Luke 16:5

And calling to him each one of his lord' s debtors, he said to the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bond, and sit down quickly and write fifty. Then he said to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. He saith unto him, Take thy bond, and write fourscore.

The size of this operation is evident in the large amounts owed. The measures used here for oil and wheat were "the bath, which was about 9 gallons, and the cor, which was about 11 bushels."[13] Thus, the transactions mentioned involved some 900 gallons of olive oil and about 1,100 bushels of wheat. Summers is doubtless correct in the view that "This was a business venture in which the steward helped several retailers cheat a wholesaler with whom they traded."[14] Certainly, these amounts are much greater than would have been expected of mere tenants on the lord's estate.

This lowering of the bills is the perfect analogy of the manner in which the scribes and Pharisees lowered the standards of righteousness as a device for keeping their hold upon the people: allowing divorce on any pretext (Luke 16:18), and by countless devices making void the law of God (Matthew 23:16). And, although the scribes and Pharisees were the deceitful stewards in view here the analogy may be extended throughout Christian history to include countless others who have marked down the gospel and perverted God's law.

This crooked device of the unjust steward was known to Pharaoh who proposed to Moses that God's command to go three days' journey into the wilderness might be honored by going "not very far away" (Exodus 8:28). It is, of course, a device of Satan; and it is still being employed against the truth. Jesus Christ commanded faith, repentance, confession, and baptism into Christ as preconditions of salvation; but the unjust steward still offers salvation to men for "faith only" or "confession only." The moral requirements of Christianity are still being marked down in the matter of easy divorce for any cause, or none at all, just as the Pharisees were doing. The worship of Jesus Christ is demanded of all who would be saved, in terms of a full hundred measures of oil, or of wheat. That worship requires that men sing, pray, study God's word, give their means to support the truth, and faithfully observe the Lord's supper. And, despite this, there are great systems of "Christian" religions that reduced the requirements in various particulars.

It should be noted that the unjust steward moved with all possible dispatch and diligence to put his evil plan in operation. That same line that records his resolution defines also his summary action to fulfill it. He acted then and there, not putting it off a single day.

Furthermore, he exhibited the most efficient thoroughness in the implementation of his scheme. "He called EVERY ONE of his lord's debtors." None was skipped, or overlooked.

Sit down quickly ... emphasizes the urgency of the steward's plans and the speed with which they were prosecuted.

Thus it is clear enough that in quite a number of the most important qualities, that unjust steward was fully entitled to commendation, not for his dishonesty, BUT FOR THOSE QUALITIES. And what were they?

1. He told himself the truth.

2. He took account of his own need which would not diminish merely because he had lost his job.

3. He accurately appraised the necessity to make some provision against that future need, even as Christ himself commanded (Revelation 3:18).

4. He used those things which he yet controlled in order to meet that inevitable future need.

5. He acted at once with all possible speed.

6. He acted with brilliant efficiency and thoroughness.

It is in these qualities that the steward provides an example of what all men should do with reference to the eternal needs of the soul; and, sadly enough, these are exactly the things that countless millions of men will not do with reference to those very needs.

[13] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 759.

[14] Ray Summers, Commentary on Luke (Waco, Texas: Word Books, Publisher, 1973), p. 190.