The Stewardship of Money: June 2009
Table of Contents
Mine and Thine the Same
O Thou who hast redeemed of old,
And made us of Thy grace take hold,
With God at peace through Thee,
Help me these blessings now to
own,
And tell aloud what Thou hast done,
O holy Lamb, for me.
Out of myself for help I go,
Thy power alone resolved to know;
Thy love’s the plea I make;
Give me the power, ’tis this I claim,
With heart and life to praise Thy
name:
Give, for Thy mercy’s sake.
Love, only love, Thy heart inclined,
And brought Thee, Saviour of
mankind,
Down from the throne above;
Love made Thee here a Man of grief,
Distressed Thee sore for our relief,
Oh mystery of love!
Lord, I am Thine; Thy love to me
Constrains my soul to cleave to
Thee,
And gladly to resign
Whate’er I have, whate’er I am;
My life be all with Thine the same,
And all Thy shame be mine.
C. Wesley, Little Flock
Hymnbook, Appendix #25
The Cross
The Stewardship of Money
Avelino came home from a trip one day to find three dozen baby chickens in the side yard. Going into the house, he asked his wife Catalina where the chickens had come from. She told him that the chicks were hers. She had bought them with her own money to raise and sell. He asked, “Are you sure they are yours?” “Yes, they are mine,” she responded with some emphasis on that word “mine.” Then he said, “You must watch them night and day. If they were the Lord’s and you were caring for them on His behalf, then you could look to Him to watch over them, but since they are yours, you will have to take special care of them.” A night or two later it rained and some of the chicks drowned. The night after that a good number of them were taken by a wild animal. Others got sick and died. In less than two weeks none were left. Catalina was learning a valuable, but painful lesson in the “stewardship of money.” Remembering Solomon’s comment, “The borrower is servant to the lender [master],” we do well to heed the Lord’s words, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Prov. 22:7; Matt. 6:24).
Theme of the Issue
Owe No Man Anything
The past few months have brought North America — and ultimately the rest of the world — into very serious difficulties. A number of factors have combined to cause an economic downturn that seems to be the worst we have experienced since the Great Depression that occurred during the 1930s. The effects are widespread. Sales decline, jobs are lost, and incomes suffer accordingly. We all recognize that free market economies are characterized by cycles of growth followed by a recession, but what the world is experiencing today is more than this normal ebb and flow. We will not delve into the many factors that have contributed to what has occurred, but all experts agree that greed, on the part of both individuals and governments, has been a major feature in it all.
Living Beyond Our Means
Particularly in the Western world, people have lived beyond their means for many years, and easy credit has encouraged many to run up debts which they now find it difficult or impossible to pay off. Prices have been inflated, especially in commodities like housing, and people have taken on mortgages with payments that were far beyond their ability to maintain. Young people have been encouraged in this lifestyle by banks that have given them credit cards as soon as they graduate from university. Merchants, too, have promoted credit buying by offering long-term financing agreements. The whole process has been fueled by years of prosperity which many felt would never end. Having become accustomed to this “good life,” people find it hard to cut back.
However, we must remember that all through man’s history, the people of God have had a tendency to fall into the sins of the world around them. It is easy for believers to be caught up in the spirit of covetousness and to want more than the Lord has given them. There is a tendency to love not only the world but “the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:15). The sin is an old one — one about which God has warned us many times in His Word. Although it may take varying forms in different cultures and parts of the world, the root cause is the same. In Western countries, credit cards have encouraged much of this reckless spending. In other lands where such things are not so readily available, the same desire may manifest itself in borrowing from others. All this only underscores the truth of Luke 12:15 (JND): “Take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness, for it is not because a man is in abundance that his life is in his possessions.”
A Warning of What’s Ahead
What we are experiencing today is no doubt a warning from the Lord, as He gives the world a taste of far greater troubles that will come upon it during the tribulation period. In the first three and a half years of that period, God will bring down providential judgments that will destroy much of man’s vaunted prosperity, by disrupting the network of business and commerce that supports this good life. Finally, in the last three and a half years, man will be brought to his knees and forced back into primitive methods of survival and warfare. We can be most thankful that we, as believers, will be called home before that awful time.
