STUDIES ON STEWARDSHIP

STUDIES ON STEWARDSHIP

CHAPTER TWO

THE STEWARDSHIP OF THE TRUTH

In our first study on this great subject, we asked and answered the question, "What Is Stewardship?" We found that the word so translated means to manage or superintend a household, and has to do with the care, use and management of another’s things for him. As such, this adequately describes the duty of every rational creature on the face of the earth, and especially is this the responsibility of the believer.

Not only so but we expressed belief that stewardship is actually the "Gauge Of Godliness," for whether one practices stewardship, and if so, how faithfully he practices it indicates to a great extent his affection for the Lord. We indicated also and that on the basis of the Lord’s own saying that our present stewardship is a test that shall determine to a great extent the degree of our inheritance hereafter, Luke 16:11-12.

The whole basis of stewardship is God’s ownership of all things, and the fact that all these things are only committed unto us to administer for Him. Therefore it is obvious that every rational creature is responsible as a steward, and that he shall be judged by the standard of how faithful he has been to the Lord in this matter.

A few of the many, many texts that declare God’s creation and ownership of all things are, I Chr. 29:10-16; Ecci. 3:11-14; Jer. 32:17-19; John 1:1-3; Acts 17:24-28; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:1-3. This truth is assumed all through Scripture even where it is not expressly stated. But that many people are not faithful stewards goes without saying, but that many that think they are faithful are not so in all things concerned, may come as a surprise to some. There is a great deal more involved in the matter than merely tithing upon one’s income, and it is with these aspects of the subject that we wish to occupy ourselves in this and subsequent studies.

Truth and falsehood are at antipodes just as the kingdom of Satan is antagonistic to the Kingdom of God, and the greatest victories that the Arch-enemy of souls has ever won were those in which someone betrayed his trust in the stewardship of the truth. Falsehood cannot triumph over truth when it is in its strength. It is only when the truth is compromised by God’s people that victory is possible to Satan. How this underscores our responsibility as stewards of the truth of God.

Two passages of Scripture we wish to bring before the reader in our consideration of this aspect of stewardship. The first is Matt. 28:19-20: "Go ye therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of The Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to make a practice of all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold, I myself am with you all the days, even Unto the consummation of the age," (literal rendering). The second is Mark 16:15: "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation," (literal rendering). In these two passages are contained thoughts that we must pursue in our study of stewardship. The first question that we should ask is—

I. WHAT IS THE STEWARDSHIP OF THE TRUTH?

The stewardship of the truth is that responsibility that falls upon every child of God to be a witness of God’s saving grace. It has been long held in the hierarchical denominations that only those of the sacerdotal caste or at least those that comprise the official ministry of "The Church" have the responsibility of telling the world of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not so, but many Baptists have been brain-washed into believing this also. Such often hold that it is the preacher’s job to be the witness of salvation and to teach the doctrines of the faith. "That is what we pay the preacher to do," say some. But this is a great mistake. No one can pay another to do his task for him. Every person has his own job, and no one else can do it for him. The preacher, when he stands before a congregation to declare the Word of God, is not doing some one else’s duty. He is doing his own. The Lord ordained that churches should have pastors, and that these should preach and teach the Word, but these are not doing this for some one else; they are doing it because it is their own duty before God. The church is to pay them a salary so that they can fulfill their God-ordained work of evangelizing and edifying and pastoring the church. Therefore let Christians put away this idea that someone else can do their jobs for them for only they can do their jobs, and it is their responsibility if it is not done.

The stewardship of the truth, therefore, is that responsibility of being faithful witnesses of the Gospel by means of the spoken Word, by the daily life, and by the general attitude of the believer before the world. Therefore did the Lord say, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me... unto the uttermost part of the earth," Acts 1:8. This was declared unto the whole church evidently. At least it was so understood, for it was the laity of the church as much as the ministry, that faithfully witnessed of the Lord Jesus’ resurrection to be the Savior in the days following Pentecost. But here men are apt to begin to question and quibble about the commissions that were given to the church. Was this meant to be applicable to all believers, or only to the ministry? Were the apostles the ones to whom this was primarily given? There is no obscurity in these commands. J. B. Ganibrell has well said of Matt. 28:18.

