What Does the Parable of the Talents Mean for the Way You See God?
The Parable of the Talents shows how our understanding of God shapes the way we steward what He places in our hands.
You’re probably familiar with Jesus’ Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30.
A master divided responsibility for his money among three servants before leaving on a journey. Two of them put the assets to work. The third buried his portion and returned exactly what he was given.
He lost nothing, but he’s the one the master rebuked!
That has always struck me, because the third servant’s explanation tells us something important. He didn’t bury the talent because he misunderstood the assignment. He buried it because he was afraid. His fear reveals how he sees his master and that fear gives us a way to answer the question, what does the Parable of the Talents mean?
I believe there are at least two things going on here: 1. Jesus is teaching about faithful action with what has been given to us. That’s what every sermon I’ve ever heard talks about with this parable. However, I also think He’s showing us that a servant’s understanding of the master shapes how they manage, or steward, what they have.
Frankly, I don’t think the third servant knew or understood the heart of his master. This raises a foundational question about your own attitude toward stewardship: How do you perceive God as your Master? Is He scary? Loving? Selfish? Generous? Just?
How you answer that question shapes the way you manage all that belongs to Him.
Ok, let’s dig in.
Table of Contents
The Master entrusted something valuable
In Matthew 25:14-30, the master gave one servant five talents, another two, and another one, each according to their ability. By the way, understanding the meaning of talents in the Bible matters here. In this culture and at that time, a talent is currency, it’s a large unit of money, not a skill like it means in English.So each servant receives something substantial and each is given real responsibility for it.
The first two servants put what they receive to work. When the master returns, they both have increased what was committed to him, and they hear the same words:
“Well done, good and faithful servant.”
(Matthew 25:21, ESV)
Their results differ in amount, but the master described both men as faithful. They accepted responsibility for what he gave them and they acted on it.
Fruitfulness with our resources is part of every conversation about stewardship. We should care about how we use the resources God assigns to us. We should pay attention, learn, ask questions, and take our responsibility seriously.
Then the story turned to the third servant.
The third servant tells us how he saw the Master
The third servant kept everything he received safe and he returned the full amount. When the master asked him to explain what he did, the servant explained:
“Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.”
(Matthew 25:24-25, ESV)
Before he explained what he did, he described the kind of person he believed the master was.
“I knew you to be a hard man.”
“So I was afraid.”
“And I went and hid your talent.”
Those thoughts belong together.
Inaction shaped his stewardship because fear defined his view of the master. He believed the master was harsh. Uncertainty felt dangerous. Hiding seemed safer.
What the servant believes about the master affects what he does with the master’s property. The same is true for us. That’s what makes the Parable of the Talents so meaningful.
Stewardship grows out of your relationship with God. God is the Owner, and what we believe about Him determines how we care for what He has entrusted to us.
Sometimes fear looks responsible
This is where the story becomes uncomfortable.
The third servant’s decision did not look reckless. Quite the opposite. He protected the money and made sure he could return everything the master had given him. If his goal was simply to avoid loss, burying the talent worked.
Fear can look like that. It can manifest as safety.
Sometimes time and information is exactly what we need. A significant decision deserves careful thought, and stewardship shouldn’t be an excuse for careless decisions. Wisdom asks questions. Wisdom listens. Wisdom pays attention to fruit and learns from experience.
Sometimes we have enough information to act but we keep searching for the assurance that nothing will go wrong.
That’s a different need.
We may call it prudence. We may tell ourselves we are being thorough. Somewhere underneath, we might be looking for a level of certainty that God never promised.
And that makes me wonder whether some stewardship decisions reveal more than our ability to analyze an opportunity. They may reveal the way we worry about God’s response to our imperfection.
Stewardship has a limit to what it can know
A steward carries real responsibility. But eventually, every meaningful decision reaches the edge of what we can know. That limit is part of being a steward and trusting God.