Contentment With
What We Have
The wisdom of God in this matter is given to us very clearly in Romans 13:8: “Owe no man anything, but to love one another.” It may seem like a very restrictive principle by which to live, but it is the wisdom of God for those who will listen. To use a credit card to charge that for which we cannot immediately pay or to borrow money for the same purpose is to insult “the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). If there is a lack in our lives, a lack of those things which we really need, then let us obey Philippians 4:6: “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” God does not promise to give it all to us immediately, but He has promised to supply all our need, “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). More than this, we can be assured of what is of greater value, for “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). The believer who lives in obedience to God’s Word will find that “godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Tim. 6:6).
Borrowing Money
In applying these scriptures, we do not mean to suggest that all borrowing of money is morally wrong. There is a difference between a secured loan and an unsecured loan. Having a mortgage on a house, for example, is a secured loan, in which the lender holds title to the house as security. Even in this, however, believers need to be before the Lord, in order not to overextend themselves. If we live and act before the Lord, we will not find ourselves going after what we cannot afford. Rather, we will remember that everything we have — our money, our home, and even our time — is ours only as stewards. They are to be used for the Lord’s glory, not for our own ends. They are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. We must remember that we are not left in this world simply to lead good, morally upright lives, and then to go to heaven at the end. No, we are left here to be living witnesses of the grace that saved us.
In these last days the Lord has indeed allowed “perilous times” to come upon us, and we need more grace than ever, in order to live for the Lord’s glory until we are called home. But “He giveth more grace” (James 4:6) and will surely make a way for us to honor Him, in obedience to His Word.
W. J. Prost
The Love of Money
Anything, apart from God, that commands the heart is an idol, the yielding of the heart to that thing is idolatry, and the one who yields to it is an idolater. Such is the plain, solemn truth in this matter, however unpalatable it may be to the proud human heart. Take that one great, crying, universal sin of “covetousness,” what does the inspired Apostle call it? He calls it “idolatry.” How many hearts are commanded by money! How many worshippers bow down before the idol of gold!
What is covetousness? Either a desire to get more or the love of what we have. We have both forms in the New Testament. The Greek has a word to represent both: “pleonexia”—the desire to get more (Col. 3:5) — and “philarguria” — the love of money (1 Tim. 6:10). But whether it be the desire to grasp or the desire to hoard, in either case it is idolatry.
The Hoarder and the Spender
And yet the two things may be very unlike in their outward development. The former, that is, the desire to get more, may often be found in connection with a readiness to spend; the latter, on the contrary, is generally linked with an intense spirit of hoarding. For example, there is a man of great business capacity—a thorough, commercial genius—in whose hand everything seems to prosper. He has a real zest for business, an unquenchable thirst for making money. His one object is to get more, to add thousand to thousand, to strengthen his commercial foundation, and to enlarge his sphere. He lives, thrives and revels in the atmosphere of commerce. He started on his career with a few pennies in his pocket, and he has risen to the proud position of a merchant prince. He is not a miser. He is as ready to scatter as to obtain. He fares sumptuously, entertains with a splendid hospitality, and gives munificently to manifold public objects. He is looked up to and respected by all classes of society.
But he loves to get more. He is a covetous man — an idolater. True, he despises the poor miser who spends his nights over his money-bags, delighting his heart and feasting his eyes with the very sight of the fascinating money, refusing himself and his family the common necessities of life, going about in rags and wretchedness, rather than spend a penny of the precious hoard. He loves money, not for what it can get or give, but simply for its own sake. Such loves to accumulate, not that he may spend, but that he may hoard, whose one ruling desire is to die worth so much wretched gold — strange, contemptible desire!
Covetousness
Now these two are apparently very different, but they meet in one point; they stand on one common platform: They are both covetous; they are both idolaters. This may sound harsh and severe, but it is the truth of God, and we must bow down before its holy authority. True it is that nothing is apparently more difficult to bring home to the conscience than the sin of covetousness—that very sin which the Holy Spirit declares to be idolatry. Thousands might see it in the case of the poor, degraded miser, who nevertheless would be shocked by its application to a merchant prince. It is one thing to see it in others, and quite another to judge it in ourselves. The fact is that nothing but the light of the Word of God shining in upon the soul and penetrating every chamber of our moral being can enable us to detect the hateful sin of covetousness. The pursuit of gain —the desire to have more — and the spirit of commerce—the desire to get ahead — all this is so “highly esteemed amongst men” that very few, comparatively, are prepared to see that it is positively “an abomination in the sight of God.”
