Today we continue in our study of God's Word. In Luke chapter 16, Luke chapter 16, verse 1 to verses 13. Verses 1 to 13. Luke chapter 16, this parable of the Lord Jesus is known as the parable of the unjust steward. Sometimes also called the parable of the dishonest steward. Luke chapter 16, verses 1 to 13. And I find that this parable is particularly appropriate to be preaching at this time. Because this parable is a parable which teaches us to look forward and to prepare to give an account of ourselves. To live our lives in such a way that we are able to account for ourselves on that day when we see the Lord Jesus. To live our lives in such a way that we plan ahead. And that's of course exactly what we need to do at the new year.
Luke 16, verses 1 to 13. He, that is the Lord Jesus, also said to the disciples. So please notice that these words are spoken to the disciples. And so spoken to Christians in particular. There was a rich man who had a steward. And charges were brought to him that this man, that is the steward, was wasting his goods. And he called him and said to him, that is he said to the steward, "What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward." And the steward said to himself, "What shall I do, since my master is taking the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that people may receive me into their houses when I am put out of the stewardship."
So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, "How much do you owe my master?" He said, "A hundred measures of oil." And he, that is the steward, said to him, "Take your bill and sit down and quickly write fifty." Then he said to another, "And how much do you owe?" That is, how much do you owe my master? He said, "A hundred measures of wheat." And the steward said to him, "Take your bill and write eighty." The master commended the dishonest steward for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.
And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon. Mammon means possessions, material possessions, money. So that when it fails, they may receive you. They, that is the friends that you make with that money, receive you into the eternal habitations. That is, of course, into eternal life. Verse 10: "He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. And he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." You cannot serve God and money.
Now here is a parable that is very important, but also has caused a lot of problems. The basic problem that has been caused by this parable, to many people of course, is this. How can God, how can the Lord Jesus commend, or praise, a dishonest steward? How can the Lord Jesus use a dishonest person as an example of shrewdness? That is, of wisdom. That is, of having foresight. Now this is the point that we must look at. But of course, the quick answer to that is that the Lord Jesus is not commending him for his dishonesty, but for his foresight. Of course, people, that still does not erase the objection as to why a picture has to be drawn from someone who is dishonest, even if his dishonesty is not being commended. Well, we shall look at this now.
In the first verse, we find that the charge brought against the steward — what is the charge, do you see? What is the charge that the master is bringing against the steward? Well, the charge brought against him is that he is wasting his, that is, the master's goods. What does it mean that he is wasting the master's goods? Now, wasting is not the same as dishonesty. Now, that's the first point to bear in mind. To waste something is not necessarily to be dishonest. It is to be careless. It is to mismanage a thing. But it doesn't mean to be dishonest. Now, that's very important.
The second thing I should mention to you is that in verse 8, the word translated in the RSV "dishonest," in the original means wrongdoing. To do something wrong, which is a very general, very wide term. But the English translators have decided not so much to translate as to interpret. And has put the interpretation on the word "dishonest," and so giving the word a particular slant. The word is wrongdoing. Anything that you do wrong. Now, wasting a master's possession is wrongdoing, isn't it? But it is not necessarily dishonest. A person who is careless in what he does is guilty of wrongdoing. But carelessness is not dishonesty. Dishonesty involves cheating. But you say, "Ah, but yes. You see, what he did was that the master had his credit, his debtors, and the debtors owed 100 measures of oil, and this man cut it in half. Now, that's dishonest." Well, if that's dishonest or not, we shall see in a moment. We shall discuss this in a moment on the basis of Jewish law. But now, first, let us get to the central point of this parable.
What is the point of this parable? Well, the point of this parable, as you can immediately see, is a point of stewardship. It all concerns stewardship. What does stewardship mean? The word that is translated here as steward is the word from which we have the English word economics. The Greek word is "economia," which shows you that the English is simply, in fact, a transliteration of the Greek word, taking the word letter by letter, transliterating it, so that the English word is actually borrowed from the Greek word "economia." Economia, from which we have economy, actually is composed of two sections: "oikos," which means house, and "nomos," which means law. So, it is the law of the house, that is, the principles of running a household. Economics is the principle of how you finance your household, or in bigger terms, how you finance a nation, or how you finance a company.
