“As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” 1 Peter 4:10
As the church age draws closer to its end, we the body of Christ would do well to admonish ourselves to strive to be found faithful and good stewards of the grace which God has richly bestowed upon us at that time when we each believed in and continued in fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
God, who chose us to serve Him as stewards of His “manifold” (or various manifestations of) grace, did it so as to give us the chance to prove here on earth that we can be trusted with greater and nobler services in our next life in His heavenly kingdom. Our faithfulness to Him now is the proof that we can be so trusted to serve Him and His Christ forever in the coming ages of His everlasting kingdom.
“Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”
1 Corinthians 4:1-2.
We were not saved and commissioned to serve God because we were found faithful in the first place, no, but because God wants to give us the chance to prove we can be trusted with eternal riches through our faithfulness with the temporal ones which He has bestowed upon us through grace. Matthew 25:14-30
“For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.” Matthew 25:14-15
Consequently, therefore, our future with God in Heaven is heavily reliant upon our present life as we serve Him here on earth.
“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Matthew 25:21
We shall be considering this study under the following sub-topics below:
1. Genuine Conversion: The Most Basic Requirement for God’s Stewards
2. Selfless Service: The Hallmark of a Faithful Steward Here on Earth
3. Heavenly Stewardship: The Exclusive Preserve of Holy and Fruitful Stewards
1.GENUINE CONVERSION: THE MOST BASIC REQUIREMENT FOR GOD’S STEWARDS
Matthew 18:1-4; 2 Timothy 2:19-21; Luke 22:31-32
“And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3
Just as our admittance into the kingdom of heaven (Hebrews 12:22-23) is basically based on genuine conversion of the heart, so also is our suitability as a steward in the service of God’s kingdom. What, though, does the word “conversion” actually mean?
In ordinary language, to convert anything would mean to alter its physical or chemical properties from one form to another. The same thing also is true about the spiritual conversion of lives; it is a complete change (as Acts 26:18 puts it) from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God. See also 1 Peter 2:9; Colossians 1:12-13.
Spiritual conversion (or being born again) must not be taken to be the same thing as repentance or the forgiveness of one’s sins; for while repentance and the forgiveness of sins are experiences which happen instantaneously, conversion, on the other hand (which is the actual goal of repentance and forgiveness of sins), is a process of change which can take place in as short a time as within minutes, or for as long as within years, all depending on how earnest and true the penitent sinner’s response is toward the grace of God (2 Corinthians 5:17) which has been made available to them through Jesus Christ for a new life.
Although the grace and mercy of God is made available to all who turn to God through Jesus Christ in repentance, its workings, or benefits, are manifested differently in them, depending on how each person responds to that call. This is basically the reason why Christians manifest some differences in their spiritual growth and/or experiences. See 1 Timothy 4:13-15; Philippians 2:12-16; Acts 17:10-12; 1 Peter 2:1-3.
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Philippians 2:12
As to the reasons for the discrepancy in the spiritual growth of different Christians, the Holy Bible in Hebrews 5:12-14 has this to say:
“For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.”
The substance of what we are trying to establish here is simply this: that God tries the heart for spiritual maturity, which is the evidence of genuine conversion, before He bestows the grace of stewardship (1 Corinthians 4:1-2) on anyone. That we have repented of our sins and have received forgiveness from God through Jesus Christ does not automatically mean that we are deemed suited to be ministers or stewards of the mysteries of God’s kingdom; we would be deemed to have attained to this status when we, by the means of God’s own grace made available to us in Christ, work on our character until it reflects that of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Romans 12:1-2; Ephesians 4:17-32; Colossians 2:6-7.
In concluding this first sub-topic, we would like to reflect on two of our pilot scriptures, namely Matthew 18:1-4 and Luke 22:31-32, and to learn some valuable truths from them with regards to genuine conversion.
From the accounts of those Scriptures, we understand that even though Jesus Christ’s disciples had repented of and received forgiveness for their sins, yet they were not genuinely converted until at some later points in their walk with Christ, thus buttressing the earlier point raised that conversion of the heart is a process achieved over time; not because that is how God wants it to be, but because that’s what His longsuffering can achieve with mankind’s inconsistency, just as Galatians 4:19 says below:
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”
This errant attitude of the disciples of Jesus Christ is also evident in the following accounts of the Holy Scriptures:
- They were obsessed with their personal worth. Luke 22:24-27; Matthew 18:1; Mark 9:33-35
- There was selfish ambition and strife among them. Matthew 20:20-24
- There was murmuring among them. Mark 14:3-9
- There was love of money and betrayal, at least in one known case. Mark 14:10-11
- There were unreasonable promises made by the disciples (Mark 14:26-31) but which they could not keep in the end. (Mark 14:44-52)
It was for the reasons above that Jesus Christ addressed Peter concerning their future thus:
“…But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” Luke 22:32
It is praiseworthy to note that those disciples (except for Judas Iscariot the betrayer of Jesus Christ, who would eventually commit suicide) came out of their initial dismal experiences and proceeded to do great exploits for God’s Kingdom (Mark 16:20) because they did not give up, but rather waited on God (Acts 1:12-14) for cleansing and renewal until they were converted, as Christ had said earlier, and were also filled with the power of the Holy Ghost as He had earlier promised to them. Luke 24:49
The same condition must apply to anyone whose desire is to meet the basic requirement for stewardship in God’s vineyard; they must be disciplined enough to wait on the Lord, and to work on their own weaknesses, until they are converted and made ready for stewardship in God’s Kingdom now on earth and, hereafter, forever in heaven.
“If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” 2 Timothy 2:21.
To be continued...