Luke 16:1-13

CHAPTER 13

THE UNJUST STEWARD

Luke 16:1-13. “ And He continued to speak to His disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and he was falsely accused to him as wasting his goods.”

a. The word here dieblethe, “accused,” E. V., is the strongest word in the Greek language for false accusation. Yet he could not help himself, but was forced to face his landlord, and abide his destiny as if he had been ever so guilty.

b. “ And calling him, he said to him, What is this I hear concerning you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you are not able to be steward any longer.” We should all profit by this incident, considering the fact that we are God's stewards, every one of us, and liable every minute to be called into His presence to give an account of our stewardship as when we pass out of this world we can be stewards no more.

c. “ The steward said within himself, What shall I do? because my lord taketh my stewardship away from me. I am unable to dig; I am ashamed to beg.” The truth of it is, the man had held the office so long, and thus accustomed to mental labor only, that he had lost his ability, hardihood, and aptitude to rough work and hard manual toil, so that he was actually unable to make a living if put out of his office; while, of course, he was ashamed to turn beggar. It seems that the man had used all of his salary as fast as it came due, so that he had actually accumulated nothing, and would consequently be utterly destitute of a living if turned out of his office.

d. “ I know what I shall do, in order that when I may be removed from my stewardship they may receive me into their houses.” He now proposes to do something in order to make favor with the people, so they will show him kindness, and extend him their hospitality, after he is thrown out of office. “ Calling each one of the debtors of his lord, he spoke to the first, How much do you owe my lord? And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, Take thy accounts, and sitting down, quickly write fifty.”

Of course this was a private transaction in his office, known only to himself and the recipient. “ And then he said to another, How much do you owe? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. He says to him, Take out thy accounts, and write eighty.” So the steward doubtless went through the entire curriculum of indebtedness to his lord, meeting each debtor privately, and confidentially making these liberal donations to each one, thus bringing them under great financial obligation, so they would be ready in any emergency to reciprocate the favor. Consequently the steward would have so many people thus brought under obligations to him, that when thrown out of employment and tramping round, he would have plenty of homes and friends, and find an abundance of kind hospitality among the people to whom he had made these liberal donations.

e. “And the lord praised the unjust steward, because he acted shrewdly.” Of course, the landlord in a case of that kind would find out this extensive depletion of the accounts; but as the business was all in the hands of this steward, who was his legal and responsible agent, and authorized to sign his name to the papers, he could neither disentangle the matter nor have recourse so as to rectify the mutilations. Consequently while he could not help himself, seeing through the problem involved, and recognizing the fact that this man had brought quite a lot of his customers under lasting financial obligations to him, he said to the people, “He is a sharp, shrewd fellow, thus ingeniously managing to subserve his own interest when forced to resign his office.” Now you see this landlord emblematizes God. N.B.

He did not praise the man for his rascality, but for his shrewdness, which is an exceedingly commendable trait. We must not apply our Savior's metaphors indefinitely, as the illustration is generally confined to some isolated salient fact. Much confusion in Biblical interpretation arises from the misapplication of the tropes and figures used by the Holy Ghost to bring Divine truth within our comprehension. “ Because the sons of this age are wiser in their generation than the sons of light.” The meaning of this is very plain. People, as a rule, provide much better for this life than that which is to come. O how difficult it is to get Christians so filled and dominated by the Holy Spirit as to subordinate time to eternity, earth to heaven, and the people to God! O how few are actually living for heaven, with an eye single to the glory of God! When the things of this world are so fleeting and transitory, how strange that even Christians do not more faithfully obey the Savior's commandment: “ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust do corrupt, and thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, nor thieves break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also!”

