FEBRUARY 5TH
THE WRITE-OFF OF THE UNJUST STEWARD (Continued)
Reading: Luke Chapter 16:1-17
16:1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.
16:2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.
16:3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.
16:4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
16: 5 So he called every one of his lord's debtors [unto him], and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?
16:6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.
16:7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.
16:8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
16:9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
16:10 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.
16:11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true [riches]?
16:12 And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
16:13 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.
16:14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
16:16 The law and the prophets [were] until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.
16:17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
Let us continue to learn from this potent parable. Luke 16:8 "And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." Why would this steward be commended on such a heinous plot? Why were his actions considered to be "wise?" The language of the Spirit here is not as many would suppose. The point here is the steward was shrewd in dealing with his own kind. He was prudent or mindful of his own interests. The root meaning here has to do with the heart. The children of darkness understand fully what it takes to succeed according to their standards, and they will not deviate from their carnal principles. The unjust steward was learned in the ways of the world system and his actions pin-pointed his spiritual location for us. He was not a child of light but one of darkness. This is a stern warning to any unjust steward of God’s property.
"If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true [riches]?
True riches! Ephesians 3:8 locates the true riches. The Apostle Paul said they are unsearchable, and they are found in Christ. "The law and the prophets [were] until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it." Jesus brought in a Kingdom with a higher law of the spirit of life in Himself. Man cannot enter this Kingdom on his own terms. Instead, he must press into it. Press means to suffer violence according to Strong’s Concordance. The root of the word press is life or bios in the Greek. Jesus came that we might have life or zoe in the Greek. Zoe is the higher life! Man’s emphasis is on bios, but God’s emphasis is on zoe. The pride of life or bios is one of the main targets of the adversary. As it is written in First John 2:16, "For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." As our adversary tempted our Lord Jesus Christ in each of these areas so he did in Eden. What on earth would make us think any one of us is exempt from our adversary’s method of operating? Look back on times when anyone exited the will of God, and there is a guarantee that the individual was tempted in one of the areas just described.
As seen above, one of the debtors was told to take his bill and write fourscore instead of the one hundred measures of wheat he actually owed. Psalm 90, a prayer of Moses, gives us a huge vantage point to see what this debtor held onto. Verse ten reads, "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." The debtor held onto his bios and forsook his zoe with the steward’s full approval. Jesus said in Mark 8:35, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it." Reader, please hear the Voice of Him Who speaketh! The zoe of God is found only in His Son. If we can give God all that pertains to this life (bios) just as the widow did when she cast in her living, or bios,(Mark 12:44), we can then and only then be trusted with true riches. If Jesus made the distinction of "true riches," there is a treacherous counterfeit on the scene. To write off or attempt to conceal any portion of the Master’s measures will instantly expose the true heart of any steward. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
Continued