God knows the people, circumstances, opportunities, and outcomes hidden from us. His purposes are larger than our ability to calculate the consequences of every decision. Knowing that gives us freedom to carry our responsibility faithfully without also carrying His.
The third servant experienced uncertainty through the lens of fear. The master he imagined left little room for mistakes, so protecting the talent seemed safer than putting it to work.
Our knowledge of God changes that posture.
We still care about making wise decisions. We should learn from choices that turn out poorly, adjust when wisdom calls for it, and take fruitfulness seriously. We can also know that God’s work is not fragile. His purposes do not rest on our perfect foresight.
There’s room to be a faithful steward without needing the control of knowing the outcome. Our desire for certainty reveals something too
Generosity makes all of this very practical because giving involves letting go.
Once a resource leaves our hands, our control shifts. We may read reports and stories. We may see remarkable fruit. We also know only a fraction of what God does through what we give.
That can be difficult for those of us who like to know. (Raise your hand if you like control. Me too.)
In those difficult moments, I invite you to dig deep and ask some hard questions.
Do I trust God with these resources after I release them?
Do I believe His purposes remain secure when my judgment is imperfect?
Can I act faithfully when I cannot control the outcome?
Those are stewardship questions too.
And they reach far beyond money. We face them in our work, our families, our relationships, and in the opportunities God puts in front of us. Again and again, we find ourselves carrying real responsibility with incomplete information.
That’s part of how stewardship forms us. We learn to use wisdom without demanding certainty. We learn to hold what God gives us with open hands. And slowly, we learn to trust the parts of the story we can’t see, to the One who can.
What kind of Master do you believe you serve?
If I’m honest, some (many?) days I feel like the third servant.
“Just bury it. At least I know it’s safe.”
This, of course, goes beyond money. And I have to regularly go back to what I know about the heart of God.
Do I believe He’s good?
The third servant leaves us with a question worth carrying beyond Matthew 25: What do I believe about the heart of the God who delegated these resources to me?
Our answer shapes the way we give, save, plan, work, and respond to opportunities. A view of God shaped by fear leads to guarded stewardship and therefore, incomplete joy. We protect ourselves from uncertainty and keep searching for assurances before we move.
Knowing God as the generous Owner gives us freedom to carry responsibility differently. He gives us real work to do and real decisions to make while remaining Lord over the results that follow.
So, what is the lesson of the parable of the talents? There’s a call to act faithfully with what the Master has placed in our hands. For me, the story also pushes deeper. It asks whether I know the heart of the One whose resources I’m managing.
Faithful stewardship grows from that relationship. We act with diligence, wisdom, and prudence. Then we trust God with the part of the story only He can see.
That’s a different burden than trying to make every giving, family, and work decision perfectly.
Perhaps that’s one of the gifts of seeing ourselves as stewards: We can carry what God has placed in our hands with wisdom, courage, and freedom because we know the One who owns it all.
When you’re ready
Some stewardship decisions are straightforward. Others bring us to the edge of what we can know, and ask us to move forward with wisdom and trust.
If you are working through a giving decision, a Cru Foundation specialist would be glad to listen and help you think through what God has entrusted to you and what faithful stewardship may look like.
Start a conversation with Cru Foundation:
crufoundation.org/contact
This content is provided for educational purposes only and should not be considered legal or tax advice. Please consult your professional advisor regarding your specific situation.
Should Return on Investment Determine Where Christians Give?
Katie Brubaker: Welcome to the Smarter Generosity podcast. I’m Katie Brubaker.
Eric Fleshood: And I’m Eric Fleshood.
Katie: Today we’re diving into something that I think people are going to have strong feelings about.
It’s based on a question we’ve received before: Should good stewardship be measured by return on investment?
Specifically, when we’re deciding where to give, should we evaluate ministries based on their return on investment? Is that how we determine whether we’re being good stewards?
Eric: That’s right. We’re talking about one particular aspect of stewardship, which is charitable giving.
