Unjust Steward (Luke 16:1-13)

Of all the parables and teachings given by the Lord Jesus this is one of the most difficult to understand and explain. The difficulty is primarily because it is apparent from what we read and see that the steward has done wrong, he has been dishonest, but yet it appears that the Lord Jesus is commending him, and presenting him as an example worth emulating. This is true to some extent, but not entirely.

To understand the Lord Jesus's intentions in this parable we need to pay attention to what the steward used – planning, smartness, prudence, purpose and appropriate methodology, to make the most out of the circumstance he was in. From the latter verses i.e. 10 to 13, it is quite apparent that the Lord is clearly teaching against dishonesty and wealth acquired through wrong means; hence it stands to reason that here in the parable, the Lord could not be saying or implying to His disciples that the steward's dishonesty was something worth emulating. Yet, there is no doubt that the Lord Jesus did find something worthy in what the steward did, and therefore asked His disciples to learn from what the steward did and implement it in their lives. The things that the Lord commended in the steward were, his sense of keeping his wits about him in dire circumstances, his being smart and prudent, and his working with a plan to fulfill his purpose (Luke 16:3-4).

That steward knew that the time has come for him to give an account Luke 16:2; and he was also aware of his impending fate. But he did not loose heart or give up; instead he used whatever time and resources were available to him, he did all that he could do, to ensure that his future does not remain dark, but becomes good (Luke 16:5-7). This is what the Lord is teaching to His disciples (Luke 16:8), that as the people of the world are they too should be clever, and learn to use their resources, whatever they have, worthily and properly. The Lord has not called us to be foolish or gullible, but to be clever and discerning (Matthew 10:16). It is not that the Lord want us to be devious, but that we learn to take stock of the situation at hand, and then prudently act accordingly (Luke 12:56-58; Luke 14:25-33; Matthew 10:23).

This is not just the teaching of the Lord Jesus, or only the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the book of Proverbs begins with instructions to be wise, prudent and understanding (Proverbs 1:1-7); and immediately goes on to warn about the serious consequences of not paying heed to these instructions to be wise, prudent and understanding (Proverbs 1:20-33). David, a man after God’s heart, behaved wisely in carrying out his responsibilities and caring for preserving his life (1 Samuel 18:5, 14, 30). Psalms 119:98-100 shows us how God makes His followers more wise and understanding than the people of the world around them, and He teaches His people wisdom and prudence through His Word, so that they may utilize these qualities in their day to day life, when facing the people and circumstances of the world, in achieving their purpose of witnessing and living for the Lord.

It should be the endeavor of the Lord's disciples to enter their eternity in the Kingdom of God with honor; or, in other words, to enter with good rewards, which they will utilize in their eternity. While on earth, they should plan well, be smart and prudent, and keep looking for ways to fulfill their purpose of living and witnessing for the Lord, and making good use of the opportunities God provides them for this purpose. Like the Lord Jesus, His disciples should be resolute and firm in fulfilling their God given purposes (Luke 9:51-52); and like Paul, all disciples should plan their activities (2 Corinthians 1:17) and actively keep striving and trying one way or another to work for the Lord, instead of being passive and waiting for things to happen (Acts 16:6-10).

The entry into heaven, i.e. our Salvation is through coming to faith in the Lord Jesus, repenting of our sins and receiving the Lord's forgiveness for them, solely through the grace of God. But our rewards for our eternity are granted to us by God based on our works; the judgment of Christian Believers, the Born Again children of God will not be for their salvation, but for giving them rewards for their work for the Lord, and there will be some who will enter heaven for eternity empty handed (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).

Through this parable of the Unjust Steward the Lord is teaching His disciples to ever remain undaunted by circumstances, be smart and prudent, to keep an eye on their purpose and endeavor to fulfill that purpose. No matter how difficult or disappointing the situation may be, they ought to adopt a prudent or appropriate methodology, as that steward did, to turn the dire circumstances into favorable ones. The Lord’s disciples ought to use their worldly possessions and wealth in such a manner that 'when it fails,’ or is gone, i.e. at the completion of their time on earth, the people who benefited from the disciple’s wealth and other resources on earth, will be the reason for the disciple’s being welcomed into eternity with honor (Luke 16:9).