Jesus here assumes full command of His forces and issues His simple order, an order the plain men looking into His face could and did understand. The wrangling and confusions arising among Christ’s disciples over this command are not due to any obscurity in the order itself, but to the innate disposition in the minds of men to make divine institutions conform to their wishes.—Baptists and Their Business, p. 60.

This commission recorded in Matt. 28:18-20 and its parallel in Mark 16:15-16 was the second of three separate commissions, and it was the one of which Paul spoke in I Cor. 15:6, at which there were above five hundred persons present. This being so, there can be no question that the commission had a much wider application than just to the apostles or even the apostles and the seventy missionaries. It can only have application to the church as a whole—to the whole congregation.

What, therefore, is the content of this stewardship responsibility? It is, first of all, the duty of preaching the Gospel to the whole creation, Mark 16:15. This is the only way that the truth can be propagated. If those that have experienced the saving grace of Jesus Christ do not bear witness to it, how then can the world know of it. Our Lord determined that by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe," I Cor. 1:21, but "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent?" Rom. 10:14-15.

The answer is simple: God has chosen to use weak and fallible human instruments in the propagation of the Gospel, as it is written, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God," II Cor. 5:20. But many Christians have the idea that this has no application to them personally. "I’m not a preacher," they declare. Yet they are, in a sense, for every person can be a preacher by the life he lives, by the faith he manifests, by the deeds he does. Therefore, the Scriptures say, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven," Matt. 5:16. This is stewardship of the truth and it is every person’s responsibility.

But there is also the stewardship of the truth in the matter of teaching. This is something that every one can do, however some may protest to the contrary. "I can’t teach," usually means, "I don’t want to put out the energy to try." Or, "I’m too proud to run the risk of making a blunder while trying to teach." It is true that some are more gifted in this way than others, but the most bumbling believer, in attempting to teach, is thereby a testimony for the Lord. He testifies that for the glory of God he is willing to do that which is personally humiliating. This writer, as a young Christian and a rather timid person, when asked to bring a devotion, or to teach, endeavored to excuse himself by saying "I can’t," but Christian friends always countered with Phil. 4:13: "1 can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." This encouragement by Christian friends has always been appreciated, for it was the beginning of the training that was so helpful after the Lord called me into the ministry of the Word.

This duty of "teaching them to make a practice of all things whatsoever I have commanded you," Matt. 28:20, is a duty that devolves upon the whole church. And while some may occupy the more official position of class teachers, every one can and should teach one another in their daily concourse. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs..." Col. 3:16.

The truth has neither legs nor mouth of its own. It must travel upon human legs, and it must speak through human mouths. Therefore do we have the stewardship of the truth laid upon us. What will we do with it? Will we use it for the Lord’s glory, or will we, like the unfaithful steward, hide it in the earth, and think to return it unused to the Lord at his coming?

II. TO WHOM IS THIS STEWARDSHIP COMMITTED?

In a word, this is committed to the church. No one is to think that he has no responsibility in this matter, for any responsibility that falls on the church as a body has application also to each member of the church. The great trouble is that most people do not want to face up to their responsibilities. Every church member should arrange his activities in the light of the Great Commission. There are entirely too many riders and hiders and sliders in churches, especially in larger churches where individuals can be more inconspicuous. Such people want ride without paying any of the expenses, hide from personal responsibility and slide along lazily to eventual glory without any commitment. The Scripture repeatedly says in essence "By their works ye shall know them," not "By their faith ye shall know them," for man cannot see one’s faith except by his works, James 2:18. God is the source of faith, but when He has instilled a genuine faith in one, there will follow appropriate good works, Eph. 2:8-10.

In I Tim. 3:15 the apostle calls the church "the pillar and stay of the truth," (marg.) which shows the necessity of the church being a good steward of the truth. The truth was not committed to the church to dispense as it sees fit, but it was given to the church to disseminate as the Lord has ordained. That church that fails to use the Gospel truth as God ordained that it should be used, is manifestly an unfaithful steward, and will ultimately come to the same corrupt state that the Church of Rome has.