When we’re considering supporting a ministry or a particular project, what role should its return on investment play in deciding how much to give and where to give?
Katie: So let’s jump into it.
Should ROI be the deciding factor? Should it play some role? Or should we ignore it altogether?
Where do you land on that spectrum?
Eric: Before answering, I want to acknowledge something.
I’ve worked in fund development at Cru for a couple of decades, and I’ve certainly presented ministry opportunities to donors by emphasizing their fruitfulness or return on investment.
And I think it’s important to recognize that we’re not arguing against fruitfulness.
Fruitfulness is one of Cru’s core values, and it’s something we genuinely care about.
The question is whether there might be a downside to placing too much emphasis on return on investment.
That’s what I hope we can explore today.
Katie: What’s the downside?
Eric: When I look at Scripture and the unfolding history of God’s work in the world, I see a much more nuanced picture than simply measuring results.
God cares about fruitfulness, but He also cares about many other things.
And I think we naturally want simple answers.
We live in a complicated, fast-paced world, and it’s understandable that we’d want to reduce our decisions to one clear measure.
If we could simplify everything down to a single number, that would make choosing where to give much easier.
Katie: I’ve heard people talk about giving in terms of an investment.
They’ll say, “This ministry is a good investment because it’s producing strong results.”
Sometimes people even use the phrase eternal return on investment, or EROI.
They’re thinking about the fruit they can see now or the impact they believe a ministry will have in the future.
And they conclude that because the return looks good, supporting that ministry must be good stewardship.
I think that’s often a reasonable consideration.
But you’re saying there’s more to the story.
What other factors should we consider?
Eric: Before answering that, I want to recognize the important role donors play in the life of a ministry.
Over the years, I’ve had mentors in fundraising who taught me to honor the wisdom and perspective that donors bring to the table.
Ministries belong to the Lord and serve the body of Christ. Donors are part of that body, and they have valuable insights to offer.
Sometimes, when people stop giving to a particular ministry or project, there may be something worth paying attention to.
Perhaps the Lord is leading people in another direction. Perhaps a ministry needs to reconsider what it’s doing.
I believe ministry leaders should listen to donors rather than dismiss their concerns or perspectives.
One way I’ve heard that relationship described is that ministry leaders and donors can function like priests and kings, working together toward a shared purpose.
Neither group has a monopoly on wisdom.
We need to work together as members of the body of Christ.
But when we return to the question of ROI, there are some examples in Scripture that challenge the idea that measurable results should be our highest priority.
Think about the prophet Jeremiah.
Here’s a man who was called by God to faithfully proclaim His message to people who repeatedly refused to listen.
He endured rejection, ridicule, and tremendous suffering.
If you were evaluating Jeremiah’s ministry based entirely on visible results, you might conclude that it wasn’t particularly successful.
But God called him to that work.
Why would God call someone to a ministry that appeared, at least on the surface, to produce so little fruit?
If return on investment were God’s highest or only value, how would we explain that?
Katie: That’s an interesting point.
If we were measuring strictly by visible results, Jeremiah’s ministry might appear to have almost no return on investment.
Eric: Exactly.
And I think we also need to remember that God’s work in the world unfolds across generations.
The story of redemption spans thousands of years.
God has worked through different people, nations, and periods of history, all contributing to one unfolding story.
And each of us participates in only a small part of that larger work.
Our lives are relatively short. We might have 80 years or so to contribute to something God has been doing for millennia.
Very few people get to see the entire process, from planting the seed to watching it grow and eventually harvesting the fruit.
Katie: Right. We may only get to participate in one part of the process.
Eric: That’s right.
Consider what we’ve seen in parts of the Middle East in recent years.
There have been reports from missionaries and ministry workers who have served in that region for decades and are now describing remarkable openness to the gospel.
We’ve also heard accounts of people experiencing dreams and visions involving Jesus.
