THE STEWARDSHIP PRINCIPLE
INTRODUCTION
In the management or stewardship principle, there are two important components, namely: the pursuit or “to work” and maintenance or “to keep”.
Pursuit means that we have to develop ourselves, make it even better.
To maintain means, keeping it in the same condition.
That is why the best way to maintain anything is to work on it.
For example: in marriage we must strive to maintain it, to maintain a job we must strive to work diligently and optimally.
CONTENT
Let us see how this stewardship principle works, especially in the parable of the talents that Jesus gave in Matthew chapter 25.
Why were some given five talents, two talents and one talent? Because they were considered capable of managing each talent they received.
We see that the servant who was given this one talent just did nothing, did not do what was entrusted to him by his master, so he was called ‘lazy and wicked’.
But he expected that there would be multiplication. Because of his laziness, what happened was that he got nothing, so his ability was reduced from one talent to nothing.
It is interesting that to the servants who received five and two talents, the master did not ask for the money to be returned. He only asked them to explain their accountability.
The servant who received one talent was instructed to give his talent to the servant who had ten talents, so the talent was actually not being taken away from him.
The lesson we can learn is: if we fail to manage well, then whatever is in our hands will be taken away from us. We will lose something that we do not manage.
CONCLUSION
We see how important stewardship is, because it determines whether a person lives in abundance or not. And what is no less interesting to me is, when the master said: “So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers” (Matthew 25:27).
In other words, this master said, “If you do not understand or do not know what to do, you should ask someone who knows better for help.”
One of the important aspects of good stewardship is our attitude towards small matters, whether we take them lightly or we take them seriously.