Then Jesus disciples came up and asked Him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
He answered them, “Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them. For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. For this reason I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand.
Matthew 13:10-13 HCSB
There are many parables used by Jesus in the bible. The parable of the good Samaritan, the parable of the sower (Matthew 13), the parable of the vineyard workers (Matthew 20), the parable of the wedding banquet (Matthew 22) are just a few. In our scripture passage today, his disciples are asking Jesus why he uses parables to teach.
Sometimes when we are speaking to someone about something that they don’t understand, it is easier to use an analogy or to compare it to something with which they are familiar. Jesus used every day life events to try to explain Kingdom or Heavenly principles to them. Jesus explains to His disciples that they had a knowledge of such things. He told them that the secrets of heaven had been revealed to them, but not to the people to whom he was telling these parables. He goes on to tell them the lesson from the parable of the talents. In this parable a master gives three different slaves three different amounts of money. He entrusted this money to them while he was away. Two slaves made wise use and increased the man’s money through trading. One hid the talent for safekeeping. God gives us certain gifts. This parable teaches us to make good use of them. It shows what God said in our scripture passage about some will have more than enough and some will have the little that they do have taken away.
God gives us all the opportunity to come to Him. When we give ourselves over to God and submit to Him, He gives us the ability to understand His word. We talked last week about how He gives us wisdom and discernment. But when we constantly reject Him, there will come a time when He will withdraw. Romans 1:24 tells us that He will give us over to our own evil desires. 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 tells us that for those who do not accept the truth and the love of Christ, God will send them a strong delusion so they will believe what is false. It is for this reason that you can plead with some until you are blue in the face, but they may not come to Christ.
We have all been given the opportunity to be Christians. We were all created in God’s image. But if we reject God’s gift of salvation, He will eventually give us over to our own fleshly desires.
He won’t wait forever. You can use the gift He has given or you just might lose it. This is one gift that you don’t ever want to lose, please trust me on this one. I beg of you to turn to God today, before it’s too late. Read His Word, pray to Him, join a good bible teaching church where you can learn and grow as a Christian. You have a wonderful opportunity, please don’t let it pass you by.
Have a great weekend!