Those testimonies have encouraged many believers who have been praying and laboring in that region for generations.
Now, think about those who were serving there 50 years ago.
They may not have experienced the same visible response.
If someone had evaluated their ministry solely on immediate results, they might have concluded that supporting the work wasn’t worthwhile.
But what if their faithful service was helping prepare the ground for what God would do decades later?
I think it would have been a mistake to judge the value of that ministry only by what could be measured at the time.
Katie: So let’s bring that back to a practical giving decision.
Suppose I’m looking at several ministries or charitable organizations that I could support.
They’re all doing worthwhile work, and I’m trying to determine where God might be calling me to give.
ROI is one consideration, but you’re saying it shouldn’t be the only consideration.
What else should be part of that decision?
Eric: I’m probably going to disappoint you, Katie, because I’m not going to give you a checklist.
Katie: You know I love checklists. Just give me the answers!
Eric: I know you do.
But my concern is that when return on investment becomes too prominent in our thinking, it can begin to affect our relationship with God.
Katie: In what way?
Eric: It can shape what we believe about His character.
We can begin thinking that God is primarily concerned with maximizing returns, that efficiency and measurable output are His highest priorities in every circumstance.
And personally, I’m grateful that the God I know and experience makes room for grace.
He’s patient with me.
He’s not treating my life as some kind of efficiency calculation.
Katie: So you’re saying He’s not completely utilitarian in how He relates to us.
There’s abundance and grace.
Eric: Exactly.
That’s really my concern.
I want to see people living generously from the heart.
And the only way we can do that is by living in relationship with God and coming to know Him as He truly is.
We don’t want to impose our own man-made frameworks onto His character.
Katie: Talking about return on investment makes me think of a parable that I know is one of your favorites: the parable of the talents.
It’s a passage that often comes up when Christians talk about stewardship and ROI.
How do you think that parable should inform this conversation?
Maybe we should start by summarizing the story.
Eric: That’s a good idea.
Jesus tells the parable in Matthew 25.
It’s a story about a wealthy man who’s preparing to leave on a journey. Before he goes, he entrusts his possessions to three servants.
To the first servant, he gives five talents. To the second, he gives two talents. And to the third, he gives one talent.
Each receives an amount according to his ability.
Now, a talent in this context was a substantial unit of money.
While the master is away, the first two servants put what they’ve received to work.
The servant with five talents doubles the amount and brings back ten.
The servant with two talents also doubles what he was given and brings back four.
When the master returns, he commends both of them.
He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Then he tells them that because they’ve been faithful with a few things, he’ll put them in charge of many things.
But the third servant responds very differently.
He tells the master that he was afraid because he believed the master was a hard man who harvested where he hadn’t sown and gathered where he hadn’t scattered seed.
So instead of putting the money to work, he buried it in the ground.
When the master returns, the servant simply gives back the original talent.
And the master rebukes him.
He calls him wicked and lazy, explaining that if the servant truly believed the master was so demanding, he could at least have deposited the money with bankers so it would earn interest.
Instead of rewarding him, the master takes the talent away and gives it to the servant who has ten.
Katie: All right, I have a confession of my own.
I know you love this parable, but I’ve never particularly enjoyed it.
For much of my life, I misunderstood the word talents.
I assumed it referred to personal gifts and abilities, the things we’re naturally good at.
So I thought the message was that God gives each of us certain abilities and expects us to go out and become as successful as possible with them.
But I’ve since learned that Jesus was talking about actual money in this story.
And honestly, the way the third servant was treated always bothered me.
It seemed harsh.
I never really dug into the passage because I didn’t like what appeared to happen to him.
So I’m coming into this part of our conversation with a lot of questions.
Eric: I actually think Jesus sometimes tells parables in ways that are meant to provoke those kinds of emotional reactions.
He draws us into the story, sometimes by making us uncomfortable.
That discomfort can cause us to examine what’s really happening at a deeper level.
