Use your God given gifts and talents for His glory
Dear Christian, what do you hope for at the hour of death? Is it not to hear from the Lord Jesus Christ, “Well done, good and faithful servant”? We find this sweet phrase in the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14–30). Our Lord associates it with a Christian’s faithful stewardship of his God-assigned abilities, capacities, and opportunities. This article will discuss the stewarding of our talents—those natural abilities and that spiritual giftedness that God uniquely entrusts to us.
For starters, our talents do not come from us but to us. “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7). Evidence of our talents should awaken gratitude, not pride. Sobriety is also warranted: To whom much is given, much is required (Luke 12:48). We are but servants—stewards—who will have to give an account. Our natural talents and spiritual gifts are to be employed for the advance of the gospel and for the good of others in our vocations, churches, and communities.
Defining terms
A steward is someone who looks after the property and interests of another. In the parable of the talents, we’re told of a man who, “going on a journey, . . . called his servants and entrusted to them his property” (Matt. 25:14, emphasis added). We steward that which belongs to God Himself. We are to use that which is the Lord’s to advance the interests of the Lord.
Natural talents are things that come more easily to us or places where success comes more quickly. They are multipliers of time or effort. In school, being “good at math” means that a person can master mathematical concepts and applications with less time and effort. It doesn’t seem fair to others, but such is life. Those with less talent can compensate by working longer, harder, or smarter (perhaps getting help from a tutor). It’s similar in other fields. We say that Kathy has an ear for music (art, creativity), Sarah has an eye for detail (administration), Joe has a way with words (writing, speaking), and Bob is handy (manual labour, skilled trades).
Natural talents lie in the realm of common grace—the scriptural teaching that God bestows unmerited favour (grace) on all His image bearers, the just and the unjust. For the just, His children, such gifting fuels worship and service. For the unjust, those in the domain of darkness (Col. 1:13), such gifting is part of God’s manifold kindness intended to awaken repentance (Rom. 2:4). For all, on a societal level, it allows us to channel self-interest in ways that benefit others. The mechanic fixes my car, which I can’t do. I teach his children physics, which he can’t do.
Spiritual gifts are an aspect of God’s saving grace. The New Testament teaches that every Christian has received at least one spiritual gift (1 Cor. 12:7). First Corinthians 12:11 reads, “All these [Christians] are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” Commenting on this verse, John Calvin wrote:
The Spirit of God, therefore, distributes [gifts] among us, so that we may make all contribute to the common advantage. To no one does he give all, lest anyone, satisfied with his particular portion, should separate himself from others, and live solely for himself.
Everyone gets something. Nobody gets everything. We need the gifts of others—and they, in turn, need ours—the way that a body needs hands, feet, eyes, and ears (1 Cor. 12:15–17, 29–30).
Discovering and maximising natural talents
I’m leery of those who place a large emphasis on “discovering your passions”—as if feelings were central. Better to ask: Where can I be most useful? What actions can I take to most effectively improve the lives of others? We go further by investing time and effort in things that come most naturally to us. Gainful employment often follows—we get paid to do things not necessarily because we like doing them, but because others like us doing them. That’s why they pay us.
Jealousy looks to criticise those who have achieved more or whose renown extends wider. Pride devalues those whose capacities or accomplishments, in our estimation, don’t equal ours.
That said, talents have an “it feels good” quality to them. As Olympian Eric Liddell put it, “When I run, I feel His pleasure.” In our youth, it’s good to try our hand at many kinds of endeavours. In the crucible of experience, through trial and error, successes and shortcomings, and the feedback of others, we learn how God has wired us. Among the things we’re relatively good at, we have Christian liberty to choose. God’s moral will speaks more to our motivation (the why) than to our vocation (the what). As Paul Helm put it in his book The Callings, “The distinctiveness of the Christian is not always to be found in what he does but in the motives which bind him to his Lord.”
None of us controls how much talent we have or what talents we have. That’s God’s prerogative. Notice the identical praise received by the first two servants in the parable of the talents. One converted five talents into ten. The other multiplied two talents into four. Both were said to have been faithful in little. The Apostle Paul wrote, “It is required of stewards that they be found faithful” (1 Cor. 4:2). It’s apparently not required that they be equally fruitful.
The temptation is to envy or to look down on others. Jealousy looks to criticise those who have achieved more or whose renown extends wider. Pride devalues those whose capacities or accomplishments, in our estimation, don’t equal ours.
In contrast, the faithful stewardship of our talents requires not only that we put them to regular use but that we learn from those who have achieved more or for whom success has come more naturally. We should likewise be large-hearted toward those whose output doesn’t yet appear to equal ours. Using our talents to help others develop multiplies our fruitfulness, increasing our influence for good. The feats of those we’ve helped become, in part, a reflection of our own stewardship.
We should remember, too, that “the Lord sees not as man sees” (1 Sam. 16:7). It may be that, in God’s eyes, the rank-and-file employee labouring in relative obscurity is a better steward of her talents than the CEO whose salary is many times greater. Only God knows each person’s circumstances, opportunities, and capacities. Our job is to be faithful with what God, in His wisdom, has entrusted to us.
