Greetings Friends! The tragedy of Uvalde, Texas has left the nation and the world stunned and shocked in disbelief. In the aftermath, President Biden has signed into law a bipartisan gun bill intended to prevent access to powerful firearms by dangerous people. But the search for answers continues for a nation which has seen its share of gun violence tragedies. What is the answer? In fact, it may not be as farfetched as we have been led to believe, nor complex as we first imagined. The Bible gives us the answer eloquently and precisely in Jesus’ parable of the bags of gold.
You’ll read the parable in the Book of Matthew, Chapter 25, Verses 14-30. The ‘bags of gold’ is simply a metaphor for God’s Love as reflection of its utterly valuable divine commodity. The parable speaks of the Master apportioning His wealth, the bags of gold or God’s Love, to the three servants. One was given 5 bags, the second 2 bags, and the third 1 bag of gold.
The parable tells us that the servants were apportioned their respective bags of gold commensurate with their inborn gifts and talents. The Creator has blessed every human being He made in His image with gifts and abilities from the womb.
The Psalmist said, “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psa.139:13-14). The gifts in the parable depict all humanity that are categorized into three groupings with different talents and abilities as God our Creator has blessed each and every human being.
So, there are two aspects to the Parable, there is the Master’s gold or God’s Love (wealth), and there is the servant’s inborn gifts or abilities the Creator has conferred upon each human being from birth. Each of our gifts does not make one inferior or superior, but rather we all complement each other so together we reflect God in His all-embracing Love.
The grand scheme of the Master was for the servants to go out and multiply and increase the Master’s Love. His wealth (gold) is His Love. The servants were to utilize God’s Love (wealth/gold) like it was spiritual money and currency to trade with. But how were the servants to do this? The servants were to trade and multiply God’s gold (Love) on the platform of their gifts and abilities. So, the Parable of the bags of gold reveals to humanity the grand purpose of life of the Creator and Master. The purpose of life is to multiply His Love (wealth/gold) by using our gifts and talents as the platform for trading the currencies of God’s Love. The currency of God’s Love was expounded by Paul in His letter to the Corinthians in Chapter 13.
Paul tell us what the Love currency are: *the fruit of patience, *the fruit of kindness, *the fruit of contentedness, *the fruit of modesty (unboastful), *the fruit of humility, *the fruit of honor, *the fruit of unselfishness, *the fruit of calmness and dignity, *the fruit of forgiveness and compassion, *the fruit of delighting in good and shunning evil, *the fruit of tolerance, *the fruit of responsibility, *the fruit of enduring hope, *the fruit of steadfast perseverance, *the fruit of joy, *the fruit of peace, *the fruit of goodness, *the fruit of faith, *the fruit of gentleness, *the fruit of self-control, *the fruit of zeal and spiritual fervor, *the fruit of friendship, *the fruit of sharing and generosity, *the fruit of prayerfulness, *the fruit of hospitality, etc. These are the currencies of God’s Love. (1 Cor.13; also Gal. 5:22-23; Rom. 12:9-21).
The person who took the precious lives of the innocent school children of Uvalde was given gifts by the Creator. No human can be said to be without abilities, it’s only a question of how, when, and with what we use them? Humans are always living in the spiritual marketplace dynamism where spiritual trading takes place. What is the spiritual marketplace? It is incumbent upon us to recognize its existence and realize this is the place we encounter God at work with all humans. Primarily, it is wherever and whenever we find ourselves in situations encountering circumstances where Love is made to grow and mature, and not allowed to retrogress and decline in our relationships with God first and our fellow humans. (Matt.22:37-40)
Satan creates fear, Jesus brings God’s Love. This is the marketplace dynamism where spiritual trading takes place. Love and fear compels us to make a choice. This is where we are given the unparallel prospect to multiply and increase the Master’s wealth…or decrease and weaken God’s wealth (Love) in our lives, and turn to the spirit of fear instaed. We must choose our paths, what will it be? The first Adam chose for us in Eden and mankind have been consigned to a life based upon the spirit of fear of the evil one. Then God sent the second Adam, His Son Jesus Christ, and He has made it possible to walk and live in the Spirit’s power of Love. (1 Cor.13; John 16:7; Luk.24:49; 2 Cor.15:45)
For a more complete articulation of this beautiful parable of Jesus, please go to my post at: http://bulamanriver.net/30033, titled, “What Did The One-Talent Servant Do Wrong?”
Petition: Friends, as I have closed my post in the past, I customarily give our readers the opportunity to give their lives to our Maker. I thank you for investing your precious time with me in the sharing of the good news of Jesus who has enabled us to live the Triune Life*. Jesus is alive today as our High Priest in heaven seated at His Father’s side, and ceaselessly mediating for us. I hope that in your heart of heart you will receive Him as your personal Savior, receive God’s Spirit, and be part of living this glorious humanity made children of God forever.