So, the house here is basically the idea originally started with — it means household management. You might have said domestic science. And so from that we have developed this idea in English of economics, of how money matters are to be managed, or finances generally to be managed. So, a steward was, in other words, somebody who was in charge of a household. He was a master of a household. He had to run a household. Now, these households of course were big households. This steward is in charge of a household. In fact, you can see that he is in charge of a business, because it's dealing with wheat and oil. So, this household is a business household, of which a rich man was the owner of the whole setup, and appointed him as his business manager. So, the steward really is a business manager. And so, again, you can see why the English word has this meaning of financial management, of economics.
Now, having got this point clear, we can see that the whole parable is concerned with stewardship. In fact, all the references to the word stewardship in the Lord's teaching occur only in this parable, with only one exception. For example, the word steward occurs in the Lord's teaching three times, and all in this parable. The word stewardship occurs three times, all in this parable. And the verb "to be a steward" occurs one time in the New Testament, and it's in this parable. So, the word stewardship occurs three times. The word stewardship in the Lord's teaching occurs three times in this parable, but four times in the Lord's teaching. That means to say, it occurs one more time outside of this passage in Luke chapter 12, verse 42, which has a lot to do with this passage as we shall see in a moment. So, we can see immediately that this passage concerns stewardship, being a steward.
Now, the question then is, how does this all apply to me? I mean, we don't want to study a parable that has nothing to do with us. So, the question is to ask, what has this parable got to do with us as disciples? The Lord Jesus told this parable to His disciples, to Christians. So, it must have a message. What is the message? Is He telling them that even if they have been dishonest in the past, it's okay, they just got to sort things out now? I mean, is that the message? Now, let's start at the basic point. And the basic point in Scripture and in the Lord's teaching is this, that you and I, we are all stewards. We are all stewards to God.
You see, every one of us who have become Christians have been bought by God, as the Lord Jesus says. We have been bought with a price. We are not our own, the Lord Jesus says in 1 Corinthians 3. You see, when you become a Christian, and I hope you really understand this point, you don't just believe in Jesus. That's not all there is to becoming a Christian. When you become a Christian, you don't say, "Oh, I am a Christian now." What's the difference between your being a Christian now and not being a Christian before? Well, you see, the difference is before I didn't believe in Jesus and now I believe in Jesus. Is that all the difference there is to being a Christian? The only difference is that once you didn't believe, now you believe? Oh no. That's not all the difference there is. That once you were not religious and now you're going to become religious? You're going to become a holy Joe? You're going to hang a cross around your neck? That's what it means to become a Christian? That is a very small part of the meaning of being a Christian.
That once you didn't believe, now you believe that Jesus died for your sins — that is true. But that is only part of the meaning. The most important thing about becoming a Christian is this: that now you belong to God. You don't belong to yourself anymore. You belong to Jesus. How is that? Well, because He bought you. He bought you, as the Apostle Paul says, with His own blood. Now, if money is worth a lot, blood is worth a lot more. Blood is life. And in other words, when the Bible says He bought you with His blood, it means He bought you with His life. It cost Him His life to make you His own.
Now, if any of you are young Christians or have just become Christians, I would like you always to remember this. Becoming a Christian doesn't just mean that from now on you go to church before you didn't go to church. It doesn't just mean that before you didn't read the Bible, now you're going to read the Bible. It doesn't just mean that before you didn't believe that Jesus came into the world and that He was the Savior of the world, that He died for your sins. No, but it means that you belong to Him. You don't belong to yourself.
Now you say, "Okay, now I belong to Him. What does that mean?" Well, that means that you don't live for yourself anymore. It means a fundamental change in the direction of your life. You must understand this point. Before you lived for yourself, now you live for Him. And you say, "Oh, that means to say I'm going to become a preacher?" No, no, no, no, not so fast. You're not going to become a preacher yet, at least not for a long, long time, unless God has any special plans for you. It takes a long time before God has trained you to become a preacher or become a servant of God. Don't you worry about it. And if God ever gives you that privilege, then that is unusual privilege. Not everybody is going to be called to that. And that doesn't mean, of course, that you are inferior. No, no. It just means that your calling is different. That's not your calling. But if you are going to be called, you will know it in due time. God will make this point clear to you.
Then you say, "What does it mean that I belong to Him and I live for Him?" It means from now on, all your thinking, whatever you do, whether you are studying in college, whether you are working at a particular job, the motivation for whatever you do is to do it for Him. That's why Paul says to the Corinthians, from now on, whatever you do, you do it to His glory. If you are studying, you are studying it for Him, for His glory. You are thinking, how can I use this for Him? Your whole life is now orientated to Him.