Through this parable the Lord was not teaching us to be dishonest, but to be smart and prudent, to remain focused on our purpose, and without getting disappointed, without loosing heart, use all our circumstances wisely to maintain and increase our eternal rewards.

Inadvertent Snare

It says in Judges 8:27 – "Then Gideon made it into an ephod and set it up in his city, Ophrah. And all Israel played the harlot with it there. It became a snare to Gideon and to his house" God had given an extraordinary and absolutely unexpected victory to the Israelites over their oppressors through Gideon. As a memorial of his gratefulness towards the Lord, Gideon made an ephod and placed it in his home town, Ophrah. But God's Word the Bible tells us that instead, it became a snare for Gideon and his family.

From the proceeding verses (22-26) we see that Gideon had no intentions of taking any leadership role amongst the Israelites. He wanted to give all the honor and glory to God for this marvelous victory. From the spoils of this war he wanted to set up a memorial to glorify God, that too from the voluntary portions given by the people. Gideon had no intentions of using any idol or representations of pagan gods as a memorial; rather, he wanted to do this through an ephod. An ephod was a part of the unique dress worn by the priests in the service of God's Tabernacle (Exodus 28:4-8) and it was also used to find God’s will (1 Samuel 30:7-8). Thus we see that Gideon had no intention of going contrary to God in any manner in his desire to set up a memorial honoring God. His only mistake was that although he wanted to do this to honor and glorify God, but he did it according to his own wisdom, understanding, and desire, without asking God about it and without receiving any instructions about it from God; he went ahead and did whatever seemed right and good to him according to his own understanding and desire.

We see subsequently in, verses 33, 34 that after some time, after Gideon had passed away, the Israelites turned away from God and started following pagan gods again. It seems from verse 27 even while Gideon was alive, they started venerating the memorial set up by Gideon, using it as one of the objects of worship amongst others they had adopted from the gentile deities; because of which “It became a snare to Gideon and to his house.”

This example shows that Satan, without our knowing about it or realizing it, can use our good and God honoring intentions to entice people away from God and make them fall into false worship, which can then become a cause for stumbling, and falling into sin, instead of being a blessing. Whatever is necessary and required for worshiping and honoring God, God has already got it recorded along with the necessary instructions in His Word. Whatever else is there besides that which God has had recorded, is not from God; it is not in God’s will, and no matter how reverently it may be believed in and observed, it is, in Lord Jesus’s own words a “vain worship” (Matthew 15:9), i.e. an inconsequential and fruitless worship, or even an act of “iniquity” (Matthew 7:21-23). Therefore it is essential for Christian Believers to not rely upon their own wisdom and understanding and act on assumptions in things related to God, more so in things related to worshiping and glorifying God, but to first seek God's will and only then act accordingly (1 Thessalonians 5:21); lest something we do today, creates problems for our children and subsequent generations. All that is required to honor and glorify God, has already been given to us by Him in His Word. To please God, we only need to learn His Word and obey it (1 Samuel 15:22), instead of devising our own assumed ways and methods of worshiping and glorifying God, and creating problems for ourselves and others, as happened through Gideon's ephod.

Is the Bible silent about Jesus’ life between 12 to 30 years of age?

Very many things have been given to us in God’s Word the Bible about God, His kingdom, our relationship with Him, His works, attributes, Laws, Commandments etc. but not everything about God has been given in the Bible. God in His Word has got written that which He wants us to know and follow so that we can draw near to Him, be saved, and become members of His family.

Although the Bible does not give us any details about Lord Jesus since the time He was a boy of 12 to the time when He started His ministry at the age of 30, but the Bible is not entirely silent about this time period either. This is a misinformation spread by those who oppose God and the Lord Jesus that the Bible is silent about the Lord’s life between 12 and 30 years of age; and based upon this misinformation they spread another falsehood that the Lord Jesus between this time period had gone to India, learnt spiritual things here and then returned to Israel to preach them. The fact is that the Bible very clearly states that the Lord Jesus has always lived with His family in Israel. In this context, take a look at some verses from the Gospel accounts from the Bible:

Matthew 13:54 “And when He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?”