You can privately and quietly pray the prayer below in your heart. I am asking you to pray this prayer as a human being Christ died for, regardless of your background. All are inducted into the one mankind Jesus saved, not into any religious sect or denomination, or divisions one may espouse – but into the glorious humanity that Christ is preparing as the holy temple for God’s dwelling:
Prayer: “Almighty God, Father of all humanity, forgive me of all my sins for I receive Your Son, Jesus, as my personal Savior. In Your incalculable grace, grant Your promised celestial life in Your Son through Your Holy Spirit, and open my eyes to the wondrous gifts you have conferred upon me and all humanity. May Your Love guide and protect me and my Loved ones always, and bring us all into Your beloved and divine Kingdom. I praise and thank You, Amen.”
Welcome to the celestial life of Love in God’s holy, eternal Family. (1 Tim.6:19) Then keep in touch with God’s Word for you by reading and studying your Bible, and visiting this blog and website and look at various subjects that may be relevant for your situation – go to: http://bulamanriver.net You can email me with your questions at the address shown below.
Personal Blessing: Until we meet again in my next post, may the blessings of the God who ceaselessly expresses Himself in His dependable Triune Love, be with you always. May the Spirit enliven your spirit and make all things concerning you possible as you live the “Triune Life”* Be strong in the Lord’s joy.
Farewell for now!
(Your Servant in Christ)
*Triune Life”: Relationship with God has no meaning without Love. By its very nature, Love cannot endure in solitary existence. So, when God said “Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness…” He was revealing Himself as existing in His trinitarian existence. That is, His Tri-Personal Being as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (Gen.1:26; Matt.28:19; John 14:10, 16; 16:7) The Hebrew word for ‘God’ in the creation account is “Elohim.” It describes God as a uniplral Trinity – the Tri-Personal Godhead, which other scriptures attests. (Matt.28:18-20; 1 Pet.1:2; 2 Thess.2:13; 2 Cor.13:14) So, God is Trinitarian in His Love nature. Love by its nature is relational as God is in His Tri-Personal Being. Hence, a human being was created a relational being.
Adam was solitary and incomplete until God made Eve. He said, “It is not good for the man to be alone (solitary). I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen.2:18, italics mine). So, God gave Adam a family to raise composed of a father, mother, and offspring, to reflect Himself in His plural Being. The Bible states that the Church’s or humanity’s destiny is to marry Christ, the second Person of the Triune Godhead, in the new age to come which will be an everlasting relationship. (2 Cor.11:2; Eph.5:23-27, 32; Rev.19:7) The Bible is abundantly clear about God’s nature and declaration of Himself in His relational Triune Being from the past, the present, and the future. God has never lived as a solitary Being, but a Tri-Personal Being.
It’s noteworthy to understand that Eve was not created an individual creation from the dust of the earth as was Adam. She was not created apart from Adam as an individualized separate human being, instead, she was taken out from Adam’s side to show she was biologically one and indivisibly part of Adam. Eve was not detached (solitary) from Adam, but intrinsically inseparable from Adam’s innermost humanity. When Adam saw Eve, he said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man” (Gen.2:21-23).
Each one of us was created as an indivisible relational human being incubated and given birth from Adam’s mold as one species, for God created humanity to reflect the eternal likeness in His triunity. We are born for relationships with the divine triune Love as our guiding principle. All this show that humans were created to be indivisibly one to reflect God’s Tri-Personal image of Oneness, not solitary separateness. When God sent Jesus His eternal Son, He became human in order to unify humanity spiritually to the Triune Being of God once for all time. Hence, when the prophet Isaiah proclaimed Jesus’ coming, He was given the prophetic name, Immanuel. (Isa.7:14) The name means “God with us” (Matt.1:23). Humanity is ‘organically’ one with the Triune God, just as humanity is one with Adam.
Most religions believe God as some solitary being. The true God is not solitary by any means, He is the Trinity in His Tri-Personal Being. God consist of three Persons in One divine triune Godhead. They exist in One “homoousion” meaning consisting in one substance, or “consubstantiality.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in One hypostatic union, One substance, like Eve was biologically part of and never physically separate, but of one substance from Adam. Likewise, humanity is made of one spiritual substance with the triune God through Jesus Christ who took our humanity upon Himself and joined it to the divine triune existence forever.
The three-dimensional Triune Life/Love is opposed to living the one-dimensional solitary life of the fallen humanity inherited from Satan through Adam’s rebellion. For additional information about the Triune Life: http://bulamanriver.net/?p=8036. Also at: http://bulamanriver.net/9092.
**Bulamanriver: To read the different facets of the life of the Bulamanriver, you may obtain a copy of my book, “Bula” Man-River, from Amazon.com; xulonpress.com, barnesandnoble.com, and other online book stores. All proceeds will go towards furthering the work of Gospel of Jesus Christ around the world.
All scriptures are taken from the NIV Version 2011, unless stated otherwise.
Mission Statement: Read the Triune Love Mission, Vision, and Value statements at: http://bulamanriver.net/8664
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