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Our Lord begins this chapter with the parable of the rich man's steward, who being called upon by his master to give up his accounts, in order to his being discharged from his office, casts about with himself what course he had best take to provide for his subsistence, when he should be turned out of his employment: at last he resolves upon this course; that he will go to his lord's debtors, and take a favorable account of them, writing down fifty for an hundred, that by this means he might oblige them to be kind to him in his necessity; this is the sum of the parable.
Now the scope and design of it is this: To exhort all men that are intrusted by God here with estates, honors, and authority, to make use of all these unto spiritual ends, the glory of God, and the benefit of others; for we are not proprietors and owners, but stewards only, of the manifold gifts of God, and must be accountable unto him for all at last; but in the mean time to use, employ, and improve our Lord's goods to the best advantage for ourselves, while we are entrusted with them; this is the scope of the parable.
Now the observations from it are these:
1. That all persons, even the highest and greatest of persons, are but stewards of the good things of God.
2. That our stewardship must and shall have an end; we shall not be always, no, we shall not be long, stewards.
3. That when we are put out of our stewardship, we must give an account of our carriage therein; and the greater our trust was, the heavier will our reckoning be.
4. That therefore it will be our highest prudence, while we are entrusted with our master's goods, so to use and improve them, as may make most for our comfort and advantage, when we give up our account.