Mt 25:14-30. PARABLE OF THE TALENTS.

      This parable, while closely resembling it, is yet a different one from that of THE POUNDS, in Lu 19:11-27; though CALVIN, OLSHAUSEN, MEYER, and others identify them--but not DE WETTE and NEANDER. For the difference between the two parables, see the opening remarks on that of The Pounds. While, as TRENCH observes with his usual felicity, "the virgins were represented as waiting for their Lord, we have the servants working for Him; there the inward spiritual life of the faithful was described; here his external activity. It is not, therefore, without good reason that they appear in their actual order--that of the Virgins first, and of the Talents following--since it is the sole condition of a profitable outward activity for the kingdom of God, that the life of God be diligently maintained within the heart."

      14. For the kingdom of heaven is as a man--The ellipsis is better supplied by our translators in the corresponding passage of Mark (Mr 13:34), "[For the Son of man is] as a man," &c.,
      travelling into a far country--or more simply, "going abroad." The idea of long "tarrying" is certainly implied here, since it is expressed in Mt 25:19.
      who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods--Between master and slaves this was not uncommon in ancient times. Christ's "servants" here mean all who, by their Christian profession, stand in the relation to Him of entire subjection. His "goods" mean all their gifts and endowments, whether original or acquired, natural or spiritual. As all that slaves have belongs to their master, so Christ has a claim to everything which belongs to His people, everything which, may be turned to good, and He demands its appropriation to His service, or, viewing it otherwise, they first offer it up to Him; as being "not their own, but bought with a price" (1Co 6:19, 20), and He "delivers it to them" again to be put to use in His service.

JFB.