The natural heart is formed by the thoughts of men. It loves, adores and worships the objects that it finds in this world, and each heart has its own idol. One man worships gold, another worships pleasure, another worships power. Every unconverted man is an idolater, and even converted men are not beyond the reach of idolatrous influences, as is evident from the warning note raised by the chosen Apostle, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).
C. H. Mackintosh
All Belongs to the Lord
We are so prone to look upon things as ours, instead of remembering that all we have and all we are belongs to the Lord and should always be given up at His call. Nor is this a mere matter of rightful obedience; it is for our lasting benefit and happiness.
C. H. Mackintosh
The Standard of Living
When young people establish a new home, they should give consideration to the standard of living which should be theirs. By this we mean the cost of the house, the manner of its furnishings, and the costs of clothing, food, transportation and other things. It neither pleases God nor promotes happiness in the home to live beyond or even up to the last cent of our income.
In a day like the present when everything abounds for the convenience of the home, it is very easy to set up a standard that is beyond the ability of the young husband to provide. There is also a tendency with young people to want to begin their own homes at the same standard in which their parents now live, forgetting that in most instances their parents started out quite simply and lived within their means. “Godliness with contentment is great gain” is important to remember at all times. It is not the style of our homes nor the model of the automobile that are the great criteria of how a Christian is getting on, but rather, Is there godliness and contentment?
Some of the happiest Christians are those who have little of this world’s goods, but who enjoy Christ and the things of God and go on in contentedness of spirit in temporal things. A striving for the things beyond one’s circumstances will help to produce leanness of soul on the one hand and the very opposite of happiness on the other. Remember that the love of money is the root of all evil; it is not a question of whether or not you have money.
Even from a purely natural standpoint, it is a happy experience when young married people find it pleasurable employment to labor together on fixing up an old house, or refinishing some furniture, or on any of the many things that go to make up a home. We have heard unsaved people remark that the surest way to make newly married young folks discontented is to give them everything they could wish, so that there is nothing left to work toward. “Godliness with contentment” would, however, make us content in whatever circumstances we are.
Going Into Debt
There is another matter that deserves a few remarks. One of the greatest snares for the dear young people is that of going into debt. It is so easily done and so often urged on them by high-pressured salesmanship that they may slip into it before they realize. In this way their income may be encumbered for years to come. Is not this boasting ourselves of tomorrow? We do not know what a day may bring forth, and to load ourselves with obligations which can only be met by sustained employment at a certain level of income is little short of boasting of the future. God has not promised a certain amount of money for each year to come, but He bountifully gives to us day by day.
Buying on the installment basis tends to inflate our standard of living and to raise it by borrowing against the future. We do well to remember that debt is a yoke, and often a heavy one, for “the borrower is servant to the lender” (Prov. 22:7).
Meeting Our Obligations
We must also consider that if we were incapacitated, and thus unable to meet our obligations, or if the Lord would come and take us home (this is a distinct probability at any time), the one whom we owe would be the loser. Would this be honorable? Would it comport with a proper Christian testimony? None could approve of a Christian’s defrauding a creditor. There is, however, in connection with the subject of our causing loss to another, something that might be said about the matter of secured loans, or mortgaged real estate. In such cases, the title to the property has been retained by the creditor, or else it is easily regained by him, and thus he would not suffer loss, but would simply repossess his property in which there is still the same value.
It is deplorable when Christians feel that they have to keep up with their neighbors or even with their brethren in Christ. Let us seek honestly to live within the means that the Lord has given us, going on therein with thanksgiving and contentment, “in all things willing to live honestly.”
P. Wilson
Righteousness and Liberality
If a new home is set up beyond the income of the breadwinner, then the Lord will not get His portion. And we would add that we should be righteous before we are liberal. If a Christian is behind on his payments of what he owes, then he should pay that before he gives to the Lord. It is not fitting to take what is owed to another and give it to the Lord. But then this question arises: How does it happen that I owe another? Some Christians buy beyond their ability to pay, borrow on the future, and are always in debt. Plainly they are living beyond their means. These have nothing to give to the work of the Lord nor to help the poor, because the Word of God has not been followed, and their house is in disorder.
P. Wilson
The Parable of the Unjust Steward
The unjust steward is a picture of man, who, when entrusted with the stewardship of his lord’s goods, has failed in every aspect of his responsibility. He wasted them and must lose his position as steward. But the goods are in his hands for the present, and the point of the parable is the present, prudent, if unscrupulous, use he makes of this his opportunity, in view of the future.
