Art and Work Part 6, The Fruit of Talent: Joy or Wailing

This series on art and work’s relationship to it was the result of study and meditation on the Parable of the Talents that Christ told, and which St. Matthew recorded in the 25th chapter of his Gospel (vv 14-30).  It seems appropriate that a look at the passage, which gave the original impetus to this study, should also serve as its summary.  Because of the length of that parable, and the limited space for this post, I must ask the reader to look it up (gasp!) and read it for himself, so that the following remarks will make sense (go and read it now).

We see several things in this story.  First, that God, our Master, gives us our abilities.  In fact, our English word talent is derived from and related to the translation of the Greek word talanta, which was a monetary unit in New Testament times worth $1,000 in silver content (much more in actual buying power).  This costly monetary unit came in Western culture to symbolize the even more precious natural abilities and gifts given by God to all men, and gave its name (talent) to those gifts.

Secondly, we see that God does not distribute those talents evenly among men (symbolized by the servants). One servant received five talents, another servant two, and a last one just one talent, “to each according to his own ability,” as the Scripture puts it (v 15).  We are not all equally gifted, artistically or otherwise, for God gifts men according to His Own Purposes, though (especially among the Church) the Spirit’s Gifts are distributed for the common good (cross reference: 1 Cor 12:4-27; Eph 4:11-16; 1 Cor 3:5-10; etc.).  We are to use our gifts to glorify God (1 Cor 10:31).

Third, even though God does not distribute His Giftings equally, everyone has opportunity to improve upon their talents, and cause them to grow, as the servant with five talents and the servant with two talents did in Christ’s Parable (vv 16-17).  Fourth, to develop their talents meant that the two servants who did had to use imagination, learning skills, initiative, and effort.  In other words, they had to work to improve their holdings of talents (vv 16-17).

Fifth, this development of talents takes time, such as the Master gave the servants when “he went on a journey” (v 15) returning “after a long time” (v 19).  The servants were expected to use that time to advance their talents.  Sixth, the Master graciously let the servants take part in the growth of what was actually His (v 14), letting His servants act as stewards of the talents, though presumably He didn’t need to. 

Seventh, the servants were held accountable for what they did with their talents (vv 19-30), and were expected to develop those talents for the Master’s Enrichment and Pleasure (vv 21, 23), and were rewarded for tasks “well done,” entering into the Master’s “joy” for being “good and faithful servants” (vv 21, 23).  We artists are to develop our God-given talents to His Glory through diligent work over time as well, that at our accounting, we, too, may be judged servants who have done well. 

The alternative is seen in the servant who simply buried his talent (v 18).  When he was called to account, he gave some of the lamest (not to mention stupidest) excuses on record (vv 24-25).  The Master responded by calling him what he was: wicked and lazy.  The servant was wicked because he let his fear (v 25) keep him from following the Pattern of his Master’s Will, rather than having godly fear that would goad him to obedience (cf. Matt 10:18; Deut 6:2; Ecc 12:13; etc.), and lazy because his wicked ungodly fear of his Master he held more important than obedience, and thus did nothing.

His master recognized the servant for what he actually was, “wicked and lazy,” and pointed out that his quilt was made even worse since he knew what his Master expected (v 26) and yet did not do what he should have done (v 27).  As a result, the unfaithful servant’s action brought forth drastic Judgement from the Master, as his single talent was taken from him and given to the most faithful (also, not coincidentally, the most productive) servant (who had the ten talents).

Beyond this, the unprofitable servant was cast into “the outer darkness,” v 30, one of the scariest and most disquieting verses in the entire Bible, considering its implications for mankind and our responsibility to work as God intends.  Selah. 

We are responsible (artists and everyone else) to develop the gifts and talents God has given us as God wishes us to.  The core message of Matt 25:14-30 is summed up by the Lord Jesus in v 29:

“For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”

We have all been given much; what will we do with what we have?  Time will tell.

Art and Work Part 5: Redemption of Work

This week, we will take a short look at the nature of work (an important issue for artists, since art is work).  Many Christians think that work itself is a curse, a punishment that God has laid on mankind.  As we’ll see, this misunderstanding is fostered by the fact that mankind’s work is largely under a channel for sanctification and a redemptive activity.

