How are stewards/servants/slaves (us) held accountable?
Does anybody out there remember Lee Iacocca and what he is famous for? I saw him a while back in a TV commercial with some rap star but I can’t even remember what they were advertising. He is really getting to be an old guy (maybe dead by now) so you young people probably don’t remember him.
He’s the guy who “saved” Chrysler (way back when). He tells how he did it in his book in chapter 5 if I remember right. Do you remember how he did it? Very easy. He simply asked his management team to develop to-do lists with a 90 day time frame. Then at the end of each 90 days he simply asked the team members if they accomplished what they had put on their to-do lists. If they didn’t do what they said they would do he fired them.
How cruel! You mean he actually held them accountable? Sounds like it to me. But, how could he be so demanding, so mean, so vicious? Well, that famous jazz pianist Erroll Garner (one of my personal favorites even though my little sweetheart wife says he plays with mittens on) knows the answer. Erroll has said (and I quote) “You know what happens when nobody holds me accountable, NOTHIN!” You can label me as old fashioned but it seems to me that people just aren’t held accountable anymore. Whenever something goes wrong it seems like everybody denies, denies, denies and then starts pointing fingers.
What does the Bible say about accountability? Are stewards, servants, slaves, us ever held accountable? Let’s take a look. Have you got the intestinal fortitude to look at these passages?
Prov 27:18 ____________________________________________
Job 42:7 ______________________________________________
Math 25:19-30 _________________________________________
Luke 12:35 ___________________________________________
Luke 12:42-43 _________________________________________
Luke 12:46-48 _________________________________________
Luke 16:2 ____________________________________________
Luke 19:15-24 _________________________________________
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Prov 27:18 He who tends the fig tree will eat its fruit; And he who cares for his master will be honored. NASB
Job 42:7 And it came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has. NASB
Matt 25:19-30 “Now after a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. 20 “And the one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, ‘Master, you entrusted five talents to me; see, I have gained five more talents.’ 21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 “The one also who had received the two talents came up and said, ‘Master, you entrusted to me two talents; see, I have gained two more talents.’ 23 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 “And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed. 25 ‘And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground; see, you have what is yours.’ 26 “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I scattered no seed. 27 ‘Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. 28 ‘Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ 29 “For to everyone who has shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. 30 “And cast out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. NASB
Luke 12:42-43 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? 43 “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. NASB
Luke 12:35-40 “Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps alight. 36 “And be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. 37 “Blessed are those slaves whom the master shall find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. 38 “Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. 39 “And be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 40 “You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.” NASB
Luke 12:46-48 the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces, and assign him a place with the unbelievers. 47 “And that slave who knew his master’s will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, shall receive many lashes, 48 but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. And from everyone who has been given much shall much be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more. NASB
Luke 16:2 “And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’ NASB
Luke 19:15-24 “And it came about that when he returned, after receiving the kingdom, he ordered that these slaves, to whom he had given the money, be called to him in order that he might know what business they had done. 16 “And the first appeared, saying, ‘Master, your mina has made ten minas more.’ 17 “And he said to him, ‘Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, be in authority over ten cities.’ 18 “And the second came, saying, ‘Your mina, master, has made five minas.’ 19 “And he said to him also, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’ 20 “And another came, saying, ‘Master, behold your mina, which I kept put away in a handkerchief; 21 for I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man; you take up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow.’ 22 “He said to him, ‘By your own words I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow? 23 ‘Then why did you not put the money in the bank, and having come, I would have collected it with interest?’ 24 “And he said to the bystanders, ‘Take the mina away from him, and give it to the one who has the ten minas. ‘NASB