But before we are ever going to be faithful stewards of the truth, we must have the truth living and operative within us. It must have become precious to us. No one is concerned about what happens to that which he considers worthless, and this will be the attitude we take toward the truth of God’s Word unless it is precious to us personally. The wise man said, "Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding," Prov. 23:23. The truth has cost our forefathers in the faith their possessions, their blood, their very lives, yet Baptists today too often esteem it a thing of naught. Little wonder that we are such faithless stewards of the truth, if this be our attitude. We need to have to pay something for the truth so that it will have more value in our thinking. We need to buy it at the cost of self-sacrifice, self-humiliation and self-denial.

This stewardship is committed to the church as a body, but in the administration of it, it must of necessity break down into individual responsibilities. The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administration, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal," I Cor. 12:4-7. These were gifts to the church, but they could only be administered individually. There are no Christians that are "no-talent" Christians. Just as in the parable in Matt. 25: 14ff., some were given more, some less, but all were given something. In the aspect of stewardship that is now before us, we know that not every one is a preacher, nor is every one a missionary, nor is every one a teacher, but every one has the ability to guard the truth, and, in some way to disseminate it. In his daily concourse with his neighbors and acquaintances, the average layman of the church can have a great influence for the truth. In some cases a dedicated layman can have much more influence than the pastor of the church, for the pastor is expected to speak of spiritual things. But the layman that speaks of such things, because this is out of the ordinary, is granted more of a hearing than is the preacher, of whom it may be thought, "Well so what if he talks about God. He’s paid to do that." But the layman, having no monetary reason to speak of the Lord and His grace, influences people more by doing so.

The stewardship of the truth that falls upon every member of the church is set forth in I Pet. 4:10-11. "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

Note that the responsibility is as universal as the gift. And every ability is to be used to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, and never simply for self-promotion. There is no reason whatsoever for any believer not to be a steward of the truth if his heart is right. Everyone has the same ability to be a witness of the truth to some one else. This may be illustrated by the case of the elderly widow that seldom missed church services even though she was almost completely deaf. Some one asked her why she came so regularly to church when she could not hear most of what was going on. She replied that by her presence at church she was a witness to someone else of the importance of the services and the messages. Some one is watching every Christian to see how consistent his life is and to see if it is in harmony with the truth that he professes. The Christian has a stewardship of the truth whether he realizes it or not and whether he wants it or not.

However the Scriptures emphasize the fact that the preacher is also a steward of the truth. Some of these passages are as follows: "For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God," Tit. 1:7. "Let a man so account of us, as the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God," I Cor. 4:1. "Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation (literally the stewardship—oikonomia) of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God," Col. 1:25. "If you have heard of the dispensation (literally the stewardship—oikonomia) of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward," Eph. 3:2. "For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation (again, literally stewardship-oikonomla) of the gospel is committed unto me," I Cor. 9:17.

The preacher is especially a steward of the truth, because it is his special task to declare the Word of God. It is committed unto him to declare it, and so he is ipso facto a steward of the truth. But he labors in capacity as the spiritual leader and voice of the church, or at least as one of its ministers to sound forth its messages of salvation, sanctification and solace.

Paul and Barnabas were faithful stewards of the truth of the gospel even when it meant taking a stand against some that purported to have authority from the Jerusalem church. "To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you," Gal. 2:5. Cf. Acts 15: 1ff. Had they not been faithful stewards of this truth, soon the early churches would have been engulfed in a flood of Jewish legalism that would have smothered the life out of them. Alas. How many individuals and churches today would suffer much error rather than make themselves unpopular with heretical so-called brethren.

III. HOW IS THIS STEWARDSHIP TO BE DISCHARGED?

First, as we have already had occasion to say, the only way this will ever be discharged is individually. Unless there is the individual realization of duty, and the individual zeal to rightly discharge it, there will only be a nominal, mediocre, get-by-as-easy-as-you-can form of Christianity.

The book of Acts presents to us the ideal state of the churches in the matter of the stewardship of the truth, and we find that "they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers," Acts 2:42. And again, "And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness," Acts 4:3 1. And again, "And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ," Acts 5:42.

