Believers are commanded to "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," Matt. 6:20-21. Now we know that material wealth cannot be transported to heaven, for, as the popular sayings go, "There are no pockets in a shroud," and "No hearse pulls a trailer after it." Nevertheless there is a way in which we may lay up treasures in heaven. This is a matter of converting to the coin of heaven. Any time a person travels to a foreign country he finds that the money of the country from which he has just come is generally worthless unless it is converted to the money of the country to which he is going. And so, must be converted into the coin of the realm. The same is true in stewardship. Worldly wealth cannot be carried nor sent to heaven. It must be converted into heaven’s wealth while the individual is still down here below. This was why the Laodicean church was counseled by the Lord to "buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich," Rev. 3:18. This church was rich in worldly wealth, but it was spiritually poor in the things of God. It was not converting its material wealth into the wealth of heaven.

There are certainly temporal rewards for faithful stewardship in temporal things, but these do not, of necessity, follow immediately upon the faithful discharge of that stewardship. The Lord sometimes puts a person to the test to see if he is really sincere in his stewardship, or if he is simply trying to "buy" further material gains from the Lord. It may be that when a person first begins to tithe and to discharge his other stewardship responsibilities, for example, that he may have financial set-backs for a time. This is a testing of his sincerity and determination. At the same time we must remember that God has never promised to give us more than we can spend just because we are doing our duty in regard to stewardship. Some tithers evidently think that they ought to receive more money than they know what to do with simply because they have obeyed God in the matter of the tithe.

However the Scriptures set forth the fact that there are rewards even in this life for the faithful discharge of stewardship. We note, for example, in Matt. 25 that the faithful steward had not only many more things committed unto him, but he also was given that which had formerly been committed to the unfaithful steward, V28. Man must prove himself faithful in small matters before the great stewardship is given to him. This is reasonable! We see it every day in almost every realm of life. Men sometimes become slaves to the wealth of this world. Others make material riches their servant for good, as the poet has said.

Temporal rewards have to do with temporal things, but it remains for us to consider that faithful stewardship also brings rewards of another sort.

II. CONSIDER SPIRITUAL REWARDS.

Were there no reward in temporal things for our stewardship, it would still be profitable for us to be faithful stewards in all things simply because of the spiritual rewards involved. One of the basic reasons that men are required to faithfully manage the things of this world for the Lord is that man might be made to recognize and acknowledge God’s ownership of all things, and his obligation to Him. God, because He does own all things, and because He has all power, could bring to pass anything He might please. He doesn’t need man, nor anything that man possesses. But he deigns to use weak, and often unfaithful, human instruments so that man might learn to recognize God’s rights.

Therefore, when any person has been brought to be a faithful steward he has already begun to partake of spiritual rewards, for he has been made to recognize God’s claim to his life and his all and to submit to it joyfully. A saint that is out of God’s will is also out of fellowship with God, and can never have the full joy and peace of the Christian life. When the Christian has learned to submit his will to the Lord’s in stew­ardship, he has come a long way in the Christian life, and this is no small spiritual reward, and should be recognized as such.

Faithful stewardship, whether of the truth, of talents or of temporalities, is also an evidence of the desire to bring others into a living relationship and fellowship with the Lord. This too is a reward within itself, and it brings further rewards. Every believer is obligated to be a faithful witness and steward of the truth of God. If we willingly do this we have a reward, as Paul tells us, I Cor. 9:16-17, but if unwillingly, we still have the stewardship duty (the Greek word here translated “dispensation” is else­where translated “stewardship”). A grudging fulfillment of duty brings no of rewards.

But there is another aspect of the matter of spiritual rewards for faithful stewardship. Since stewardship is not a natural virtue of man, the fact that it is faithfully discharged is an evidence of growth in grace. We manifest that we have come to trust the Lord to supply our needs, and no longer think that we must depend upon one hundred percent of what comes to our hand. A faithful steward is one that realizes that he can give God his tenth plus offerings above that, and still be blessed with a sufficiency for his needs. Far too many believers have never learned to trust the Lord for “daily bread,” but think that they are doomed to starvation unless they have a big bank account, a savings account, stocks and bonds, a guaranteed annual wage, etc. The faithful steward has learned to say with the Psalmist, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread,” Ps. 37:25. And his life will be in harmony with his faith also.

Another spiritual reward of faithful stewardship is the Lord’s approval. Doubtless one of the greatest rewards of the servants in Matt. 25 and Luke 19 was the “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” which fell from the lips of the master. And there is no greater blessing that can come to the saint than the knowledge that we have done what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, and that our conscience is void of guilt as respects our stewardship.

