Stewardship of Time

Stewardship of Time STEWARDSHIP OF TIME
By Homer Hailey

Brethren in the Lord, and Friends: There are so many things in life we should like to do, and so many things we ought to do, that we are constantly torn between desire and a sense of duty, thus making every decision of life one of moment and importance. On every hand we hear people say, “I haven’t time”; but God has given us sufficient time to do and to ac-complish ail he would have any individual do. The apostle prays that the Philippians may “approve the things that are excellent.” That is virtually what “stewardship of time” is, an approving of the things excellent; choosing the important and essential in life; profitably using the time God has given us. A complete appreciation of Christian stewardship will help us to solve the problem of which things to do.

All Life Is a Stewardship The Christian must recognize that all of life is a stewardship. A steward is one entrusted writh the management of goods not his own; stewardship is the proper and active managing or handling of goods be-longing to another, primarily lor the profit and benefit of the owner. One of the fundamentals of life is the recognition of this principle.

Jesus constantly stressed the lesson of man’s stewardship, and of God’s ownership. A brief review of his parables reveals this note in his teaching: the “Talents”; “the Unjust Steward”; “the Pounds”; “the Rich Fool.” In all of these the keynote is “stewardship” on the part of man; and “ownership” on the part of God. The apostle Paul recognized his ministry as a ste-wardship of “goods” belonging to God; as he says, “Let a man so account of us as of ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. Here, moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). In speaking of the responsibility of preaching the gospel, the same apostle says, “For if I do this of mine own will, I have a reward: but if not of mine own will, I have a stewardship intrusted to me” (1 Corinthians 9:17). Life, to Paul, was one great, stewardship.

Paul was not alone in this attitude toward life, and the blessings and opportunities that attend life; the apostle Peter also stressed the recognition of one’s stewardship of all blessings and benefits. “According as each hath received a gift, ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10). The Christian is obligated to recognize his every talent, opportunity, and moment as that which is entrusted to him, over which he is a steward, answerable to God. The Christian is not his own, “Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The Christian belongs to Christ, whether in life or in death, “For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:7-8). And not only so, but he belongs to the Lord as a “bondservant,” “For he that was called in the Lord being a bondservant, is the Lord’s freedman: likewise he that was called being free, is Christ’s bondservant” (1 Corinthians 7:22). Just as the bondservant of men could claim none of his time as his own, but had to recognize both himself and his time as belonging to another; so neither can the Christian, the bondservant of Christ, recognize either himself or his time as his own, but as belonging to him who bought him. The stewardship of the Christian, therefore, includes the stewardship of time as well as of life. The Preciousness and Value of Time —the Present
It is impossible to think of the value of time and not be reminded of the Saviour’s appreciation of the moments, and the apostle Paul’s diligent use of it, and exhortation to us to recognize its worth. Jesus said, “We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the nigh cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4). His was a busy life; the work the Father sent him to do was accomplished in three and one-half years. The apostle Paul, filled with zeal for the gospel of Christ, and realizing the preciousness of time, so used his days and hours that he was able to say of the gospel “which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under heaven; whereof I Paul was made a minister” (Colossians 1:23). He then passed on to us a solemn reminder of the preciousness of time when he said “look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).

Man cannot do with time as he would with money, lay it up for future use; he must use it now or never. The old proverb which said “save the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves” would have to be revised if applied to time. It should have to read “spend wisely the minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves.” Someone has said that time is so precious God has given it to us a second at a time.

Benjamin Franklin, in “Letters to a Young Trades-man” said “Time is money.” The saying could likewise be made to read “time is knowledge”; “time is wisdom”; “time is power, skill, salvation”; for it is the proper application of time that brings to us these things. In considering the value, of time, the Chrstian should realize that the emphasis must be placed on “now,” for it is on the “now” that God places it. “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation,” says the Holy Spirit (2 Coi. 6:2). Upon the future no man has any lease, either saint of sinner. James says to the saint, “Gome now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:1415). The fatal mistake of governor Felix was the thought that he possessed a lease upon life. He failed to appreciate the value of “now,” as he said to Paul, “Go thy way for this time; and when I have a convenient season, I will call thee unto me” (Acts 24:25). That season never came; his time and opportunity were “now.”

God’s call is to go work in the vineyard “today” (Matthew 21:28) while the problems to be solved are those of the hour, not of “tomorrow”; there will be ample time to consider them when the morrow comes (Matthew 6:34.
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“Here am I, Caught up in the wonder of this moment.
This NOW is all I have,
For yesterday is dim and dead,
And tomorrow is always just ahead.”
—Ruth Cooke*

