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Lessons From The Parable Of The Unjust Steward
LESSONS FROM THE PARABLE
OF THE UNJUST STEWARD
#19 [01/07/2019]
Founded by Pastor Sheila Vitale in 1988, Living Epistles Ministries is a teaching ministry that helps Christians follow God more closely. Focused on biblically based teachings, Living Epistles Ministries regularly publishes blog posts expounding on scriptures. Pastor Sheila recently published a blog post discussing the lessons found in the Parable of the Unjust Steward (Luke 16:1-13).
In this parable, Jesus Christ talks about a steward whose master finds out he has been wasteful with the resources under his supervision. The master reprimands the steward and notifies him of his imminent termination.
Because he does not know what to do to get back into his master’s good graces and does not want to beg to earn a living, he decides to make friends of the master’s debtors so they may accept him into their circle once his termination is complete. He also colludes with the debtors to create new bills lower than what was really owed to his master, with the hope of their returning the favor.
In this parable, the Lord did not endorse what the steward did but was actually being ironic. He was saying that the steward was not wise enough to ask for forgiveness from his master but was wise enough to protect his criminal ways in the world by colluding with the debtors, even though the latter was a sin that would not lead to eternal life.
It is the case of someone who is conflicted over what to do after he or she has done wrong, but instead of owning up and asking for forgiveness, the person covers up the bad deed with lies. It is indeed ironic that the person is not courageous and willful enough to say the truth, but is courageous and willful enough to lie. In that sense, the children of darkness think they are wiser than the children of light. But they are not.