Now, what's that got to do with stewardship? Oh, it has everything to do with stewardship. You see, because when you belong to Him, you gave yourself to Him, He gave Himself to you. That's the beauty of it. Becoming a Christian not only means you belong to Him, but He belongs to you. Just like in a marriage. In a marriage, you don't just belong to the other person. That other person also belongs to you. It doesn't all go one way, you know. It goes both ways. From now on, Jesus belongs to you. He has committed Himself to you. And in giving Himself to you, He has given to you life. Eternal life. In Christ.
That means to say, you are a steward of eternal life. Because to be a steward is to be in charge of whatever is entrusted to your care. Eternal life is given to you not just so that you can enjoy yourself, but that you can have this as a possession and do something with it. Now life is not there that you eat life. Do you eat life? No, you don't eat life. So what do you do with it? You smell it? No, you don't. So what do you do? You put it on? No, you don't put on life either. What do you do with life? What's the use of life? Well, life is for living. It is to do something with it, in what? The way you live. The way you speak. The way you think. The way you act. It is a whole new direction and purpose that God has given to you.
That is the exciting thing about being a Christian. That you have been entrusted with the responsibility of eternal life. Not just the privilege of eternal life, but the responsibility of eternal life. To share it with others. To do something with it. This point is so important in the Lord's teaching that He has several parables about it. The parable of the pounds. The parable of the talents. Each one is telling us that when we became a Christian, we were entrusted with something. Entrusted with something of great value. We became a steward of God. We were entrusted with eternal life.
Now, life is something. For example, some of you who are married and have children know what it means to be entrusted with stewardship. When you have your first child, it suddenly hits you. I am entrusted with a life. I have got this life in my hands to look after. Suddenly, the responsibility of stewardship hits you. You have got a life to care for. A person to look after. To bring up. A person whose life is going to be in your hands. What you make of that person. It's a tremendous responsibility. How many parents have looked back and said, "I have really made a mess of the life that was entrusted to me." Not just my life, but that life. The life of my children. Do they grow up to love the Lord? Do they grow up to live a meaningful life? A life of service to others? A blessing to others? And a glory to God? Suddenly, the responsibility dawns upon you.
But you have a responsibility also for your own life. The way you lived your life. You, like the steward, are going to have to give an account to God. That's the whole point of this parable. You and I are going to stand there, and God is going to say, "What did you do with the life that I gave you?" Now, you see, in this sense, all people are going to be responsible to God. Because even if you are not a Christian, the life that you have now ultimately comes from where? From your parents? Yes. Where did your parents get their life from? From their parents. And where did your grandparents get their life from? It goes on and on. And so where did the first people get their life from? Through God, of course. God is the author of all life, physical and spiritual. If you have a physical life, you are going to have to explain to God what you did with the life that He gave you.
And the Christian has a double responsibility. He has to account not only for his physical life. He has to account for his spiritual life. The eternal life that God has given to you. So being a Christian means greater responsibility. But it also means greater privilege. If you have more that is given to you, you have greater privilege. You also have greater responsibility.
Now think carefully as we face the new year. As we face 1979, in the year of our Lord. 1,979 years since the time of Christ. As we face this new year, think carefully. What am I going to do with this year before me? How shall I live this life in such a way that in that day when I stand before the Lord Jesus and the Lord will say to me, "What did you do with 1979?" You best plan ahead. Don't wait for the time to come and say, "What am I going to do with today? What am I going to do with tomorrow?" Tomorrow. Now if you live like this, you are going to waste your life. You are going to waste your time. You have no goal.
Anyone who has done economics knows that nobody runs an economy by just waiting to see what's going to happen tomorrow. You plan ahead. You have a five-year plan, a ten-year plan, a one-year plan, whatever it is. Economics has to do with planning. Planning ahead. Know how to use that time. Think ahead. What are my spiritual objectives for 1979? And now when you look back, what was 1978 like? Did you fumble your way through 1978 with your physical life and with your spiritual life? And you haven't understood spiritual economics.
