Preparing for the Future
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Key Verse: “No servant 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.” Selected Scripture: |
THIS PARABLE OF the unjust steward was spoken by Jesus as a rebuke to the spirit of the Pharisees, who bound heavy burdens upon others, but shirked them themselves, while pretending hearty obedience to the law.
In days of old, more than now, it was the custom for rich men to appoint stewards. Such a steward had absolute control of his master’s goods as the master himself; he had what is known today as the power of attorney. Some stewards were faithful, others extravagant. The one mentioned in our Lord’s parable was extravagant, unsatisfactory. His master decided to dispense with the steward’s services, and asked him to render up his accounts. (Luke 16:2) On his books were the accounts of certain debtors who apparently had no chance of being able to meet their obligations. The steward concluded that if he reduced the amount of these debts, the debtors probably could make payment before he turned over his office to his successor.
One owing a hundred measures of oil was told that he might decrease the debt to fifty. Another owing a hundred measures of wheat (500 to 1400 bushels) was told that he might scale it down twenty percent. (vs. 7) So he went down the list. Such a use of his authority made him friends amongst those whom he had favored; and his lord complimented him upon the wisdom he had displayed.—vs. 8
Applying this parable, Jesus proportionately condemned the Pharisees for taking an opposite course. They bound heavy burdens upon the people and discouraged them. All this on their part was hypocrisy; for they could not help knowing that they themselves were unable to comply with the requirements of the Law, which is the full measure of a perfect man’s ability. Their proper attitude would have been to confess their own shortcomings, to strive to do their best, to appeal to God for mercy and to teach the common people to do the same.
With the followers of Jesus, all our things of the present time belong to God, because we have consecrated them to him. All things of the future life, however, will belong to us because God has promised them to us if we are faithful stewards today, in handling all these things we have devoted to God. Now comes a period of trial and testing.
Jesus, in our key verse, tells us we cannot serve both God and mammon (riches, treasure). He said, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. … And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own? No servant 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.”—Luke 16:10-13