‘Let a man so account of us as of assistants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Here moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.'
All Christian teachers are to be seen as ‘assistants' of Christ in the household of God. The word for ‘assistants' originally referred to the lowest level of galleyslaves in a trireme, the lowest of the low, those at the bottom of the ladder. It was also used of the assistant at the synagogue in Nazareth who took the scroll of Isaiah from Jesus once He had finished reading (Luke 4:20). It stresses inferiority to a superior in a particular field, for example a ‘junior doctor'. They are learners and helpers to one who is knowledgeable in their field. So are Christian teachers learners and helpers in relation to Christ Who is Himself the source of their knowledge and understanding.
They are also to be seen as stewards, household managers of the mysteries of God. The stress on this continues. They are not the owner, they act on the owner's behalf. They are responsible to administer what is His. This was a favourite theme of Jesus Himself and He constantly referred to men as servants and stewards of God. Their responsibility, says Paul, is to make known what was previously hidden to those to whom God has chosen to reveal it. It was a mystery, for although God had unveiled something of it in the Old Testament, it had remained veiled to man. But now it had been revealed in Christ. And as stewards of those mysteries it was their responsibility to unveil Christ, and not their own wisdom
They were thus not to be inventors of, or speculators in, religious matters. Others spoke of revealing ‘mysteries. The world was full of mystery religions. But they were mysteries of their own devising, not the mysteries of God. The responsibility of God's stewards was to preserve and minister God's word which has been committed to them, and to make Christ fully known as he had been revealed to them. For that is a steward's responsibility, to be faithful to his master in relation to what is his. The steward of Christ should point to Christ and not to himself, should concentrate on Christ's affairs and not his own, and should carry out his responsibilities faithfully.
‘Here moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.' In fulfilling that stewardship nothing was more essential than that the steward be found faithful. For it was only the faithful steward,, who was true to his master's wisdom, who would truly unveil the mysteries of his master.