Faithful in Little

Hudson Taylor was a young medical assistant in Hull, preparing to go to China as a missionary. He had decided he needed to learn to trust God for money before he left England. If he couldn’t trust God in Hull, he reasoned, how would he trust Him in China? So when his employer forgot to pay his salary, Taylor didn’t remind him. He prayed instead.

One Saturday night he found he had only a single coin left, a half-crown. That Sunday evening a poor man asked him to come and pray for his wife, who was dying. Taylor followed him to a wretched room where a mother lay exhausted next to a newborn baby, and several children stood around with the hollow cheeks of slow starvation.

Taylor began to tell them about a loving Father in heaven, and his own words condemned him. He could trust God, he realised, “plus one-and-sixpence,” but not with nothing in his pocket. He tried to pray, and his conscience said, “Dare you kneel down and call Him Father with that half-crown in your pocket?” At last he gave the man the coin, his last money in the world. “The joy all came back in full flood-tide to my heart,” he wrote.

The next morning a letter came with no name and no message inside, only a pair of gloves. As he unfolded them, half a sovereign fell to the floor, four times what he had given. Years later, after a life of trusting God through great difficulty in China, he looked back on that night and wrote:

“If we are faithful to God in little things, we shall gain experience and strength that will be helpful to us in the more serious trials of life.”

Little things, large things

Taylor was echoing Jesus, who said:

“Someone who is faithful in the smallest matter is faithful in large matters too, and someone who is dishonest in the smallest matter is dishonest in large matters too. So if you have not been faithful in handling unjust wealth, who will put real wealth in your care?” (Luke 16:10-11)

Jesus calls money “the smallest matter.” To us money feels enormous. It decides where we live, what we eat, how secure we feel. But from heaven’s point of view, money is one of the smallest things in life. It will all be gone one day. And yet, Jesus says, how we handle this small thing reveals and shapes our character for large things.

What are the large things? Jesus calls them “real wealth,” or as older translations say, “true riches.” These are the things that last forever: people, souls, the kingdom of God, character, eternal reward, responsibility in the age to come. Money is the training ground. If we can’t be trusted with the passing wealth of this world, why would God trust us with the riches of the next?

Money is a test

This means that every financial decision, however small, is part of our discipleship. The way you handle a few pounds of change in your pocket, the way you fill in an expense form, the way you treat a waiter, the way you respond when someone asks for help, are all part of God’s training.

That is both sobering and encouraging. It is sobering because it means there is no such thing as a small compromise. If you will cheat on a little, you will cheat on a lot, given the chance. But it is encouraging because it means you don’t have to be rich to be faithful. A widow with two coins and a millionaire with a fortune face the same test. Faithfulness with little is just as precious to God as faithfulness with much.

The parable of the talents

Jesus told a story about a man who went on a long journey and entrusted his property to his servants. “He gave five bags of silver to one, two to another and one to a third, according to what each could manage” (Matthew 25:15). The first two servants put the money to work and doubled it. The third buried his in the ground.

When the master returned, he said to each of the first two exactly the same words:

“Well done! You are a good and faithful servant. You proved faithful in small matters; I will put you in charge of great ones. Come in and share the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:21)

The servant with five bags and the servant with two received identical praise. The master didn’t compare them with each other. He only asked whether each had been faithful with what he was given.

But the third servant, who had been given one bag, hid it. He said he was afraid of his master. The master called him wicked and lazy, and took away even what he had.

The lesson is plain. God gives different people different amounts, of money, talents, opportunities and time. He doesn’t expect everyone to produce the same. He expects each of us to be faithful with what we have, and to put it to work for Him. The great sin in the parable is not losing money. It is doing nothing with it out of fear.

Faithfulness in practice

What does faithfulness in little look like day to day?

Honesty in small things. Give back the extra change. Report the mistake in your favour. Pay for the thing that broke.

Care in small things. Look after what you have. Don’t waste food, energy or possessions. Fix things instead of throwing them away when you can.

Generosity in small things. You don’t have to wait until you are rich to be generous. Give what you can now. Many people say, “When I have more, I’ll give more.” But if you aren’t generous with little, you probably won’t be with much.

Diligence in small things. Keep track of your spending. Pay your bills on time. Keep your promises.

Prayer in small things. Bring even little money matters to God. Taylor learned faith by praying over a few shillings of salary. God cares about the details.

Unjust wealth

One more thing. Just before His saying about faithfulness, Jesus told one of His strangest parables, about a dishonest manager who, about to be fired, used his master’s money to make friends who would take him in. Jesus doesn’t praise his dishonesty. He praises his shrewdness: the man used money, which he was about to lose anyway, to prepare for his future.

Then Jesus applies it: “use the wealth of this unjust world to make friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, they will welcome you into the eternal homes” (Luke 16:9). In other words, use money, which you can’t keep, for things you can keep: people and eternity. Use it to bless others, to support the gospel, to help the poor. One day the money will be gone. The people you helped, and the welcome they give you, will last forever.

A voice from the past

Charles Spurgeon put this principle in two memorable sentences:

“God’s gold is not miser’s money, but is minted to be traded with.”

Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning

“Your possessions are never so safe as when you are willing to resign them, and you are never so rich as when you put all you have into the hand of the Lord.”

Charles H. Spurgeon, Gleanings Among the Sheaves

Practice this week

Look for one “little thing” each day this week where you can be faithful with money: returning extra change, paying a small debt you had forgotten, giving a small gift, keeping careful track of a purchase. At the end of the week, reflect on how these small choices shaped you.

For groups

• Why do you think Jesus calls money “the smallest matter”?
• What are the “real wealth” or “true riches” Jesus talks about in Luke 16:11?
• In the parable of the talents, why did the servants with five and two bags receive the same praise?
• Where is it most tempting for you to be unfaithful in little things?