Third section the judgment upon the church itself second picture of judgment

Delivered unto them his goods.—The spiritual blessing of His life and salvation. Christ entrusts to Christians in this world the treasure of His spiritual life.

Matthew 25:15. To every man according to his own ability, κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν δίναμιν.—Spiritual gifts are regulated by the kind and degree of personal susceptibility and capacity. Compare the doctrine of the χαρίσματα, 1 Corinthians 12 [“There is no Pelagianism in this; for each man’s powers are themselves the gift of God.” Alford. But the words ἑκάστῳ κατ’ ἰδίαν δύναμιν imply that every man has a natural endowment, a sacred trust and mission to fulfil in this world.—P. S.]

And straightway he went abroad.—The nearest possible approximation of the parable to the fact, that the ascension and Pentecost are closely connected; although the order is inverted.^[FN43] There had been, however, a preparatory bestowment of the Spirit before the ascension. See the farewell discourses in John, and Matthew 20. Meyer: “Straightway, without precise orders for the application of the money.” But some general orders are presupposed by the subsequent judgment; while the particular employment of the personal endowment is entrusted to the individual. Every one must know his peculiar vocation.

Ver18. Hid his lord’s money.—Contrary to duty and to dignity. The money in the earth is the spirit in the flesh.

Matthew 25:20. Gained beside them, ἐ π’ αὐτοῖς.—In addition to what was entrusted, and by means thereof. [Comp. the plainer statement in Luke 19:16 : “Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds,” and John 15:5 : “Without Me, ye can do nothing” Every gift of God may be doubled and even increased tenfold by faithful and conscientious use, while it may be lost by neglect. This is true of spiritual and temporal gifts of all kinds.—P. S.]

Matthew 25:21. The Vulgate and Cod. A.^[FN44] read εὖγε, which may stand absolutely, as in Luke 19:17; the εὖ, on the other hand, as Meyer observes, must be connected with the verb. [Alford, however, thinks that εὖ, according to later Greek usage, need not be connected with ἐπὶ ὀλιγα ἦς πιστός, but may bear the sense of εὖγε: well done! as in the English Vers.—P. S.]

[I will set thee over much.—This implies new spheres of activity and usefulness in the kingdom of glory in heaven; or—according to Stier, Alford, and all who refer this and the preceding parable to the pre-millennial advent—in the millennium on earth.—P. S.]

Into the joy of thy Lord.—De Wette: “Kuinoel and others interpret after Esther 9:17 (Sept.), where χαρά=מִשְּתֵּח, entertainment; better, probably, from the feast of joy which the lord would celebrate on his return; Fritzsche, after Chrysostom, of the Messianic blessedness,—the parable passing over into the reality.” Doubtless, the Lord’s joyful festival is meant; but this signifies the inheritance of Christ. [Alford refers the χαρά not to a feast, but to the joy arising from the completion of the work and labor of love, of which the first sabbatical rest of the creation was typical, Genesis 1:31; Genesis 2:2; Hebrews 4:3-11; Hebrews 12:2; Revelation 3:21.—P. S.]

Matthew 25:24. That thou reapest where thou hast not sown.—The picture of a hard, and withal selfish man. The saying shows: 1. That the servant, as a self-seeker, separated his own interest from his lord’s, and therefore reckoned his lord to be a self-seeker also; 2. that he promised himself no personal spiritual joy in trading with the entrusted pound; 3. that he would tacitly reproach his lord with having given him too little: 4. that he would not only self-righteously excuse his own slothfulness of spirit, but also overrule and censure his lord; 5. that, with all this, he realty held his master to be not an over-hard Prayer of Manasseh, but an over-gentle Prayer of Manasseh, against whom he could dare to use such language with impunity.—Where thou hast not strewed.—Meyer understands here again, as in Matthew 21:43, a winnowing, against Erasmus, Beza, and others, who interpret the δια σκορπιζειν of sowing; thinking that otherwise there would be a tautological parallel. But the new idea introduced is that of intensification: sowing and reaping, abundantly scattering and bringing into the barn. In winnowing, it is the straw that is scattered, and not the wheat. [Alford directs attention to the connection of thought between the last parable of our Lord with His first on the Sower ( Matthew 13:3-9). He looks for fruit where He has sown, but not beyond the power of the soil. He expects not so much success, as faithfulness which does not depend on the absolute amount, but is measured by the degree of ability and opportunity. Hence He says: good and faithful (not: successful) servant.—P. S.]