There were several debtors of his lord’s; he will reduce his master’s claim upon them, by half in one case, by a fifth in another, and so make friends of them for his own prospective advantage, when put out of the stewardship. “And the lord [not the Lord Jesus, but the lord of the steward in the parable] commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely [or rather ‘prudently,’ a word more suited to worldly wisdom], for the children of this world are in their generation wiser [more prudent] than the children of light.” In verse 9 we have the application of the parable: “And I say to you, Make to yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness, that when it fails ye may be received into the eternal tabernacles” (Luke 16:9 JND).
The Mammon of Unrighteousness
But why is it called “the mammon of unrighteousness”? Because all accumulation of property in one man’s hand, more than in another’s, belongs to man’s fallen state in this world, since sin entered into it — a condition of unrighteousness. But can “unrighteous mammon” be turned to profitable account by the Christian? It can; he can use it in view of eternity, even though it is “that which is least” (vs. 10) in the estimate of God. But how many have found the possession of wealth the most crucial test! Only by all the grace revealed in the previous chapter (Luke 15) can any of us know “how to abound” and be faithful in it. Possessions here tend to wind themselves around the heart, often giving man a false place among his fellows, ministering to his pride, and shutting out God. Hence (vs. 13) it is impossible to make both God and mammon the object of the heart —impossible to make the best of both worlds; either one or the other, but not both. Grace teaches us to sacrifice the one in view of the other, the present in full view of the eternal.
What Belongs to Another
“If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” (Luke 16:11-12). With regard to our possessions in this world, here is the moral bearing of the parable. They are not our own. They are “that which is another man’s” — the Master’s goods, which are in our hands before our stewardship is finally taken away. If looked upon as our own, we might be tempted to spend them upon ourselves or hoard them up. But if they are “another man’s,” we can afford to lavish them on every interest of His, in view of that scene where we shall receive our own things. All we have here is His, then, to be used in view of eternity; our own things lie there with Him, where we look to be received, when our earthly course is closed. It is only by such an estimate of money, to speak plainly, that we can be delivered from the influence of what governs the heart of man so powerfully.
The Grace of God Teaches Us
In saying this, we do not imply that in any way faithfulness here gives a title to be received there. This title is found only in grace that receives sinners. But the same grace produces a character suited to itself in the objects of that grace — that having been faithful in that which was another’s, we may receive our own things in His blessed presence forever. It is to be observed that, far from condoning the steward’s dishonesty, rather he is called “the unjust steward” (vs. 8), and that when verses 10-12 apply the instruction of the parable to the disciples, it is not prudence but faithfulness in the disposal of earthly things that the Lord commends.
The connection of the Lord’s teaching in these chapters (Luke 14-16) is very apparent, not only in the revelation of grace but also in unbelief. In Luke 14 the invitation of grace is refused, and this is exemplified in Luke 15 in the self-righteous elder son, who is able to pretend that he never “transgressed . . . at any time thy commandment.” In fact, he had reduced its righteous claims, like the unjust steward, in order to prosper in this world, as the rich man in the last parable in Luke 16, but only to find his end in a place of torment. It is the same character of proud unbelief that runs all through.
J. A. Trench, adapted
Stewards, Not Owners
It is the Lord’s order that, in whatever way He is pleased to make us His stewards, whether as to temporal or spiritual things, if we are indeed acting as stewards and not as owners, He will make us stewards over more. Even in this life, and as to temporal things, the Lord is pleased to repay those who act for Him as stewards and who contribute to His work as He may be pleased to prosper them. But how much greater is the spiritual blessing we receive, both in this life and in the world to come, if, constrained by the love of Christ, we act as God’s stewards, respecting that with which He is pleased to entrust us.
From Christian Truth
Earthly Riches
In the parable of the unjust steward in Luke 16, the effect of grace on conduct is presented, and the contrast that exists between the conduct that Christianity requires with regard to the things of the world and the position of the Jews in that respect. The doctrine thus embodied by the parable is confirmed by the parabolic history of the rich man and Lazarus, where the veil is lifted that hides the other world in which the result of men’s conduct is manifested. Man is the steward of God, that is, God has committed His goods to man. Israel stands especially in this position. But man has been unfaithful; Israel had indeed been so. God has taken away his stewardship, but man is still in possession of the goods to administer them, as Israel was at that moment. These goods are the things of earth, that which man can possess according to the flesh. Having lost his stewardship by his unfaithfulness and being still in possession of the goods, he uses them to make friends of his master’s debtors by doing them good. This is what Christians should do with earthly possessions, using them for others, having the future in view.
