Money Part 7: How to Spend It: BRINGING UP SARA 1.8
circa 2015 - 2019
In one of our Bible studies with the Holy Spirit in the Prayer Vault, we couldn’t figure out one of the most perplexing parables of the Lord. Shortly after that, He explained it clearly to me and I was completely amused by how straightforward it is.
Let us see if you get this one. ☺
Luke 16:1-12, New Living Translation (NLT) (emphasis mine)
Parable of the Shrewd Manager
Jesus told this story to his disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a manager handling his affairs. One day a report came that the manager was wasting his employer’s money. So the employer called him in and said, ‘What’s this I hear about you? Get your report in order, because you are going to be fired.’
“The manager thought to himself, ‘Now what? My boss has fired me. I don’t have the strength to dig ditches, and I’m too proud to beg. Ah, I know how to ensure that I’ll have plenty of friends who will give me a home when I am fired.’
“So he invited each person who owed money to his employer to come and discuss the situation. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe him?’ The man replied, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’ So the manager told him, ‘Take the bill and quickly change it to 400 gallons.’ “‘And how much do you owe my employer?’ he asked the next man. ‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat,’ was the reply. ‘Here,’ the manager said, ‘take the bill and change it to 800 bushels.’
“The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are shrewder in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.
“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?
In the past, I had always had a problem with this parable. This is one of the most confusing parables, don’t you think?
- The servant was dishonest, yet Jesus praised him for being very street-smart.
- Yet, at the same time, Jesus seemed to be telling us not to be like this man.
- And that if we cannot be trusted with little, then He will not entrust us with much.
I do not understand why Jesus would, in the same breath, praise this man and the people of the world for being cunning and dishonest while warning us against being like them.
Spend it on Making Friends
Put on your seatbelts while I tell you how the Holy Spirit explained this parable to me.
In verses 8 to 9, He said:
- We Christians are not as smart as the people of the world.
- We do not know how to use money and worldly resources that God has given to us – “to benefit others and make friends”.
- Then, when your possessions are gone (i.e. on the day we die as all our earthly possessions cannot go to heaven with us), they (people of the world whom we saved and are now in heaven) will welcome you to an eternal home.”
Jesus says we have to use money to make friends! In today’s terms, it means to NETWORK.
I recall an article in a business newspaper that read:
“In bad times, hungry people look for work, but smart people look for network.”
This makes absolute sense don’t you think?
Let’s look at other versions of the Bible for this.
NIV: “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself…”
NKJV: “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon…” (!)
AMP: “And I tell you (learn from this), make friends for yourselves (for eternity) by means of the wealth of unrighteousness (that is, use material resources as a way to further the work of God)…”
I think the above speaks for itself. God wants us to gain worldly wealth and spend it on winning friends for ourselves, especially worldly, unsaved people.
God has Bigger and True Riches Laid Up
The Holy Spirit continued to explain from verse 10 to 12:
“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones”
i.e. if with the little money and resources you have been given, you work hard to produce more from it and use it to benefit others and make friends in this world, God can entrust more and bigger worldly resources to you.
“But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities and if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?”
I.e. If you do not manage the resources from the Master well, you bury them like the lazy servant or don’t spend it according to His will, then God will not entrust you with more of His infinite resources or give you greater responsibilities. Why should He give you any personal wealth if you are not managing His well?
God has big plans for the use of His wealth. It is His will to prosper His children. Which father wouldn’t? In the next post, I will share how to handle prosperity well - how the test of prosperity can be more difficult than of lack.
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