by the Rev. CHARLES G.
FINNEY
Modernized by Cliff Collins
“Give an account of your
stewardship.” (Luke 16:2)
A
steward is one who is employed to conduct the business of another, as his agent
or representative.
The
duty of a steward is to promote, in the best possible way, the interest of his
employer. At any time, he could be
called in to account for how the conducts his business, and he could be removed
from his office at the pleasure of his employer.
One
important purpose of the parable that contains this passage is to teach that
all men are God’s stewards. The Bible
declares, that silver and gold belongs to God, and that God is, in the highest
possible sense, the owner of the universe.
Men are mere stewards, employed by God to conduct His business, and
required to do all they do for His glory.
Even their eating and drinking are to be done for His glory, which means
that they should eat and drink so they can be strengthened to perform God’s
business in the best possible way.
We
can see that certain people are God’s stewards from the fact that God treats
them as stewards, and removes them at His pleasure, and disposes of the
property in their hands, which He could not do if He did not consider them His
agents, rather than the owners of His property.
1.
If people are God’s stewards, then they must give an account to Him for their
time. God has created them, He keeps
them alive, and their time belongs to Him.
Reader, if you were to hire a steward and pay him for his time, wouldn’t
you expect him to spend that time working for you? You would consider him dishonest if he spent his time doing
nothing, or if he promoted his private interests while you were paying him. If he were spending his time doing nothing;
that would be bad enough. But, suppose
he totally neglected your business; and when you called him in to rebuke him
for not doing his duty, he said, “Why, what have I done”? Wouldn’t you think that, because he has done
nothing and let your business suffer, he was wicked and he deserves to be
punished?
Now,
reader, you are God’s steward, and if you are an unrepentant sinner, you have
completely neglected God’s business.
You have remained idle in His vineyard, or have only been attending to
your own private interests; and now are you ready to ask what you have
done? Are you not wicked to neglect the
business of your great employer, and to go around occupied with your own
private business while you neglect all the justice and duty that God requires
you to do?
But
suppose your steward should spend his time opposing your interests, using your
money and time doing things that are directly opposed to the business that you
hired him for? Wouldn’t you consider
this dishonest? Wouldn’t you think it
was ridiculous if he considered himself an honest man? Wouldn’t you feel like you have to call him
to explain why he has been so dishonest with you? And wouldn’t you consider anyone wicked who approves of his
conduct? Wouldn’t you feel that you had
to tell everyone what he had done so that the world could know what kind of
person he really is, and you might clear yourself from the charge of supporting
such a person?
What,
then, will God do with you, if you spend all your time opposing His interests,
and the money He has placed in your hands, you spend to support anything and
everything that is directly opposed to the business He has created you to
perform? Aren’t you ashamed, then, to
consider yourself an honest man; and won’t God consider Himself obligated to
call you to an account? If God doesn’t
do this, wouldn’t this omission be considered evidence that He approves of your
abominable wickedness! Shouldn’t He
feel obligated to make you a public example, so the whole universe may know how
much He abhors your crimes!
2.
Stewards must give an account of their talents. By talents, right now I am talking about mental talents. Suppose you should educate someone so he
could be your steward. Suppose you
support him while he was going to school and you paid for all his education,
and then he either neglects to study to be better equipped for your service, or
he uses what he learns promote his own selfish interests; wouldn’t you consider
him a cheater and an enemy? Now, God
created your minds, and has paid for your education. He has trained you up for His service. And, do you either let your mind remain idle, or do you use your
mental powers to promote your own private interests, and then ask “what have I
done to deserve the wrath of God”?
But,
suppose your steward should use his education to oppose your interests, and use
all the powers of his mind to destroy the very reason why you educated him, and
why you employed him in the first place; wouldn’t you view his conduct as evil
and wicked? And do you, sinner, use the
powers of your mind, and whatever education God may have given you, to oppose
His interests and pervert His truth. Do
you think you can scatter “fire-brands, arrows, and death” all around you, and
think you can escape His curse? Shall
not the Almighty avenge such a wretch?
3.
A steward must give an account for the influence he exerts on the people around
him.
Suppose
you hired a steward and educated him until he possessed great talents. You gave him a lot of money, exalted him
into high society, and placed him in circumstances that made him able to exert
a lot of influence in the commercial community. Then, after all of this, he refuses or neglects to use this
influence to promote your interests; wouldn’t you consider his behavior against
you fraudulent?
