Matthew 25:16

25:14-30 Christ keeps no servants to be idle: they have received their all from him, and have nothing they can call their own but sin. Our receiving from Christ is in order to our working for him. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. The day of account comes at last. We must all be reckoned with as to what good we have got to our own souls, and have done to others, by the advantages we have enjoyed. It is not meant that the improving of natural powers can entitle a man to Divine grace. It is the real Christian's liberty and privilege to be employed as his Redeemer's servant, in promoting his glory, and the good of his people: the love of Christ constrains him to live no longer to himself, but to Him that died for him, and rose again. Those who think it impossible to please God, and in vain to serve him, will do nothing to purpose in religion. They complain that He requires of them more than they are capable of, and punishes them for what they cannot help. Whatever they may pretend, the fact is, they dislike the character and work of the Lord. The slothful servant is sentenced to be deprived of his talent. This may be applied to the blessings of this life; but rather to the means of grace. Those who know not the day of their visitation, shall have the things that belong to their peace hid from their eyes. His doom is, to be cast into outer darkness. It is a usual way of expressing the miseries of the damned in hell.

Straightway (εὐθέως) Connected with the beginning of this verse, instead of with the end of Matthew 25:15 : Straightway he that had received, etc., indicating promptness on the servant's part. Traded with them (ἠργάσατο ἐν αὐτοῖς) Lit., wrought with them. The virgins wait, the servants work. Made (ἐποίησεν) Not made them, as A.V. The word is used in our sense of make money. Wyc. and Tynd., won. Geneva, gained. Some read ἐκέρδησεν, gained, as in Matthew 25:17.

Matthew 25:16-18 . Then he that had received the five talents went and traded, &c. — Thus the servants of Christ should consider the gifts or talents which they have received, whether by nature or by grace, as being intrusted with them for the sole end of their serving God and their generation with the use of them; and made them other five talents — Thus he who endeavours to use the gifts of God according to the design of the giver, is sure to find them increased; and that both because the exercise of any power or ability, gift or endowment, has a natural tendency to increase it, and because the divine blessing never fails to crown human diligence, when that diligence is used in the fear of God, in obedience to his will, and with a single eye to his glory. “He who lives not solely to his own profit,” says Theophylact, “but whether he have prudence, or riches, or power, or whatever influence or art he hath, endeavours thereby to serve and be useful to others, ο τοιουτος διπλασιαζει το δοθεν αυτω , this is the man who doubles that which is given to him.” Likewise he that had received two, &c. — He went immediately and traded with the talents he had received, and his improvement was in the same proportion; he gained other two.

But he that had received one — Being displeased, probably, that he had received no more, or being seized with servile fear, without so much as attempting to make any proper use or improvement of his talent; went and digged in the earth, &c. — Buried his talent, instead of employing it according to the design of his master, who had intrusted him with it. He did not mis-spend or mis-employ it; did not embezzle or squander it away, but he hid it. Here we have the characteristic of a slothful servant, of one who has received from God an excellent gift, and yet suffers it to remain useless and unemployed, and therefore unimproved; like money laid up in a bag, which, if properly used and dispersed, might be of much advantage, as well to the possessor as others, but while so locked up, is at once unprofitable to the owner and to all besides. And the sin of this slothful servant was highly aggravated in this, that the talent intrusted to him was not his own; he hid his lord’s money. Had it been his own he might have asked, Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? but, in truth, whatever abilities and advantages men, as the creatures and servants of the living God, possess, they are not their own: they are but stewards of them, and must give an account to their lord, whose goods they are.

Matthew 25:16 . Εἰργάσατο ] traded with them ( ἐν αὐτοῖς , instrumental). Very common in classical writers (especially Demosthenes) with reference to commerce and matters of exchange, though usually with the simple dative of the instrument. ἐποίησεν ] he acquired, gained ; as in German: er machte Geld (he made money). See instances in Wetstein and Kypke. So also the Latin facere .