f. “ I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, in order that when it may fail you, they may receive you into eternal habitations.” The “mammon of unrighteousness” is money, the “unrighteousness” signifying the fraudulent manner in which it is so frequently obtained, the word here being inserted in continuation of the preceding narrative, where the steward acted fraudulently, and yet very wisely, his lord commending his wisdom, but not his fraud. Now the answer to the above question simply involves the solution of the problem by which we can all make money our friend. We frankly admit that money is a wonderful power. Why does England, a small island in the Atlantic Ocean, girdle the world with her commerce, overawe the time-honored nations with her gunboats, and constrain all the powers of earth to recognize her as “Mistress of the Seas?” The principal reason is because she has been piling up gold in the Bank of England a thousand years. Hence her money-power solves the problem. When mammon gets you by the throat, she is almost certain to drag you into hell. There is a way by which you can make money your friend, instead of permitting it to be your enemy. What is that way? It is none other than entire sanctification. The truly sanctified man has made money his friend, ready to go at his bidding and come at his beck, so that he rules it, sending it on missions of love and mercy, to shine the light of truth and holiness into the dark hovels of poverty, sin, and misery; causing prisoners to rejoice, and hell-dens to be transformed into heavenly vestibules, and missionaries to cross the great oceans and light the antipodean continents with the glory of God; and bring heaven down to bless the sable children of Ham as they tread the burning sands of the Dark Continent; cause the wild sons of Esau to rejoice in the glorious benedictions of Abraham's God, the red men of the Orient to turn away from their dumb idols and glorify the God of Israel, and the almond-eyed Chinaman and the wild Tartar hordes to hail with joy the glorious coming King, turn evangelists, and roll the celestial fire from arctic mountains to equatorial seas. Now we are well assured that we will all soon fail in this world, when we must go into eternity. This man, through the instrumentality of money, brought many people under obligation to him, so that when turned out of his stewardship, to abide his destiny a penniless tramp, he had so many people thus indebted to him that he actually found it more comfortable tramping than performing the duties of his office, as doors were thrown open on all sides, and a hearty welcome extended from many homes to come and abide with them indefinitely, without money and without price. When we die, we all surrender up our stewardship. Now, do you not know that many poor widows, beggars, invalids, and especially the heathens, who have been saved by your money, whose names you have never heard, will get to heaven, in all probability, before you are called to give up your stewardship? Do you not know that all the saints have guardian angels, whether in America, Africa, Asia, or the islands of the sea? Thee guardian angels are posted about our relations either to other. Now the end has come, and it is said, “You can be steward no longer;” i.e., “You die today.” Do you not know that the guardian angels around your dying bed will wing their flight to heaven, and there notify the beneficiaries of your philanthropy that you are coming? Do you not know that they will ring the bells of heaven, blow the jubilee trumpets, come sweeping out through the gate in shining platoons, calling your name, with a long, loud “Welcome home!” thus actually verifying this promise of Jesus to receive you into eternal habitations?

g. “He who is faithful in little is faithful in much; and he who is unjust in little is unjust in much.” So if you are faithful, industrious, frugal, and economical in the little things of temporal life, it is demonstrative proof, as a rule, that you are faithful in the great things of God and heaven. This is an awful argument against laziness and carelessness appertaining to temporal things. As a rule, indifference, indolence, and neglect of house, farm, books, education, and all phases of temporal interest, are indices of a corresponding indifference and depreciation in the great things of the kingdom. Hence it is exceedingly difficult for a lazy person to be a Christian. “ If therefore you are not faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will intrust to you the true? There is a woeful blindness among Christians, and even holiness people, on this very subject of industry, economy, and frugality. So many would like to go to the Holy Land, but stagger when those who have been there testify that it is impossible to make the trip on less than one thousand dollars, while it is unsafe to start with less than twice that amount. All that is true, if you sail first-class and eat at tables. I very recently traveled through England, France, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Syria, and the Holy Land, seventeen thousand miles, on four hundred dollars, sailing second class, and when on land buying my own edibles, and thus boarding myself, living elegantly everywhere I went, in Europe, Asia, Africa, as well as America, on fifteen cents a day, and always having money to give the poor beggars and help the missionaries in all of my travels, which is no small matter in the Old World. Well has the poet said,

“Man wants but little here below, Nor wants that little long.”

It takes so little to live on in this world that any person who has the use of bodily organs can not only make a living, but have much more to contribute for the glory of God in the amelioration of soul and body than the small pittance requisite to his fleeting life. A girl in New England, only twelve years old, made and sold maple-sugar and built stone fence to the amount of ninety dollars, every cent of which she gave the missionary cause, as she lived with her parents and did not need the money. “If you are unfaithful in another's business, who will commit to you your own?” This life is so complicated “that no man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself,”

our affairs being so identified with the interest of others that, either directly or indirectly, we are working for one another. Not so in spiritual things. Every tub stands on its own bottom. You can go to heaven if all your neighbors go down to hell, et vice versa. So if you are not faithful, true, reliable, industrious, economical, and frugal in temporal things, can you expect God to entrust to you the priceless investment of glory and immortality? The presumption is, you would fail.

h. “No servant is able to serve two masters; for he will hate the one and love the other, or he will cleave to the one and despise the other, You are not able to serve God and mammon.” You see from our Savior's conclusion of this notoriously mysterious parable (as generally considered), while temporal things are indices of spiritual, and as a rule both are appreciated or neglected together, yet we must not forget that making the best we can of all temporal things, as God's faithful stewards we are to subordinate them indiscriminately to the glory of God. If we permit a competition to rise between the things of this world, here emblematized by mammon, and the things of God, His claims upon us, our duties and responsibilities, we will end in wreckage. God made the material world, and gave us these mortal bodies, vehicles of probation, and requires us to appreciate, appropriate, and utilize the elements of earth, air, and water for His glory; meanwhile all temporal labors, enterprises, and achievements are to be subordinated to the will of God, and utilized with an eye single to His glory in the amelioration of humanity and the salvation o? the world. John Wesley's maxim is here exceedingly appropriate: “Make all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.” You see, the final evolution of this mysterious parable culminates in that full and perfect sanctification which alone can make mammon your friend, submissive to your mandamus, meekly wheeling into line, and becoming your most potent ally in the salvation of the world. If your life does not thus culminate in complete and perfect victory over money and all temporal things, so that you can ungrudgingly and joyfully subordinate them to the sweet will of God in every respect, you still leave a handle for Satan to take hold of, divert you from the narrow way, and drag you down to endless woe.