Prepare a full account of your stewardship,
because you can no longer be my steward.
Like this steward, all of us will have to give an account for our stewardship. Whether or not we realize it, we have all been entrusted with great stewardships from the treasures of the riches of Christ Jesus. He has given us life and, in addition to our natural talents, has given us salvation and poured the gifts of his Spirit upon us. There is nothing we have that we did not receive. Yet we often forget that we are stewards and squander the property of the master as though it was our own.
Their end is destruction.
Their God is their stomach;
their glory is in their “shame.”
Their minds are occupied with earthly things.
Paul lamented that fact that some he knew were acting as though their highest allegiance and primary citizenship was here on earth. They were living as those who forgot that they were stewards, forgot that theirs was supposed to be a higher citizenship that brought with it both a higher calling and also a higher hope. They sought temporary things as though they were eternal and so lost sight of what truly mattered. But they were meant to relate to those earthly things as stewards, treating temporary things in a way that was fitting for what would ultimately pass away. The fact that they were citizens of heaven was meant to define their life on earth, making them more concerned with heavenly treasure than that of earth, more with the Lord of heaven than the whims of Caesar.
What shall I do,
now that my master is taking the position of steward away from me?
I am not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg.
What shall we do when we realize we have invested too much in things that cannot last, when we have squandered on ourselves in dissipation that which was not ours to do so? It begins when we begin to learn to use the blessings we have been given to be a blessing to others.
I know what I shall do so that,
when I am removed from the stewardship,
they may welcome me into their homes.’
The wealth of our master is actually infinite, and when we use what he has given us to bless others he is not diminished as an earthly master would be. Rather, he is glorified. The master in fact desires that those whom we bless experience freedom, not so much from monetary debt, but from sin. It costs the master nothing when this is the result of his blessings. It only costs us our choice to turn from the selfish path on which we had heretofore hoarded these blessings for ourselves alone.
We really do have the ability to help others rewrite their promissory notes and release them from their debts, provided we turn sufficiently from our own stomachs and shame and earthly things to do so. This is how citizens of heaven are meant to live, how those awaiting our savior and Lord Jesus Christ should behave. We have a hope that is so much greater than the things of this world. Compared to this hope they are but a passing mist or shadow. Let us cling to the treasure we can keep, which, among other things, includes the friends we can make with the wealth that has been entrusted to us as stewards. When we do so we are investing in eternity, and turning our hearts toward that which will endure forever.
He will change our lowly body
to conform with his glorified Body
by the power that enables him also
to bring all things into subjection to himself.
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