Matthew 25:14-30 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered to them his goods.… Human endowment and human performance, the "few things," get their significance from their relation to the "many things" — the great, thronging facts and principles and laws of the kingdom of God. The most persistent and varied activity and the largest achievements of the greatest men are but small in themselves considered, but they are points where the vast economy of the kingdom of God — that something which is vaguely indicated by "many things," "the joy of the Lord" emerges into the region of our human life and touches it. That which is out of sight is more and greater than that which pushes out into our view. That point of rock which rises out of the hillside is, to the geologist, not merely a distinct stone — it tells him the dip and quality of the great strata underground which buttress the hills. Obedience, responsibility, duty, work, love, trust — all that makes up Christian life here — are sides and manifestations of the unseen, spiritual universe. Godliness has promise, not only of the life that now is, but of that which is to come — has the promise which one part of a thing gives of the other part. Godliness is a part of the life to come. Godliness is God revealing Himself in human character. Follow back godliness and you come to God. The boy who is learning his alphabet is handling the same elements which enter into the plays of Shakespeare or the dialogues of Plato. He has begun upon literature when he has learned A B C. It is a little thing in itself for him to learn twenty-six letters, but it is a very great thing when you consider the alphabet as the medium of the world's thought. Even so the largest endowment and result are but "a few things," but they acquire a tremendous and eternal importance as integral parts of the great moral economy of God. (Marvin R. Vincent, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. |
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