Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing.
Read Chapter 24
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Everyone should make full use of what he has been given for the common advantage of all. If you possess power or wealth or wisdom, do not use it to hurt your fellow servants. If you do, it will be to your own ruin. Since sins come from foolishness, he requires both wisdom and fidelity. One is faithful who has been a good steward of his Lord’s goods, not stealing from the Lord, not spending without aim or fruit. One is wise who knows how to dispense the things given him in a fitting way. Indeed, we have need of both these things together, faithfulness and wisdom, and these in conjunction. We are called to exercise our stewardship in a fitting manner, spending carefully. And we must not steal from the Lord. If one of these is lacking, the other is halted. There would be great blame if one were to waste the Lord’s goods, spend freely the resources we have been given, even if we never stole anything at all. Similarly there would be heavy charges to make against one who spent his Lord’s goo...
And the Father too will be found to be saying such things. For He Himself likewise says, Adam, where are you? Genesis 3:9 and, The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is waxed great before me. I will go down therefore, and see whether their doings be according to their cry which comes unto me, and if not, I will know. Genesis 18:20-21 And elsewhere He says, Whether they will hear, whether they will understand. Ezekiel 2:5 And in the gospel too, It may be they will reverence my Son: all which are expressions of ignorance. But not in ignorance did He say these things, but as compassing objects such as became Him: in the case of Adam, that He might drive him to make an excuse for his sin: in that of the Sodomites, that He might teach us never to be positive, till we are present at the very deeds; in that of the prophet, that the prediction might not appear in the judgment of the foolish a kind of compulsion to disobedience; and in the parable in the gospel, that He might show that they ought to hav...