How do we know that work is not itself a curse?  Because God works.  In the very first two chapters of the Bible, we are told of God’s work of creation and informed that God “rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done,” and that He sanctified that day, because “He rested from all His work” on it (Gen 2:2-3).  Indeed, because God rested from His work on the Sabbath, He commanded men to rest from theirs one day in seven as He did (Ex 20:9-11, 31:15-17).

In these same places in Scripture, men are commanded by God, “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all the work. . .” (Ex 20:9, 23:12, 31:15; Deut 5:13).  These commands simply made explicit the fact that God expected all men to work, as we can see in the fact that He made the first man, our common forefather Adam, for the specific labor of tending (or cultivating) and keeping the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:15).  That Adam had tasks to do is also seen in the fact that God created Eve to be a helper for him (Gen 2:18), and people don’t need helpers unless they have something to do which requires help.  (It’s also interesting to note that one of the jobs God gave Adam initially was naming the animals, a task that requires imagination, one that we would consider today an artistic function (Gen 2:19-20)). 

We see then that work is a part of what man is to be, a part of what it means to be made in the image of the God Who works (Gen 1:26-27).  So, how did people come to believe that work is a curse?  Because work is under a curse generally.  This curse was placed upon men’s work because of the Fall of Man through Father Adam, resulting in the need for much greater effort to achieve much smaller effect than before (Gen 3:1-19). Adam’s progeny have lived with this legacy ever since.

There is, though, cause for hope, joy and relief in this.  Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3).  He worked.  The implications of this simple fact are staggering for mankind.  Why?  Because the Lord Jesus, Who was perfect, sinless man (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22), as well as being God, hallowed the act of working just as He did the entire range of human existence by sinlessly living out His humanity, showing us that work was an important part of holy living.  In this, as in all aspects of His life on earth, we are to follow His example (John 13:15; 1 Peter 2:21).

 The great news is that He offered Himself, and all that He had done as a perfect man, to God to atone for Adam’s sin and ours, in exchange for our freedom from the Fall and all of its attendant curses (Gal 3:13; Rom 8:3-4, 5:6-21).  For Christians, our unity with Christ has freed us from sin’s curse (Rom 6:1-23; Gal 5:1) positionally (Eph 2:1-7), so that, as we obey Him, we gradually become more and more like Him (2 Tim 2:21; 2 Cor 3:18).  This is important, because we are promised increased blessing on our work as a result of our obedience (Deut 28:1-14), a promise that is a sort of first-fruit blessing that is a foretaste of life in the world to come, a world where, since there will be no sin, there will be no curse at all (Rev 22:3).

 Meanwhile, we are to obediently perform the work God has prepared for us (Eph 2:10), that He has gifted us to do (1 Cor 12:4-11), knowing that, though the effect of the Curse still afflicts our work, we not only one day will be completely freed from its effects, but even now can know Christ’s redemptive blessing and power in our work, as we progress in our sanctification and obedience, seeing our efforts become more effective by God’s grace as a channel of life through Christ to the world.  As we move “from glory to glory” in our lives and callings (2 Cor 3:18), let us embrace the tasks God has given us in both their difficulty and ease, looking forward to the Day when Christ Himself may say to us of our work, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:21).

 Next week, we will look at the overall summary of what God has to say to us on the subject of art and work.

Art and Work Part 4: Links in the Chain of Time

As we saw last week, God gives Christians (and thus Christian musicians) time to develop in their callings.  Why does God have us work hard across time to be sanctified (which is what development in your vocation as a musician, or any other calling, must be considered)?  Why does He not cause us to instantly excellent and mature in our walk and giftings?  

Witness 1 Corinthians 3:5-15: “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?  I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.  So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.  Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.  For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.  According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it.  For no other foundation can anyone lay other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw; each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.  If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.  If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” (NKJV)

From this passage we can discern (at least) three answers to the question of why God has the work of our development unfold across time.

