“The True Riches”
Then
Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and
charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he
summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting
of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the
manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my
master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and
I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as
manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s
debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He
answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit
down quickly, and make if fifty.’ Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you
owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your
bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager
because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are
the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of
dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal
homes.”
“Whoever
is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest
in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful
with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you
have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is
your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one
and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot
serve God and wealth.”
Luke 16:1-13
Jesus
talked a lot about money. One sixth of the Gospels’ content, including one out
of three parables, touches on stewardship. He dealt with money matters because
money matters. For some of us, though, it matters too much.
Jesus
warned that we can become slaves to money. We may not think that money means
more to us than God does. But Jesus did not say we must serve God more than we
serve money.
Does your checkbook show that
Jesus is the
Master in your life?
For a quick check on your heart,
check out your
checkbook?
Our Daily Bread –