But
suppose he exerts all this influence against you, and he opposes you with all
the weight of his character, talent, and influence, and even uses the money you
trusted him with to oppose your interests.
In your opinion, what language would adequately express your sense of
his guilt?
Reader,
whatever influence God has given you, if you are an unrepentant sinner, you are
not only neglecting to use your influence for God to build up His kingdom, but
you are using your influence to oppose His interests and His glory; and for
this, don’t you deserve the damnation of hell?
Perhaps you are rich, or learned, or have a lot of influence in society,
and you are refusing to use it to save the souls of men. Instead, you are bringing all the weight of
your character, talents, influence, and example, to drag all who are within the
sphere of your influence down to the gates of hell.
4.
As a steward, you must give an account for the way that you use the property in
your possession. Suppose your steward
should refuse to use your money you trusted him with to promote your
interests. Suppose he were to consider
the money his own, and use it for his own private interests, or use it to
gratify his lusts. Or, perhaps he
squanders it on his family, giving large sums to his daughters, or feeding the
lusts and pride of his sons; while at the same time your business is suffering
for the lack of this very capital.
Suppose that this steward was put in charge of your wealth, and that he
was responsible to pay all of your other servants. Their welfare, and even their lives, depended on being paid
promptly; and yet this steward ministers to his own lusts and the lusts of his
family, and allows all your other servants to suffer. What would you think of such wickedness? You entrusted him with your money, and
commanded him to take care of your other servants, and through his neglect,
they have all suffered and starved.
Now,
you have God’s money in your hands, and God’s children surround you. God commands you to love them as you love
yourself. God could have, with perfect
justice, given his property to them instead of you. The world is full of poverty, desolation, and death. Millions are perishing, body and soul. God calls on you to exert yourself as His
steward for their salvation, to use all the property in your possession to
promote the greatest possible amount of happiness among your
fellow-creatures. The Macedonian cry
comes from the four winds of heaven, “Come over and help us!” COME OVER AND HELP US! Yet, you refuse to help. You hoard up the wealth in your possession,
live in luxury, and let your fellow man go to hell. What language can describe your guilt?
But
suppose, when you called your servant to account, he said, “Have I not gotten
this property by being industrious?” wouldn’t you answer, “You have used my
money to do it, and my time, for which I have paid you; and the money you have
gained is mine.” Therefore, when God
calls on you to use the property in your possession for Him, do you say it is
yours? Do you say that you have
obtained it by being industrious? Tell
me, whose time have you used, and whose talents and means? Did not God create you? Has He not sustained you? Has He not prospered you, and given you all
His success? Yes, your time is
His! Your all is His! You have no right to say that the wealth you
have is yours. It is His, and you must
use it for His glory. You are a traitor
to your trust if you do not use it for His purposes.
If
your clerk steals only a little of your money, his character is destroyed, and
he is branded as a thief. However,
sinners don’t take just a dollar or two; they take all they can get and use it
for themselves. Don’t you see that God
would be wrong not to call you to account, and punish you for filling both your
pockets with His money, and calling it your own? Are you religious? If you
are doing this, don’t call yourself a Christian.
5.
You must give an account for your soul.
You have no right to go to hell.
God has a right to your soul; your going to hell would harm the whole
universe. It would harm hell, because
it would increase its torments. It
would harm heaven, because heaven would not benefit from your services. Who will take your place in singing praises
to God with unimaginable joy? Who will
contribute your share to the happiness of heaven?
Suppose
you had a steward to whom you had given life, and you educated him at great
expense, and then he willfully tosses that life away; does he have a right to
dispose of a life that is so valuable to you?
Isn’t his behavior just as unjust as if he robbed you of the same amount
of property in anything else? God has
made your soul, sustained, and educated you until you are now able to render
important service to Him, and to glorify Him forever; and do you have a right
to go to hell? Do you have a right to
throw away your soul, and thus rob God of your service? Do you have a right to make hell even more
miserable, and heaven less happy, and thus harm God and the whole universe?
Do
you still say, “What if I do lose my soul, it’s nobody’s business but my
own”? That is false! It is everybody’s business. You might as well allow someone to bring a
contagious disease into a city, and spread dismay and death all around, and say
that it was nobody’s business but your own.
