Of the seven units of weight in the Bible, the talent (kikkar), was the largest, and was already known by the same name in Ugaritic. The relation between the talent and the shekel is defined in Exodus 38:25–26.

A talent was 3,000 shekels. Most of us know that Solomon was rich. We’ve probably imagined an opulent palace with golden goblets. Actually, we don’t need to imagine how rich he was—the Bible tells us specifically. For instance, we know that his annual revenue included 666 talents of gold. ost important, a denarius was a hired laborer’s wage for a day’s work.

On that basis, a laborer would have to work for 6000 days to earn one talent.

The English word talent comes from the 14th century and is from the Parable of the Talents. Although a talent was a lot of money in the ancient world, I will look at how the parable and our talents touch on how we use our time, talents, and treasure.

Everything we have is a gift from God. All good things are gifts from God.

God's Gifts Are for Use in His Service. The gifts we have received are not ours alone. God gave them to us for the purpose of serving Him and serving other people.

Each of us has something to give. We can give our money and our time to charity, be a friend to someone who is sick or lonely, do volunteer work, or be a peacemaker, teacher or minister. We may give unselfishly of our time to our spouse, children or parents. We may choose a service-oriented occupation, or we may just do our everyday jobs with integrity and respect for others.

In His Parable of the Talents, Jesus taught that we must use our gifts wisely. A talent was a very large sum of money, about 80 pounds (36 kg) of silver. Before leaving on a journey, a wealthy man entrusted his fortune to his servants for the time he would be away. Two of the servants used the money wisely to earn income for their master. However, the third servant did not put the money to good use, and the master was very displeased.

The master represents God in this parable, and the servants represent us. The English word talent, meaning our natural abilities, is derived from this parable. That is fitting because the lesson of the parable is that we must use our talents and abilities, as well as our wealth, in God's service. If we do not use our gifts wisely, God will consider us to be wicked and lazy like the third man in the parable.`

In the New Testament, Jesus offers more wisdom and has more to say about money than any other subject besides the Kingdom of God. Jesus talked more about money than he did Heaven and Hell combined. Eleven of the 39 parables He tells are about finances. It would seem that the more we give to others, the poorer we become, but just the opposite is true! Service to others brings meaning and fulfillment to our lives in a way that wealth, power, possessions and self-centered pursuits can never match.

Each of us has unique talents and abilities. Most of us are not dynamic preachers or wealthy philanthropists, but our contribution is just as important.

Some gifts are given for the purpose of building up the church.

In his description of The Final Judgment, Jesus made it crystal clear that we will be judged on our response to the needs of others.

It does not matter whether we have been given great talents, abilities and wealth, or very little. What matters to God is whether we make good use of what we have been given, whether large or small.

A frequent question concerns an adult child, sibling or other relative who is always asking for money. People wonder if Bible teachings require them to keep supporting that person. We have a solemn obligation to help people who are in genuine need, especially family members (1 Timothy 5:8). However, there is no obligation to support a person who is just being lazy or exploiting kind-hearted relatives (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12). Such a person may benefit more from training and counseling aimed at helping him or her get and keep a job.

The essence of the Christian life is in obeying and worshiping God and helping others. God has given each of us important gifts for those purposes. Like the three men in Jesus' Parable of the Talents, our gifts may be great or small. But no matter how great or small our talents, abilities and wealth, we are required to put them to good use.