Building Faithful Stewards
By Ivan Maddox
I Corinthians 4 is a continuation of Paul’s exhortation to the church to end its internal strife, which was caused by people magnifying one leader against another. Instead, Paul said,
I Corinthians 4:1.
1 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Instead of exalting leaders in the church beyond proper bounds, Paul gave the believers two proper ways to look at leaders:
1 As the ministers, or servants, of Christ, and
2 As stewards of the mysteries of God.
Both these ways of looking at church leaders emphasize the servant nature of Christian leadership. But each emphasized a different aspect of servanthood. Being ministers of Christ meant that church leaders had to answer ultimately for what they did not to the church, but to Christ. They were his servants, not servants of the church. And as stewards, they had been entrusted with something precious: the mysteries, or secret things, of God. They were responsible to God for how they carried out their trust.
What is a steward? In Roman and Jewish culture, a steward was a slave or servant who was given the authority and responsibility to manage the day to day operations of the house. A steward had authority to conduct business in his master’s name, and was usually responsible for managing the finances of the household.
What does it mean for us in the church to be called stewards? As a babe in Christ, your responsibility is to nourish yourself with God’s word so that you can grow.
I Peter 2:1-2.
1 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, all evil speakings,
2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
As a new Christian, your focus is on yourself, and rightly so. But we are not to remain satisfied with drinking spiritual milk for the rest of our lives.
Hebrews 5:11-14.
12 For when for the time ye ought to be
teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles
of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of
strong meat.
13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Over time, we are to grow out of
the milk stage, and enter into service toward one another. We are ready for meat when we are mature, and
ready to teach others. When you begin to
minister the word of God to others, you enter the realm of stewardship.
What are the mysteries, or secret things, which were entrusted to those who served as the stewards of God? There were some aspects of the Good News concerning Jesus Christ which were proclaimed by God through His prophets in the scriptures, openly for all to see. (Romans 1:1-2.) There were other aspects that were hidden by God until after Jesus Christ was risen from the dead. (Romans 16:25-27.) It was these latter that constituted the mysteries of God. They weren’t mysteries because they were still being hidden; they were mysteries because they had been hidden aforetime, but had now been revealed by God.
Having pointed out the proper way to look at leaders in the church, Paul zeroed in on the one indispensable characteristic of a steward.
I Corinthians 4:2.
3
Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
Faithfulness
in stewards is not optional; it is required.
Faithfulness
is something that is within the reach of everyone. Not everyone can be great, not everyone can
be brilliant, not everyone can be successful.
But each and every one of us is capable of being faithful.
In light
of that, it seems that faithful men should be a dime a dozen. But nothing could be further from the
truth. Faithfulness is a rare and
valuable characteristic.
Proverbs 20:26.
6
Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful
man who can find?
Putting your trust in an unfaithful man can prove disastrous.
Proverbs 25:19.
19 Confidence in an
unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of
joint.
Proverbs 10:26.
26 As vinegar to the teeth, and
as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.
A
faithful man, though, is a special blessing to whoever he works for.
Proverbs 25:13.
13 As the cold of
snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to them that send him:
for he refresheth the soul of his masters.
Jesus
himself, by means of a parable, gave us a portrait of both a faithful and an
unfaithful steward.
Matthew 24:45-51.
45 Who then is a
faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to
give them meat in due season?
46 Blessed is that
servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
47 Verily I say unto
you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But and if that
evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
49 And shall begin
to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;
50 The lord of that
servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he
is not aware of,
51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The
steward’s primary job, in light of this parable, is to give meat to those whom
his lord has put in his care. All that
the lord asks of the steward is that he does his job faithfully until his lord
returns. The faithful servant, Jesus
said, will be rewarded for his service by being given greater responsibility.
But
Jesus also pointed out that the same steward could turn out to be evil. He pointed out that the unfaithfulness of
this steward would have at its heart the conviction that his lord would not be
returning any time soon.
While
the lord had appointed the steward as “ruler over his household” (v. 45), his
job was to minister to his “fellowservants” (v. 49). Unfaithfulness in a steward was evidenced by
feeding himself instead of the household, and lording it over his
fellowservants with an iron hand. The
unfaithful steward, Jesus said, will be judged by his lord and punished
accordingly.
Clearly
it is much better for ourselves and for our Lord if we serve faithfully. But how does one achieve faithfulness in
service? Jesus himself gave us the
answer to that question.
Luke 16:10.
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.
Jesus
pointed out that we develop faithfulness as a characteristic in our lives by
being careful to exercise faithfulness in the little things in life. This is the key principle we must learn and
practice if we are to become faithful.
