Luke 16:10-12 (NIV) “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?”
Very few people would argue with the principles in these verses, as they are self-evident. If someone proves to be unfaithful in small things that we give them to do, almost no one would think, “Oh, well; I’m sure that they will be faithful in this massively important task!” but if someone proves to be faithful in small tasks, it is very natural to entrust them with greater responsibilities.
But Jesus takes this principle of the world into greater areas of significance that applied to both His own followers and to the Pharisees and teachers of the law: if a person proves to be unfaithful in handling worldly things, God will not entrust them with the riches of the kingdom.
For the disicples, they needed to understand that, as far as God’s kingdom goes, there are no small or insignificant jobs; there are only proving grounds, jobs that show what is in the hearts of His people, and that give us opportunity to prove ourselves faithful, so that we can be given greater, more important responsibilities in the future. If we prove faithful, the doorway to greater things is wide open. But if we prove lazy or dissatisfied with small responsibilities, the door is closed until we are able to be successful at lower levels.
For the Pharisees and teachers of the law, though, this teaching has a much different, though related, import. These men, the spiritual leaders of God’s people, had been given stewardship of God’s word, His laws, His commandments, with the responsibility of helping God’s people to know how to live in His economy. A good deal of this law does not deal with heavenly mysteries, but with earthly attitudes and actions. But in far too many instances, these leaders had not proven trustworthy in these mundane issues, but instead had used their positions to garner privileges for themselves, or to run roughshod over those for whom they had been given spiritual responsibility. Since they had not proven to be faithful in these small, mundane issues, there was no way that God was going to entrust them with the riches of heavenly insights.
Father, I don’t think that we normally think of the things You have given us to do, small mundane things, as proving grounds, to show that we are responsible with small things so that we can be entrusted with greater responsibilities; to show that we can be faithful with small light, so that we can be entrusted with greater insights. Help us Lord, to be faithful always, to understand that nothing is small in Your kingdom, so that we can do all things well, even mundane things, and bring glory to You. Amen.