Luk 16:2-13 | KingComments | STEP | The Lord is going to teach His disciples about management, or better, stewardship [“manager” is “steward”, Darby Translation] and thus about the place that every person has before God. It is in line with what He has shown about sonship in the previous chapter. Sonship is a thing that is enjoyed in the house of the Father on earth. Stewardship suggests another side. A son is a steward outside the house on earth. This teaching connects to the squandering by the younger son of his father’s possessions. There we have seen the grace of God for someone as the younger son. In what follows, we see the responsibility of sons on earth. In the previous chapter the Lord speaks to the Pharisees, for He wants to make clear to them why not they, but sinners share in grace. Here the Lord speaks to His disciples. The rich man is a picture of God. The steward is a picture of each of us because we are all stewards. We also have all been unfaithful to God in the stewardship of what He has entrusted to us. What the younger son did, all people did in general, but the Jews in particular. After all, they have been given the highest privileges and, as a result, greater responsibility. The Jews have been entrusted with more than anyone else, and they are rightly accused of squandering their Master’s goods. What have they done with what God has entrusted to them? They should have been a light on earth, a guide for the blind, a witness of the true God ( ), but they turned their backs on Him. If God reveals Himself to them in Christ, they are in that state. And now they are about to reject God Himself in the Person of the Messiah, His Son, the clearest gracious manifestation of God. Thus, in all respects, they have let the opportunities pass by and squandered the goods of their Master. The squandering behavior of the steward comes to the attention of the rich man. He calls the steward and asks him to account for all his actions, after which he will be removed from his position. The steward sees the seriousness of his situation. He does not protest either, acknowledging that his dismissal is due to himself. In that mind he speaks to himself. He wonders what to do. Two things that would qualify for him in such a situation both are no option. He cannot dig, he is not strong enough to do that. He is not used to physical labor. He doesn’t want to beg either because he is ashamed of that. This means that he is at the mercy of the people around him. The next question then is how to make them his friends. Then a good plan comes to his mind so he can win people for himself, so that they will treat him with compassion when he is dismissed. He wants to assure himself of food and shelter when he has nothing left, by doing deeds of mercy. What he proposes will be the final act of his stewardship. It is a wise act in view of his situation. He summons each one of his master’s debtors individually. He seeks personal contact. He asks the first who comes, how much he owes his master. The man answers that he still has a hundred measures of oil to pay back. The steward has the authority to reduce that quantity. He also knows the means of the man. Because of the urgency, the man must sit down quickly and may reduce his debt by 50%. The steward remits fifty measures of oil. That will have meant an enormous relief for the debtor and how grateful he will be to the steward. Then the next one may come. To the question of what he owes his master, the answer is: hundred measures of wheat. The steward allows this man to apply a 20% discount on his debt. He also knows this debtor. He doesn’t just remit the whole debt and not to everyone the same amount. He acts shrewdly. He deals with his master’s goods with the greatest generosity. That will undoubtedly cost him little or nothing, but that is also not the lesson of the parable. The lesson is that the steward acts with an eye to the future to secure shelter and food. The Lord Jesus is going to explain this.

‏ Luke 16:2-13

The Unjust Steward3

The Lord is going to teach His disciples about management, or better, stewardship [“manager” is “steward”, Darby Translation] and thus about the place that every person has before God. It is in line with what He has shown about sonship in the previous chapter. Sonship is a thing that is enjoyed in the house of the Father on earth. Stewardship suggests another side. A son is a steward outside the house on earth.

This teaching connects to the squandering by the younger son of his father’s possessions. There we have seen the grace of God for someone as the younger son. In what follows, we see the responsibility of sons on earth. In the previous chapter the Lord speaks to the Pharisees, for He wants to make clear to them why not they, but sinners share in grace. Here the Lord speaks to His disciples.

The rich man is a picture of God. The steward is a picture of each of us because we are all stewards. We also have all been unfaithful to God in the stewardship of what He has entrusted to us. What the younger son did, all people did in general, but the Jews in particular. After all, they have been given the highest privileges and, as a result, greater responsibility. The Jews have been entrusted with more than anyone else, and they are rightly accused of squandering their Master’s goods.

What have they done with what God has entrusted to them? They should have been a light on earth, a guide for the blind, a witness of the true God (Rom 2:17-20), but they turned their backs on Him. If God reveals Himself to them in Christ, they are in that state. And now they are about to reject God Himself in the Person of the Messiah, His Son, the clearest gracious manifestation of God. Thus, in all respects, they have let the opportunities pass by and squandered the goods of their Master.

The squandering behavior of the steward comes to the attention of the rich man. He calls the steward and asks him to account for all his actions, after which he will be removed from his position. The steward sees the seriousness of his situation. He does not protest either, acknowledging that his dismissal is due to himself.

In that mind he speaks to himself. He wonders what to do. Two things that would qualify for him in such a situation both are no option. He cannot dig, he is not strong enough to do that. He is not used to physical labor. He doesn’t want to beg either because he is ashamed of that. This means that he is at the mercy of the people around him.

