The parable of the talents ends with the Master saying, "So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 25:28-30)

The servant ends up losing what the Master gave him, and it is given to the one who had turned five talents into ten. When we say, "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer," we usually see that as an indication of how unfair life can be. But when we look at this parable we see that this is actually God's plan.

The servant who had received the one talent had taken it and hidden it in the ground. By taking the talent out of circulation, he had made it completely worthless. But the benefit of keeping money in circulation, and creating wealth, is that it increases the supply of wealth that is available to everyone.

The Bible tells us that Solomon was the wisest man that had ever lived. His wisdom not only brought him great wealth, but in 2 Chronicles 1:15 we read about Solomon "he made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones."

God is a Creator, and His desire is to see everything bring forth more and more fruit, even multiply. The reason is that He wants to increase the blessings that are available to everyone. He does that by giving us everything we need in order to create wealth. He expects us to do it because He knows that it will benefit everyone around us.

When God puts money into our hands, He expects us to have the faith to ask Him for wisdom. When we receive His wisdom and increase our wealth, He will give us more. He gives more wealth to those that can multiply it, even if they don't know Him. Proverbs 13:22 tells us that even the wealth of the sinner is "stored up for the righteous."

When it comes to money, creating wealth should be our first priority because it is God's first priority. He will even allow sinners to create wealth because the time will come when He will give that wealth to the righteous. But I'm sure that He would rather have the righteous create the wealth in the first place.

Throughout the history of religion, people have wondered if someone can be both rich and righteous. And many religions have taught that money is evil, and that a truly holy person is someone who had denounced all worldly goods and pleasures.

The Bible tells us that Jesus came so that we would have life and abundance (John 10:10). And that God has given each of us, no matter where we are, everything we need in order to be successful.

Our success isn't measured by our possessions, but by our faithfulness with the wealth God has entrusted to us. He expects us to be faithful with money before He will give us the true riches, and that means that we are to multiply our wealth. No matter where we are, whether in an American mega-church, or a house church in the poorest country of the world, we can be faithful with what is available to us. We can all seek God for His wisdom, and find ways to bring blessing to those around us. We all have our talents, and we can all multiply them.