First, we see that God takes time to graciously allow us through our gifts and vocations to take part in His work.  We are truly, as verse 9 of the above passage teaches, “God’s fellow workers.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 reads, “there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God Who works all in all.”  What this means for those of us who are musicians, is that God mercifully has spread His work across time to allow all of His children to take part in that work as His co-workers (a gracious act of love, since He, as God, certainly doesn’t need to).  Thus, our work as Christian musicians today contributes to the Kingdom of God, just as the music of our elder brothers David, Asaph, J.S. Bach, Isaac Watts, etc., did in their days; different eras, yet all contributing to the same glorious work. 

Second, our development in ministry doesn’t proceed in a vacuum; we need, and are needed by, our fellow Christians as we all perform different functions and mature in our callings at different times and rates of speed.  Paul points out that he “. . .planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. . .Now he who plants and he who waters are one. . .” (1 Cor 3:6, 8a)  Later in the epistle, Paul teaches, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all” (1 Cor 12:7).  Your gifts and calling (musical or otherwise) are needed for the Church to be properly edified and to grow (Eph 4:11-16).  As a musician or artist, you should easily see that your gifts and ministry grow as God uses those in like ministries to teach you and exemplify how a musical or artistic ministry should mature and become progressively better.  You should also realize that one day, if you faithfully work to mature in your ministry, God will put you in a position to disciple believers who are beginning to develop gifts and ministries like the one(s) you fulfill.  Discipleship is handed from more mature to less mature Christians in a chain across time until Jesus returns.

Finally, God gives us time to develop in our callings in order that we may be formed more perfectly in the Image of Christ (Heb 12:1-2).  As we externalize our salvation (Phil 2:12-13), so that the works that flow from our obedience (or lack of it) may accumulate to be tried by fire at the Last Day, gaining us either reward or loss (1 Cor 3:13-15).  God gives us time to figure out our calling correctly, to get it right, and not get it all wrong like the wicked slave in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30.  In other words, He gives us the rope to either hang ourselves or to demonstrate the work that the Holy Ghost is working in and through us.  He gives us time to act responsibly with our gifts and callings.

So we see that, God gives us development time that we might take part in His ongoing work, help and be helped by other Christians in God’s work, and accumulate works that will yield us reward or loss on the Day of Consummation.  Next week, we will look at how we should Biblically think about our work.

Art and Work Part 3: The Responsibility to Develop

In the first part of this series, we looked at the damage caused by the desire for immediately mature ability.  In the second, we examined some of Scripture’s passages that show that God intends for us to have time to grow in our sanctification and vocations.  This week we will take up the question of what we are to occupy the time God has given us with, a question answered by the single word work.

We as musicians and artists (or mechanics, housewives, or bankers, for that matter) are to be responsible to use our God-given talents, to develop them, and to use them in the way that we are directed to by God (according to His pattern, of Matt 25:14-30), because we are required to do so by God Himself (Luke 12:48) if we are to fulfill our calling, edify the Church, change the world, and (most importantly) please the Lord Jesus (“If you love Me, you will obey what I command. . .If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. . .He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching.  These words you hear are not My own, they belong to the Father Who sent Me.” John 14:15, 23-24). 

Responsibility, not vain glory or pride, or the way you feel, or even what you want, but responsibility is to be our motivation for development in our vocations. 

Attend:

We know we are to work as unto the Lord in whatever we do (Col 3:23-24).

We are to work so that in all things we do, Christ may be praised (1 Pet 4:11). 

We are to study to show ourselves approved, workmen who do not need to be ashamed (2 Tim 2:15). 

We are God’s fellow-workers (1 Cor 3:9).

Are we beginning to see a common factor here?  Work—we are to work to develop our talents, as the Parable of the Talents in Matt 25:14-30 and Luke 12:48 so clearly teach (we’ll look at these passages next week).

Salvation is a free grace-gift we receive when we are justified and regenerated (or born again) by the Power of the Holy Spirit.  Scripture says this in Eph 2:8-10.  Yet it is also true that the salvation Christ has wrought for and in us must be walked in—we must externalize (or incarnate, in one sense) our salvation, as Phil 2:12-13 points out, where it says, “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God Who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose (NIV).”

