Jesus Speaks on Money Management
Luke 16:1-9
INTRODUCTION
Money management. This is something we must learn early in life. My son was once working on a merit badge for Scouts that in part required him to keep a three-month budget. He had to record all his income as well as his expenses. At the end of the month, he had to total both up to see how he faired. Of course, he should be able to look in his wallet and see how he did. If his wallet is empty or if he has borrowed some money from a friend, his sister or me then he knows he has exceeded his budget.
My daughter once took Financial Management in school. I recall the time when they were working on checkbooks. Each student had to draw slips of paper to see what their weekly income would be. Hers was around $160. I told her she better hope she makes more than that in real life because $160 a week would not take her very far. She informed me that she was already in debt because of some expenses she had incurred.
I recall one of the episodes on Sister Sister-a show that my daughter once enjoyed watching. One of the sisters was a good steward of her money but the other wasn’t. She opened her first checking account, got her balance on the first statement and could not understand why she was overdrawn when she still had checks left.
I suppose all of us wish that we could be better stewards of our money. We can look back on decisions we have made that we wish we had not made. The financial wisdom that comes with age sometimes escapes us during our younger years.
This parable is no doubt one of Jesus’ most perplexing and is probably the most difficult to interpret. It is strange that we hear the master commending his servant for his dishonesty and prudence (being wisely cautious.) It is important that we understand that the Pharisees were in the background of this story. They were lovers of money. Many are like them today. Money is not the problem, but the love of it is what gets us in trouble.
In the interpretation of this parable, we must be careful not to press the meaning of each element but rather focus on the main lesson Jesus was trying to teach. The master in the story is not a picture of Christ, so therefore Jesus is not commending dishonesty.
The main character in the story is the steward or we might better understand the word manager. He is in charge of the rich man’s estate. He has complete and absolute authority. In a sense he would represent any follower of Jesus Christ. It was reported to the rich man that this manager was being dishonest. Upon learning of this situation, the rich man called him in to give an account of himself and his handling of the estate.
The manager knew he was in trouble. If dishonesty could be proven he would lose his position. He was ashamed and too proud to beg and not strong enough to dig ditches. So he came up with a plan. Thus the name, the parable of the shrewd manager.
His plan was to falsify the amounts that the rich man’s debtors owed him. By doing this, he would gain favor from those people. After all, if you owed someone $1,000 and they came along and said, “Well, just pay me $100,” wouldn’t you be happy? You might even be willing to do most anything for that person. The reason the manager did this was so he would have some place to go when his employer fired him. These folks who he had helped out would show him hospitality. At least, that was his plan.
When his employer found out what he had done, he commended him. He wasn’t pleased with his dishonesty, but his planning amazed him. As we look at the story, we find that all the players were actually dishonest. The manager was dishonest. The debtors were dishonest by agreeing to the plan of the manager. The master was dishonest by commending the manager for his shrewdness. So Jesus is really telling us to imitate the good qualities of a bad man. The advice is good in our secular lives but also as it relates to our use of money and resources in our work for God.
BE PRUDENT OR CAUTIOUS IN MANAGING YOUR MONEY
According to Webster’s dictionary, prudent means to be capable of exercising sound judgment in practical matters, especially as it concerns one’s own interests. The manager did this very thing. He went to those who owed the rich man money and changed the records.
He went to the first person and asked him how much he owed the rich man. He replied 800 gallons of olive oil. So the manager told him to tear up that bill and write another one for 400 gallons.
Then he went to the next debtor and asked how much they owed the rich man. He owed him 1,000 bushels of wheat. The manager instructed him to tear up that bill and write another for 800 bushels.
All of this was done with the manager’s best interests at heart. As he admits in verse four before he carries out his plan, “I know just the thing! And then I’ll have plenty of friends to take care of me when I leave.” He would need some place to go when his employer fired him.
Now we might wonder how such a dishonest act could teach us anything, but it does teach that we must exercise prudence in our lives. It is unfortunate but often true that unbelievers exercise more energy and foresight where earthly things are concerned than Christians do where heavenly things are involved. Jesus even says this in the parable, “And it is true that the citizens of this world are more shrewd than the godly are.”
As one has stated, “The world is better served by its servants (the unsaved) than God is by His.”
The truth is seldom easy to face, and this accusation certainly puts a black mark on Christianity, but it is true that Christians often do less for the God they serve than the unsaved do for the many gods they adore. Now if those who have no relationship with Christ are so concerned and prudent where material things and money are concerned-and which are all temporary, then we as Christians should be even more prudent and wise in our concern about the true riches which are permanent and enduring.
Jesus says, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store up your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be.” (Matthew 6:19-20) A dedicated life to God and his work, carried out with prudence, is the way to store our treasures in heaven.