Now last week we were talking about spiritual laws. Spiritual life is spiritual laws. There are principles by which you got to work if you are going to get anywhere. Now this is the problem with the steward in our parable. Like so many people — we would say the majority of people — they take a day as it comes, right? They fumble from day to day and hope for the best. "Fuli, futu," that's the Chinese. They have no direction, no purpose. They don't know what they are doing. And so if you are "fuli, futu," you also become "mama, fuhu," you see. Horse, horse, tiger, tiger. Literal translation. Which means, you just, just like the steward, you just don't know where you are going. You don't know whether you are dealing with a horse or with a tiger. It's all the same thing. Imagine if you went into a place and you thought it was a horse when it's a tiger, you would be in a rather bad shape, I should think. So maybe that's where the Chinese problem "mama, fuhu" comes from. Tigers and horses all mixed together. You don't know which is horse and which is tiger. That's "fuli, futu," you see.
So, you can't live the spiritual life like this. You better sort out which are the tigers and which are the horses. The horses will get you somewhere, but the tigers will get you to the wrong place. You see. The place that you don't want to go, of course, is into his stomach. But the horse, it will get you where you want to go. So you better distinguish which is which.
Now, many people, the way they live their Christian lives is quite terrifying. In fact, the way they live their earthly lives is quite terrifying. They just don't know where they are going. Live as Christians who know where you are going. The Lord Jesus says, "I know where I have come from. I know where I am going. But you don't know where you have come from and you don't know where you are going." Now, that's the pitiful situation of the non-Christian. The non-Christian doesn't know where he comes from. He also doesn't know where he is going. Oh, well, he knows he's got to make a living and he hopes that he's going to get promotion from time to time. But that's not life. Life is, where is your whole life going to? The Christian must understand his goal. Do you understand your goal? Do you know what you are here to accomplish?
Well, one thing is important. If you are a Christian, God has entrusted to you His grace. And you've got to do something with that grace. You're going to explain what you have done with that grace. Make sure you know how to use it. Tonight, I hope you will think it through. How am I going to live the Christian life in 1979? That is going to be a wonderful year. It's going to be an exciting year. A year of possibilities. A year of achievement for God and for the blessing of others. That's wonderful. Think it through. I mean, I can't tell you how you're going to live your particular life. You've got to work this out. I don't know what kind of graces are committed to you. But one thing is sure. Every Christian is a servant of God. Remember that.
1 Peter 2, and verse 16. 1 Peter 2:16 tells us that every Christian is a servant of God. And Peter says, so live your lives as servants of God. Don't think it's just the pastor is a servant of God. The preacher is a servant of God. In the Bible, every Christian, that means you, are a servant of God. And because you are a servant of God, you have a stewardship, a task to perform. And so, here we can read 1 Peter 4:10. Let me read to you 1 Peter 4:10, which tells us that every Christian is a steward. 1 Peter 4:10: "As each Christian has received a gift, a gift of God's grace, employ it for one another as good stewards of God's very grace." So, whoever speaks as one who utters oracles of God, who speaks the word of God. Whoever renders service — if your gift is not in the spiritual area of speaking God's word, you can render service. Like last Sunday, you were giving gifts to the brothers and sisters in need among us. That is rendering service. Continue to do that. Whoever renders service as one who renders it by the strength which God supplies in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
Now, there is the goal. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. To Him is who? God or the Lord Jesus? Both, of course. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. The goal is to live for the glory of God. I don't know that there is any more meaningful purpose in life than to have direction in life. The Christian life is a life of meaning, of purpose, of direction. And make sure that you understand the direction. You see, so many times non-Christians don't want to become Christians because they see that these Christians don't seem to have any direction in life. They don't seem to have any clear purpose. Well, let me see. I hope that if you are living with non-Christians in the year '79, they will see, wow, these Christians really have purpose. They have direction. They have goals. They have objectives. Their lives are purposeful and systematic.
So, here in this passage, we see the application of this parable. The Apostle Peter tells us that we are all stewards of God's very grace. That is, the grace of eternal life and all other gifts that He has given to you. Has He given you a gift of speaking? Use it for God. Has He given you a gift to play the piano? Use that for God. Has He given you a gift of languages? Use it for interpretation, translation, whatever. Has He given you a gift to write? Use it for God. Plan this year: "I am going to write a number of articles for God." I am sure the newsletter team will be delighted. But never mind about them. Even God will be more pleased.
So many people have gifts and what do they do? They let it rot away. They bury it and it rots in the ground. I have seen so many people, they have so many gifts. If every Christian in the church used his gifts to the maximum for God, the blessings and the glory that will come to God and the blessings that will come to other people is just incalculable. If you just sit down and think about it. Use your initiative. Have some spiritual drive, some spiritual ambition. And anything that you have can be used for God.
