Similarly, we are each given different gifts and talents by our Master. The thing that matters most is how we use what we have been given, not how much we make or do compared to someone else. What matters is that we spend ourselves. — Francis Chan, Crazy Love
Talents and gifts both come from God, but they refer to different things. God gives people certain talents at the moment of conception, a type of common grace. He integrates them into a person’s unique design.
Gifts result from special, revealed grace. They occur after salvation. God gives believers gifts like prophecy, encouragement, serving, and teaching, and he dispenses them with purpose. Paul says in Ephesians 4:12-3 (NASB) that the gifts are “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
“until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”
He expresses similar thoughts in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. Gifts bless the body. They never are for the individual, and, it could be argued that they never reach their full potential until expressed within the larger community of believers.
Talents, in contrast, can be displayed privately and joy derived from that personal expression. Writing, art, music, dance—none require an audience in order to experience creative euphoria.
None require an admission of weakness, either. Talents are innate, producing a temptation to use them as identity badges. Problems, of course, arise when the talent seems to fizzle, to sputter into nothingness. In those moments, the artist questions everything and often falls into despair. What are they without their talents? Who are they? If they’re believers, they’re children of God. The talents may have retreated for a time, but they remain God’s sons and daughters. The gifts persist, too. Unlike talents, they bubble into more and more life.
They do so because they spring from the Holy Spirit of life (Romans 8:2, NASB), not a person’s strengths. As such, they necessitate a stretching into the infinite and pleading for aid. They are gifts, designed to show God’s glory and to equip his church for the work of ministry.
Image: Danny Navarro (Creative Commons)