Mark 6:2-3 “And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, "Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?" And they were offended at Him.”

Luke 2:39-40 “So when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.”

Luke 2:51-52 “Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”

Luke 4:16 “So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.”

John 7:15 “And the Jews marveled, saying, "How does this Man know letters, having never studied?"”

Take note that the references from Matthew, Mark, and John clearly show that everybody was amazed at the Lord’s teachings, as to how did He learn all that He preached ‘having never studied’. In other words, the people knew that the Lord Jesus had never gone anywhere to learn, He had remained amongst them, yet He had learnt such wonderful things, and preached so amazingly and magnificently. Had the Lord gone anywhere, then it would have been written about Him that the “people realized or understood that He had learnt it all in the foreign place He had gone to” – but nobody ever said this about Him. Secondly, all that the Lord Jesus preached was based upon and quoted the part of the Bible we now know as the Old Testament. Had the Lord learnt something anywhere else then He would not have taught from the Old Testament but would have then taught according to the ‘knowledge’ He had acquired from outside – but it was never so. All His teachings were based on the Old Testament part of God’s Word.

Take not of the references from Luke – these three references very clearly show that the Lord Jesus’s upbringing was in Nazareth of Galilee, the place where He resided with His family.

So although the Bible may not provide any details about the life of Lord Jesus between 12 and 30 years of age, but it does inform us that He was always there in Nazareth, in Israel during that time period and the people had seen Him live and grow up in that region.

Why does James 5:16 command us to "confess our sins to one another"?

To understand it correctly, James 5:16 should be seen in its context – as a part of the passage from James 5:13-18. When we do so, it becomes apparent that there are two processes mentioned in these verses – physical healing and trespasses or sins. While the healing being mentioned in James 5:16 is a continuation of the thought of healing given in 5:14-15a; the confession of trespasses or sins mentioned in James 5:16 is not for their forgiveness – since, that has already been stated as accomplished in 5:15, prior to asking the confessing to one another in 5:16. The word used here in the original Greek language and translated as ‘confess’ into English, is ‘exomologeo (ex-o-mo-lo-ǰe'-ō)’, and means to acknowledge or (by implication, of assent) agree fully, (Strong’s Bible Dictionary).

To help us understand it better, we need to keep in mind two other verses related to this thought. These two verses are, first, 1 John 1:8-10, where the apostle John, by using ‘we’, and the present tense ‘have’ (instead of the past tense ‘had’) is saying that everyone – he included, sins, even now; and second,Galatians 6:1-2, where the Apostle Paul is exhorting other Christian Believers to lift up and help in the restoration of those Christian Believers who somehow have fallen into some ‘trespass’ or ‘fault’, i.e. have done something wrong; and those helping should also bear in mind that at some time they too can fall into a similar predicament. These references help us understand and accept the fact that Biblically speaking, even established and mature Christian Believers have a tendency to fall into sin, to commit errors or trespasses, to fall short of expectations or standards of morality expected of them. In other words, nobody is perfect and above reproach, everybody always needs God’s grace, strength and forgiveness to remain honest and true to the Lord, and may at times need to be extricated out of unpleasant situations by the Lord.

With the above in mind, coming back now to James 5:16, we can surmise that what is being implied in the verse is that “do not be overly righteous, nor be a hypocrite; do not have a ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude, considering yourself over and above everyone else, or others around you. Rather, be humble and have an attitude of accepting and acknowledging that you too can falter and commit sin, therefore ‘confess your trespass to one another’ i.e. maintain an attitude of accepting and acknowledging before others that you too are prone to errors or sin, just as the others are, and you too need the prayers and help of others for your restoration, whenever you fail or fall.”

This verse is not saying that we need to go and declare our sins and short-comings to people around us, and our doing so will contribute to the forgiveness of those sins. Rather, it means to say that instead of being haughty, we need to remain humble and open to any correction from others; as and when they see some short-coming in us. Whenever our fault or trespass is brought to our notice, we should be gracious and humble enough to accept (‘confess’) it. We should also seek the prayer support of other Believers to keep us that way, or to be delivered from the situation, since the prayers of God’s people are a very effective means of help in any need.