If You Are Not Faithful in Another’s, Who will Give You Your Own?
In Luke 16 Christ said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. 2 So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’ 3 “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, others may receive me into their houses.’ 5 “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘ take the bill and quickly right down 80’. So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light (are in theirs). 9 “And I say to you (facetiously), make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you come to your end, your friends may receive you into an everlasting home. 10 Those who are faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and those who are unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.”
We have here in this parable of “The Steward” a person whose interest and focus is in the here and now! When they were challenged with the loss of their ability to enrich their life with payment on goods, they thought to fortify themselves and extend their ability for self sustenance and conducted short sales on the products that they still had that belonged to another. They did this liquidation of goods to support themselves and in doing so they demonstrated that they had lost themselves already. Primarily because they lost sight of what belonged to whom and what was really their own. To this we say “In your patience possess your own soul” as your focus and not the fortification of your physical existence. That is just you fighting against the inevitable that blinds you from seeing the greater picture and purpose that we have “in Christ”.
To give you what is really yours in Gods eyes,has to do with your soul, and with Eternal life. And that steward fortified himself on earth to his own Eternal harm. You cannot keep anything of this life because none of it is Eternal.
Had they been faithful in that stewardship, they would’ve received what was their own is what that scripture said. That does seem rather peculiar on the surface, but when we put it in context with “scripture “, that being faithful in another’s to qualify to receive what is yours, has nothing to do with this age because scripture is given to make visible and understandable the invisible realities in the spirit, because if we acquire the eternal things now, we get to keep them forever. This is us getting to “keep what is our own” are the gifts we learn from scripture to apply now
Here then is the interpretation and how you can apply this to yourself in the context of what was written and why. This is for your fullness and salvation. You began this by the one time event at baptism whereby you profess to bury your old self by faith, to receive your new self imaged like Christ. Even baptism was only a picture but your vows were real. Because if you associate baptism with the cross and the Old Covenant cross-over pictured at the Red Sea with Moses, you could understand that there is a starting point and a finish line with God’s work in us as we cooperate with Him. We enter the promise land (the scriptures where the promises are) to see what we have inherited and to learn to own and to use those things now. That we are being translated, transferred and in a transition, meaning our transfiguration, with God’s Word telling us “But we (the) all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord (in scripture and), are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of God. That you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling“. And quit waiting for another act of God on your behalf because it is ALL available right now. This is the Gospel. Showing us that cooperating in this way is your primary importance. This is your gift of Eternal life with God in the Spirit. Even as Christ told the woman at the well that “God is Spirit and truth, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” And such are we, at least that should be our focus and NOT to be fortifying ourselves here on earth as demonstrated with “The Unfaithful Steward”. For if you are not faithful with another’s, who will give you your own? The steward thought the important stuff was physical stuff, and if you vowed at baptism to consider your old person dead, to walk in newness of life”? Then it should be clear that the “who will give you what is your own” is what belongs to the new you on the north side of your baptism, as being eternal and unexpendable.
Meaning that “to give you what is your own has to do with your portion of your inheritance given to you through “The New Will and Testament”. Like all Testaments, they are not in force until there is a death of a testator, and that’s what Christ did at the cross (cross over. Get it?) And He did that back then so that we could experience our inheritance NOW! And not like the ill informed of those supposing a second coming gathering while they sit and wait for that event to happen all the while “The Kingdom Of God is still at hand”, open, active and operational, even as we speak. And that “as Gods divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, If you are able to read and understand this, that means this message is still relevant for you. If not, pray because “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to them. James 1.5 Meaning the doors are still open and that is how God helps you in your endeavor.
But the unlearned, the unknowing and the ignorant (ignorant, not that they are stupid but they willingly ignore these truths) that The Kingdom of God is at hand. They need to recognize that it takes a different mindset to receive what our Heavenly Father has for us and why the scripture says that “the violent take it by force“. Not that we are stealing, but we take the Father at His word in the face of the obstacles we call “giants in the land”. We do not insult the gift giver by being nonchalant or passive with our inheritance. We “reach out to attain to all the riches in Christ” while we have our mental faculties to do so. This is the age of the acquisition of the things of God. When it is evident, then faith will no longer be necessary and there are no freebies without faith. “For one must first believe that He is and that He rewards those that diligently seek Him”. And so we do.
Unlike the unfaithful steward. Instead of owning up to, applying and using “what is their own” as “Willed” to us through the New (Will and) Testament, that replaced the old, these ignorant sell themselves out for their old self by protecting its fears and fortifying themselves safely here on earth through the various providers therein, showing that their focus and investment is like the unwise steward. And if you are not faithful to your vows at baptism, to in turn fortify yourself with what the Father reveals to you in The Testament, then when the buzzer buzzes and time here is no more, and you take into account the things that you’ve acquired on the other side of the veil of understanding into Eternity and see there is none? It is because you sold yourself out on the wrong self because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.” but the re-spirited mind of faith does.
This is the new you to receive the things that are your own in comparison to the unwise steward who as James put it “3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.”
And as Paul put it that “you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who awards each one according to their works”. And when it comes time to what you have stored, did you store it up here as if you want to stay here? Well then you have your reward because that was your focus and your investment. So think of the widow who gave her last two coins. What does she look like on the other side? The answer is, something to envy. This is what truly matters.
So if you are NOT faithful with another’s, who will give you your own”, should put you in check. And if you are afraid of the end of the world in any of its assorted presentations as though you need to fight for and preserve yourself in this age? That you are a type of your own“savior” by your forms of self preservation and forgetting His promises like, I will never leave you or forsake you), you may be serving your dead man that you should’ve left at the cross when you first believed, as was your vow at baptism. “To bury the old you with its mechanisms and preservations of self, to in turn (that’s what repentance means) be found “in Christ “ where all our riches are true.
For this you are a steward to give an account of on That Day! For each one of us, That Day is different. But for now? The Kingdom of God is at hand!” Meaning, reachable, attainable and able to implement now. The is the Gospel. Amen! Please DO NOT leave from here empty handed!
The Kingdom of God is at hand!