Relationship - Legacy Ministries Canada

To consider the ‘Danger of Comparison’ in the context of Biblical stewardship, I want us to try to live in the parable Jesus tells in Matthew 25:14-30. Take a few moments, and read the story Jesus told.

Entering the story

I would like you to imagine you are one of the servants in the story. Your master is preparing to head out of town. For days you have been working to get him ready to leave. He is not taking a short, local journey but will travel a significant distance. It has required a lot of preparation and has been a big undertaking for all the staff.

The time for him to leave is nearly here. The supplies he needs were all secured. All the provisions are packed. The household is in a last minute frenzy making sure everything is where it needs to be. You were a busy part of that, but not at this instant.

Right now you are standing with two colleagues before your master. The work you were doing is on pause – you were called away. Summoned to a meeting. Your other colleagues arrived and, now that you are all present, your master begins to speak.

He explains that while he is away, he is placing the three of you in charge of his possession. He outlines what he expects of you, and then divides his money between you. Eight talents of gold is divided. You are responsible for two t, one of your colleagues is responsible for five, the other for one.

It is easy to compare

In that moment, it would be so easy for the three servants to begin comparing what they received. The servant responsible for one talent could look at his contemporary with two and wonder why he got double what he held in his hand. Similarly, the servant responsible for two talents could feel jealous and envious of the servant responsible for five talents because he has more than double what he received.

Alternately, the servant with responsibility for five talents, seeing how much more he got than his colleagues, could become prideful and self-exalting. His comparison could lead to a false sense of superiority and importance.

In this example, the servants assess what they received based on two things: the item, and what another person received. Can you relate? Can you think of examples where you have done this? Perhaps you consider someone else to have a better job, nicer house, faster car, an ideal family, the list could continue. Or maybe you have exalted yourself over another?

If we have ever acted like this example, we know how much difficulty we can get ourselves into. We become dissatisfied. We convince ourselves that we are more deserving of something else. That God doesn’t know us as well as we know ourselves. And we may even go so far as to attempt to engineer circumstances to get what we perceive is more suitable to us. Comparison can lead to a lot of trouble.

But the comparison is never equal

With our stewardship as Christians, I know of very few people who have been entrusted with identical things. There are some things that we have a stewardship responsibility over that is the same no matter who we are, where we live, the colour of our skin, the language we speak, or anything else that sets us apart from each other. The gospel is one such thing. We are all witnesses for God of his amazing, life-giving, grace and mercy that brings a sinner to salvation and saves a soul. We all steward this gospel message for God.

Beyond that, it is usually different. There are categories that are the same. Spiritual gifts. Physical health and wellbeing. But within these categories there is little to no identical assignments. You and I both have a spiritual gift. Identical. Mine may be teaching, yours may be helps. Different.

We get ourselves into trouble if we draw lines between ourselves and others based on these differences. We can use the distinctions to create rifts between brothers and sisters in Christ. Or start to focus more on being envious and covetous of what someone else has been given, when we think we would really have liked to have had that.

Comparison draws us into unbelief

When we do this, we unconsciously state that we do not believe that God knows what he is doing. We communicate that we do not have confidence in his ability to rightfully apportion his property and resources to his people. We elevate ourselves to his level – a level where we could never, nor should ever place ourselves – and say that we know better than God.

This is a huge danger to our contentment and confidence as stewards. Rather than recognizing the deliberateness of God’s assignment to us, if we use comparison to assess what we have, or don’t have, to those around us we can get ourselves into real difficulties.

Matthew 25:15 contains six important words that I want to end this post with, they are…

“…each according to his own ability…”

The assignments of the master in this parable were not random. They were deliberate. Based on the knowledge he had of each of these servants. It is just this way with God. The things that I am entrusted to steward may look different to yours, but they are perfectly suited to me. God knows me better than I know myself and that should give me tremendous confidence that the things I have to steward are exactly the right things for me and my circumstances.

A final activity

As you close today, it may be a good idea to spend some time in prayerful reflection, confession, and repentance with the Lord over any times where you have sought to show him that you thought you knew better than Him in his stewardship assignment. But also take the time to thank him for the things that he has entrusted to you too.

