Why the name Ten Talents Financial Stewardship?

Why the name Ten Talents Financial Stewardship?

Hello again and welcome back!

Thank you for returning and taking the time to check out the blog. One of the things that you may be wondering is why did I choose the name ‘Ten Talents Financial Stewardship’ or Ten Talents for short? Well as I said in my previous post, it has been on my heart to share my financial knowledge and insight to others for some time now. There are a lot of great money and finance blogs out there, but I really wanted to do one that reflected how life should be – with Christ at the centre.

So, to the name specifically. I wanted a name that incorporated money management and Jesus, so why not choose a story where Jesus taught about money management? Just like that, Jesus’ Parable of Talents (more on this later) came into my mind and the first half of the name ‘Ten Talents’ was born.

I found out what a talent was the other day, in case you were curious. According to Wikipedia (lol):

‘A talent was a unit of weight of approximately 80 pounds (36 kg), and when used as a unit of money, was valued for that weight of silver. As a unit of currency, a talent was worth about 6,000 denarii. A denarius was the usual payment for a day’s labour. At one denarius per day, a single talent was therefore worth 16 years of labour.’

To bring this to life, assuming an annual salary of £30,000, one talent could have been equal to £480,000, therefore the servant who was given five talents was effectively given £2.4 million. Wow. I hope I’ve got your attention now.

However, I didn’t feel ‘Ten Talents’ was quite the finished article so I pondered on what the final part should be. Ten Talents Money Management? Nah. Ten Talents Financial Services? Nope. Ten Talents Financial Stewardship? It was my eureka moment. I had my name!

Why stewardship? What even is stewardship? The Cambridge Dictionary describes stewardship as:

‘Someone’s stewardship of something is the way in which that person controls or organizes it‘

Why stewardship? Well you see your savings, investments and pensions? Who do you think owns them? *spoiler alert* Not you. They are NOT yours. Every penny we have is a resource that God owns that he has put us in charge of. Psalm 24:1 says the following:

‘The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.’ (New Living Translation)

If this concept is new to you then it can take some time to comprehend – I know it came as a shock to me! You may think, ‘But I worked for this money not God!’ But who gave you life and strength to ‘earn’ that money? I’ll wait. In any case, all the resources we have been blessed with are owned by God and he requires that we manage or steward those resources wisely. This leads quite nicely into…

The Parable of the Talents

Matthew 25: 14 – 30 ESV

¹⁴ “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. ¹⁵ To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶ He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. ¹⁷ So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. ¹⁸ But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. ¹⁹ Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰ And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ ²¹ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ ²² And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ ²³ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ ²⁴ He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, ²⁵ so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ ²⁶ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? ²⁷ Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. ²⁸ So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. ²⁹ For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. ³⁰ And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

This is such an amazing passage with so much to unpack from it. Even reading it again now I’ve picked up something new! The (non-exhaustive!) list of lessons we can learn from this are below:

1. We are each given a unique number of talents

I only truly understood this concept later in my (albeit short) life. Just as each of these guys were given five, two and one talent(s) respectively, we have each been given different levels of talents or resources and therefore have different levels of expectation on us. Verse 15 says the following:

‘To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.‘

I have some sobering news for you: we were not all meant to be millionaires. However, too many people chase a ‘five talent’ life when in reality, God has destined them for a ‘two talent’ life, in line with their current ability. This disconnect leads to inevitable frustration. The great philosopher Notorious B.I.G. once said, ‘Mo’ money, mo’ problems,’ so be careful what you wish for if you’re chasing a life not meant for you at that time.

Conversely, if you have been entrusted with five talents, you have a duty to maximise your potential. The second part of Luke 12:48 says:

‘… For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

Whatever number of talents you’ve been given, use it to the fullest.

2. Use the talents that you’ve been given wisely

Going through the passage I think we can learn what to do and what not to do as wise stewards of our talents. Working backwards, the Foolish Servant shows that by burying his talent, not only did he waste the Master’s resources, he also wasted the equally important time and opportunity he had been given. This is lowest level of wisdom or rather a lack thereof.

Something I noticed upon further study of this passage was verse 27 which says,’

Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. ‘

This is basically the next of stewardship, which is better than nothing, which the foolish steward  did, but not really enough, like a C grade. My interpretation of this is that leaving all your money to just sit and obtain a pitiful amount of interest is not good enough. It’s widely recommended that you should keep 3-6 month’s expenditure in cash in a bank account in case of emergencies. This is sensible as everyone should have an emergency fund. However, there comes a point where you need to make your money work harder for you, which we’ll see in the next level.

The top tier of wise financial stewardship is shown by the stewards entrusted with five and two talents. Verse 16 says the following:

‘He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more.‘

These stewards were not lazy or passive with what they were given. They went about their business with a sense of urgency and were proactive in making their money work for them. I have emphasised ‘traded with them’ to highlight that the best way to make money grow substantially is trade, or rather, invest wisely and purposefully. How? We’ll get to that in due course.

I will conclude with the new idea I told you that I had just grasped on re-reading this passage. Verse 19 says the following:

‘Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them.‘

The Master didn’t just leave and return the next day. He was gone for a while so therefore the stewards were given a long time period to grow his money. The message to me is this: God does not do get rich quick. I’ll repeat: God does not do get rich quick. Still don’t believe me? Let’s head over to Proverbs 28:20 which says,

‘A faithful man will abound with blessings, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.’

Ouch. You have been warned. God who knows our ability, will give us enough time to grow our wealth at the right pace and so the process does not need to rushed.

3. We can have talents added (or taken away) throughout our life

This may seem contradictory to the first point about us being given a unique number of talents. However, the caveat to each of us being given a unique number of talents, is that these talents are in proportion to our current ability at that time. After the Master is told of the 100% return on his investment, verse 21 says:

‘His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

By being a wise steward of his master’s resources, he went from being a five-talent steward to a ten-talent steward. Similarly, the two-talent steward became a four-talent steward. The message here is that if we can wisely manage our resources where we are right now as opposed to where we think we should be, then at the right time we will level up just as the faithful servants did.

Conversely if we squander the resources that we have been blessed with, then they will be taken away from us. Verse 19 says:

‘So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.‘

So in actual fact the five talent steward became an eleven talent steward.

A final thought for the Foolish Servant. Verse 30 says:

‘And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Let’s not be that guy (or girl)! Poor financial stewardship will inevitably lead to financial ruin and a life that is sub-optimal. Let’s make a commitment to be wise stewards of the resources that we have been blessed with.

That concludes my insight into this parable and how we can apply it to our lives. I hope you enjoyed reading this and I’m looking forward to putting out more content in the future. I promise I’ll cover the more traditional money issues in time, but I hope you can join for this journey of exploring how we can apply biblical wisdom to our finances.

The inspiration for my post today (and many more in the future) has been my pastor, Pastor Tope Koleoso – Head Pastor at Jubilee Church London, a great teacher and someone I look up to very much. His message ‘Financial Stewardship’ helped me form my ideas. If you have the Jubilee Church mobile app, search for the series ‘ Living Free : Enjoying a life of financial freedom.’ In here you will find the Financial Stewardship sermon.

I must also give a shout out to Pastor Mike Todd of Transformation Church for his sermon ‘Secure the bag’ that reinforced my learning on financial stewardship. The link is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkBotQo25-s

Please get in touch by leaving a comment, visiting our Instagram page @tentalentsuk or sending us an email to: [email protected]

God bless,

Ten Talents