Matthew 25:25. And I was afraid.—De Wette and Meyer: He might have lost the talent in trading. But that would have been in some sense praiseworthy. His fear was more abject: he would not take trouble for the benefit of a selfish lord.*

Matthew 25:26. Thou knewest that I reaped.—Kuinoel and de Wette: Concessively and ironically spoken; but according to Meyer, a question of surprise. Doubtless de Wette is right. The servant has condemned himself as a liar. If he really regarded his lord as a hard Prayer of Manasseh, and yet would risk nothing in trade, he might have adopted a safe method of gain for his master, and placed the money into the hands of the changers. Thus at least the interest would have been secured.

Matthew 25:27. Thrown my money to the bankers.—Meyer: Throw it on the money-table; βαλεῖν exhibits the sloth of his manner. The changers held a public bank among the ancients, at which they received and lent money. [Olshausen and Trench apply the τραπεζῖται to those stronger characters who may lead the more timid to the useful employment of gifts which they have not energy to use. Alford objects to this interpretation, and refers to the machinery of religious and charitable societies in our day as very much in the place of the τραπεζ͂ῖται.”—P. S.]

I might have received mine own.—If thou didst thus separate thy interest from mine, thou wast bound to give the money to the changers, that I might have received mine with interest. A striking rebuke ex concessis!

Matthew 25:28. Take from him therefore.—The negative punishment, entering into the judgment of the servant himself: separation.—And give it to him that hath the ten talents—Thus even his judgment passes over into the praise of God.

Mat 25:29. For unto every one that hath.—See Mat 13:12, p. 240.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On the meaning of the parable, see the Exegetical Notes. All its individual traits are regulated by the different relation of the talents; as in Luke 19 they signify offices, and here the individual gifts of grace. Thus, the concluding circumstance, that the one pound is given to him who had ten pounds, has in the two cases a diverse significance. In Luke, the sense of the parable is this, that the neglected office devolved or passed over to the highest fidelity; in Matthew, the truth is set forth, that the unfaithfulness of the slothful servant increases the spiritual life of the faithful, as affording him matter of constant warning and spiritual meditation, and the means of enlarging his knowledge of the divine government of souls.

2. If we refer this parable to the doctrine of election, we find in it the unlimited differences which the Scripture teaches, as opposed to the unlimited contrast of destiny which the Augustinian doctrine of predestination maintains. Each has his special religious talent or capital (the ἰδία δύναμις, Matthew 25:15) in his original nature, and this becomes to him in the Church a charisma or gift (ἔδωκεν ἑκάστῳ). The destination to salvation is thus universal: the capability and the call to fidelity in all the same, the measure of the gift is different, as are the degrees of glory. But if the least endowed in regard to fulness of life (for in reference to truth and fidelity no one is less endowed than another) scorns and neglects his pound, that was not his destiny, but is his fault. The less richly he was provided in himself, the more anxious should he have been to enrich himself by connection with the more eminent members of the Church. (Comp. the author’s Positive Dogmatik, p956 sqq.)

