Is it important to remain faithful while we wait for Jesus to return? This devotion looks at how the steward is faithful and unfaithful and the consequences incurred.
Nuggets
- Since God has given us important jobs to accomplish, we need to do our part to see them come to fulfillment.
- We have to watch that we don’t get discouraged when Jesus doesn’t come when we think He should.
- If we know God’s will and don’t do it, we earn the punishment we get.
Faithful and Unfaithful Stewards
A Steward Gone Bad
In the previous devotion, we started looking at being prepared for Jesus to come as a thief in the night. This devotion looks at how we remain faithful or unfaithful as we wait.
Let's Put It into Context
According to the Holman Bible Dictionary, stewardship is “utilizing and managing all resources God provides for the glory of God and the betterment of His creation.”
Resource
A steward is a person in a subordinate position to God who has been given the responsibility to manage resources for the purpose of expanding His kingdom.
Who Is a Faithful Steward?
“Peter said, ‘Lord, are You addressing this parable to us, or to everyone else as well?’ And the Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions’” (Lk. 12: 41-44 NASB)
You have to love Peter. He may not have been the sharpest saw in the tool shed, but He loved his Lord.
Peter wanted to make sure he understood everything Jesus was trying to tell Him. He wasn’t afraid to ask the questions that needed to be asked. He knew Jesus didn’t think there was a dumb question.
God does not mind us asking questions — even the big why question. Just look at Psalm 74. “Why have you rejected us forever, God? Why does your anger burn against the sheep of your pasture?” (Ps. 74: 1 CSB). David is asking a really big why.
David was a man after God’s own heart, so God knew David wasn’t asking Him, “You said You would never leave me, and here You are gone. So, why did You break Your Word?”
God knew David was saying, “It feels right now that You have rejected us forever, but You said You would never do that. It has to be something we did. Tell us what we did, so we can confess our sins to You.”
God lets us ask — when we ask in faith and submission. It is when we as in anger or disbelief that God does not like us questioning Him.
Because Peter was asking for clarification, Jesus answered him. But He switched terminology.
Look back at verses 37 and 38. “Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves” (Lk. 12: 37-38 NASB). The King James Version called them servants.
Here, Luke used the word we are looking at in this series — steward. “And the Lord said, ‘Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time?’ (Lk. 12: 42 NASB).
Remember, we said that a steward is a person in a subordinate position to God who has been given the responsibility to manage resources for the purpose of expanding His kingdom. Part of those resources could be human resources.
Aren’t we, as disciples, called to manage human resources? We are called to proclaim the gospel and make disciples. That means dealing with people.
Since God has given us important jobs to accomplish, we need to do our part to see them come to fulfillment. Parsons gave us a list.
- We must determine what jobs God has given to us.
- We must faithfully execute those jobs out of a sincere desire to do them.
- We must do what we are asked to do.
- We must consider the cost of doing God’s work.
I think the reason why slave was used was to contrast it with the master. If we have not ABCDed and given our lives to the Master, we are a slave to sin. “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin” (Rom. 7: 25 NIV).
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Even if a steward is a class above a slave, the steward is still subordinate to God. God is Master of both.
The important thing is that the steward and the slave be found to be doing what God has for him or her to do. Blessed are the obedient.
Who Is an Unfaithful Steward?
“But if that slave says in his heart, ‘My master will be a long time in coming,’ and begins to beat the slaves, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more” (Lk. 12: 45-48 NASB)
Ooo, baby. Then things went wrong.
I don’t know if the servant gets tired of waiting. Maybe the servant starts getting an elevated ego.
The end game is still the same. There is violence and drunkenness.
We have to watch that we don’t get discouraged when Jesus doesn’t come when we think He should. Our charge was to watch until He came.
Worse yet, we should not devolve into sin because Jesus has not come. We should not consciously sin.
Oh, yes. We are still in this physical, sinful body, so we will continue to sin. It should not be our choice to do so. We should choose God.
There will be consequences for those who consciously sin against God. “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few …” (Lk. 12: 47-48 NASB).
Yes, disciples who are not found waiting will receive more of a punishment than non-believers who are not found waiting. Why?
Let’s try to process this a second. We’ve said before that the end of the world is not going to happen until everyone has had a chance to make a choice to ABCD or not. “When the good news about the kingdom has been preached all over the world and told to all nations, the end will come” (Mt. 24: 14 CSB).
