Well,aren't you blessed Jesus didn't judge you by that same rubric.
Jesus does judge me by that same rubric.
Luke 16:1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.
For example, suppose you were the CEO of a hypothetical ministry that 100 million people globally were interested in. But that was when you became CEO, a year later less than 100,000 people are interested in your ministry, and only because of the guy who had been CEO prior to you. Not only so but there are a lot of people accusing you of having driven this ministry into the ground. Best case scenario they are saying you are incompetent, worst case scenario they are saying it was intentional.
2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.
The way to respond to this charge is not to whine about how you need a little "grace". Every person has annual reviews, this is your annual review. At the beginning of the year when you took over as CEO you had to give a vision of where you were planning to take this ministry. Hypothetically speaking, suppose you said you were going to make the ministry ten times greater than it was. Now when you appear before the Lord you have to give account, here is what you said, and here is the actual result.
3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. 4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
This is the right attitude. You see if you were intentionally trying to destroy the ministry you would not have any interest in being received into their houses once you get fired. If it was intentional to destroy the ministry the person would be complaining about being held accountable.
5 So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? 6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. 7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.
Salesmen get a commission. That commission can be as much as 50%, or it might be 20%, but the ones selling a product will get a hefty percentage of the retail price. This salesman is saying it is time to sacrifice my commission. In our hypothetical example with the ministry the commission is the person's ego and pride. They are willing to be nothing. You will never see this if the person's actual intent was to destroy the ministry. If that was the goal they were successful. They got rid of 99% of your customers. They are expecting a bonus from whoever hired them for this job, not a pay cut.
8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
In the final analysis we are unjust. We were not saved because of anything we did. This hypothetical CEO needs to realize they are not standing on how great they are, they are standing on the Lord's righteousness. You are simply a conduit to take God's goods and deliver them to those who need them.
9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
There are many ways to interpret this, but only one way that aligns with everything the Lord has said about the mammon of unrighteousness. We are to put our treasure in heaven and the way we do that is by giving that money to the Lord for His kingdom.
10 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.
To an unbeliever the money is not "the least", it is their prime motivation. But to someone who is focused on eternity the money which is vanity and will go up in a puff of smoke one day, that is the least. What is much in the eyes of eternity are the souls you are reaching. In this hypothetical ministry the proper attitude of a true born again believer is that they are unjust and have nothing in themselves to boast of, they are standing on the Lord's righteousness. Not only so but their mission is not to amass a whole lot of vain wealth, and hob nob with the rich and powerful people of this dark age. No, their mission is to save souls by bringing the bread and oil to the hungry souls.
11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
Do you see how brilliant the Lord is. Putting this person in charge as CEO of this hypothetical ministry revealed their heart. I don't want to be sexist, many Christians are accused of being paternalistic and sexist. Let's assume our hypothetical CEO is a woman. Her tenure as CEO will reveal her heart. Is she proud and arrogant? Is she trusting in her own strength? Is the motivated by greed? Or is she focused on feeding hungry souls, feeding the Lord's sheep? Is she willing to be nothing in order to accomplish this goal?
12 And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
This is somewhat unrealistic. Apparently in our hypothetical ministry this woman takes over a ministry that belonged to another without having done anything. It was handed to her. This reminds me of Paul who didn't want anything handed to him but said he only wanted to minister where others had not labored so that there would be no dispute. This is actually a big problem in Christianity. A church is raised up through the gospel by the labor of others. But eventually they hire a pastor who had nothing to do with raising up that church. What have we seen, exactly the same thing, attendance at many of these churches driven into the ground. Is it because the pastors they hire are incompetent? Or is it because FreeMasons are on the board of directors and they want the churches to be destroyed?
13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Wow, the Lord has presented another possibility. You could think that you were serving the Lord but also wanted to make a lot of money as well. The old "have your cake and eat it" situation. He says you can't have it both, either you are 100% for the Lord, willing to sacrifice everything else for Him, or you will despise His authority. Suppose for example the Lord wants you to speak about hell, but you think, no, that could drive away some of our members. This means you have two masters, one is saying the ultimate goal is to fill the seats of the church and the other is saying you need to speak words of salt and light, you need to be faithful to share the full counsel of God.