Up Next:

The danger of Unawareness

Explore Ownership more:

Stewardship Component #2 – Relationship

“My responsibility in light of Relationship” **Coming soon**

Welcome back to our series exploring the 5 components of Biblical stewardship. The second component we are considering is ‘Relationship.’ This is closely connected to ‘Ownership.’ Understanding this component gives us confidence in our stewardship responsibilities being well suited to us.

As I mentioned in the Introduction, I am pulling on two parables Jesus taught for some illustrations in these posts. You can read the full text of both here…

Relationships in the parables

In each parable the settings are similar. A property owner must leave home and undertake a journey. Prior to his departure he calls several of his servants to him and entrusts parts of his property – a set amount of money – to each of them. This is done with instructions and an expectation that they perform certain activities with it in his absence.

There is then a gap in the narrative while the man is absent and then servants are performing their stewardship activities, but it commences again on his return. When he has come home, he looks for an accounting of the work that has been undertaken, and rewards the men based on the actions they took.

There are three relationships we can highlight from these parables:

The property owner has a relationship with each man he makes a steward.
Each steward has a relationship with his fellow-servants who undertook a stewardship.
The stewards would have conducted their business in relationship with others in the wider community.

This post focuses on what we can learn from the primary relationship between property owner and steward. (The other two relationships will be addressed in future posts.)

The Owner – Steward relationship

This is the easiest relationship to identify from our texts. It is evidenced by phrases such as “…he called ten of his own slaves…” (Luke 19:13), “Master, your mina…” (Luke 19:16), and “…enter the joy of your master…” (Matthew 25:21).

Without this relationship there is no stewardship. The master acts, and the servants act because of the relationship between them. That relationship takes on an additional dimension when property is entrusted to the steward.

The parables do not simply identify the relationship that exists, but we see some of the depth and dimension of that relationship. There are six very important words in Matthew’s parable that I want to draw out in this context of relationship between property owner and steward.

Matthew 25:15
“…each according to his own ability…”.

Intentionality

These six words are a very important detail. They shed a great deal of light onto the relationship between the property owner and his servants.

He knew them.

He really knew them.

What they could handle.

And, what they could not.

He then took this knowledge and used it to influence how much of his possessions he gave to each servant.

When I consider this the adjective that comes to mind is intentionality. It was not a raffle or lottery to see who got what. The property owner was deliberate in his actions when he considered what he knew about each of his servants. There was a reason one received five talents but another just one. He took what he knew about his servants and used that when giving them their stewardship responsibilities.

Rakes and leaf blowers

There are several big, beautiful, mature silver maples and black walnut trees in our garden. Every fall we have lots of leaves to collect. Over time I have invested in a leaf blower to help make the job a little easier. Since the day I bought it, my son wanted to use it, but he didn’t get to until this last fall.

This was partly because of a rule we have in our family that if you haven’t learned to use a manual tool well you can’t use the power tool equivalent. Also, knowing my son and I knew some of what would, or would not, have happened if he got his hands on the leaf blower.

For a time he was too young to physically use it. When he was physically able he would not have used it wisely or well. Dogs would have been chased and family members blasted with hurricane force winds. It would not have ended well.

But the fall he was 12, he was ready. He had proved he could use a rake and would somewhat willingly collect the leaves alongside me. He had matured enough to know that terrorizing animals is not acceptable in our family, no matter how fun it may appear. And so, he got to use the leaf blower.

And do you know what? He did a great job. I spent more time with a rake that fall than he did.

Why do I share this? To put a real-life illustration on what it can look like to be intentional when entrusting something to another person. It doesn’t happen outside of a relationship. It doesn’t happen in relationships that have no depth or where the property owner has only a cursory awareness of the steward’s ability.

God is intentional with his stewardship assignments

When we consider our positions as stewards of God’s property, gifts, and resources, God occupies the position of the property owner in the parable. He can decide who he gives his property to. He can determine if one person receives something different to another, or if someone receives more of one thing than one of their peers.

Just as with the property owner in the story, this is not done indiscriminately but with great intentionality. God takes his knowledge of us and in his sovereignty entrusts each of us with different things at different times in our lives according to each of our own abilities. This is what we have confidence in when we act as stewards. Not our ability to do it well. But in the fact that this resource, or circumstance, is perfectly suited to us because God knows us better than we know ourselves. (If you need to be reminded of how well God knows you, take some time and read Psalm 139.)

Up Next:

Component 3 – Expectations

Explore Relationship more:

Relationship – The Danger of Comparison