It is clear from these and other passages that we do not measure up to the standard of the apostolic age in our discharge of the stewardship of the truth in several ways. (1) By Steadfastness. They were not blown about by every wind of doctrine, but

they knew what the Word taught, and they believed it and stood for it. (2) By Boldness. There was nothing apologetic about the faith of the first century Christians. (3) By Untiring zeal. They continued to administer this truth and ceased not, even when it resulted in persecution. (4) By Fidelity. They were not sidetracked by the social or moral issues of the day, but continued “in the apostles’ doctrine,” they “spake the Word of God,” and presented the truth of Jesus Christ to the world. (5) By Spiritual empowering. It was by the empowering of the Holy Spirit that they were enabled to bear this witness for the truth. Yet this does not excuse us, for we too are admonished to “Be filled with the Spirit,” Eph. 5:18. Indeed, this is the first requisite to an adequate witness. It is instructive to notice that five times in the Book of Acts it speaks of some one being “filled with the Holy Ghost.” In each instance, it is a preparation for speaking the Word of the Lord, 4:31. Every preacher, teacher, or witness for the Lord should ask for, and expect the filling of the Spirit as he stands to speak the Word of the Lord.

We may also note in the second place that this stewardship should be discharged starting in the church. The apostle writes to the members of the “Body” at Ephesus as follows. “Wherefore (that is, because they have put on the new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness, V24) putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another,” Eph. 4:25. The stewardship of the truth starts at home, so to speak. It is our duty to discharge our stewardship of the truth first of all in our own home church, for we owe it to our fellow members to endeavor to build them up in the faith. Parallel with this is what Paul wrote to Corinth. “Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church,” I Cor. 14:12.

The stewardship of the truth was meant to be discharged in the church, and this was purposed before time began. Paul wrote. “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Eph. 3:10-11. Therefore, some have rightly declared that the church is ordained to be "a pedagogue to angels? That is, as intimated here and in several other texts, angels attend and observe and learn from, the church’s teaching ministry, I Pet. 1: 12f. This was symbolized by the two cherubim bending over and looking down upon the lid of the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle of old.

In the third place this stewardship is to be discharged fervently, for the truth deserves nothing less than our best effort. Falsehood always inspires its adherents with extreme fervency, as may be seen from any of the false sects of our day, but more often than not, those that have the truth are seemingly unconcerned and indifferent about the dissemination of it. We forget that while the Scripture says "The truth shall make you free," John 8:32, it also predicates that freedom on knowledge of the truth, which brings the responsibility back to God’s people. If God’s people were as fervent in their service as the devil’s disciples are, how much could be accomplished.

We may observe in the fourth place that this stewardship of the truth should be discharged faithfully, for therein only will we be subject to rewards. "Moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful," I Cor. 4:2. Paul is dealing with the subject of stewardship as far back in the book of I Corinthians as the third chapter, when he says: "According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward, If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire," I Cor. 3: 10-15.

How this points up the necessity of faithfulness in our discharge of our stewardship. Several things we must take note of from this passage. There must be: (1) A Proper Foundation—Jesus Christ, Vii. (2) A Proper Manner of Building, V10. (3) Proper Materials, V12. Those used must be such as are incombustible—will pass through the fire unharmed, for there is coming a great day wherein the earth will be purged with fire, II Pet. 3:10-12. What are these materials? They are things that will abide the fire, for they are symbolized by gold, silver and precious stones, things that under ordinary circumstance will abide a fire, and even be purer afterward. They are heavenly things as opposed to earthly things as symbolized by wood, hay and stubble.

No material thing will abide the fire that purges the earth, therefore, we must not treasure up any of those things. But that which shall abide the fire of that day will be those that have been saved—redeemed by the precious blood of the Son of God. These are materials that we should build with, and this is the reason we should be faithful stewards of the truth. For it is with this truth that these precious stones are brought into existence, and it is with this truth that these stones are polished and made into the Lord’s "jewels," Mal. 3:17.

This brings us to ask this question: How faithful have you been with the truth? Are you discharging your stewardship of the truth, or are you building with those humanistic materials that shall go up in smoke at the first evidence of the purging fire?

To the lost person, we must ask this: What have you done with the Gospel of Christ? You are not a steward of the Gospel, for you have not even personally accepted it as your hope. Remember! There is no other foundation than Jesus Christ. You cannot begin to build until He becomes your personal Savior for He is the foundation Stone upon which faith must rest, Isa. 28:16 (often quoted in the New Testament). All works done before that will be burned up and you yourself will find your lot to be the "everlasting burnings" except you repent and trust Him. But even those without abiding works will be saved if only their hope is Christ.