6.
You must give an account for the souls of others. God commands you to be a co-worker with Him in converting the
world. He needs your services, for He
saves souls only through the agency of people.
If souls are lost, or the gospel is not spread over the world, sinners
will blame the Christians, as if they were the only ones required to be active
in the cause of Christ. As if
Christians are the only ones that are supposed to exercise unselfish love, to
pray for a lost world, and to pull sinners out of the fire. I wonder, who has relieved you from these
duties? Instead of doing your duty, you
become an obstacle in the way of other sinners. Thus, instead of helping to save a world, all your actions help
to send souls to hell.
7.
You must give an account of the opinions you entertain and propagate. God’s kingdom is to be built up by truth,
and not by error. Your opinions will
have an important bearing on the influence you exert over those around you.
Suppose
the job that your steward was required to do, required that he should entertain
right ideas about how things should be done, and the principles involved in
doing them. Suppose his job required
that he knew your will and his duty.
And, suppose you had given him, in writing, a set of rules to govern his
conduct in everything that was entrusted to him. Now, if he neglects to read those rules, or twists the meaning of
those rules, and thus perverts his own conduct, and thus he becomes
instrumental in deceiving others, and leads them in the way of disobedience,
wouldn’t you look on this as criminal and deserving the severest reprimand?
God
has given you rules for governing your conduct. In the Bible, you have a clear revelation of His will in relation
to all your actions. And now, do you
either neglect or pervert it, and thus you go astray, and you lead others with
you in the way of disobedience and death, and then call yourself an honest
man? HOW SHAMEFUL!
8.
You must give an account of your opportunities to do good.
If
you employ a steward to transact your business, you expect him to take
advantage of the state of the market and the state of things in general, to
improve every opportunity to promote your interest. Suppose during the busy season of the year, he wastes his time
doing little or nothing, or becomes involved in his own private affairs, and
doesn’t look for those most favorable opportunities to promote your
interest. Wouldn’t you quickly say to
him, “Give me an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be a
steward?” Now, sinner, you have always
neglected opportunities to serve God, to warn your fellow-sinners, to promote
revivals of religion, and to advance the interest of truth. You have been diligent only to promote your
own private interests, and have completely neglected the interests of your
great employer; and are you not a wretch, and do you not deserve to be fired
from your job because you are a dishonest man, and shouldn’t you be sent to the
state prison of the universe? How can
you escape the damnation of hell?
REMARKS
1.
From this subject you can see why the business of this world is a snare that
drowns men’s souls in destruction and perdition.
Sinners
transact business to promote their own private interests, and not as God’s
stewards; and so they act dishonestly, defraud God, grieve the Spirit, and
promote their own sensuality, pride, and death. If men considered themselves as God’s clerks, they would not lie,
and deceive, and work on the Sabbath to make money for Him. They would know that such conduct would not
please Him. God never created this
world to be a snare to people. This
world is abused! God designed this
world to be a delightful dwelling place for them, but how it has been
perverted!
Should
everyone conduct their business as if it was for God, they would not be tempted
to cheat and be dishonest to the point where they ensnare and ruin their
souls. What they do would have no
tendency to wean their soul from God, or to banish Him from their
thoughts. When a holy Adam dressed
God’s garden and kept it, did that have a tendency to banish God from his
mind? If your gardener should spend his
day busy In your presence, dressing your plants, asking for your opinions, and
doing your pleasure continually, asking how shall this be done and how shall
that be done, would this have a tendency to banish you from his thoughts? So, if you were busy all day seeking God’s
glory, and doing everything you do for Him, acting as His steward, knowing that
His eye was on you, this would please Him so very much! Your being busy doing such things would have
no tendency to distract your mind, and turn your thoughts from God.
Or,
suppose a mother, whose son was in a distant land, was busy all day gathering
clothes, books, and necessities for him, continually asking, how will this
please him? And how will that please
him? Would what she is doing have a
tendency to draw her mind away from her absent son? Now if you consider yourself as God’s steward doing His business;
if you are in all things consulting His interests and His glory, and you
consider all your possessions as His, your time and your talents; the more
busily you are engaged in His service, the more God will be present in all your
thoughts.
