"What do you have that you did not receive?"
1 Corinthians 4:7
JUST LOOKING AFTER IT
Read It: Luke 16:1-2
One reason I know you'll enjoy these devotional studies on stewardship is that we'll be looking at some of the most intriguing passages in the New Testament. When the Lord Jesus Christ is your Teacher, you know you're in for something good. That's the case with the parable of the unjust steward. Since we haven't defined our terms yet, let's do that. A steward is a manager of someone else's property and business affairs. A stewardship is the realm of responsibility given to the steward. Stewards in New Testament times often had a great deal of responsibility. A wealthy person might turn his affairs over completely to a trusted steward. That's the case in Jesus' story. The issue of ownership is a key point in understanding biblical stewardship. The steward did not own the property he managed. Therefore, he needed to handle things with an eye to pleasing his boss, the owner. That rubs against our grain right away. We Westerners are taught to say, "My time is my own. My abilities and gifts are mine to use in the advancement of my career, because I'm the one who worked hard to develop them.
And all this stuff here, this is my stuff, bought and paid for. My life is mine." Is that what the Bible says? The correct answer to the question Paul poses in today's verse is, "Nothing." If you look at the verse you see that Paul follows with another question. If everything we have, even the next breath we draw, is a gift, what right do we have to brag about anything? So here in Luke 16 we see the basic elements of New Testament stewardship. It involves two parties, the owner and the steward. The second element is a specific responsibility. We can assume that the steward in Jesus' story was to manage his property well, which meant paying the bills, seeing that the work got done, and making the owner a profit. The third element of stewardship, as suggested above, is accountability. A steward had to be ready to answer to the owner. If Jesus called for an accounting from you today, how would you fare? Think About It A good steward never forgets that it's not his money or his property he's foolin' with. It belongs to another.
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