To Each/From Each

A subtle distinction struck me this week as I was reading through the story of the servants and the talents in Matthew 25.

In Matthew 25:15 it states "And to one he (the master) gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his ability, and immediately he went out on his journey."

"To each according to his ability." Hmm. A variation of this phrase may sound familiar. It's from Marx: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

As I pondered this, I was struck by the fundamental difference between God and man. God, the giver, grants us according to our ability, not removing things from us based on our ability. But God also expects us not to spend them on ourselves but to use it for His work and His glory (read the rest of the parable [Matthew 25:14-30, James 4: 1-3]).

The natural man, by comparison, is a taker. He (we) takes what he wants (tangible and intangible) to slake his own purposes and lusts. This should not come as a surprise - the Father of Lies started this trend by desiring to be like the Most High, not from any sense of glorifying God but from the sense of ruling and gratifying his own sense of pride.

Now here's the irony: The world has so reversed the two ideas that the world system (cosmos) is seen as a giver and God is seen as a taker.

Why? The world has come to interpret giving as only that which brings pleasure, power, or glory to self. Giving in this sense becomes no more than gratification dressed up in finer clothes. And God, the giver of all things, becomes a taker in this cosmos economy because He does not call for self gratification but self denial and service, of glorifying God and serving others through the gifts which He has given.

The second irony is that in fact God is the final giver. As with the Master in Matthew 25, when God returns He will judge how well we used what He gave us - so the the self denial and service are turned into rewards, while the self gratification for ourselves becomes the true "taken away."

Self denial for rewards. Service for glory. We accept that hard work and deferred rewards works here on earth, but fail too often (as Christians anyway) to fully grasp how the principle also works in the heavenly economy. If we truly acted this way, if we truly thought and believed this way, if we vigorously developed and debated the idea this way - could we change the perceptions?

My hopes are not high -but at least we could give evidence to a God who gives freely, loves much and is worthy of our praise. That cannot be a bad thing.