“The Case for Christ: - Luke 16:10-13: Stewards of K/G”

We are in Luke 16, where Jesus told His disciples about the unjust steward. 

He addressed the danger of accepting other values as being the ultimate of this life.

And He made a contrast of values in the attitude toward worldly goods. We saw some of the contrasts in verses eight and nine.  

He compared the dishonesty of the steward that represented the children of this world to the righteousness of the children of light.

The steward’s ways gives a picture of the natural man.

It shows how the natural man reacts toward worldly gain to reveal what is in the heart. 

And this, of course, is the main concern of Jesus. His kingdom encompasses only a righteousness of man’s heart that exceeds even ‘the righteousness of the Pharisees’, Jesus said in Mt 5:20.

It is that surpassing righteousness that makes the kingdom of God supreme in the stewardship of the believer’s life.

The righteous of the kingdom respond to it by aligning themselves according to it.

For this reason, as we saw last week, the righteous see worldly gain as opportunities of Christ continuing His work upon the earth and identifying Himself with men.

For, He will say to His stewards at His second coming, ‘...since you have done [these things] to the least of these - My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’ (Mt 25:40) 

These stewards ‘pressed’ into His kingdom. They showed their agreement and likemindedness with Christ by how their earthly goods and gains were used.

Those who did not have the heart and regard for the Gospel of the Kingdom of God remained indifferent and in so doing, rejected His lordship.

Jesus went on to explain this in more details in the verses that follow in Luke 16 which we will look at tonight.

Follow along in your Bibles, if you wish: Luke 16:10-13.  

We start with verse 10. There, Jesus continued on by saying: ‘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.’

Generally, the verse is interpreted in this way: If a person can be trusted in handling matters that are small, he can also be trusted with the more important matters.

If he cannot be depended upon in connection with the small, it would be unwise to trust him in the weightier things.

That is generally how the verse is interpreted. Of course, it is true, when we consider it according to the rule of ‘cause and effect’.

This is the rule we use in teaching our children character. We progress from the simple to the more complex.

If they learn to handle a nickel well, then, eventually, they
will learn how to handle a dollar bill well. At least, we hope for that kind of learning.  

However, Jesus did say, as the Greek Interlinear reads: ‘The man faithful in least also in much faithful is, and the man in least unrighteous also in much unrighteous is.’

Notice the tense to signify the state of already being so: ‘...in much faithful is’!

Another translation reads: ‘He who is trustworthy in a very small matter is also trustworthy in an important one; and he who is untrustworthy in a very small matter is also untrustworthy in an important one.’

Thus, in line with his thrust into ‘true riches’, coming up in verse 11, it is also interpreted as the man who is faithful in ‘much’ is the one who has ‘true’ riches’.

And the ‘true riches’, of course, are the true, spiritual riches of the kingdom of God’. 

It is the one who has the right relationship with God - who is faithful in his relationship with Christ and the Gospel of His kingdom - who has the ‘much’.

And because it is the ‘much’ that governs his heart, he will ‘naturally’ be faithful in the little.

In other words, his attitude toward the ‘little’ has been aligned to what is already his in the ‘much’. 

As far as his worldly goods and gain go, then, what he does with them is simply an outflow of ‘the much’.

He has no second thoughts nor convenient excuses about what he will or will not do with the ‘little’. What is his in the ‘much’ even now determines what he does with the ‘little’!  

Jesus already spoke of this in His sermon on the Mt. 

What did He say there?

Did He not say: ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you’?

In other words, the ethical manifesto of ‘pressing’ into His kingdom is first, gaining a right view of life and of relative values in being faithful in the things of God. 

And, then, faithfulness in the little things falls into proper perspective.

A believer who is careless about little things is a man who is not faithful in what is spiritually termed as ‘much’.

The eternal things of his life are not under a solid commitment to the Kingdom of God.

But he whose spirit, mind, and body, whose whole personality is poised towards the eternities, does not trifle with the temporary or the ‘little’.

He will be laying up treasures in heaven in the right use of the ‘little’.

He will be discharging his obligations to spiritual matters appropriately.

So - Jesus is teaching that everything depends on the quality of the person’s invisible being, on the righteousness imparted to the heart, first.

In the stewardship of our lives, that is something we all must be aware of and think about.  

If Christ dwells within, then the righteousness He has imparted to the heart will become our ‘natural’ attitude of life. 

Out of the abundance of the good treasure of the heart comes forth that which is good. (Lu 6:45)

Jesus went on in verses 11 and 12 of Luke 16, and here, now, is the ‘cause and effect’ rule.

‘So, if you have been untrustworthy in (the use of) the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been trustworthy with respect to someone else’s property, who will give you what is your own?’

‘True riches’ cannot be committed to the untrustworthy. 

Neither will the untrustworthy receive anything of the true riches as a personal possession.

Would you trust your business affairs to someone you knew was untrustworthy?

Of course not!

And neither does our Lord entrust us with His ‘spiritual affairs’ if we are unfaithful and not fully committed to Him!

The windows of heaven open only to those walking in His kingdom with faithfulness to it and to Him! (James 1:6-7)  

The message, then, is this: the untrustworthy cannot be trusted with the eternal verities of God’s kingdom.

