Nothing that is done just for the sake of one's own
future benefit seems to be regarded in the Gospel as worth doing.
The essence of Christian giving seems to be real giving, and not a
sort of usurious loan. There is of course one very puzzling parable,
that of the unjust steward, who used his last hours in office,
before the news of his dismissal could get abroad, in cheating his
master, in order to win the favour of the debtors by arbitrarily
diminishing the amount of their debts. It seems strange that our
Saviour should have drawn a moral out of so immoral an incident.
Perhaps He was using a well-known story, and even making allowances
for the admiration with which in the East resourcefulness, even of a
fraudulent kind, was undoubtedly regarded. But the principle seems
clear enough, that if the Christian chooses to possess wealth, he
runs a great risk, and that it is therefore wiser to disembarrass
oneself of it. Property is regarded in the Gospel as an undoubtedly
dangerous thing; but so far from our Lord preaching a kind of
socialism, and bidding men to co-operate anxiously for the sake of
equalising wealth, He recommends an individualistic freedom from the
burden of wealth altogether.
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