First of Three Warnings

Matthew 25.14-30 is a parable of warning.  Here is the first warning.

Warning 1: Your Theology Matters.  It is a popular notion to think that it doesn't really matter what you believe.  In The Great Divorce, CS Lewis writes in the preface,

We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork you must make a decision...It does not move towards unity but away from it. (The Great Divorce, Lewis, 9-10)

Indeed, your good theology does not save you, but your bad theology can mess you up terribly.  The servant who received one talent (=6000 denarius or 20 years wages!), refused to have the Master on the Master's terms, and demanded to have the Master on servant's terms.  The Master is revealed clearly in the verbs of vs 14 and 15:

• He called his servants
• He entrusted to them his property
• He gave them...

But the the bad theology of the servant messed him up.  You are a hard man, unfair, and stingy.  When people say they believe in God, I often think, "which one?"  It matters if you have the wrong God.  If in your imagination, your god is a tyrant--more taskmaster than master--you would never trust yourself to that god.  Your relationship might be slave, but never a son.  Your experience slavish fear, but not faith.