by Gary Henry<\/p>\n
“Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours’<\/em>” (Matthew 25:24-25).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Having erred, we can be quite creative in coming up with excuses. Rather than face the facts head-on, we dodge the truth. Not only in speaking to others but even in our minds, we do our best to minimize the seriousness of our misdeeds.<\/p>\n
In the Parable of the Talents, the man who mismanaged the money entrusted to him by his master tried to make it look as if he had just been playing it safe. The master was not fooled; he charged him with being a “wicked and lazy servant<\/em>” (Matthew 25:26).<\/p>\n
Psychologically, we all have a need to see ourselves in a positive light. We spend a good bit of our time in life building a positive self-image. And when that self-image is threatened by sin in our lives, we do everything we can, like a good PR agent, to “spin” the facts in our favor. In the private ruminations of our minds, we indulge in rationalization and self-justification. Even in the words we use, we describe our sins as “mistakes” and our sinful character traits as mere “foibles.” But who are we trying to convince? Probably ourselves. We’re trying to repair our bruised self-image for our own comfort.<\/p>\n
This wouldn’t be so bad if it moved us to improve our character and to start living better. God would be pleased with that result. Too often, however, it is the devil who is pleased. Having gained a victory, he gets extra mileage out of our sin by getting us to concentrate on self-justification rather than repentance.<\/p>\n
What would be a better path to follow? Many suggestions could be made, but consider the following.<\/p>\n
\n
- We can prioritize self-improvement over self-justification. Seeing ourselves as we are, without excuses, is the first step in becoming more than we are.<\/li>\n
- We can study what the Scriptures teach about godly sorrow and repentance (II Corinthians 7:9-11). If we neglect these subjects, we put our salvation in jeopardy (Revelation 2:5).<\/li>\n
- In our prayer life can spend more time seeking self-honesty. If we pray sincerely about this, our Father will gladly help us acquire the honesty and openness that were of such benefit to David (Psalms 19:12-14; 139:23-24).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
“O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself” (Augustine of Hippo).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Gary Henry “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1624,703,354],"class_list":["post-94037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-blame","tag-guilt","tag-responsibility"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":66002,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/using-our-god-given-abilities\/","url_meta":{"origin":94037,"position":0},"title":"Using Our God-Given Abilities","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 18, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bret Miller Think on These Things, Vol 55, No. 1, January-March 2024 In Matthew 24, Jesus is asked about the signs of the end of the age. Jesus then spoke for a long time on many different subjects, answering what the kingdom of heaven would be like in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83268,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-joys-of-involvement\/","url_meta":{"origin":94037,"position":1},"title":"The Joys of Involvement","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 16, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson Have you noticed? The happiest Christians are highly involved in the Lord's work. Why is this so? There is joy in using our God-given talents as He intended for the good of others. \"As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60388,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/those-other-sinners\/","url_meta":{"origin":94037,"position":2},"title":"Those “Other” Sinners","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert F. Turner \"And John answered and said, `Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us'\" (Luke 9:49). Answered what? The word may mean, \"began to speak\" but Vine says, it is always \"where something has preceded,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83587,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-little-things\/","url_meta":{"origin":94037,"position":3},"title":"The Little Things","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer People often seem prone to wanting big things out of life. If we are going to accomplish anything, we want it to be big, fancy, and impressive. Culturally, we tend to think in terms of big names, sports, and movie stars, or heroic action. Famous people get\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60672,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-small-things-we-can-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":94037,"position":4},"title":"The Small Things We Can Do","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Al Diestlekamp A gospel song that has recently become a favorite of mine is \"Room in God's Kingdom,\" the lyrics of which acknowledge the value of \"the small things that you can do.\" While we need citizens in God's kingdom who can tackle the \"big\" things, there's a place\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26557,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-rule-of-fear\/","url_meta":{"origin":94037,"position":5},"title":"The Rule of Fear","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford I suspect that the longer a preacher works with a congregation, the more the congregation gets used to the preacher and can identify his particular hobbyhorses. That being the case, I\u2019m sure that some of you, at least, have figured out that I\u2019m particularly interested in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}