in which the Kingdom economy must advance.
As Paul put it, believers in Jesus Christ must learn to redeem the time allotted to us for the cause of Christ and His Kingdom. Any time not wholly invested in seeking the Kingdom and glory of Jesus Christ will be lost to the forces of wickedness and unbelief (Eph. 5.15-17).
We will be hard pressed to make any lasting contribution to the Kingdom economy until we understand and learn to make the best use of the gift of time, according to our King’s purposes in granting it to us.
The time of our lives is a gift from God, which He bestows on us, moment by moment, so that we will use it for His glory and Kingdom. Our calling is to understand this precious Kingdom secret, to receive and master the use of this gift. God’s promise is that, if we will, we will never lack for time to grow in the Lord or to further the purposes of His Kingdom.
For reflection
1. Do you think it’s appropriate to apply the parable of the talents to the time of our lives? Why or why not?
2. When the Lord returns and comes to inspect the time of our lives, what will He be looking to see?
3. Meditate on Ephesians 5.15-17. Why does Paul say the time instead of your time?
Next steps—Preparation: Are you making the best use of the time God gives you? How do you approach the time of your life? Do you evaluate your use of time in any way? Should you? How good are you at planning your time? Spend some time reviewing these questions before the Lord in prayer.
Give thanks
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
It’s in all the small stuff we do each day that the Kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. Our book, Small Stuff, can help you in your daily work of seeking the Kingdom and righteousness of God. Order your copy in book form by clicking here or as a free PDF by clicking here.
Other columns of interest this week: This week in our Read Moore we begin selections from our book, Understanding the Times. This book will be a valuable companion to our study of “The Kingdom Economy.” In our Crosfigell column we’re following Brendan, a 6th century Irish saint, as he pursues the Kingdom economy in his extraordinary adventures. Our daily Scriptoriumcolumn takes up the Gospel of John this week in our continuing series, “Jesus throughout the Scriptures.”
Thank you.
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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