The steward might have appropriated for himself the money due to his master, but he preferred gaining friends with it; that is, he sacrifices the present for future advantage. We may turn the miserable riches of this world into means of fulfilling love. The spirit of grace which fills our hearts exercises itself with regard to temporal things, that we may use them for others. For us it is in view of the everlasting habitations.
Observe that earthly riches are not our own things; heavenly riches are for the true Christian. Earthly riches are unrighteous because they belong to fallen man, and not to the heavenly man.
The Coming World Unveiled
Now, when the veil is lifted from the other world, the truth is fully brought to light. And the contrast between the Jewish dispensation and the Christian is clearly unfolded, for Christianity reveals that world, and the Christian belongs to heaven.
Judaism, according to God’s government on earth, promised temporal blessing to the righteous, but all was in disorder; even the Messiah, the head of the system, was rejected. Israel, as set under responsibility to enjoy earthly blessing on the ground of obedience, had entirely failed. Man, in this world, could no longer on that footing be the means of bearing testimony to the ways of God in government. There will be a time of earthly judgment, but it had not yet come. Meanwhile, the possession of riches was anything but the proof of God’s favor. Personal selfishness and indifference to a brother in distress at his door were, instead, the characteristic of those with possessions among the Jews. Revelation opens the other world to our view. Man in this world is fallen; he is wicked. If he receives his good things here, he has the portion of sinful man and will be tormented at the end, while the other one whom he had despised will find happiness in the other world.
It is not a question here of what gives title to enter heaven, but of character and of the contrast between the principles of this world and the invisible world. The Jew made the choice of this world; he has lost this world and the other also. The poor man whom he had thought contemptible is found in Abraham’s bosom. The whole tenor of this parable is to show the connection regarding Israel’s hopes and the idea that riches were a proof of the favor of God.
The parable shows what the conduct of Christians should be with regard to things temporal. All flows from the grace which, in love on God’s part, accomplished the salvation of man and set aside the legal dispensation and its principles by bringing in the heavenly things.
J. N. Darby, adapted
Balaam
There is something peculiarly awful in the case of Balaam. He evidently loved money — no uncommon love in our own day. Balak’s gold and silver proved a very tempting bait to the wretched man — a bait too tempting to be resisted. Satan knew his man and the price at which he could be purchased.
His Heart Was Wrong
If Balaam’s heart had been right with God, he would have made very short work with Balak’s message; indeed, it would not have cost him a moment’s consideration to send a reply. But Balaam’s heart was all wrong, and we see him in the melancholy condition of one acted upon by conflicting feelings; his heart was bent upon going, because it was bent upon the silver and gold. But at the same time, there was a sort of reference to God — an appearance of religiousness put on as a cloak to cover his covetous practices. He longed for the money, but he would fain lay hold of it after a religiously respectful fashion. Miserable man! His name stands on the page of inspiration as the expression of one very dark and awful stage of man’s downward history. “Woe unto them,” says Jude, “for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.”
Peter, too, presents Balaam as a prominent figure in one of the very darkest pictures of fallen humanity—a model on which some of the vilest characters are formed. He speaks of those “having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls; a heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet” (2 Peter 2:14-16).
The Wages of Unrighteousness
These passages are solemnly conclusive as to the true character and spirit of Balaam. His heart was set upon money — he “loved the wages of unrighteousness,” and his history has been written by the pen of the Holy Spirit as a solemn warning to all to beware of covetousness, which is idolatry. We shall not dwell further upon the sad story. Pause for a few moments, and gaze upon the picture presented in Numbers 22 of the two prominent figures — the crafty king and the covetous, self-willed prophet. We doubt not that it will give a deepened sense of the evil of covetousness, the great moral danger of setting the heart’s affections upon this world’s riches, and the deep blessedness of having the fear of God before our eyes.
