"If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?" (Luke 16:12)

This Scripture seems to reverse man’s natural thoughts, putting our own interests in the second place. We would say that if we were faithful in our own affairs we would doubtless take care of what belongs to another. Scripture reverses this. We are not really fit to care for our own interests if we have not been faithful in the concerns of others. God’s interests are first, and we are His stewards. He has entrusted us with His things. Here nothing belongs to us; we have forfeited the right even to live. But God leaves us here and entrusts us with time, talents, opportunities, means, influence _ all that comes into our life _ as His stewards. "Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful" (I Cor. 4:2). These things do not belong to us; if we think of them as ours, we will make a wrong use of them and be harmed by them as well. Our possessions are elsewhere_reserved in heaven for us; though through grace that inheritance does not depend upon our faithfulness here, a neglect of God’s interests here would show a failure to rightly value our possessions there. Self must not be the center, the object, but God and His glory. Faithful in His things, we can even here enjoy those spiritual blessings which are ours.

FRAGMENT He who knows how to use the unrighteous whose heart is not in it_will then have the true riches.