[Jesus]…said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to (the rich man) that this (manager) was wasting his possessions…No servant can serve two masters…You cannot serve God and money.
Luke 16:1-13
Jesus tells His Disciples the parable of the rich man with a dishonest business/financial manager. In the parable, the rich man has become aware that his business/financial manger had mismanaged the rich man’s affairs. The rich man fired the manager and had him make an account of all the rich man’s business and financial matters. The manager said within himself: “What am I going to do now?” For my master is taking the management away from me. All I know is how to manage the property of a master. I’m not qualified to do anything else. Then the manager thought, “I have to come up with a solution to my dilemma.” He was facing the most serious crisis of his career. He said, “I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the position, they (meaning the rich man’s debtors) may receive me into their houses.” He called every one of his master’s debtors to him. Jesus only reported what happened in the transactions with two of those debtors, but presumably the same was done with the rest of them. The manager knew that the markup was exorbitant. He said to the debtor: “I’m going to change your bill on behalf of my master. I’m going to cut the cost by 50%.” Can you imagine the joy of the debtor when he realized he only owed half as much as he had before the manager walked in his door and changed the bill? The manager was not doing this out of the goodness of his heart. He was doing it to feather his own nest. He knew he was fired and had nowhere to go, so he was making friends with all the debtors by cutting their bills radically. Jesus, then, says, “The master commended the unjust steward.” But it wasn’t because the manager dealt unjustly. He did not praise the manager for his dishonesty. Rather, Jesus said, “He (the rich man) praised him for being so shrewd,” and so He made the point of application that “the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” The central matter Jesus addressed in this text was money. Jesus was saying in this parable that if unbelievers in the secular world are shrewd and smart enough to look out for their best interest for tomorrow, how much more should the people of God look to the future of heaven? If the corrupt person is smart enough to manage his money well, how much more is that incumbent upon the children of light to manage their money as God requires? Essentially, Jesus was saying, “Be careful about how you use your worldly goods,” because every one of us has worldly goods and is a steward of those worldly goods. Everything that you and I have is from God. We do not own it; He does. We are stewards in the kingdom of God. God requires from us not unjust stewardship but just stewardship.
Source: S C Ball March 22, 2023
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