Whether it's your knowledge. Take for example, we have a simultaneous translation system. And just the other day somebody came from the 4M organization to study our system, which was built, of course, by our brother James. And he was saying to me, "Ah, this is a very good system." And he was with a pencil and paper — I hope our brother James is not concerned about copyright rules. But he was sitting there with pencil and paper following out the electrical, electronic, or electrical diagram of this system so that he can copy the system for the winter conference. And by the way, if you were at the winter conference, I think you should remember that the translation system at the winter conference was copied from us. Or rather, from our brother James who designed the entire system. So you see, in this way, God's work is being blessed. God's work is being enhanced. How? Because somebody knows something about electronics. Oh yes. And there's going to be scope in every area to be used. You just think about it. Use some initiative. And soon you'll find what great things the Lord can do even through us who seem to be so insignificant. It's just wonderful.
So think in what way. That's why I say, I don't know what gifts you have. It's for you to think there. Use your initiative and find in what way you can serve God. And let nobody say, "I've got nothing in which to serve God." Sure you have got something. Everybody has something. And even in the most elementary way — the way, for example, each of us sometimes have one or two dollars to spare. Maybe even more than one or two dollars to spare. And you know, there is a brother and sister who might just be going hungry because of the lack of those one or two dollars. You know what your one or two dollars could mean to somebody who hasn't had a square meal in two or three days? Make it your business to find out who is in need so that you can help that person.
That is serving God as much as preaching the gospel. That is serving God as much, any time, as standing up here and preaching. You have served God by giving just two dollars to somebody in need because that person will be thanking God. "Lord, how gracious You are to me, that Your love has moved the heart of this brother and sister to care for me." You have served God. There is no work too small in God's eyes. And sometimes the greatest work is the so-called small and insignificant work. Or maybe there is somebody who is lonely. You can visit that person. Maybe there is somebody you can make a phone call to. Even just one phone call. You don't have time? Or ten cents is too much? One phone call can bring so much encouragement to somebody. That is serving God. That is stewardship in its most practical level. And that is what the Lord Jesus is talking about here.
Yet, it is precisely here in the little things that we have failed and failed so pitifully. Look at these words in verse 10 of this chapter, Luke 16. "He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. And he who is not faithful in a very little is also not faithful in much." Once again, the Revised Standard Version has done interpretation rather than translation and put in the word "dishonest." We are talking — this whole parable is concerned about faithfulness. That is the point. You were not honest if you didn't phone a friend in need. But you were unfaithful. And the worst thing that can be brought against a steward is that he was unfaithful.
This is what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 2. What is required of a steward? He said, what is required of a steward is faithfulness. Paul says, "I am a steward of the gospel of Christ," in verse 1. And in verse 2 he goes on to say, 1 Corinthians chapter 4: what is required of a steward is faithfulness. So you, just like the Apostle Paul and I, we are all stewards and what God expects from you is faithfulness. He is faithful to us. It's our business to be faithful to Him.
Now then, once we understand the central point of this parable, the meaning is very plain now. It's very clear. Now we are ready to look at what happened to this steward. This steward was guilty, we are told, of being wasteful. Now the word translated "wasteful" in the English is the Greek word which means "to scatter." "Diaskorpizo." To scatter. Now, this is precisely the charge, and we must understand it very exactly. What does it mean to scatter?
Well, when we look at the way this word is used, the same word in the Greek is used in Matthew chapter 26, verse 31, where it speaks of the shepherd, the Lord Jesus, being struck down and the sheep being scattered. Now if you strike down a shepherd, the sheep have no leader, no one to care for them, and of course then they will scatter. They don't know what to do. There is nobody to manage them anymore. There is no one to care for them anymore. The sheep just scatter away.
It is used also in John chapter 10, verse 12, in the Greek, of course. In John 10:12, again it is the same thing. In this case the hireling flees because he sees the wolf coming. He takes fright. He says, "I am not going to lose my life defending the sheep." So he runs away and he leaves the sheep to be scattered by the wolves, torn apart by the wolves, and those which are not killed are just scattered. They go in all directions running for their lives.
It is also the same word that is used in Luke chapter 15, verse 13, that is in the parable we studied last time, the parable of the prodigal son. In chapter 15, verse 13 of Luke, we see that the prodigal son, what he did was that he wasted, he squandered his possessions. In this case the Revised Standard Version has translated the word, I believe, as "squandered." He squandered his possessions. He scattered his possessions. Now, very important to notice. When he says he scattered his possessions, the...