Jesus is telling His disciples that they must regard themselves as good stewards of the ‘true riches’ of His kingdom, as stewards of the mysteries of God’, as Paul said it in 1 Cor 4:1. 

Their stewardship is a responsibility that calls for unwavering faithfulness. 

It requires the responsibility of holding His truths in trust under God.  

Yes - as the things of the world vie for supremacy in our lives, it is so easy to bypass the supremacy of Christ in the  stewardship of His kingdom!

Yes - it is easy to fling off the ‘little’ and then deceive ourselves into thinking we are still entitled to the ‘much’. 

Do we find that to be so about ourselves?

It is no wonder Jesus is making such a point of this to His disciples in this dawning of His kingdom! 

In the Old Testament, it was Nabal, who said, ‘Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it...’?’ (1 Sam 25:11).

David had been so kind in providing protection for Nabal’s servants when they came to David. But Nabal forgot about the trust David showed him and when asked to help David out, he acted selfishly and foolishly about his store of goods. 

So did the rich man in Lu 12:16-21. The summary given of him in verse 21 says he: ‘...stored up things for himself but is not rich toward God.’

The manager of our present parable was just as foolish.

To be sure, they wisely all had eyes for the future, but it was only for earthly future. That was the tragic part.

Lest there be a misunderstanding, let me digress at this point to say this: Jesus is not teaching us to neglect our earthly responsibilities in lieu of heavenly things. 

Back in Luke 14:30-33, He carefully spelled out the cost of gaining true riches by using the illustration of a man who intends to build a tower.

The man does not go headlong into building without first calculating the cost to see if his funds are sufficient to follow through.

Nor does a king go to war without first considering his own military strength.

Paul preached the importance of forethought about the preparations of earthly matters in 1 Tim 5:8.

He said there: ‘If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.’  

So these are responsibilities that are carefully weighed and considered by every responsible believer.

But the underlying rule is as Paul said it in this way in 2 Cor 4:18: ‘We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is not seen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is not seen is everlasting.’

Jesus was teaching this in His parable. He was showing how significant and weighty a principle it is to first consider the supreme value of the kingdom of God.

And how important it is to see the greatness of service to it in the practical relations of life.

To go right along with this is what follows in verse 13 of Luke 16: ‘No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and look down on the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’

Jesus is repeating what He said in the Sermon on the Mt in (Mt 6:24). 

There, too, He spoke of making heavenly investments, ‘...where neither moth nor rust corrupt, nor thieves break through nor steal.’ (Mt 6:20) 

It means simply that it is psychologically impossible for anyone to give his wholehearted devotion to two masters, ‘...for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’

The object of our devotion is either God or mammon. It cannot be both.

Do you know that there is so much psychological tension that is built up in Christians today?

Why?

It is because we try to serve two masters!

We imagine that we are able to love and serve both masters and it is not long before we get so caustic and overbearing and so obnoxious in attitude, word, and deed that, eventually, the tension builds up and we find our psychological makeup out of order, in disarray! 

The master that had been on top won out without our even realizing who we were actually serving! 

And we begin to hate the other, even to the point of being willing to betray him. 

Judas Iscariot is our best Scriptural example of that.

Was it not his own self-interest agitating him for ‘unrighteous mammon’ that caused him to deliver Christ into the hands of the enemy? 

Paul, too, was a psychologically agitated soul whose religious zeal almost sent him over the edge in his persecution rage.

However, he was stopped short and came to the point of ‘nothingness’ and ‘loss’ when he finally endorsed Christ through and through.

Only then, did he recognize the gain of true riches in Christ.

Only then, did the psychological tension that had built up in him come to an end! 

Yes - Jesus made it as ‘plain as day’! 

Both the ‘little’ and the ‘much’ are masters.

We believers are stewards of the ‘true riches’, the ‘much’ of His kingdom.

Its core is that imparted righteousness that sets the Kingdom of God supreme in us.

To it we are called to be faithful. And - that is what makes us faithful in the ‘little’.

The question is boiled down to this: To which master, then,  are we committed?

We cannot serve two masters. It is either one or the other. Period!

Christ will test us in the coming days on this, if He has not already, to show us where our loyalty and commitment really lies. 

Each day challenges come!

More than likely, the week will give us opportunities to show us where our allegiance really is.

We may be asked to simply give a thirsty seeker of His kingdom a cup of cool water.

Or it may bring the chance to write an encouraging note or brighten a child’s day with a story.

Or it may bring us the opportunities to give kind, calming, and encouraging words to our spouses, our children, our siblings. 

Or it may be to visit and comfort the sick, or give clothing to the needy, or something as mundane as feeding the neighbor’s cat.

Whatever we are called to do, we will be challenged to once again rethink our faithfulness to Christ in light of our stewardship in His Kingdom.

I pray we all will seriously consider our loyalty to the indwelling Christ and, by the power of the Holy Spirit and through His leading, be guided into the truth of it in attitude, word, and deed this week!

And I pray these thoughts shared this evening will find room in our meditation before the Lord many times this week.

I will close for tonight.

Next week, Lord willing we will consider ‘faithfulness’ in personal stewardship, as well as in the Church. I hope you will remember to pray about this together with your families and others of the fellowship.

The Lord bless you richly.   

Amen.