Faithful stewardship also has its reward in the effects that its example has upon those round about us. Words may be confusing, but example is always clear, and we probably influence more people by our example than we do by our exhortation and teaching. The children of a family may or may not follow the teaching of their parents, but the examples that they see will have a profound influence upon them, and that influence will be either good or bad according to the nature of the example. The child that sees his parents faithfully discharging their stewardship will be impressed with the importance of stewardship, and will probably grow up to follow their example. On the other hand, the child whose parents selfishly ignore their stewardship duty may go a step further in rebellion than his parents, and think that if it isn’t important that one obey the Lord in stewardship perhaps it isn’t important to obey Him in the Gospel either. Their little depraved hearts are looking for a convenient excuse anyhow, and parental inconsistency is just such an excuse.

There are other rewards for stewardship that could be noticed, but lest we encroach upon the following division of this subject, we will pass on to it and notice that there are also—

III. ETERNAL REWARDS.

There are rewards that we will not receive in this life, but which shall be given in the next world. We are being tested for these in this present life. This is the application that the Lord Jesus makes alter giving the parable in Luke 16:1-8. He says, “If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” Vi 1-12.

There is a principle involved in this, and it is the basis of the testing that we are presently undergoing. The principle is stated in V10: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” Every believer is in the process of proving how faithful he is, and how worthy he is of having the true riches committed to him in the hereafter.

We are not given a detailed description of what these rewards will be, yet we find some intimations in the Scriptures in such passages as Luke 12:32: “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Matt. 19:29: “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” Rev. 20:4: “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus... and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

Every faithful steward is currently converting the things committed unto him into the coin of heaven, and laying up treasure in the heaven for himself. An illus­tration has been given of two Christian women that died and passed to the next life. One had been a poor, but devout and faithful steward, while the other had been rich upon earth, but had only indulged herself all her Christian life. When the time of rewarding came, the rich, but self-indulgent found that her “mansion” was but a poor shack, while the one that had been a poor, but faithful steward received a large and beautiful mansions In answer to why this came about so, it was answered that both of the “mansions” were constructed only of the materials that had been sent on ahead by the individual themselves. Every one of us is, by our stewardship or lack thereof, either sending materials for our mansion in the hereafter, or neglecting to do so. Jesus commands that we “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,” Matt. 6:20.

These rewards will then be “your own,” whereas now we are only administering the goods of another. These will be eternal, whereas these that we now have are only of a temporary nature. The present is the testing time; then will be the reaping time.

We make one other remark upon these eternal rewards. Some one has asked why man is judged for his rewards at the end of the age rather than immediately after death. The answer is that a complete and just judgment cannot be rendered until all the facts are in. Our actions in this world have far reaching effects. Some act of stewardship that is seemingly of very little importance may set I motion things that will ultimately bring to pass much good. On the other hand, one seemingly innocent, but selfish act may also set in motion that which ultimately results in great evil. To illus­trate the latter case. In the second century of this dispensation preachers, endeavoring to speak eloquently, began to apply to baptism figures of speech that gave an erroneous idea to many people with the result that soon the doctrine of baptismal regeneration came to be held by a majority of professing Christians. In this instance, a few men, in endeavoring to exalt themselves in the eyes of their auditors, brought in a heresy that has blighted much of the religious world ever since and damned innumerable souls.

This points up the responsibilities that devolve upon each and every believer to be faithful in all things from the least to the greatest, for unfaithfulness can have far reaching effects in this world, and consequently upon our rewards hereafter.

We conclude this study with this thought. By our faithfulness in stewardship we are converting this world’s good into the coin of heaven. Our unfaithfulness harms ourselves primarily, for it cuts down upon the reward that shall be “your own” in the hereafter. The following poem sets forth the potential profit or loss to us of stewardship.
 

Stewardship is a serious matter, and it behooves every child of God to be a faithful steward of all things that have been committed to his hand if he would hear his Lord’s commendation. “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,” Matt. 25:21.

The reader, if he is not a faithful steward of what God has delivered to his hands, may be offended by the things contained in this study, but that will not affect the writer. The writer has faithfully presented this duty to the best of his knowledge and ability, and therefore, has discharged his own stewardship. The responsibility now rests with the reader. He may obey or disobey, but he can no longer ignore this duty. Knowledge of one’s duty puts one under a greater responsibility to obey. The reader may choose to continue to be an unfaithful steward, but he is no longer excusable, for he now fully knows his duty, and therefore, chastisement can fall with its full weight. To know what one is obligated to do as a steward, and yet to refuse to do it, is to ask that God’s curse fall upon the work of one’s hands, and the devourer be loosed upon all that you possess. Say, steward of Christ, how faithful are you?