Do
you see why idleness is a snare to the soul?
A man who is idle is dishonest; forgets his responsibility, refuses to
serve God, and gives himself up to the temptations of the devil. No, the idle man tempts the devil to tempt
him.
Do
you see the error of the rule that men cannot attend to business and religion
at the same time? A person’s business
should be a part of his religion. He
cannot be religious while he is idle.
He must have some business, something profitable to do, to be religious
at all; and if it is performed from a right motive, his lawful and necessary
business is as much a necessary part of religion as prayer, going to church, or
reading his Bible. Any one who adheres
to this rule is an unprincipled, crafty fellow by his own confession, because
no man can believe that an honest employment pursued for God’s glory is
inconsistent with religion. On the
surface, the objection supposes that he considers his business either as
unlawful in itself, or that he pursues it in a dishonest manner. If this is true, he cannot be religious while
pursuing his business. If his
employment is wicked, he must give it up.
If his business is honest and pursued in an unlawful manner, he must
pursue it lawfully; or he will lose his soul.
But, if his business is lawful, let him pursue it honestly, and from
right motives, and he will have no problem attending to his business, and being
religious at the same time. A life of
business is best for Christians, since it exercises their graces and makes them
strong.
4.
That most people do not think that they are God’s stewards is clear from the
fact that they consider any business losses as their own losses. Suppose that some of your debtors fail to
pay their debts, and your clerks say that it is their loss, and that they had
suffered great losses, would you not look on it as extremely ridiculous? And it is not just as ridiculous for you, to
make yourself very uneasy and unhappy about it if any of your Lord’s debtors
fail to pay you? Is it your loss, or
His? If you have done your duty, and
you have taken suitable care of His property, and a loss is sustained, it is
not your loss, but His. You should look
at your sins and your duty, and not be afraid that God might become
bankrupt. If you acted as God’s steward
or as his clerk, you would not think of saying that the loss was your
loss. But if you have considered the
property in your possession as your own, it is no wonder that God has taken it
out of your hands
The
way the term is popularly used these days; it is ridiculous to call
institutions for extending the Redeemer’s kingdom in this world, charitable
institutions. In one sense, yes indeed,
they may be called charitable. Should
you give your steward orders to appropriate a certain amount of funds to
benefit the poor in a certain city, this would be charity on your part, but not
on his part. It would be ridiculous for
your steward to pretend that the charity was his. Therefore, institutions to promote religion are the charities of
God, and not of man. The funds are
God’s and He requires that the funds be spent according to His directions, to
relieve the misery, or advance the happiness of our fellow-human. God, then, is the giver, and not men; and to
consider the charities as the gift of men is to maintain that the funds belong
to men, and not to God. To call them
charitable institutions in the sense in which they are usually spoken of, is to
say that men confer a favor on God; that they give Him their money, and consider
Him as an object of charity.
Suppose
that a company of merchants in a city should hire a number of agents to conduct
their business in India with an immense capital, and suppose these agents
should claim that the money is their property.
And so, whenever a request for money was made from them, they consider
it begging. They say that the person
who is requesting money is asking for charity from them, and they call the
servant who sent the request, a beggar.
Furthermore, suppose they should get together and form a charitable
organization to pay out these drafts.
They then become “life members,” by paying a certain percentage of their
employers’ money into a common fund, perhaps ten percent, and then hold
themselves free from any blame or responsibility from any more requests for
money. Therefore, when someone comes
requesting some financial help, they will allow the treasurer of their society
to let that person have a little as a matter of charity. Wouldn’t this be ridiculous! What then do you think of yourself, when you
talk about supporting these charitable institutions as if God, the owner of the
universe, was to be considered as soliciting charity, and His servants were
agents of an infinite beggar? I think
it is remarkable that God doesn’t take such presumptuous men, put them in hell
instantly, and then take the money from their hands to execute His plans for
converting the world.
Nor
is it any less ridiculous for them to think that by setting aside some funds
for this purpose, they bestow a charity on others: for they should remember all
along that the money is not theirs. They
are God’s stewards, and only pay it over at His command. In doing this, therefore, they neither
confer a charity on the servants who are sent with orders or requests for
money; nor on those who receive the benefit of the money.