If they will have heard, how can they be ignorant?
Tillotson tried to explain it. He wrote, “There is an ignorance which doth wholly excuse and clear from all manner of guilt, and that is an absolute and invincible ignorance, when a person is wholly ignorant of the thing, which, if he knew, he should be bound to do, but neither can nor could have helped it, that he is ignorant of it; that is, he either had not the capacity, or wanted the means and opportunity, of knowing it. In this case a person is in no fault, if he did not do what he never knew, nor could know to be his duty.”
I said tried.
What I got out of that is this.
- If someone is totally, totally ignorant of something, they get a pass.
- There was something beyond his control preventing him from obedience.
- There is a mental deficiency so he does not have the capacity to be obedient.
- He does not have the necessitates and occasions of knowing it.
What I think this is getting at is not salvation. Salvation is deliverance from evil and the consequences of sins to replace them with eternal life and good.
Look back at Luke 12: 37. “Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them” (Lk. 12: 37 NASB). These are slaves that had ABCDed.
I read this to say that those who have experienced conversion but then turn their backs on God will be judged harsher than those who have never experienced conversion in the first place.
It may mean non-believers choosing not to follow God. But they would already be receiving the consequences of their choice — eternity in hell. They did not “[know] his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will …” (Lk. 12: 47 NASB).
The only other thing I can think about what this is talking about is that God hasn’t had a chance to reveal it yet. We’ve said before that God only totally reveals Himself to His children. He does this over time, as we can learn and accept things.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Glossary
God isn’t going to hold it against us if He hasn’t revealed it to us yet.
Bottom line for me is that the servant knew God’s will and didn’t do it. They earned the punishment they will get.
If we know God’s will and don’t do it, we earn the punishment we get.
The worldview people have a problem with this. This flies right in the face of their ability to make their own choices.
Oh, God lets them make their own choice. They are just going to suffer the consequences for making wrong choices. As we are all God’s creation, we will all be judged.
It is all about being held accountable for our choices and actions. God can — and will — hold us accountable. We are responsible for the gifts God has given us.
Making the Connections
However long Jesus takes in returning should have no bearing on our obedience. We need to remain obedient always.
I love how Cox described the faithful servants being obedient. He wrote, “But, however long he delayed his coming, they kept a keen look-out for him. When night fell, instead of barring up the house and retiring to rest, they girt up their long outer robes, that they might be ready to run out at any instant to greet him; they kindled their lamps, that they might run safely, as well as swiftly, on his errands. They even prepared a table for him; for, though he was coming from a feast, he may have had to ride far and long, and, in any case, a little fruit and a cup of pure water or of generous wine might be very acceptable to him.”
They did everything like he was already there. We have to operate like Jesus will be returning right now — if not He is here already.
That mindset should impact how we use the gifts God has given us. It should direct our lives.
Making the Connections to Self-Discipline
If we are looking at stewardship as a ministry, we can see where we need self-discipline. We will undoubtedly need practice in using and managing this ministry. This is especially true since it will involve interacting with others.
We’ve been looking at defending our beliefs when we are witnessing. That means we have to be secure enough to convince someone to accept our beliefs.
Our questions should still serve us to determine on what we need to focus.
- What does the Scriptures say?
- What do I believe?
- Why do I believe the same/differently than the Scriptures?
- What are the talking points when witnessing to a non-believer?
Related Links
I have created a worksheet of the questions above. Click on the button below to access it.
How Do We Apply This?
The Preachers’ Analyst reminded us — once again — the expectations God has for stewards.
- Faithful
- Repentant
- Working to advance the kingdom
- Working through personal sanctification
- Doing all through love
Gray said we do that through prayer, being consistent, and being patient.
Oh, yes. This is important. Look what Cox had to say.
“It comes at least to this: that, somewhere in the future, there is to be a better world than this — a world more wisely and happily ordered, a world in which all that is now wrong will be righted, a world of perfect beauty and growing righteousness”
Because — ready or not — Jesus is coming again. Not everyone will be invited into that new world.
Will you? Are you ready?
Father. Thank You for choosing us. We choose You to be our Lord and Savior. Help us to be faithful. Amen.
What do you think?
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