C. H. Mackintosh
The Collection at the Lord’s Table
In addition to worship and the sacrifice of praise at the Lord’s table, the monetary offering given at that time is also an important privilege and responsibility. We believe 1 Corinthians 16:2 is the divine authority for the collection on the first day of the week. The inspired Apostle had been dwelling upon the most sublime and precious truth at the close of chapter 15, and we may be sure he deemed it no interruption to communion to pen the words, “Now concerning the collection.” The Lord puts, as it were, His basket into our hands and enables us to contribute to His cause. It is the most suited opportunity we have, as an assembly, of so doing. Besides, it is morally comely — yea, it is simple righteousness — to contribute. How is the rent to be paid? How are all the expenses to be met? And then there are the Lord’s poor and the Lord’s work at home and abroad. How are these to be met? Is it not a holy privilege for all to have fellowship? And what more suited occasion than when we are seated at the table of our Lord, feasting, in holy communion, upon the rich provision of His love?
Some may think that the words, “Let every one of you lay by him in store,” go against the idea of a public collection. But why say, “On the first day of the week,” if it were merely a private matter? We believe that laying by in store sets forth the calm, deliberate, devoted nature of the offering. We should determine, before the Lord in secret, what we are able to give, and then in the public assembly deposit our offering in the Lord’s treasury, remembering that His eye is upon us. Let us not forget the words, “every one of you” and “as God hath prospered him.”
We come and avail ourselves of the room and its accommodation —the assembly and its privileges; then should we not consider how all these things are to be provided? And this is simply taking the very lowest possible view of the matter. Were we merely to view it as a question of common righteousness, we are morally bound to contribute, according to our means, to the expenses of the place where we meet and where we may enjoy some of the richest privileges that Christians can taste upon earth.
We have no right to suppose that one or a few wealthy members of the assembly will defray all the expenses. To act on such a supposition as this is to deny our individual responsibility and surrender a most precious privilege. When we consider that the box on the Lord’s table is His treasury, out of which He pays the rent of the room for His people to meet in and out of which He would meet the need of His poor and the demands of His work, we have the correct idea “concerning the collection.” No doubt, those who take it upon them to manage the Lord’s money need much grace and wisdom, and they should seek to act in full fellowship with grave and godly brethren in the distribution of the offerings of the assembly. These things being so, the collection at the Lord’s table is an orderly follow-up to the worship and communion at the Lord’s table and is evidence of a spiritual mind and largeness of heart.
Adapted from
Things New and Old, 19:27
Good Stewards of the Manifold Grace of God
In another article in this issue, the importance of careful stewardship of our material resources is emphasized. However, these are not the only things of which we have been made stewards. We are told in 1 Peter 4:10 that “as every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” In the same way Paul (and those associated with him) sought to be accounted “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1). The root word (translated “steward”) has the sense of a “house distributor” and is also used in connection with the unjust steward of Luke 16, as well as to describe a bishop or overseer — “the steward of God” (Titus 1:7). In another form, the word may also be translated “stewardship” or “dispensation,” and Paul uses the word several times in this way. “A dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me” (1 Cor. 9:17); “in the dispensation of the fullness of times” (Eph. 1:10); “according to the dispensation of God” (Col. 1:25). From these and other scriptures we see that God has given gifts to men and has also committed His truth to men, but as stewards who are expected to be faithful in the administration of what they have received.
Faithfulness
There are several things to be noticed in this stewardship. First of all, the Spirit of God uses the expression “every man” when these gifts are mentioned. It is not a question of largeness of gift, for there are “diversities of gifts,” but rather faith to use what has been committed to us. In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, the Lord was free to give a servant five, two, or one talent(s). Each was expected to trade with what he had received. So God does not hold us responsible for what has not been given to us, but rather expects us to use for Him whatever gift we have received.
Second, it is a serious thing when something is committed to us to use wisely and to distribute to others. Paul evidently felt this very keenly, as being the vessel to whom the truth of the church was specially communicated from a risen Christ in glory. He had the option of preaching the gospel willingly, but even if he did not, he realized the solemn fact that “a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me” (1 Cor. 9:17). While we have not received revelations in the same way as Paul did, yet the principle remains the same, and God looks to us to exercise our gift and minister the truth of God as we have received it.