Procrastination

Procrastination and the waste of time are grievous sins, which result in many tasks always remaining undone. When we put off until tomorrow the work that should have been done today, then waste the time that should have been assigned to the task, we force something to be forever left undone. That which we have put off will force a conflict of decisions on the morrow; for we will then have to decide between it and the task of that day. Something, therefore, will have to be left undone; either the thing we put off, or that which should have been done on the morrow that is forced out to do that neglected yesterday. The life and field of work of the procrastinator and idler of time become like the field of the sluggard, so graphically described by the writer of Proverbs. (This verse was handed me by one of my students after the lecture. Appreciating it as I did, I here insert it as a part of the lecture.) “I went by the field of the sluggard, and by the vine-yard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, the face thereof was covered with nettles, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I beheld, and considered well; I saw, and received instruction: Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep; so shall thy poverty come as a robber, and thy want as an armed man” (Proverbs 24:30-34). He then admonishes us to “Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no chief, overseer, or ruler, provideth her bread in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, 0 sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of sleep?” (Proverbs 6:6-9). The life of the sluggard becomes like his field and vineyard; the wall of resistance is broken down, weeds and nettles over-run it, and spiritual poverty overtakes him. Truly, idleness is the devil’s work-shop. The Challenge of the Constant Present The constant present keeps ever before us the chal-lenge of stewardship of time. In order to make this talk definite and practical, let us consider the challenge of the present to our stewardship as applied to various groups: To the Preacher. His charge is to study, teach, and i/ preach, “Till I come give heed to reading, to exhortation, to teaching ... Be diligent in these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy progress may be manifest unto all” (1 Timothy 4:13; 1 Timothy 4:15).

There is no group of individuals today with greater advantages and opportunities than the preacher; but at the same time there is no group with greater temp-tation to waste time than they. Engaged by the con-gregation to preach andt teach, evangelizing the local community and neighboring territory; then “turned loose” to do this work, not feeling responsible to an “employer” as men of common occupations, the preacher dangerously drifts into the habit of wasting time. I would not say this is intentional by any means; it just results from a gradual slackening of diligence upon himself. Feeling that he should “visit around,” the habit of slothfulness is developed. To the preacher, “time is souls,” lost or won for Christ. Brethren, let us “redeem the time, for the days are evil,” make every moment of the day count for Jesus and his cause. To the Teacher. His responsibility is to teach, “And the things which thou hast heard from m,e among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). To which charge Jesus adds, “Be not many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment” (James 3:1). To teach acceptably before God demands time for preparation; and in the class-room a proper use of every minute.

Souls are either developed or destroyed by the proper or improper use of the time the teacher spends with the learners. The class-room is no place or time for foolishness, and the discussion of the trivial things of life; it is a time of study and discussion of the things of God. Teachers, “redeem the time, for the days are evil.” And remember the wise man’s admonition, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” To the Elders, there is the abiding challenge of the constant present. Because of the gravity of the work, much of the elder’s time belongs to God. God has appointed him a watchman of souls, as said the apostle, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit to them: for they watch in behalf of your souls, as they that shall give account” (Hebrews 13:17). Oh, how many are lost today to the church and to God because elders failed to “redeem time”! We realize that the command to “exhort one another day by day, so long as it is called today; lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13) is to all Christians; but the responsibility falls in a special way upon elders, as watchmen of the flock. The time to admonish is “now”, just as soon as the individual shows that he needs the fatherly admpnition, or stern rebuke, of the elder. To the Student, time is knowledge, power, ability. To Christians the writer of Hebrews said, “For when by reason of the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need again that some one teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God” (Hebrews 5:12). These had been wasting time. The time students waste, either in the church, or in school, is never regained. The individual must suffer for it always; the task that should have filled that time must be relegated to the archive of “undone things,” golden hours, set with sixty diamond minutes. There is no reward offered, they are gone forever.” Oh, that students would appreciate this truth while young, when time seems so plentiful to them! To parents, the challenge is present from the very first moment of parenthood. The admonition of God respecting children is ever upon and before you: “And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). You have them as babes but once; as children but once; as youths but once; then they are gone as young men or women from your charge to places of maturity, with more or less fixed habits of life. What they are, and where they shall spend enternity, will depend to a large extent upon the discharge of your stewardship of time; how much you spend with them in teaching, training, nurturing, and admonishing them; as also in playing with them as companions. Parents must account to God for the time spent or mis-spent with their children. They are your most treasured and valuable responsibilities, they cannot be reared, nurtured and trained without spending time with them. And again, “Now is the acceptable time.” Let Paul’s admonition stir you to “redeem the time, because the days are evil.” To the church, a challenge is ever before us. The issues of today must be met today. Our pioneers met most faithfully those issues of yesterday, but it is now our responsibility -to meet those of today, of the “now.” Those confronting us today are error outside and inside the church, sin, and infidelity. Tomorrow these will have become deeply rooted, bearing fruit of ungodliness in our children and children’s children.

Josiah was not responsible for the conditions as he found them when he became king, but he was certainly responsible for the stewardship of his own obligation and time in fighting them, or winking at them. So it is with us today. We may not be responsible for that which we find, but the challenge of the present is ours, and we shall be responsible for what we leave for the next generation. The attitude of Jesus must be ours as his church. “I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day, for the night cometh when no man can work.” Our night shall come long ere we are ready for it. Because of Jesus’ appreciation of time, and the grandeur of his task, discharging every responsibility each day, he could say in his closing moments, “It is finished.”

Because of the preciousness of time, and the chal-lenge of the ever present resonsibilities, there must be time for prayer, time for study, time for meditation, time for preparation; and then time spent in the work itself. “Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleep- est, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee. Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians 5:14-17). Let the sinner obey; let the wayward return home; and let the faithful work heartily unto the Lord, today, while it is called today; for the Lord shall come sud-denly, and shall not tarry. If you are subject to the gospel invitation, come now, while the opportunity is yours.