Stewardship of spiritual gifts
Unlike natural talents, spiritual gifts don’t depend on favourable genetics or training but are given supernaturally upon conversion or thereafter. The New Testament teaches that spiritual gifts are for the building up of the body of Christ in unity, love, and maturity (Rom. 12:3–8; 1 Cor. 12–14; Eph. 4:1–16). Paul longed to see the believers in Rome to impart “some spiritual gift” to them (Rom. 1:11–12). For Paul, as John Piper once put it while reflecting on this text, a spiritual gift is an expression of faith that aims to strengthen faith in others.
Similarly, 1 Peter 4:10 tells us that our gifts are for serving one another. We properly steward our spiritual gifts when we use them to edify others, empowered by the Holy Spirit and motivated to magnify God’s grace, not ourselves. After all, self-forgetting love is the “more excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:13; 13), as Paul taught in his most lengthy passage on spiritual gifts.
How do we discover and then steward our spiritual gifts? As with natural gifts, less by navel-gazing and more by need-meeting. First, we can ask the Lord to open our eyes to needs in our church or among God’s people more generally. Second, as the Spirit burdens us and as we encounter needs, we should move to meet them, seeing them as occasions for our faith to work through love to strengthen others (Gal. 5:6). Third, we reflect on the fruit of our actions. Our pastors and others will either affirm or redirect us. As Sinclair Ferguson put it in his book Maturity:
We are neither the only nor the best judges of our own gifts. This is where the fellowship of the church is so vital. Coupled with a desire to serve on our part, the reception and recognition of our service by others is a vital assurance to us that the Lord really has gifted us for a particular sphere of ministry.
Fourth, we refine. Over time, we move more consistently toward those needs for which we feel a burden and in which our activity has proved more fruitful.
What if your church isn’t using your gifts? Serve faithfully where you can. Doing so with a gracious demeanour will earn you credibility in speaking to your pastors about a need that you see and would like to meet. Be open to the possibility that God is equipping you for other kinds of service than you initially anticipated. Sometimes, with the willingness to serve comes the requisite gifting (and the joy in seeing that service prove effective).
Overlap between spiritual gifts and natural talents
Spiritual gifts and natural talents often overlap. After all, natural talents come from God and are used supernaturally by the Holy Spirit postconversion. Joe, a gifted communicator, is a top-tier salesman. He’s also an elder in his church, widely regarded for giving wise counsel to young adults. His natural talent—so useful to his employer—flows out as a spiritual gift when Joe labours, by faith, to build others up in their faith. Tom is a skilful electrician with a reputation for doing great work at a fair price. When he serves—invisibly—on his church’s A/V team, he does so “by the strength that God supplies” (1 Peter 4:11), eager for his brethren to experience uplifting, undistracted worship. What makes Tom’s service a spiritual gift? The fact that it’s offered in faith to strengthen others in their faith. It’s a Spirit-driven motivation, orientation, and empowerment.
But there can be a discontinuity between natural talents and spiritual gifts. Sometimes—like stuttering Moses—God equips us for activities that we scarcely could have anticipated. Either way, let’s be thankful for the priesthood of believers. In Christ, there is no special class of Christians with unique access to God. Each of us magnifies our Saviour through the faithful employment of our natural talents (in the world at large) and our spiritual gifts (among God’s people).
Contentment balanced with striving
The Scriptures exhort us to contentment, often in contrast to covetousness and the love of money (1 Tim. 6:7–10; Heb. 13:5). Should we be content with the stewardship of our talents and gifts? Or should we be striving to excel yet more? On the one hand, we should not despise the day of small things (Zech. 4:10). There is great value in plodding. Small acts of faithfulness, over time, produce an unforeseeable harvest. Similarly, we should avoid the vanity of “eating the bread of anxious toil” (Ps. 127:2)—for God grants sleep. And all but God need it. God indeed made us for work, but we must rest and engage in recreation to restore our mental and physical faculties for renewed labour. The Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27).
Yet contentment should be balanced with godly striving. Paul likened the Christian life to a race, exhorting us to run with single-mindedness—to win (1 Cor. 9:24–27). Elsewhere, we’re told that while some things are lawful, they may not be helpful (1 Cor. 10:23). A soldier ought not to get entangled in civilian pursuits (2 Tim. 2:4). In 2 Kings 13:19, Elisha is angry with King Jehoash for not striking the ground hard enough to defeat Aram: “You should have struck five or six times.” It seems that the two are held in tension. Contentment without complacency. Striving without anxious toil.
Giftedness and maturity
Giftedness does not equal Christian maturity. Some are extraordinarily gifted yet delinquent in personal holiness. In recent years, we’ve seen too many examples of Christian leaders failing publicly and grievously, wounding countless in the process. God calls us to mortify sin by the power of the Spirit (Col. 3:5), and to grow in holiness, which He’s promised to produce in us (Phil. 1:6), but not apart from our effort (1 Cor. 15:10; Phil. 2:12–13; Col. 1:29). We do well to put on Christ and make no provision for the flesh (Rom. 13:14) even as we aim to maximize the stewardship of our talents.
In but a few breaths, our earthly pilgrimage will end. Let us then “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord [our] labour is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).
Dr. Alex Chediak