It is even proper to say that we have been saved (as in Eph 2:8-10), that we are being saved (as in Phil 2:12-13), and that, when we are raised and physically translated into God’s fully-arrived Kingdom, we will be saved(see 2 Pet 1:10-11; 1 Cor 15; 1 Thess 4:13-18; Rev 22:14).  The point is that salvation is more than just an initial experience; it is also an ongoing process, requiring hard, gritty, obedient work to develop our talents to the point where God wishes them to be.  This process necessarily requires the passage of time.

Why does God structure reality so that we must work hard over a long period of time?  A good question, one that we will take up next week (if God wills).

Art and Work Part 2: Time for Sanctification

This week, we will take a short look at the nature of work (an important issue for artists, since art is work).  Many Christians think that work itself is a curse, a punishment that God has laid on mankind.  As we’ll see, this misunderstanding is fostered by the fact that mankind’s work is largely under a channel for sanctification and a redemptive activity.

How do we know that work is not itself a curse?  Because God works.  In the very first two chapters of the Bible, we are told of God’s work of creation and informed that God “rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done,” and that He sanctified that day, because “He rested from all His work” on it (Gen 2:2-3).  Indeed, because God rested from His work on the Sabbath, He commanded men to rest from theirs one day in seven as He did (Exod 20:9-11, 31:15-17).

In these same places in Scripture, men are commanded by God, “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all the work. . .” (Exod 20:9, 23:12, 31:15; Deut 5:13).  These commands simply made explicit the fact that God expected all men to work, as we can see in the fact that He made the first man, our common forefather Adam, for the specific labor of tending (or cultivating) and keeping the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:15).  That Adam had tasks to do is also seen in the fact that God created Eve to be a helper for him (Gen 2:18), and people don’t need helpers unless they have something to do which requires help.  (It’s also interesting to note that one of the jobs God gave Adam initially was naming the animals, a task that requires imagination, one that we would consider today an artistic function (Gen 2:19-20)).

We see then that work is a part of what man is to be, a part of what it means to be made in the image of the God Who works (Gen 1:26-27).  So, how did people come to believe that work is a curse?  Because work is under a curse generally.  This curse was placed upon men’s work because of the Fall of Man through Father Adam, resulting in the need for much greater effort to achieve much smaller effect than before (Gen 3:1-19). Adam’s progeny have lived with this legacy ever since.

There is, though, cause for hope, joy and relief in this.  Jesus was a carpenter (Mark 6:3).  He worked.  The implications of this simple fact are staggering for mankind.  Why?  Because the Lord Jesus, Who was perfect, sinless man (2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22), as well as being God, hallowed the act of working just as He did the entire range of human existence by sinlessly living out His humanity, showing us that work was an important part of holy living.  In this, as in all aspects of His life on earth, we are to follow His example (John 13:15; 1 Peter 2:21).

The great news is that He offered Himself, and all that He had done as a perfect man, to God to atone for Adam’s sin and ours, in exchange for our freedom from the Fall and all of its attendant curses (Gal 3:13; Rom 8:3-4, 5:6-21).  For Christians, our unity with Christ has freed us from sin’s curse (Rom 6:1-23; Gal 5:1) positionally (Eph 2:1-7), so that, as we obey Him, we gradually become more and more like Him (2 Tim 2:21; 2 Cor 3:18).  This is important, because we are promised increased blessing on our work as a result of our obedience (Deut 28:1-14), a promise that is a sort of first-fruit blessing that is a foretaste of life in the world to come, a world where, since there will be no sin, there will be no curse at all (Rev 22:3).

Meanwhile, we are to obediently perform the work God has prepared for us (Eph 2:10), that He has gifted us to do (1 Cor 12:4-11), knowing that, though the effect of the Curse still afflicts our work, we not only one day will be completely freed from its effects, but even now can know Christ’s redemptive blessing and power in our work, as we progress in our sanctification and obedience, seeing our efforts become more effective by God’s grace as a channel of life through Christ to the world.  As we move “from glory to glory” in our lives and callings (2 Cor 3:18), let us embrace the tasks God has given us in both their difficulty and ease, looking forward to the Day when Christ Himself may say to us of our work, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matt 25:21).

Next week, we will look at the overall summary of what God has to say to us on the subject of art and work.

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