The next question then is how to make them his friends. Then a good plan comes to his mind so he can win people for himself, so that they will treat him with compassion when he is dismissed. He wants to assure himself of food and shelter when he has nothing left, by doing deeds of mercy. What he proposes will be the final act of his stewardship. It is a wise act in view of his situation. He summons each one of his master’s debtors individually. He seeks personal contact.

He asks the first who comes, how much he owes his master. The man answers that he still has a hundred measures of oil to pay back. The steward has the authority to reduce that quantity. He also knows the means of the man. Because of the urgency, the man must sit down quickly and may reduce his debt by 50%. The steward remits fifty measures of oil. That will have meant an enormous relief for the debtor and how grateful he will be to the steward.

Then the next one may come. To the question of what he owes his master, the answer is: hundred measures of wheat. The steward allows this man to apply a 20% discount on his debt. He also knows this debtor. He doesn’t just remit the whole debt and not to everyone the same amount. He acts shrewdly.

He deals with his master’s goods with the greatest generosity. That will undoubtedly cost him little or nothing, but that is also not the lesson of the parable. The lesson is that the steward acts with an eye to the future to secure shelter and food. The Lord Jesus is going to explain this.

The Lesson

The steward has used his right to grant debt reduction and has done so with a view to his future. He did act without any consultation with his master. Yet his master praises him for his shrewdness and insight. By dealing with his master’s possessions in this way and doing good to others, he has secured future shelter. With his favors and indulgence he has won over these debtors, that they may take him into their homes, when his stewardship has been taken away from him.

What the unfaithful steward has done is to use the present possession over which he had control and the present opportunity with a view to the future. Although he was unjust, he was wise. The behavior of the steward is the behavior of someone who lives in the world and by circumstances becomes wise in the stewardship of what has been entrusted to him. He had previously been unjust by squandering his master’s possessions. Now he is dealing with them wisely.

Unfortunately, the Lord must say that the believers, “the sons of light”, are generally not that wise. Those who are certain of a future with the Lord often forget to live with that in mind. “The sons of this age”, the unbelievers, are often more shrewd. They set themselves a goal and do everything in their power to achieve it. They save and deny themselves current benefits to be able to buy whatever they want later. They train and deny themselves all kinds of pleasures to be able to deliver a top performance in the future. They study intensively and do not go out to have a good job in the future.

The Lord connects to the actions of the unjust steward the lesson for His disciples that they will use their money and goods to make friends with them for the future. The Lord calls the money “the unjust mammon“. ‘Mammon’ is an Aramaic word for ‘wealth, money’, and is presented here as a person.

The love of money, the craving for riches, is “a root of all sorts of evil” (1Tim 6:9-10). Money is always coveted and misused by the people of the world, and also to many believers money has a great attraction. For disciples of the Lord, it is a means to make friends with it. We do this by giving it away. Then we show that our hearts are not attached to it. We show that we see the relativity of it. Money and possessions can escape us just like that (Pro 23:4-5) and if we die, we cannot take anything with us (1Tim 6:7).

What goes beyond this is that the way we deal with our money determines where we will be in eternity. The Lord Jesus speaks of “the eternal dwellings”, which are the dwellings in heaven. It’s not about perishing if we misuse our money once. It’s about the way we deal with our money which shows what our life is focused on. The Christian’s life is focused on the future. If someone who professes to be a Christian lives for here and now and uses everything for himself, he shows that he is not born again. Even if he occasionally gives away something, it is only to reassure his own conscience and not the result of thinking about the future.

The Lord connects to His teaching some important principles. First and foremost, it is about faithfulness. Our faithfulness is tested in our dealings with “a very little thing“, which are the earthly things, like money and possessions. If someone is faithful in this, he will also be faithful in “much”, these are the many spiritual blessings that a believer has received. Conversely, whoever is unjust in earthly things is also unjust in spiritual things.

If we are not faithful in the stewardship of the unrighteous mammon or wealth, the money, we cannot be entrusted with the “true”, that is, the spiritual riches. The money is “that which is another’s”. Everything we have received we have received from God and He asks us to be accountable for it. It is about borrowed goods. If we treat it as if it were our own, we use it wrong. How then will we get what really belongs to us, which is “your own”?

By “your own” the Lord means the spiritual blessings God has in His heart to give to those who give their life to Him with all that goes with it. Also the spiritual blessings belong to God, but He gives them to us forever. He does not lend us the spiritual blessings, but grants them to us. Every man is God’s property with all that he possesses. We get our life and our property on loan. Our dealing with money shows whether we are aware of this.

Then the question is not what we will give to the Lord, but what we may use for ourselves, for everything belongs to the Lord. Whoever is aware of this will receive “the true”, “your own”. In this light, the importance of earthly wealth is completely lost. For those who realize this, it is already gone, for they are in possession of their true riches that cannot escape them.

The Lord concludes His teaching on this subject with the truth that no servant can serve two masters. It simply cannot be done. If he does, the one or the other one falls short. The masters are not equal parties, but each other’s opposites. God and the god of money are opposite each other. Whoever thinks he can serve God and at the same time live the life of a rich fool (Lk 12:16-20), indicates that he hates God and loves the money. We either hate God or the money. It is impossible to love a little bit the One and to love a little bit the other.