Jesus
followed up this principle with another one.
Luke 16:13.
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.
The second important key to becoming a faithful steward is to serve only one master. Clearly, the one Master we are to serve is God. Less clear is the identity of the master who competes for our service. He is something called “mammon.”
Most people
identify “mammon” as riches. We conclude
from this that if we are not chasing after riches, we are safe from serving
“mammon.” But things are not quite that
simple.
Jesus
himself defines “mammon” for us in the gospel of Matthew.
Matthew 6:24
24 No man 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.
This
looks a lot like the verse we just read in Luke. But Jesus follows up this statement with
instructions on what to do about it.
Matthew 6:25.
25 Therefore I say
unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall
drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than
meat, and the body than raiment?
Wait a
minute! Jesus isn’t talking about raking
in the big bucks here! He’s talking
about the most basic needs that you have in life, and he’s saying, “These are
what you cannot serve if you are going to serve God. You cannot serve both God and your rent; you
cannot serve both God and your next meal!”
He
drives home this point a few verses later.
Matthew 6:31-33.
31 Therefore take no thought, saying,
What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be
clothed?
32 (For after all
these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye
have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first
the
This means that if we are forced to choose between having something to eat and obeying God, we must choose to obey God. If we are forced to choose between obeying God and paying our rent, we must choose to obey God.
Clearly,
if we limit ourselves to serving only one master, we will greatly increase the
faithfulness of our service.
And how
do we serve our master? Matthew 24 made it clear that we serve our
master by serving our fellow servants.
This
requires that we get our eyes off of what will benefit ourselves and focus
instead on doing what will benefit others.
Paul lays out this general principle in Romans 15.
Romans 15:1-3.
1 We then that are
strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
2 Let every one of
us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
3 For even Christ
pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that
reproached thee fell on me.
What
does it look like to do this? Paul gives
us an example of this in I Corinthians 10.
I Corinthians 10:23-33 (NIV)
23 "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. 24 Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.
25 Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, 26 for, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it."
27 If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if anyone says to you, "This has been offered in sacrifice," then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience' sake[d]— 29 the other man's conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another's conscience? 30 If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?
31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you
do, do it all for the glory of God. 32
Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the
Paul
begins by setting forth the basic principle:
Nobody should seek only his own good, but each should seek the good of
others as well.
He then
looks at a particular example: the case
of eating meat offered to idols.
In the
first century, as in much of the world today, meat was not something that the
average person got much of a chance to eat.
For the poor, the best chance to get a piece of meat at a decent price
was when a sacrifice was offered. The
meat was dedicated to the god being worshipped; then, after the sacrifice, the
meat was sold at discount prices in the marketplace.
For
mature Christians, this was not a problem.
The meat in question had been dedicated to gods that did not exist. Therefore, the Christian could, in good
conscience, stand in line with the idolaters and come home with a good piece of
meat.
But Paul
explained that it was not enough to be clear in one’s own conscience doing
this. One must also consider whether
what one was doing might be a stumbling block to others who saw you doing this.
Paul
offered three pieces of advice here concerning the eating of this meat.
1.
When you buy meat in the marketplace, don’t ask where it came
from. That way, the issue isn’t raised.
2.
If a non-Christian invites you to dinner, don’t ask where the meat
came from. That way, the issue isn’t
raised.
3.
If a non-Christian invites you to dinner, and volunteers the
information that the meat being served was sacrificed to idols, don’t eat it,
not only for the sake of your own conscience, but also for the sake of his.
Paul
then restates the basic principle in a different way: Do not cause others to stumble by what you do
innocently. Look out for the other man’s
conscience as well as your own.
Are
there rewards for being a faithful steward?
Jesus
made it clear in Luke 17 that faithfulness is a requirement, not an
option. Because it is required,
faithfulness merits no reward!
Luke 17:7-10 (NIV).
7 "Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'? 8 Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? 9 Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' "
However,
we do not serve a master who thinks this way.
We serve a Lord who rewards faithfulness.
Luke 12:35-40.
35 "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, 36 like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. 38 It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. 39 But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
Our
master promises to reward us for our faithfulness by doing the
unthinkable: serving his servants!
Luke
16:10 reminds us that there is another reward for faithfulness: Those who are faithful in little can be
trusted to be faithful with much. A key
reward for faithfulness is greater responsibility.
Are you
a faithful steward? If you’re not, you
can be. Strive to be faithful in little
things, and you will find that faithfulness spilling over into large things.
It’s never too late to start being faithful.