I watched this video yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJjKoHut7iE&t=2034s.
I also read Matthew 25, and I had the conviction that I had not been spreading the gospel. Today, something happened that required me to be the bigger person, but I did not want to be. I guess this reflects what Paul says in Romans 7:15: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”
Matthew 25 begins by showing us how we ought to prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ, through the parable of the five wise virgins who had extra oil for their lamps. In the next story, Jesus explains what this oil looks like by telling the parable of the talents and abilities.
I like to think of the oil as our talents and abilities. In the Old Testament, oil was poured to signify an anointing that carried the presence of the Ruach HaKodesh, which helped people do exploits. Today, we experience this through the gift of the Holy Spirit, which we are to exercise while we wait for Him.
Jesus tells us that this talent is something we can trade with (Matthew 25:16), and it is also something we can bury (Matthew 25:25). Our abilities are what we use to serve God and to help the least among us—by clothing them, feeding them, and caring for them.
He calls those who use their abilities “righteous,” and those who steward their talents well “faithful servants” (Matthew 25:21). This is what we are meant to do while we wait for the return of the Lord: serve Him with our talents and abilities.
That is why I say, “Call me righteous,” but also confess, “I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus; I have no righteousness of my own.”
