Amos 8:4-7; 1 Timothy 2:1-15; Luke 16:1-15
The parable of the dishonest manager presents us with some real challenges. The most difficult part of understanding and applying this parable comes when the master commends the manager for doing something that seems dishonest to us. Whether it was or not isn’t the point of the parable. In fact, trying to determine whether he was being honest or not is likely to distract us from what Jesus is teaching. Without answering that ethical question, Jesus drives home His point by saying “the sons of this world are more shrewd” in how they make use of “unrighteous wealth” than we believers are. The message of this parable is that we should be the shrewd ones.
It’s no accident that the central character in Jesus’ parable is a manager, or, more accurately, a steward. As a steward, this man was responsible for making proper use of what belonged to someone else. He was entrusted with the “unrighteous wealth” (literally unrighteous “mammon”) of his master. His problems began when he acted unwisely and used what belonged to someone else as though it had belonged to him. When he was called out for his unfaithful stewardship, he quickly sized up the situation and acted wisely in his final acts as the steward of his master’s accounts.
Like the character in this parable, we are stewards. However, we are not stewards of “unrighteous wealth” but of the resources that belong to God which have been entrusted to us for His purposes and to His glory. Jesus’ point stings … greatly. If the people of the world are shrewd with “mammon” to gain power, riches, influence, etc. for themselves, we whom God has entrusted with money, time, abilities, and the Gospel should be all the more shrewd in making use of them for righteousness. We should be, but, too often and in too many ways, we’re not.
Our poor stewardship is the focus of this parable. But Jesus did not tell it to condemn us. Rather, He shares this parable with us as a call to rethink how we are making use of His gifts and, in sincere repentance, turn back from our unfaithful use of God’s wealth to pursue what the pagans seek after in their use of “mammon.” It’s a pointed reminder that everything that we have and are is not ours, but belongs to God. And it’s an challenging invitation to share in His joy and in His glory by being profitably shrewd in our use of “unrighteous wealth” — so shrewd that the “mammon” in our lives ends up becoming “righteous wealth” in eternity.
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