Katie: So what do you think is happening here?
Eric: Let me start by explaining what I don’t think is happening.
One of the reasons I’m so drawn to this parable is that I think it has significantly shaped how Christians imagine God’s character.
And it relates directly to our question about return on investment.
If you wanted to find a passage that appears to show God caring deeply about ROI, you might point to this one.
The first two servants double their master’s money, and he rewards them.
The third servant doesn’t produce a return, and he receives a severe rebuke.
So it’s easy to conclude that the main lesson is that God wants us to produce the greatest possible return on whatever He’s entrusted to us.
Katie: Especially when the master takes the third servant’s talent and gives it to the one who already has the most.
It certainly looks like he’s rewarding the best financial performer.
Eric: Right.
But if that’s the entire point of the parable, wouldn’t that suggest a works-based approach to the Christian life?
Katie: What do you mean by that?
Eric: I mean the idea that our experience of God depends primarily on how much we can produce for Him.
That God is evaluating us according to our output, and our relationship with Him depends on achieving the right results.
Katie: That’s interesting because I think a lot of people, particularly in American culture, probably carry some version of that belief.
I wouldn’t necessarily say I consciously think about God that way.
But when you describe it like that, I can recognize how some of those assumptions might exist underneath the surface of my own faith.
Eric: And I think that’s the key to understanding this parable.
What do we actually believe about God?
Look at what the third servant says about the master.
He describes him as a hard man who harvests where he hasn’t sown and gathers where he hasn’t scattered seed.
That’s the picture of someone who’s exacting and demanding, someone who leaves no room for error.
But here’s the question: Is that an accurate description of the master?
Katie: You don’t think it is?
Eric: No, I don’t.
And I think the parable gives us several clues that challenge that description.
Katie: I’ve always assumed it was accurate because that’s how the third servant describes him.
Eric: And I think that’s where our understanding can begin to go wrong.
Look at what the master actually does.
The first clue is that he distributes the talents to each servant according to his ability.
That suggests a master who understands the different capacities of the people entrusted with his resources.
He isn’t placing identical expectations on everyone.
He’s recognizing that different people have different abilities and responsibilities.
Katie: Okay, I can see that.
Eric: Now look at what happens when he returns.
The first two servants have doubled what they received.
But notice how he responds to each of them.
He gives them essentially the same commendation.
“Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Even though one has produced a larger monetary return than the other, they receive the same affirmation.
Katie: That’s interesting. They both doubled what they received, but the actual amounts were different.
Eric: Exactly.
And then listen to what the master says next.
“You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.”
Think about that.
The master describes what they were entrusted with as a few things.
And what’s the reward for their faithfulness?
He gives them responsibility over many things.
The reward is far greater than what we might expect based on what they’ve done.
Katie: Right.
You might expect him to say, “You’ve been faithful with a few things, so I’ll give you a few more things.”
It’s like a parent gradually increasing a child’s responsibilities.
You see how they handle one thing, and then you give them a little more.
Eric: Exactly.
But the master goes far beyond that.
And there’s something else in the passage that I think is even more important.
He says, “Come and share your master’s happiness!”
Now ask yourself this.
Does that sound like someone who’s concerned only with efficiency and return on investment?
Does that sound like someone whose highest priority is the bottom line?
Or does it sound like someone who values relationship?
Katie: That’s what I was thinking.
He’s inviting them into his happiness.
He’s sharing the joy and the reward with them.
Eric: That’s right.
I think that tells us something significant about the master’s heart.
He’s not simply rewarding financial performance.
He’s inviting these servants into a relationship of shared joy.
And that doesn’t fit very well with the third servant’s description of him as a harsh, demanding man.
Look at the contrast.
The master rewards the first two servants generously and invites them to share in his happiness.
The third servant approaches him in fear, convinced that he’s an unforgiving taskmaster.
I think that difference matters tremendously.
