Stewardship
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Stewards of the Word
It is important for us to be faithful stewards of the Word. If God gives us a Word, we ought to speak it as if God Himself is speaking. God doesn’t lie, so we shouldn’t lie in His name; God doesn’t manipulate, we shouldn’t manipulate either. God doesn’t threaten, He warns, etc.
For those who preach and teach the Word, it is important to note that God’s people have a degree of trust for the servants of God. Some believers can trust with an abandon that leaves them gullible. This is why teachers of the Word will be judged more strictly (Jam. 3:1). Majority are wont to receive the Word as if God Himself is speaking to them.
“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” —1 Thessalonians 2:13.
The Lord Jesus Himself set the example when He said that the things He did and say, were things He saw and heard from the Father. He neither did nor spoke His own things.
“I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me…
… the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me…
…but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” —John 5:30; 14:24; 15:15.
We have to respect the Word of God to the extent that we don’t peddle it malevolently. We don’t engage in speculation and call it revelation; and we must not manipulate others with it. We should not aim to gain materially from it more than we want others to gain spiritually in it. If the spiritual gain is the primary motive, we are not at a loss even if we gain nothing materially but help others gain spiritually. And we must be careful not to feign an encounter with Christ in order to forestall censor. The apostle Peter puts it as follows:
“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” —1 Peter 4:11.
The apostle Paul exhorts Timothy as far as stewardship over the Word is concerned:
“And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” —2 Timothy 2:2.
The things that Timothy heard Paul teach were not to end with him (Timothy). He was also to commit the same teachings to faithful men. The latter were also not supposed to keep what they heard for themselves. They were also charged to pass it along. Note that the teachings were to be committed to faithful men, not just anybody. They had to be faithful to carry on with the work and also faithful that they preserve the content of what they heard (1 Tim. 1:3, 10; 4:16; 6:3-4).
What we have heard from Christ, through His Word or through His servants, we must faithfully pass along to others and inform them to also pass it along without tampering with it.
“Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” —1 Corinthians 4:1-2.
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