Stewardship Component 5 – Assessment
We’ve made it to our final component to consider: Assessment. This is where stewardship activity culminates and the activity we have taken is reviewed.
Reacquaint yourself with the parables Jesus told in Matthew 25:14-30 and Luke 19:11-27. I will be referring to them both in today’s post.
No surprises here
The parables ending with an assessment would not surprise Jesus’s audience. It was expected when the masters instructed their men and set expectations on their actions. While the instruction is implied in Matthew’s parable, the nobleman in Luke’s story was very to his servants. “Do business with this money until I come back.”
This instruction…
- …is specific to the activity the steward was to complete – “Do business…”.
- …focuses on the property entrusted to the steward – “…with this money…”.
- …was time-bound – “…until I come back.”
Once he returned, it can be assumed that he wanted to know what happened in his absence.
The assessment time arrives and each steward stands before his master. Each gives an account of his activity, and the current state of the master’s property. Based on that report, the master makes his assessment and pronounces his verdict on the steward’s efforts.
An orderly affair
Each steward can to state their case. They know what they are reporting on and each is dealt with individually and based on their actions. This was an orderly event.
We can think that the servant who hid his master’s money was inactive, but, he was as active as those who produced a monetary increase. He knowingly and purposefully chose inaction and was held accountable for it. Do not forget, your Christian life is one of conscious, deliberate action. A stewardship lifestyle does not just happen. Any chosen inactivity is as much action as it seems to be inaction.
The other stewards also made conscious decisions. Theirs were to steward actively and intentionally what the master had trusted to them. They understood the assignment and the expectations, and they too were assessed by their actions. However, in Luke’s account there seems to be a possible disparity between the nature of the review and the assessment the master makes.
Character, not productivity
It is odd that the master’s assessment of the two men who stewarded well does not match the criteria they were being assessed against.
The instruction was to “do business.” Their master even came to see “how much they had made by the business they had done.” But the commendation for the stewards who had produced more property for the master was based around faithfulness, not productivity.
“Since you have been faithful in a very little thing.”
“Well done, good and faithful slave.”
Reading the parable, we could expect the praise to be based around their productivity or profitability. This is what the assessment criteria was set as. We may expect such commendations as, ‘You had a productivity rate of 1,000%! Amazing! Well done!’ Or, ‘You produced 500% more than you were given. Great job!’
This just isn’t so.
While the master may have come to see how productive they had been, he is more interested in their character and work ethic than the final accumulation of his property.
Do not forget that the primary expectation of a steward is to be faithful. This means understanding what the property owner wants you to do , and then discharging your duty in a trustworthy way. These men were productive. The master couldn’t be anything other than pleased with the extra wealth he now had. But he shows that he was more interested in his stewards’ character.
We will be assessed too
As God’s stewards, we too expect an assessment of our activities. Our final assessment occurs at a place, and an event often referred to in the Bible as the Judgement Seat of Christ.
It already sounds ominous before you get into the detail, doesn’t it?
Three key elements about the Judgement Seat of Christ must be established:
- The Judgement Seat of Christ is a place and an event that is only for believers. New Testament writing on the topic are all written to, and about, believers in the Lord Jesus. No reference is ever made to non-believers being present, and the New Testament authors routinely use the pronoun “we” when referring to those who will be there. Thus encompassing the author and his Christian audience.
- The Judgement Seat of Christ is different from the Great White Throne Judgement. While both use the word ‘judgement,’ the latter is an entirely different location and event that you find recorded in Revelation 20:11-15. This is a time when all unbelievers will appear before God, be found guilty of their sins, and punished. No Christians appear at this event.
- The Judgement Seat of Christ does not determine your salvation. As a believer in Christ, your sins were forgiven when you put your faith in Jesus and “…there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) The matter of your salvation was settled when Christ gave Himself as a sacrifice for your sin, no further action is needed on this point.
The Judgement Seat of Christ is, however, a time of assessment. All believers will be examined for the way they lived and what they did with the resources God gave to them. But God’s intention is not to just assess it is to reward as well.
Rewards after assessment
In 2 Corinthians 5:10 we read that each believer will receive ”compensation” – essentially, what is due to them – for the things which they did while they had their earthly bodies. The measure of the reward each believer receives will be “…in accordance with what he has done, whether good or bad…”.
Take a moment to grasp this.
While God will assess you at the Judgement seat, His intention is so that He might reward you. His desire is to bless you further for the things which you did while you were here on this earth. For how you lived as a Christian, and how you stewarded His possessions that He entrusted to your care.
In this assessment He takes everything into account. Everything you have done: the good and the bad. And once He has accounted for both negative and positive, He will bless you with a reward. This speaks loudly of how gracious and mighty a God we serve.
As we continue to go about our stewardship activities, may the following verse be a motivation for us, especially as our actions will be examined one day.
Colossians 1:10
“…walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,
to please Him in all respects,
bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God”
Explore Assessment more:
“The Danger of a Productivity Mindset” **Coming soon**
“My responsibility in light of Assessment” **Coming soon**
