The Danger Of A "Good Enough" Faith

What This Is NOT Saying: “Jesus is a reverse Robin Hood” – because this is not about our money, but our responsibilities.

- Luke 19:13, 16, 18, 24.

- v. 24 makes the master (i.e. Jesus) sound like a reverse Robin Hood, taking from the poor and giving to the rich.

- vv. 13, 16, 18 all make it clear, though, that the money is not the servant’s. It’s the master’s money. The various servants had the responsibility and trust of administering those funds for the master.

- This means when the master says, “Take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten” he is not taking the third servant’s own money away from him. He is relieving him of his responsibility because he failed at his job.

- It’s not like Jesus going up to a homeless guy, saying, “Give me your last five bucks,” then turning it and giving to a guy sitting in a BMW.

- It’s more like a boss taking a valuable account from an employee who totally botched the effort and giving it to an employee who has proven he is able to handle accounts with skill and results.

- This also answers the question why the third servant’s mina is given to the first servant and not the master.

- After all, it’s the master’s money, so if he has to surrender it, he should give it back to the owner, right?

- He gives it to the servant with ten, though, because the servant is going to manage it, not own it. It’s not a prize – it’s his to manage for his master.

- So, knowing this has to do with our responsibilities, let’s see the point that Jesus is getting at.

A Non-Existent Middle Road: Many people claiming faith live as though a “good enough” walk of faith is sufficient.

- Luke 19:26.

- There are two choices here (and we’ll get into the specifics of them in a moment), but there is not a middle “good enough” path.

- And yet many people claiming faith try to chart this kind of course.

- What does this path look like?

- “Good enough” often means:

a. Doing the outwardly expected signs of faithfulness (going to church, having a Bible (though not reading it), being respectable) without a matching private passion.

b. Being satisfied with what you already know and where you already are.

c. Having no expectation for fruitfulness or impact.

d. Seeing my salvation as a grace-alone, in-the-past done-deal that has no practical impact on my life today.

- This is the attitude of wanting to call yourself a Christian, wanting to say you’re a believer, but not necessarily being interested in working, sacrificing, serving, growing, or hurting for your faith.

- I claim it as a “belief,” but there’s no real change in my daily living.

- And I’m ok with that because I want to go to heaven, but I’m not interested in experiencing incredible victory. I just want “enough” to get me by.

- Many want enough not be embarrassed, but not so much as would require a lot of work.

- This is because, among other reasons, we know that salvation and eternity sound like important ideas and should receive high importance in our lives, but we’ve got other things we want to attend to (success, sin, self-centeredness).

- This, though, is really just people fooling themselves because there is no option that involves just kind of “staying even.”

The Two Real Options:

1. A Promise: Faithful service leads to overflowing opportunity.

- Luke 19:26.

- Matthew 13:12; Matthew 21:43; Matthew 25:28-29; Mark 4:24-25; Luke 8:18; Luke 6:38.

- I think perhaps you could phrase the gist of what the master is saying as something like: “You think giving him one more is something? I’m going to give him far more than that!”

- This is not the end of the master’s willingness, but just the beginning.

- If you’re receptive, open, and obedient, there is no limit to how God will overflow you.

- It’s important here to sense the master’s pleasure in the servant’s actions as well as the master’s willingness to pour out blessings upon him.

- To those faithful, God will continue to increase their authority and opportunity.

- The increase of another mina indicates to me that the master did not intend on taking back the eleven minas that the first servant now was in charge of. In fact, even though the master had returned from his journey, there is every indication that he intended on allowing that first servant to continue to manage that small financial trust, plus the much larger responsibility of the ten cities.

- This should be very encouraging for those who start this whole process with relatively little.