When the man with the one talent hid it in the earth (Matt. 25:25) and the servant with the one pound simply kept it in a napkin (Luke 19:20), the Spirit of God describes both as “wicked servants.” If it was a serious thing for the steward in Luke 16 to waste his master’s goods, how much more so when eternal realities have been committed to us! The unjust steward in Luke 16 is, no doubt, a picture of Israel, who had been unfaithful as a testimony for God in the earth. As a result, the stewardship has been taken away from them and given to the church. The “natural branches” of testimony (pictured by the olive tree — Romans 11:17) have been broken off, and the Gentiles, as from a “wild olive tree,” have been grafted in. But has the church been any more faithful than Israel? No, for as a testimony, it too has failed. As a result, God will remove the church from this world when the Lord comes and bring Israel back into blessing again.
In the meanwhile, God has left us here, and until we are called home, our responsibility as stewards remains. If the church has failed collectively as a testimony, it is all the more reason for us to be faithful as individuals. As Christ was a faithful witness when Israel had failed and all was against Him, so should we be.
Our Twofold Ministry
The ministry committed to us is twofold. Paul could tell Timothy that “our Saviour God . . . desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4 JND). First of all, then, it is a great privilege, and also a solemn responsibility, for every believer to preach the gospel. It may not be in a public way nor even audibly at all times. Rather, we should seek to live Christ and to “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). In the uncertain and stressful world of today, men’s hearts are indeed “failing them for fear” when they contemplate the future. What a privilege to be able to give hope beyond this world and to speak to them of Christ and His salvation!
But more than this, God has now revealed to us His purposes in Christ — purposes that were hidden in God from before the foundation of the world. “All the counsel of God” has now been given to us, connected with His purposes concerning His Son. Thus, when Paul preached the gospel, He began, not with man’s need, but rather with God’s purposes in Christ. When Paul spoke of “my gospel,” he was referring to much more than simply salvation from the penalty of our sins. When an individual receives the gospel today, he learns that he is not only saved from judgment, but part of the church, that jewel of God’s purposes that has a heavenly calling. The truth connected with all this is infinitely precious to God and to Christ, and it has been given to us, not to hoard, but to disseminate. If we have been given a greater understanding of the truth than others, we can use it in two ways. Either we can use it to accredit and distinguish ourselves, or we can seek to act as stewards, using it for the blessing of the whole body of Christ.
The Natural and the Spiritual
Spiritual stewardship is unique. In natural things, if we give them to others, then we lose them ourselves. If we give money or material things away, we are normally poorer in consequence. But we know that God is no man’s debtor. If we give for His glory what has been committed to us as stewards — what is really “another man’s” — will God not make it up to us? Indeed He will! When the Philippians, who were poor, gave something to Paul, he could assure them that “my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). When he exhorted the Corinthians to give liberally, he also told them that God would “minister bread for your food” and that they would have “all sufficiency in all things” (2 Cor. 9:8,10).
In spiritual things, the wonderful reality is that even though we share all that we have with others, we do not lose it ourselves. Rather, in the distributing of it as faithful stewards, our enjoyment of it is enhanced, and our hearts are refreshed by the privilege of giving it to others. In one sense, as we have seen, we are stewards of spiritual things, but in another sense, God calls those things “your own” (Luke 16:12). What we have as material things we must leave behind when we leave this world, but what we have as spiritual riches will be ours for all eternity. We do not have much longer to act as stewards, and for this reason, let us remember that “it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Cor. 4:2).
W. J. Prost
Faithfulness With Riches
Perhaps in nothing are the children of God so commonly unfaithful as in the stewardship of money — too much spent on luxuries and too little dispersed abroad, and even that not always wisely. When shall we learn to neither spend nor give without seeking the guidance of God? In 1 Timothy 6:9-11 the Apostle warns saints who are not rich, but who aspire to be, that there are dangers ahead. Men in the world who pursue such a course frequently “drown [themselves] in destruction and perdition,” and money-loving saints “pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” In verses 17-19 the Apostle charges those who are already rich not to “trust in uncertain riches, but in a God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy” and to be ready “with open hand for every good work.” There is nothing wrong in possessing wealth (mark the word “enjoy”) if the wealth comes to us honorably, but when we consider that He to whom we owe our eternal all had not where to lay His head and when we also remember that He is still “despised and rejected of men,” to be holders of large sums of money puts us in a position of grave responsibility. In this discharge we need daily and hourly grace. We can “make to ourselves friends [by] the mammon of unrighteousness,” if our hearts so dispose us, or we may make enemies by the same means. Those who are generous and kind are beloved, but those who are selfish and haughty by reason of their wealth are disliked. Oh, that it may be said of us, as of Josiah’s workmen, “They dealt faithfully!”
E. Dennett