Every believer will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ to give an account for his stewardship while living upon this earth. Perhaps no one understood this quite like the apostle Paul. He was the apostle of the Gentiles (Romans 11:13) and had a special calling as a steward “of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1). He spoke often about the fact that the gospel had been put in his trust (1 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Timothy 1:11; Titus 1:3). The apostle Paul feared what would happen if he failed to fulfil his stewardship (1 Corinthians 9:16-17) because he knew a time of accounting faced all believers including himself. Though Paul’s calling was special, the fact that he would give an account was not unique to him only.
A steward is a man entrusted with a certain responsibility. He may have a greater or lesser area of oversight, but he always has something placed under his care of great importance to the master. If he is to care for money, he is to do so faithfully and to the best of his ability. If he is to care for fields or houses, he is to do likewise. Whether the master of the house is present or absent, the steward is to do as he has been commissioned by the one who owns that for which he is a steward. Stewardship is a great privilege. It is an honourable thing for any man to be considered worthy of the task, but at the same time, it is a position of great responsibility and one that must be done with great sobriety.
A steward has the responsibility for properly caring for the possessions of another. In this capacity, he does not determine what is proper or improper; rather, the master of the house sets the standards of care for his possessions. In the parable beginning in Luke 16:1, a certain rich man (the master of the house) accused his steward of wasting his goods. The steward was told to give an account of his stewardship knowing that his irresponsible actions could soon end his stewardship. The Bible identifies the steward as “unjust” because of his unfaithfulness with the possessions of the master. The steward was not unjust because he lacked skill, but because he was not faithful.
Stewardship requires one predominant trait, that being faithfulness. People are gifted with many assorted skill sets requiring varying degrees of expertise. Yet, stewardship demands only a single element—faithfulness. The master of the house can teach his steward how to think ahead or how to deal with problems and even problem people, but the master cannot teach faithfulness. A wise master knows that his greatest need in a steward is faithfulness (Luke 12:42). In like manner, believers, as stewards of God, may be inadequately qualified for every needed task, but the importance of faithfulness must never be underestimated. No man can be a good steward if he lacks faithfulness.
Peter admonished “newborn babes” in Christ to lay aside all hypocrisies. It is a natural battle that every babe in Christ must face. A new believer might have an inappropriate longing to please the one who led him to the Lord rather than giving the Lord preeminence. He might perform actions in hopes that his spiritual mentor will take notice. Eventually, this fault blossoms to the point where he begins to see problems in others while failing to realize the same problems exist in his own life. He might work hard to obey the strictest of commands while missing the overall desire of the Lord in his own life. Even as a babe in Christ, he must work to lay aside hypocrisy. Until he does, he will never grow into the mature believer the Lord wants him to be.
Hypocrites often reveal themselves as detail oriented people. However, though they might notice something small and insignificant, they often fail to recognize the extremely obvious necessities of faithful service. When dealing with the hypocrites of His day, the Lord Jesus declared this very truth. The hypocrites paid tithes of mint, anise, and cummin but omitted judgment, mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23). They would “strain at a gnat,” but “swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:24). They were obedient in the strictest sense of their religion in certain aspects, but oblivious to their disobedience in the more obvious areas of life. Even today, a hypocrite often becomes overzealous in his obedience in one area of life while failing to recognize his rebellion in other important areas.
Hypocrites desperately desire the praise of men, yet they are unwilling to put forth the right efforts to obtain any legitimate praise. Instead, they choose to elevate themselves by demeaning others. The actions of the Pharisee found in Luke 18:11-13 best illustrate this truth. While the Pharisee was hypocritically thanking the Lord that he was not wicked like the publican, the publican was busy confessing to God how wicked he was. In order to exalt himself, the Pharisee determined to belittle his neighbour thinking that this comparison made him look better. This practice of exalting oneself while demeaning others is as old as man himself. People today choose to inflate their own pride or position by undermining others.
The Bible-believing student rejects any notion of coincidences within scripture. He chooses rather to believe that every word of God was specifically chosen by the Lord to convey His intended message. In today’s passage, the Lord revealed the root of the hypocrite’s problems—he is likened to “all that forget God.” The hypocrite is a person who presents himself one way, when in reality, he is altogether something far different than the perception he imitates. For instance, he may fast to convey the message that he loves the Lord, but his spirituality is only a façade for men to see. He may pray, but does so to be heard by men. In the end, his greatest problem is that he has forgotten that the all-seeing, all-knowing God knows the difference between heartfelt actions and hypocrisy.
Many carnal believers quoting 1 Timothy 5:23 have attempted to justify their unscriptural use of alcohol. Yet, a careful look at the scriptures proves that they wrest (or twist) the scripture to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:16). From the passage, we understand that Timothy was plagued by some chronic health problems. Paul specifically mentioned stomach problems, but there were other infirmities that beset him as well. Drinking water was not curing Timothy’s ailments, so Paul, perhaps with doctor Luke’s guidance and recommendation, suggested “a little wine” for Timothy’s often infirmities. What purpose did the wine serve? It was strictly medicinal and not social or pleasurable. In other words, Paul said that Timothy needed some medicine to facilitate his recovery. Paul was not offering Timothy or us an excuse to drink but a prescription of medicine for recovery from debilitating ailments.
Food is a necessity for sustaining life. Interestingly, the Bible records several instances where a man’s need for food became a source of great temptation. For instance, Esau was willing to sell his birthright because he considered one meal more valuable than his future inheritance. The Bible also records several instances where the children of Israel allowed their desire for food to incite rebellion against the Lord (Numbers 11:4-6). Another very important example of appetite involves the earliest narratives recorded in Genesis involving an overwhelming appetite. In the garden, Eve partook of the forbidden fruit when she “saw that the tree was good for food” (Genesis 3:6). Due to the many examples of inordinate appetite leading to sin, it comes as no surprise that the Devil first sought to tempt the Lord by commanding stones to be made bread (Luke 4:3) after He had fasted for forty days.