# The Parable of the Unjust Steward (Part 2) — Luke 16:1-13
In principle, a steward has authority. Every Christian has authority; remember that. You have authority because you are a servant. Now that's the interesting thing. The only person who has authority is a servant, because a servant is dedicated to that authority. I have authority in the gospel because I am a servant of Christ. Precisely because I'm a servant, I have authority. To preach the word of God, to carry out His work. You have authority because you are God's servant. As Peter has already told us, each one of us, each Christian has authority over that which is entrusted to him. And because you have authority, you are accountable.
If you didn't have responsibility, you wouldn't be accountable, as we saw in the case of predestination. If a person is not responsible, he cannot be accountable. The only way he can be accountable is that he is responsible. Now if you deny that he has responsibility, that he has no mind of his own, that he has no choice of his own, then of course he cannot be responsible for his actions. The whole point of scriptural teaching is that we are all responsible for our actions. Because we have been entrusted with that authority. You have to explain what you are doing to God on that day.
But in the meantime, during this time, you are responsible for your own life right now. Does God interfere with your life? No. Does He tell you every night, "Give me an account right now"? No. He is waiting for the accounting day. The day of accounting is the day of judgment, of course. Right now, you are responsible for what you are doing. God doesn't intervene right now, does He? No. What you do with your life right now is your responsibility. Let's remember that very clearly. If you don't use your gifts for God, God does not intervene just at this moment. He will intervene later. Oh, this is so important to grasp. So important to grasp.
Now, what is the point of emphasizing the authority of the steward? It is to tell us that this steward has the right to do what he is doing right now. He will have to explain what he has done later. But he has the right to do what he is doing right now. And if he is acting within his own rights, then he is acting under responsibility.
But the next point to understand is this. If the steward was being dishonest — if he was being dishonest, as the interpretation of RSV puts it — then why did he only remit, out of 100 measures of wheat, only 20 measures? After all, of the oil, he remitted half. Why does he only remit 20% of the wheat? I mean, you don't make friends by remitting so little. It's only 20%. The fellow is still landed with 80 measures, 80 core of wheat, 80 measures of wheat to be returned yet. Okay, his burden has been reduced a bit, but not all that much. If you want to make friends, why didn't he say, "Okay, forget the whole thing"? After all, it's all my master's anyway. Forget the whole thing. Why shouldn't he say that? If he's going to remit that much, he might as well remit the whole thing. Why even half?
Now, to understand this point — like so many preachers today haven't understood the point — is that to understand this, you need to understand Jewish law. And what I am telling you now is, of course, a very important work was done by Professor Derrett of London University in England in his important work called "The Law in the New Testament," where he has clearly explained this on the basis of Jewish law. And once you understand this, you will understand that not only has the steward not done anything dishonest in his last act, his closing acts — whatever he did before is another matter. He was wasteful before, he was bad before, and he was doing wrong before. The Greek word in verse 8 of RSV translated "dishonest" actually just means, as I told you, wrongdoing in the wide sense of the word. But he was not guilty of dishonesty. That's very important to understand. He was not dishonest. And the Lord was not commending any dishonest steward.
You see, under Jewish law in those days, if you did business, what did you do when you do business? Well, the whole purpose of business is to lend something out at interest and to collect back the interest. Every bank functions on this principle. Every business organization functions on this business to make profit. And so, you have trust companies in Canada whose business, of course, is to lend money. If you want to buy a house, they lend you money. And right now, the interest rate would run at perhaps 11 to 12 percent. So, you would have to be paying interest on your mortgage. And you will find that half your life, you are spending trying to pay off the interest. In fact, anybody — I am told, I read the paper the other day — who buys a house for, say, $35,000, will by the time he pays off his house 20 years later, have paid about $35,000 in interest. In other words, he will have paid a total of about $70,000 for a $35,000 house. Now you know why these trust companies can build all these buildings and make an awful lot of money. But you have to borrow the money because you haven't got $35,000 to pay for the house. So, you've got to borrow the money and accept that you have to pay back an interest.
