Q. What is the teaching of the Parable of the Unjust Steward? Why is the spirit of the world held up for us to follow?
A. The principles which governed the Steward, leading him to sacrifice present for future advantages, are commended. He might have kept his master’s money; but instead of this he laid it out in view of the future — (see 1 Tim. 6:17-1917Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; 18That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; 19Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. (1 Timothy 6:17‑19)).
The lesson taught us in the parable is, The use of riches now that the dispensation is changed. It is not now one in which earthly blessing and prosperity — the increase of basket and store — is a sign of blessing from the Lord, as once it was to the Jew. The dispensation is that of the grace of God seeking the lost. Luke 15 gives us its picture. It shows us that we may turn riches into a means of fulfilling love. The spirit of grace filling our hearts, (ourselves being the objects of grace) exercises itself in temporalities towards those who need.
In Luke 15 we find one who had departed in self-will from God, with the portion of goods which had fallen to him, (the blessings which man received in creation) and had wasted his substance with riotous living. In Luke 16 man is a steward who had proved himself unfaithful in his stewardship, wasting his master’s goods. Fallen man has done both; he has revolted from God, and as a steward, has proved an unfaithful one. God, in his grace, does not canvass our title to the goods we have in our hands, which we hold but on sufferance, not certainly as having a title to their possession. He does not remove the goods; but speaks of them as “another man’s”; and we should use them in view of the future, so that, by and by, we may find we have made a satisfactory use of them, and be enabled to give a satisfactory account of the use we have made of them for Him, who had left them in our hand. If we are faithful in the least, we are faithful in much; and according to the faithful use of that which is in reality “another man’s,” we get the sense of realization, and the joy of possessing that which is truly “our own”; that is, heavenly things — the “true riches.” We get the consciousness too of having “done wisely” in our use of the master’s goods, while we had them in our power.
Verses 4 and 8 may be read thus, “I know what I will do, that when I have been removed from the stewardship I may be received into their houses”; “And I say unto you: make to yourselves friends with the Mammon of Unrighteousness, that when ye fail ye may be received into everlasting dwellings.