Fact of Life.
Matthew 13:12 -Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.
Matthew 25:29 -
For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. (NIV)
In the first case, the context is Jesus explaining to his disciples why he had to speak in parables. In the second case, the context is the Parable of the Talents.
The meaning of the first verse can be inferred when you read the whole of Matthew 13. Jesus is referring to people who heard the word, accepted it and understood it, and comparing them to people who had 'callous hearts' and did not 'hear with their ears' and 'closed their eyes' (Matthew 13:15, Isaiah 6:10).
The Parable of the Talents is harder. Bible.org has a loooong article interpreting it if you are interested - I have not completely read through it. Since I do not know much I shall not comment on it now...
But look - when you remove the spiritual significance of the verses, they represent a truth in life that we can hardly deny. Exemplified in today's world, the term to use would be 'social injustice'. Or putting it plainly - the rich gets richer, and the poor gets poorer.
Although in the biblical context they should not be read in that way, people have actually acknowledged their literal meaning and gave it a term - the 'Matthew Effect'. People have argued that, other than being applicable to economics, it works the same way in science too - the big names will get more and more attention and resources, while the nobodies will almost always remain nobodies with little expendable resources. When you get a grant, you will be in a better position to apply for your next; when you don't get your first grant, because your start-up fund dwindles subsequent applications will become more difficult.
That is a fact of life isn't it. I see it working tirelessly all the time.
I decided to write about this because these two verses keep coming to me recently. Their literal meaning is so plain and so direct that there is no way justice can be seen from them. If you are the person whom things are taken from you, there might even be jealousy and hate in you (and hence more will be taken from you). I suppose this can be a chance for me to actually pray, read and think about them.
The bible is like that - the more I read through it, the more I think that I should work on it. There are a lot of aspects to that - well, I guess I can talk about it some other time...
Labels: Philosophy and Religion
