For to him who has will more be given!

Matthew 13:10-17

His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you always use these hard-to-understand illustrations?” Then he explained to them that only they were permitted to understand about the Kingdom of Heaven, and others were not. “For to him who has will more be given,” he told them, “and he will have great plenty; but from him who has not, even the little he has will be taken away. That is why I use these illustrations, so people will hear and see but not understand. “This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah:

‘They hear, but don’t understand; they look, but don’t see! For their hearts are fat and heavy, and their ears are dull, and they have closed their eyes in sleep, so they won’t see and hear and understand and turn to God again, and let me heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. Many a prophet and godly man has longed to see what you have seen and hear what you have heard, but couldn’t.

Food for thought!

"For to him who has will more be given,” he told them, “and he will have great plenty; but from him who has not, even the little he has will be taken away." At first sight this seems nothing less than injustice; but it is not, because it simply states a truth about life and living.

In the school the student who labours more is capable of acquiring more knowledge. On the other hand, the student who is lazy and refuses to work inevitably loses even the little knowledge he has.

If you have some skill for a game or business, develop it, otherwise you will lose it. The diligent and hard-working person is in a position to be given more and more; the lazy person always loses even what he has. Any gift can be developed; and, since nothing in life stands still, if a gift is not developed, it is lost. By the way, this is why the rich tend to get richer and the poor tend to get poorer!

It is so with goodness. Every hardship or challenge we conquer makes us more able to conquer the next hardship or challenge. Every challenge we fail, makes us prone to fail the next one. Every good thing we do, every act of self-discipline and of service and of love, makes us better able for the next; and every time we fail to use such an opportunity we make ourselves less able to seize the next when it comes.

Life is always a process of gaining more or losing more; in life there's no standing still; or we are gaining ground or we are losing ground. Jesus is laying down the truth that the nearer we live to him, the more we develop our potential. And the more we drift away from him, the less we are able to reach our full potential. More to more, less from less!