1 Corinthians 4:1-2, On Stewards
1 Corinthians 4:1-2 Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2 Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.
The faithful minister of Christ is a diligent servant serving his Master who knows his lowly or humble position and accepts it as his calling in life. We may apply this to all who serves the Lord, not necessary just in the Word although the context refers to preachers of the gospel.
“There is the national rowing team of country M that was trying to prove that they are able. It was agreed that each team to be made up of 8 members. After months of intensive training, the race began! But Country J won by 1 km! The people of country M were furious with the disappointing results. The management decided to win the race next year at ANY cost. So they established a team of analysts to observe the situation and recommend an appropriate solution. After detailed analysis, the team observed that the J rowers had seven rowers and one captain. The M team had seven captains and only one rower. Facing such crucial scenario, the management showed an unexpected wisdom. They hired a consulting company to restructure the M Team. After many months…The consultants concluded that there were too many captains and too few rowers in the M team. A solution was proposed based on a BRILLIANT analysis. The structure of the team must change immediately. As today, there will only be 4 captains, 2 supervisors, 1 manager and 1 rower. Besides this, they also suggested to improve the rower’s working environment and to give him higher competencies. Come next year, the J team won by 2 km. The M team immediately removed the rower from the team based on his unsatisfactory performance. A bonus award was paid to the management for the excellent motivation they had shown during the preparation phase. The consulting company further prepared a new analysis, which showed that the strategy was good, the motivation satisfactory, but the tools had to be improved. Currently, the M Team is designing a NEW BOAT!”
I gave this illustration in a workshop for church ushers and when sharing with those who collect weekly offerings who count and record them. A laborious task, week after week! If anyone will not perform his duty responsibly, the work will not be done. If one is slack in the counting, there would be inaccuracy and discrepancies. In the kingdom of God, “faithfulness in small things is a big thing”. (John Chrysostom 347-407).
May God reward His faithful servants. Amen.