Now, that gives us a pretty good idea of this oil, isn't it? The oil — he owes the master 100 measures of oil. Why? And he cuts it down to 50. Why? Quite simply, because once you understand Jewish law, the practice was at that time that oil carried an interest of 100% over a period of time. Rather like your trust company that over a period of 20 years you have paid virtually 100% over to the trust company. So, you see, this is the point that we find here. What has happened is that his master, who is the ultimate owner of everything, had put him in charge of this business. And he, of course, had done some business — not too much, but he had done some business — and he had loaned out. And in those days people didn't usually loan money, because money, of course, is always subject to inflation and other problems. But even in those days they loaned out commodities. That's still being done today. But commodities were the basic trading item. You used oil and wheat, which were the stable things which you used for trading.
And he had loaned out 50 measures of oil. And now he was going to get back 100 measures, of course. So how much does this man owe his master? 100 measures of oil. That is 50 measures plus 50 measures of interest on it. Why was the interest so high on oil in those days? That was a precaution against fraud. You see, oil — the oil that was used was usually olive oil. The problem with oil is this, that when you return the oil, there are a number of tricks you can play on oil. You know all the kind of tricks to do with oil. Oil is lighter than water, of course. For example, if in that jar underneath is water and on top is oil, the only way to find out is you'd have to pour out every one of them to find out whether it is pure oil or not. And many people got caught on that. But there is another way to carry out deception. You can use cheaper oil and mix it with the more expensive olive oil, and so you can still find that you can cheat back your creditor.
Now it was precaution against this that the interest rate on oil was so extremely high, because it's so easy to be cheated on oil. And so you might say that the other part of the interest was a kind of insurance policy. Rather like today, that you take out a mortgage and you take an insurance on the mortgage, so that if for some reason you can't pay off the mortgage, then the insurance company will come in. That means to say you have to pay both the mortgage and the insurance. So you have to pay extra. And that's exactly what was happening then.
Also, on the other hand, wheat paid an interest of 20 to 25%. So you see, this man, this debtor, the borrower, had borrowed 80 measures of wheat. And now with the interest due on it, he had 100 measures to pay back. So now what is the steward doing? Now we understand what the steward is doing. He's going to get kicked out of his job, right? He's going to be in trouble now, because of his past laziness, his past mismanagement, his past carelessness. So he has to do one good thing before he gets kicked out, to have at least one or two friends around the place. So that when he gets kicked out, he's got someone who still has some sympathy for him, who might still give him some financial help, seeing that he has been kind to them. Now it's their time to do him a favor. He can do a favor for them.
But you say it's still cheating, because the interest is owing to the master. Ah, now that brings us to another point of Jewish law. And this point also is very interesting. Actually, under Jewish law, taking interest was not allowed at all. And I have to tell you about this in Jewish law so you can understand the parable. You see, understanding the parable is not just reading it. You've got to have quite a bit of knowledge to understand it. The Jews, of course, who listened to the Lord Jesus, understood perfectly what He was saying. They knew all these things. We don't know these things, so we don't understand the parable.
Actually, according to Jewish law, no Jew should take interest, or usury, as it was called, from a brother in need. You don't take interest. Because it was generally assumed that if you borrow from somebody, that person was in need. You see. And therefore, you should let him have what he needs, without saying, "Okay, I want back this thing with interest later." That is not loving your neighbor as yourself. You just let him have it, and he returns it to you without interest. So under the Jewish law — for example, Leviticus chapter 25, verses 36 and 37, and Deuteronomy chapter 23, verses 19 and 20, etc., etc. — there are lots of these references. The Jews were not to take interest from one another.
But later on, of course, by the time of the Lord Jesus, they were not borrowing these things just because they needed it. They borrowed it for business purposes. Therefore, the Pharisees then decided to disregard the law in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and allow people to take interest. That is the background to it. That means to say, taking interest was permitted by the Pharisees as a business consideration, but not permitted by the law.
Now, you see what has happened. That means to say that when this steward remits the interest part, he cannot remit the part which belongs to his master. That part would be dishonesty. He cannot remit that part, but he can remit the part that has to do with the interest. So, the oil is 50 measures loaned out, 50 measures of interest. He cannot remit the other part, but he can remit the part that has to do with interest. And in doing that, he actually is fulfilling the Scriptures. He is refusing to take usury from a fellow brother of Israel. And in the wheat part, of course, why he remits only 20% is because the 80% belongs to his master. He cannot remit that part. That's not his possession. He is responsible for it, but he cannot remit what is not his own. But he can remit the interest. And nobody can accuse him on that point.