How often are we more committed to our job and its requirements than we are to the Lord’s work? How often do we pay more attention and are more careful about our own selfish interests than we are about God’s?
Take for example the life insurance salesman. He takes the time to learn the principles of salesmanship. He looks for prospects and may call on them time and time again hoping to make a sale. He has been taught that persistence pays off. He is diligent in his efforts to make a sale.
Many of us just received tax rebates and some are still waiting on them (2001). Now some may have went on a spending spree with little or no forethought. Others probably considered carefully how they could best use that money. Some were prudent and others were not.
Jesus is teaching that we need to be diligent like the manager. We should avoid his bad qualities but imitate his quality of diligence and prudence. The wise king reminds us, “Do you see a person skilled or diligent in his work? They will stand before kings; they will not stand before obscure people.” (Proverbs 22:29)
Most of all, we need to be careful, cautious and prudent with God’s resources, which he has entrusted to us for use in his kingdom’s work. These resources are material as well as spiritual, and we need to give careful thought about how we use them.
WE NEED TO MANAGE OUR MONEY WELL
In this parable, the rich man commended the manager because he handled the money owed the rich man wisely. The wealth that is in mind is represented in goods owed to the rich man not literal money as we think of it.
We need to remember that the Bible never condemns money as evil. It does warn, however, that the love of money is the root of many types of evil. Jesus reinforces this when he tells that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get in heaven. Money often takes our attention from the more important things in life. We can get so caught up in what we have and how we can keep it or make more that we sometimes forget that it is temporary. There are no bank accounts, CD’s or stock portfolios in heaven.
Our society makes it more difficult for us to remember the true place money should have in our life because all things are measured by money. So Jesus doesn’t tell us to avoid money. That would be impossible in our culture. He simply wants us to adopt a correct attitude about it. Three suggestions might help us.
We need to remember that material wealth is only temporary. It belongs to this world, and this world is in the process of passing away. We’ve heard the saying, “You can’t take it with you when you go.” I’ve met some folks who I don’t really think believe that, haven’t you? Undue concern over something that is temporary often leads to an incorrect use of it. The Bible says in speaking of wealth, “When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings, like an eagle that flies towards the heavens.” (Proverbs 23:5)
Second, realize that our wealth is not ours but belongs to God. Just as the money that the manager handled was not his but his employer’s, so the money that we have is not really ours but God’s. God has loaned it to us and expects us to use it wisely. To exercise prudence. This is true with all we have, not just our money.
Third, we need to learn to use it wisely lest it become our master. In the parable, Jesus instructs us to “use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. In this way, your generosity stores up a reward for you in heaven.” Jesus is not saying to make friends through a dishonest use of money as the manager did but to make friends through the use of our worldly resources. We can use our money to bless other people.
The manager acted wisely. He used his authority to make sure he had some place to go when his employer fired him for being dishonest. When we use our resources wisely, it is very likely that others too will help us in our times of need just as we have helped in our time of abundance. We have the choice of seeing our money as ours and therefore forget others and their needs, or we can see our money as a trust from God and use it to help others.
The story is told of a man who called on another man in an effort to raise some money for a school. The man he called upon was very wealthy and a citizen of the town in which the school was located. After making repeated visits, the man made no headway. One day the wealthy man confided in him. He told him that he knew that one day he would have to part with his money but it gave him so much pleasure now that he could not bear the thought of parting with it. He told him how every evening after he closed his store he would take out his money and run his fingers through it. This was the only happiness he knew. How sad.
WE MUST BE FAITHFUL IN OUR DEVOTION
We need to be fully devoted to our duties and obligations. This is true in the secular areas of our lives but more so in our work for God. We need loyalty. A manager must fill that bill, but this dishonest manager did not. Jesus says we must be faithful in small things so he will give us larger things to be faithful in. Though this manager was commended for his shrewdness, he knew he would lose his position because he had not been faithful to it.
Jesus ends the parable by teaching, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
As Christians, we can’t have it both ways. It must be one or the other, and this is true for all individuals. Love of money and love of God are at opposite ends of the spectrum and the two cannot meet in the middle. We say get, but God says give.
CONCLUSION
So Jesus’ parable warns us about the danger of trusting in things. At the same time, he encourages us to use our money and material resources to help others. Our primary concern is to be with spiritual things. As his followers, we are managers of everything he gives us, and we must be faithful and wise in the way we use them. One day, like the manager in the parable, we will be called on to give an account of how faithful we have been.
Campbell Morgan relates an experience he had while staying at the home of a wealthy Christian. One morning during the family prayer time, the man prayed ever so eloquently and tenderly for the heathen and for the missionaries. Following the prayer, the father was startled by the remark of his 10-year-old son: “Dad, I like to hear you pray for the missionaries. But do you know what I was thinking when you were praying? If I had your bank book, I would answer half your prayers.”