When
the servants of the Lord come with a request for you to pay over some of the
money in your possession into His treasury, to defray the expenses of His
government and kingdom, why do you call it your own, and say you can’t spare
it? What do you mean by calling God’s
agents beggars, and saying you are sick of seeing so many beggars? How can you say you are disgusted with those
agents of charitable institutions?
Suppose your steward under such circumstances should call your agents
beggars, and say he was sick of so many beggars; would you not call him to an
account, and let him see that the property in his possession was yours, and not
his?
You
see the great wickedness of people hoarding up property as long as they live,
and at death leaving some of it to the church.
What a will! To leave God some
of his own property after he is dead!
Suppose a clerk makes a will, and leave his employer part of the
employer’s own property! Yet, many
today call this piety. Do you think
that Christ will always be a beggar?
Yet, the church is grown proud with their great charitable donations and
the money that they will to Jesus Christ.
Do
you see the wickedness of laying up money for your children, and why money so
laid up is a curse to them? Suppose
your steward sets aside your money for his children, would you not consider him
a knave? How then dare you take God’s
money and lay it up for your children, while the world is sinking down to
hell? But will you say, is it not my
duty to provide for my “own household?”
Yes, it is your duty to suitably provide for them, but what is a
suitable provision? Give them the best
education you can for the service of God.
Make all the necessary provisions to supply all their real needs, until
they become old enough to provide for themselves. Then, if you see them disposed to do good in serving God and
their generation, give them all the advantages for doing this that is in your
power. But to make them rich simply to
gratify their pride and to enable them to live in luxury or ease; or to give
them enough money that they may become rich, or to give your daughters what is
called a refined education, to allow them to spend their time buying worthless
worldly possessions such as fancy clothes, or to be able to quit their jobs and
spend their time playing, partying, loafing and gossiping, you have no right to
do that. You are defrauding God,
ruining your own soul, and greatly endangering theirs.
Unrepentant
sinners will be finally and eternally disgraced. Don’t you consider it a disgrace when a man is caught committing
fraud and every kind of dishonest dealing in transacting the business of his
employer? Should not such a man be
fired from his job? Is he not a
disgrace to himself and his family? Can
anybody trust him? How then will you
appear before an injured God, and an injured universe? You have despised the laws and rights of
your God. You have been at war with the
interests of the whole universe. On
that solemn Day of Judgment, you will be disgraced. Your name will be denounced and hated, and you will become the
hissing and contempt of hell for the numberless frauds and evil deeds you have
practiced on God and on His creatures!
But perhaps you say that you are a Christian. Will your claims cover up your selfishness and you vile
hypocrisy, while you have defrauded God, spent His money on your lusts, and
treated those servants of God as beggars, who came to you with drafts to pay
over into His treasury? How will you
hold up your head in the face of heaven?
How dare you now pray; how dare you sit at the communion table; how dare
you profess the religion of Jesus Christ, if you have set up your own private
interest, and do not consider anything that you have as His to be used for His
glory?
We
have here a true test of Christian character.
True Christians consider themselves as God’s stewards. They act for Him! They live for Him. They
conduct business for Him. They eat and
drink for His glory; and they live and die to please Him. However, sinners and hypocrites live for
themselves. They consider their time,
their talents, and their influence as their own; and they use all of their time
and talents for their own private interest, and thus drown themselves in
destruction and perdition.
On that fearful Day of Judgment, we are told
that Christ will say to those who are accepted, “Well done, good and faithful
servants”. (Matt 25:21) Reader!
Could He truly say this about you, “Well done, good and faithful
servant; you were faithful over a few things”, that is, over the things committed
to your charge. God will not pronounce
a false judgment. He will put no false
estimate on things; and if He cannot truly and honestly say, “Well done, good
and faithful servant”, you will not be accepted, but you will be thrown down to
hell. Now, reader, what are you really
like, and what have you been doing? God
will soon call you to give an account of your stewardship. Have you been faithful to God, faithful to
your own soul, and the souls of others?
Are you ready to have your accounts examined, your conduct scrutinized,
and your life weighed in the balance of the sanctuary? Are you interested in the blood of Jesus
Christ? If not, repent, repent now, of
all your wickedness, and lay hold on the hope that is set before you; for,
listen! A voice cries in your ears,
“Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward”. (Luke 16:2)