Now I hope you can see the point of this beautiful parable that the Lord has told. In other words, this steward was unfaithful. The charge against him was unfaithfulness, not dishonesty. And those who did not understand the Jewish law on this point missed the point here. He was unfaithful in that he did not do a good job of caring for the things entrusted to him. But now he was trying to make friends at the last moment.
Now take for example the fact — if these people, his debtors, if these people, he simply said to them, "I remit to you 20%," they know he is being dishonest. Would you be a friend of a dishonest man? You think that if he was doing something dishonest, he could come to them and hope for help from them? Would you help a fellow who was blatantly dishonest? Of course not. I mean, he wouldn't make any friends. He would lose whatever friends he ever had. His last stroke would be worse than his first one, you see? If his last act was dishonest, he would have no friends left at all. No, no, he was not going to be dishonest. His last work had to be a good work, if he's going to have any friends. And therefore, this parable is not rightly called the parable of the dishonest steward. It should be rightly called the parable of the unfaithful steward. He was unfaithful — not in his last act, but he was unfaithful before that. That's why he was dismissed. But he was going to put everything right as far as possible in his last act.
Now you can see the whole point of the Lord saying — the Lord Jesus is saying to us — put things right while you still have time. Before you come to the day of accounting, put things right like this unfaithful steward. He was bad before. He did things. He was slothful. He was lazy. But now in his last act, he put things right as much as possible so that he would still have some friends left who would help him out and said, "Well, after all, he was lazy, he was unfaithful to his master in not doing a good job, but after all, he was also obedient to the Lord in his last work." So the lesson of this parable then is: get right with God, put things right while there's still time, because the time is fast running out.
Now this is the beautiful parable, and we can see now, and I hope you can fully understand the message of this parable and bear it well in mind, that you bear this carefully. Now, exegetically, there is one last point I would like to point out to you. This word which is translated in verse 8 as "dishonest" — and I mention this to you because some of you who study the word of God want to know the scriptural facts — the word translated "dishonest," "adikia," is used in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13, where it certainly does not mean dishonest. There it is used of the Apostle Paul, who is charged with doing something wrong to the Corinthians because he refused to take money from the Corinthians. Now, not taking money cannot be a charge of dishonesty, can it? Of course not. So you can see that the word that is translated "wrongdoing" does not by any means necessarily imply dishonesty.
The same word is also used at Luke chapter 13 and verse 27. Luke chapter 13, verse 27. There the Revised Standard Version has translated it as "iniquity" — "workers of iniquity." Now, who are these workers of iniquity who will not be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven? Well, we read in verse 24 that these are the people who did not strive to enter in at the narrow gate. They were spiritually lazy. Let me tell you something, brothers and sisters, that you don't have to do anything bad to be condemned on that day. You just don't have to do anything. Just be lazy. God has no time for spiritually lazy people. These people did not strive to enter into the narrow gate. They did not strive to enter into the kingdom of God. They didn't strive to enter into eternal life. That was their guilt. That was their crime. These people are called the workers of iniquity. If you don't do what is good, then you have automatically done what is bad.
In Matthew chapter 25, verse 26, in the parable of the pounds, you will find exactly the same thing. This servant who buried his one pound in the ground — did he do something bad? No, he just buried it in the ground. He didn't steal anything from anybody. He didn't cheat anybody. He just buried it in the ground. What are the words that the Lord addresses to him? "You wicked and lazy servant." Wicked. Why is he wicked? He simply said to the master, "I am giving back what's your own. You entrusted me with one talent, I return to you one talent. You entrust me with one pound, I return to you one pound." He is wicked precisely because he was unfaithful. That is the charge. What is entrusted to you, you do something with it. You don't go and bury it. That is the importance of this parable.
And so I hope now that you are able clearly to understand this matter. We have been entrusted with many things. Many things. And particularly this parable is concerned with the way we use our money. Notice in verse 9: "I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon." The love of money is the root of all evil, we are told in the word of God. It is the root of all evil to love money. Not money is evil, but the love of it is evil. 1 Timothy 6:10. But here the money that we have, we are stewards of it, and we can make use of it in such a way as to bring glory to God. Make friends of it. Make friends for God with that money, and you will find that then you will be a good steward of that money. So whatever you have, you are going to explain to God what you did with it.
You are going to plan your spiritual campaign. You are going to work out your economy. You are going to work out a one-year plan how to live 1979 to bring forth maximum benefit to other people and maximum glory to God. Let us be quiet before God in prayer.