Katie: So if you had to summarize the main point of the parable, what would you say Jesus is teaching us?
Eric: I’d say that what you believe about God determines how you’re going to handle what He’s entrusted to you.
Katie: That’s really good.
Okay, I can see why you love this parable.
Eric: If you believe God’s primary concern is return on investment, if that’s what you believe about His fundamental character, I think that belief can actually become a hindrance to generosity.
It can keep you from living and giving freely from the heart.
That’s what we see in the third servant.
His fear shapes how he responds to what the master has entrusted to him.
But the first two servants respond differently.
They take a risk.
And we know that when it comes to investing, risk is always part of the equation.
Things don’t always work out the way we hope.
So what gave those servants the freedom to take that risk?
I think it’s because they understood something about the heart of their master.
They weren’t approaching him as someone who was simply a harsh taskmaster concerned with extracting the greatest possible return.
Katie: I’ve never heard the parable explained quite like this before.
Is that a common interpretation?
Eric: I’m certainly not alone in seeing it this way, but I don’t think it’s an interpretation that gets enough attention.
I’ve heard other commentators point out that the third servant is judged in a way that reflects what he believed about the master.
And the first two servants, who appear to approach the master differently, experience his generosity.
I think there’s both a warning and a promise in that.
What we believe about God is fundamental to how we live.
And that’s why I want us to have a nuanced understanding of the role ROI should play in our giving and stewardship.
Katie: That’s a lot to think about.
And you’re right. What we believe about God affects everything.
It affects our stewardship decisions, not just financially, but in every area of life.
So let’s bring this back to the original question.
Suppose I’m sitting down with a list of ministries and charitable organizations that I’m considering supporting.
I understand now that I should be thinking about more than ROI.
How should this parable influence the way I approach that decision?
Eric: I’m still not going to give you a checklist!
But it does remind me of something Bill Bright used to say to me.
He would say, “You can never go wrong being generous.”
I saw people take advantage of Bill Bright’s generosity.
But he believed deeply that, in God’s economy, generosity was never the wrong posture to take.
And I think there’s something in this parable that speaks to that.
Of course we should care about fruitfulness.
We shouldn’t give thoughtlessly or without any consideration for how resources are being used.
I’m certainly not arguing that we shouldn’t have standards when evaluating ministries.
But I do think generosity should be our guiding posture.
Katie: I love that.
And it sounds like what you’re saying is that good stewardship begins with knowing the heart of God.
Eric: Yes.
You can’t fully understand faithful stewardship apart from knowing the heart of the One who has entrusted those resources to you.
Now let’s take that a little further.
Imagine you made a significant charitable gift to a ministry project.
You genuinely wanted to support good work, but later you discovered the project was poorly managed.
Maybe some of the resources were wasted, and you couldn’t identify any meaningful fruit from the gift.
How do you think God would look at the person who gave?
What do you think His heart toward that giver would be?
I think this parable helps us think about that question.
The master reveals a heart that’s more generous than we might expect.
His reward is out of proportion to what the servants have done.
And while that doesn’t mean our decisions are unimportant, it reminds us that God’s character cannot be reduced to an exacting assessment of our financial outcomes.
Katie: Amen.
I’m grateful for that because I certainly need God’s grace and mercy in my own life.
And I think that’s a good place to end our conversation.
But before we do, if there’s one thing you’d want listeners to take away from all of this, what would it be?
Eric: I think it’s that God’s grace is greater than our hearts sometimes allow us to believe.
It’s bigger than our imaginations can fully comprehend.
That’s why we need Scripture.
That’s why we need these reminders of who God really is.
And I think that understanding of His character should be the North Star for every steward.
Katie: Thank you for that encouragement, Eric.
It’s been a great conversation. We’ll see you next time.
Eric: Good to be with you. See you next time.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability. Verbal fillers, repeated phrases, technical interruptions, and behind-the-scenes recording discussions have been removed.