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The judgment of the Lord upon all the individual members of the Church: 1. Its rightful ground: the appointment and the obligation of the servants2. Its test: the true application of gifts3. Its universality: the most richly and the least endowed are brought to account4. Its requital: on the one hand, the praise and the joy of the Lord; on the other hand, the despoiling and casting out into the fellowship of the lost.—Thy gifts are entrusted to the day of reckoning.—Manifold gifts, but one duty and one spirit.—The endowment of a Christian is a call to work for the Lord.—Every one receives the pound of the heavenly spiritual life according to the measure of his capacity.—The double obligation which the absence of the Lord imposes upon Christians: 1. They are bound to fidelity, because the Lord is so far (and has committed to them all His interests in this world); 2. they are bound to fidelity, because He is so near (invisibly present in His gifts, and may come at any moment to reckon).—The grand and stimulating thought, that Christ has committed to His servants in this world all His goods.—The confidence of the Lord the source of His servants’ fidelity.—Trading with the riches of Christ the highest and noblest gain.—Christ’s business prospers only through fidelity.—The Church is a place of trade, the noblest and the richest.—The principles of commerce with spiritual gifts: 1. As regards God: giving up all, to gain all2. As it respects our neighbor: to give is more blessed than to receive3. As it respects ourselves: to gain the one thing needful in exchange for many things.^[FN45] 4. As it respects the world: to give up the visible for the invisible.—Trading with spiritual gifts the most perilous and yet the safest commerce.—The praise and the reward of the faithful servants of Christ in the hour of reckoning: 1. The praise, of having been faithful over a little; 2. the reward, of being set over much, and of entering into the joy of the Lord.—The end of our spiritual work a divine rest forever, a Sabbath of God.—The wicked servant; or, let no man undervalue the gift which God has entrusted to him.—How far a grudge against Christ underlies all unfaithfulness in the use of spiritual gifts.—Man becomes wicked evermore through thinking evil of God.—The Christian becomes wicked evermore through thinking evil of Christ.—The self-seeker ascribes his own self-seeking to God also, to excuse himself.—The unfaithful are obliged to condemn themselves at last by their own excuses.—The frightful pit of earth in which the heavenly gifts of the Christians are buried.—The infinite spiritual woes which must be entailed by the prostitution of spiritual light to the service of the flesh.—The nameless work without which the slothful will have to do when the faithful rest.

Starke:—We men in the world are stewards of the manifold gifts of God, 1 Corinthians 4:1-4; Luke 16:2.—Hedinger: God distributes His gifts strangely, but holily: let no man think that he has received too little, Romans 12:6.—In the gifts of God no one must be vain, or envious; but every one must use his own portion to the glory of God and the good of his fellows.—God bestows his gifts and goods on men, not that they may be buried, wasted, appropriated to self, or imagined their own, but that they may faithfully trade with them, 1 Corinthians 12:7.—Of a steward nothing more is expected, and nothing less, than fidelity, 1 Corinthians 4:2.—Canstein: Few gifts may be turned to much account.—Truth does not shun the light, but comes to it, John 3:21.—He buries his Lord’s goods who seeks only his own.—He who neglects nothing in his Christianity, will have confidence in the day of judgment, 1 John 3:21.—In the future reckoning no man will be forgotten or overlooked, 2 Corinthians 5:10.—To be called a good and faithful servant of God, is a title more honorable than any that this world can give, Psalm 116:16.—The wicked servant does not know Jesus as a merciful Master, but as another Moses who requires more than man has strength for.—When we do not see the gracious countenance of God in Christ, God appears to us hard and fearful.—Slothfulness and baseness the two characteristics of the unfaithful servant.—Luther: His knavery consisted in this, that he condemns his Lord for hardness, and scorns the way of grace (self-denial).—How many, who now receive an unlimited number of honorable names, will one day be called, Thou fool!—Hedinger: He who makes a good use of the first beginnings of grace, will go on well and soon grow rich; he who lets his grace decline within him, will soon be without it altogether.

Braune:—There is no standing still, either progress and gain, or retrogress and loss. [Forward and finally all, or backward and finally nothing.]

Lisco:—The humility of the faithful servants, who attribute all blessing and increase not to themselves, but to the entrusted pounds.—It does not depend upon whether one has effected much or little according to the measure of his power and his sphere, but whether he has been faithful and diligent or not: the spirit is the main thing.—This servant represents such as excuse their neglect in various ways: by pleading the little which has been entrusted to them, or the fear they had of encountering the dangerous influences of the world, or the consequent necessity which they felt of retreating into solitude and quiet piety.

Gerlach:—Unbelieving despondency is always connected with slothfulness, when unbelief becomes a permanent condition.

Heubner:—Fidelity in little things is a pearl of great price.—There, thou hast thine own: perfect breach with God; he throws up his service altogether .—Wicked (πονηρέ) he is called, because his heart was false, attributing falsely to God this unloving hardness. His conscience smote him in secret, and testified to him that God was not as he painted Him.—When God lays much upon us, He offers us abundance of strength to do and to bear.

