True Riches

Luke 16:1-13

This parable is at face value, a very confusing and unexpected parable coming from Jesus. The parable appears to teach Christians to be shrewd (in the negative way) with their money and condone the act of attaining/usage of unrighteous wealth. But a closer look at the text reveals the true meaning of this parable.

The first consideration that must be made is the audience of the parable to whom the parable is being addressed. The crowd is made up of Jesus' disciples, general listeners and Pharisees. Jesus begins this particular parable by specifically addressing his disciples which helps us to understand how this parable is meant to be understood because now we know that the parable is teaching a lesson relevant to those who desire to follow Jesus.

The second consideration is verse 9 which is the main verse in question and centre of the controversy. Jesus teaches, "make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings." (ESV) In context, he is saying that like the shrewd manager of his parable, Christians are to be shrewd with their money to make friends in hopes that some will find eternity as a result of becoming friends with a Christian. Remember that the shrewd manager was fired, so prior to his departure into his post-work life, he saw the need to establish friendships that will help him in his so-called afterlife. He does this by decreasing the debt that they owed, selfishly might I add, so as to protect himself from being without shelter. The word shrewd used here in Greek is phronimos and it is found 14 other times in the Greek New Testament in 5 different forms. The word means "intelligent, wise, prudent, mindful and conceited (the negative usage)." There is no denying that the manager is not an exemplary Christian but Jesus is not teaching that his ethics are correct and meant to be mimicked but he clearly states, "For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light." In other words, in many cases non-Christians are better at dealing with worldly things (such as money) than Christians because they can deal with worldly matters in a worldly method. As Christians, we need to navigate the worldly life we live with a Christ-centred mindset. What verse 9 is teaching is for the Christian to be set on the eternal and not the temporal. It teaches us that wealth is unrighteous. The words used here are mamanos (wealth) and adikia (unrighteous) indicating that Jesus viewed money to be an unrighteous idol in this world (evidence is verse 13). But since Christians can't function in the world without money, we are to use it as a means to make friends and hope for their eternity in heaven. We are to long for their presence in God's kingdom and perhaps they will welcome us in when our lives end here. Much like the parable, our afterlife is our focus and we are to use the temporary means we have, not in an unrighteous manner, but use even that which is unrighteous to attain souls for the Lord so that we will have our friends join us in heaven's glory.

This parable is confusing, but what Jesus is basically teaching us as Christians, is to be even more shrewd than the manager. Our focus is not personal security, but the security of others and the hope of their salvation. We are more shrewd because we use every means we have to attain friends for the Lord and bring the Good News everywhere we go and in all that we do. This is even more intelligent, even more wise and even more prudent than any evil shrewd manager. Jesus is challenging us in a "reverse psychological" way by asking us why an evildoer can be so wise with unrighteous things to do unrighteous things, and yet the Christian cannot use unrighteous things to redeem it for a good purpose. What are you doing with the resources of your life to bring people to Christ? Even the secular dictionary defines shrewd in this way, "having or showing sharp powers of judgment; astute." So it is not always an evil thing to be shrewd, but at times, can be a wise thing.

I will finish with Christ's words at the end of this parable teaching, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Pastor John Piper shares his thoughts and explanation of this text in his "Ask Pastor John" series. This might be a resource that may help you understand this passage better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mgOXUYOjjw