The Unjust Steward

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 1, 1883

The Unjust Steward.

DR. HOWARD CROSBY gives the following exposition of the parable of the unjust steward. It is clear and plain, and seems the most consistent and reasonable of any that we have heard:—

In the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1–8) the words, "Take thy bill and sit down quickly and write fourscore" (5–7), are regarded by all commentators as marking the unjust action whereby the steward obtained this epithet "unjust." And this view is founded upon the idea that the bill (gramma) is the lord's bill of indebtedness against the debtors. But no lord would commend his steward for reducing his bills, and the act would be one of very vulgar rascality, showing no praiseworthy quality whatever. In 5–8, however, we find the lord commending his steward for this act as a wise one; but there is no wisdom in wickedness. Let us endeavor to set forth another view of this matter.

The steward was unjust because he had wasted his lord's goods. Verse 1. For this reason he was to be removed. As a steward of a great lord he undoubtedly had a large income. He would not be left penniless, but still he would not have enough for a permanent living. He looked forward and saw that what he had would be spent in a year or two, and then he would be in want, for, of course, no other lord would employ him as steward after his removal from the service of the first for injustice. Now (thinks he) if I can only make friends of another class (my lord's debtors) by my money I can be taken care of all my life. Accordingly he goes to those who owe a rental to his lord, and out of his own money pays part of his indebtedness. The "bills" which they were to write for fifty and eighty instead of a hundred were like our checks (or due bills), or they were orders on the overseers of the crops. The balance he would make up. The lord, certainly knew what his rental was, and could not be deceived by a half or three-fifths payment. The whole had to be paid him in each case. Besides, the lord is entirely cognizant of the act of the steward, as the parable shows, which would have been concealed if it had been the wicked act usually supposed.

Another thing which proves this view the correct one is the moral which our Saviour adds: "Make to yourselves friends of (i. e., "by") the mammon of unrighteousness," etc., which means: "Use your money so as to make friends for eternity." But if the steward only reduced the amount of the debtor's bills, he did not use any money at all. He used only trickery. If he, however, took his own money to pay their bills, he then literally "made to himself friends by the mammon of unrighteousness." Note that the mammon is so-called, not because the steward's act here was unrighteous (for the phrase occurs not in the account of the steward's act, but in our Saviour's appeal to his hearers) but because mammon is so generally used in an unrighteous way.