[Burkitt (condensed):—1. Christ the Lord of the universe, and owner of all His servants’ goods2. Talents: riches, honors; gifts of mind, Wisdom of Solomon, learning; gifts of grace3. Freedom of distribution to all, but in different measure4. Every talent is given to improve for our Master’s use5. Every one is accountable for every talent6. All faithful servants will be rewarded with the joy of their Lord7. No excuses shall serve the slothful or unfaithful servant at the bar of Christ8. The unfaithful servant will be punished (a) negatively, by the loss of his talent, (b) positively, by suffering the misery of hell with gnashing of teeth, i.e., rage and indignation against God, the saints, and against himself.—(Similar practical remarks with a more minute analysis, see in Matthew Henry.)—D. Brown (condensed):—1. Christ exhorts us in this parable, not “Wait for your Lord,” but “Occupy till I come.” Blessed is he whom the Lord shall find working (as well as watching, according to the preceding parable). 2. Christians are all servants of Christ, but differ in natural capacity, acquirements, providential position, influence, means, and opportunities3. Fidelity will be rewarded, not the amount or nature of the work4. Idleness and unprofitableness in the Lord’s service is sufficient to condemn.—W. Nast:—1. The talents of all men are free gifts of God, so that there is no room either for self-boasting, or for self-reproach; 2. they are given in trust, the Giver still retaining a claim upon them; 3. they are given to be employed and turned to the best account for the glory of the Giver.—P. S.]

Footnotes:

FN#30 - Matthew 25:14.—[The interpolation of the Authorized Version is unwarranted and unnecessary, and not found in the earlier English Versions. Lange inserts he is (viz, the Son of Man, ver13); others: it is: Ewald and Conant omit all insertions, and translate simply: For as a man going abroad (Ewald: Denn sowie ein Verreisender, etc.). See Lange’s Exeg. Notes. Meyer in loc. takes ὥ σπερ as anantapodoton, as Mark 13:34; comp. Romans 5:12. It was intended to connect the whole parable with ὥσπε, and then to add a οὕτως with an apodosis such as: οὕτως καὶ ὁ υιὸς τοὺ ἀνθρώπου ποιήσει, or οὕτως ἔσται καὶ ἡ παρουσία το͂υ υἱοῦ τ. ἀνθο., which was given up on account of the length of the protasis. Alford thinks, the ellipsis is rightly supplied in the Authorized English Version.—P. S.]

FN#31 - Matthew 25:16.—[Codd. A, B, C, D, L, Lachmann, and Tregelles, read: ἐνερδητεν, he gained. Alford thinks, it was inserted from Matthew 25:17; Matthew 25:22. The reading of the text, rec.: ἐροίησεν, is sustained by Cod. Sinait, and retained by Tischendorf and Alford. But the meaning is the same: he made, i.e, he produced, he gained, and was so rendered by the English Versions preceding that of the Bishops. See Conant in loc.—P. S.]

FN#32 - Matthew 25:17.—[Comp. ὁ τὰ πεντε, the fire, Matthew 25:16. The λαβών is necessarily implied in the second clause, and hence the interpolation had received (or rather in the imperf.: received) is justified. The verb can be easily spared in Greek. Ewald imitates the Greek brevity in his version: Ebenso gewann auch der die zwei andere zwei. But this is too harsh, and would not do at all in English. Some MSS. add after δύο: τάλαντα λαβών, which is thrown out by the text. rec., Tischendorf, Alford, etc. Lachmann and Tregelles omit also the words: καὶ αὐτός, he also, in which they are sustained by Codd B, C, and also by Cod. Sinaiticus.—P. S.]

FN#33 - Matthew 25:18.—Lachmann adds τάλαντον after A. and ancient versions.

FN#34 - Matthew 25:18.—Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Tregelles, Alford], read: ἔκρυψε, for the lect. rec.: ἀπέκρυψε, according to most witnesses. [Cod. Sinait. likewise reads: ἔκρυψε.—P. S.]

FN#35 - Matthew 25:20.—The words: ἐ π’ αὐτοῖς, beside them [the enabling cause of his gain], here and in Matthew 25:22 are omitted in Codd. B, D, L, al, [also in Cod. Sinait.], and stricken by Lachmann and Tischendorf. They may have been added to increase the modesty of the expression.

FN#36 - Matthew 25:21.—[Thou is an unnecessary interpolation, and should be omitted, as in Matthew 25:23.—P. S.]

FN#37 - Matthew 25:21.—[Lit.: thou wast (hast been) faithful over little, I will set thee over much, ἐπὶ ὀλίγα ἦς πιστὸς, ἐπὶ παλλων σε καταστήσω. So the German Versions of Luther, de Wette, Ewald, Lange; also the English Versions of Coverdale, Kendrick, Conant.—P. S.]

FN#38 - Matthew 25:23.—[Comp. note8. Matthew 25:21.—]

FN#39 - Matthew 25:24.—[The British Bibles here and in Matthew 25:26 read strawed, the rarer form for strew, streuen. I followed here, as elsewhere, the spelling of the Am. Bible—P. S.]

FN#40 - Matthew 25:26.—[A question of surprise and displeasure, and hence with an interrogation Mark, as in the Lat. Vulg, Coverdale, Campbell, Conant, and nearly all the German Versions. De Wette and Lange, however, regard it as an ironical concession, in which case the punctuation of the Am. Bible Society’s edition (colon) is correct. The British Bibles have a period.—P. S.]

FN#41 - Matthew 25:27.—[Lange: hinwerfen. The verb βαλεῖν expresses not the worthlessness of the money which was a good gift of God, but the perfect ease with which it might have been made to produce interest in the hands of brokers and bankers, who then as now received money on deposit at interest and lent it to others at higher rates.—P. S.]

FN#42 - Matthew 25:27.—[Σὺν τόκῳ, from τόκος (τίκτω, τετοκα), birth; child; gain, interest, in the LXX for נֶשֶׁךְ. The passage implies the lawfulness of taking interest. There was a saying in the ancient Church, γίνεσθε δόκιαοι τραπεζῖται (Origen, on Matthew 22), which was attributed to Christ, and may possibly have been derived from this verse, as expressing the moral lesson of this and the kindred parable in Luke 19. See Suicer’s Thesaurus, sub τραπεζ.—P. S.]

FN#43 - Comp. the remarks of Trench: “In the things earthly the householder’s distribution of the gifts naturally and of necessity precedes his departure; in the heavenly it is not altogether so; the Ascension, or departure, goes before Pentecost, or the distribution of gifts; yet the straightway still remains in full force: the interval between them was the smallest, one following hard upon the other, however the order was reversed. The four verses which follow (16–19) embrace the whole period intervening between the first and second coming of Christ.”—P. S.]

FN#44 - There is an inconsistency between that pretended fear and this insolent speech, which betrays the falsehood of the πονηρὸς δοῦλος.—P. S.]

FN#45 - In German: “Das Eine erkaufen um das Viele” (no doubt an allusion to Luke 10:32), which the Edinb. translator has upset thus: to sell one thing, to gain much! He probably mistook erkaufen for verkaufen.—P. S.]

Verses 31-46

FIFTH SECTION

THE FINAL JUDGMENT IN ITS LAST AND MOST UNIVERSAL FORM UPON ALL NATIONS; AND AS SEPARATION

Matthew 25:31-46

(The Gospel for the 26 th Sunday after Trinity.)

31When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy^[FN46] angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: 32And before him shall be gathered all [the] nations [πάντα τὰ ἔθνη]: and he shall separate [divide, ἀφοριεῖ] them one from another, as a [the, ὁ] shepherd divideth [ἀφορίζει] his [the] sheep [τὰ πρόβατα] from the goats: 33And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left 34 Then shall the King say unto them [those] on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 35For I was a hungered [hungry, ἐπείνασα], and ye gave me meat [to eat, φαγεῖν]:^[FN47] I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: 36Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered38[hungering, πεινῶντα], and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? [And, δέ] When 39 saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,^[FN48] ye have done it unto me 41 Then shall he say also unto them [those] on the left hand,,Depart^[FN49] from me. ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42For I was a hungered [hungry], and ye gave me no meat [did not give me to eat, οὐκ ἐδώκατέ μοι φαγεῖν]: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 43I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not:^[FN50] sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee a hungered [hungering], or athirst [thirsting], or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, an I did not minister unto thee? 45Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment [eternal punishment, κόλασιν αἰών]: but the righteous into life eternal [eternal life, or everlasting life, ζωὴι αἰώον]^[FN51]