Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly 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?
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” (Luke 16:9-13)
This is another parable which Jesus takes the time to explain when he is finished. Here we have a story of a man who has lost the plot. He is so focused on money that he has forgotten the true priorities. The true riches! Are you aware that your true riches are found in your relationships? This manager has allowed his quest for a buck to get in the way of his relationships. Does it sound familiar? Of course it does. We have just spent a month looking at a similar situation. I have told you before, the Bible and Jesus use repetition to drive home the point. Here are two parables in which the person in the centre stage has lost the plot.
So often I meet people, see people and hear of people who have lost the plot in similar ways. The disease of the greed of money, has wormed its way into our wider family too. This manager has been robbing from his boss and amassing wealth for himself. Suddenly, when what he has been doing has been exposed and it all looks like it will come unravelled, he has a wake-up call. A reality check. Is it best for him to keep his wealth or is it best for him to keep his relationships? He decides to use the riches he has amassed in deceitful ways, to ensure his relationships are preserved for the future. Oh yes, at the end of story it is not all purity and light yet. His motivation is so that he can get a job for the future. It is still money and earning power, but he is changing. It sums up many of us, doesn’t it?
Notice how Jesus takes the temporal, worldly focus of this parable and contrasts it with the heavenly and the eternal.
(I.e., The way you handle things you are entrusted with, determines what you will be given.)
Does this make it clearer? Notice how the point is hammered home with a series of repetitions of the same point. This is a very Hebraic way of making the point. But are you getting it? Is it sinking in? I have just had an interesting conversation over lunch about the importance of relationships. Are you aware that there are only two concrete things, as opposed to abstract concepts, that will last eternally? What are they? They are people and the Word of God. Only people and the Word of God will last forever. Sow into the things that are eternal. Don’t be duped into switching focus to things which will disappear. That is why relationships are the most important focus for us. There is one relationship that must be prime and that is your relationship with God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and any other resourcesyou may have. And then sort out the second level relationships and make those a focus too, but at a secondary level to your primary relationship with God. That is why Jesus made the statement related to the greatest commandments and the fact that all the Law, the Prophets and the Writings, boil down to these two commandments. Relationships. Take care of them with all your being.
Never let money or things or anything else that is secondary, get between you and the people you love, or ought to love. Is that clear enough? This is the measure of how much we understand the principles of God. Be faithful in the little things and the rest will fall into place. You can’t prioritize money and still keep things in heavenly balance. It is not possible. Many think they will focus on the money first and make their fortune and then when they have all they need, they will take care of the rest. To take the words out of Jesus mouth – oh, you foolish people. You have chosen the wrong priority. Don’t build your barns bigger, instead make room in your heart for what really matters. The people around you. Learn the lesson of the dishonest manager: don’t sacrifice your relationships for anything, no matter how good, appealing or important it may seem at the time.
Do you want to be right or in a relationship?
Anon
It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.
J K Rowling
Never make the motivation for monitory gain the basis of your relationships.
Ian Vail
If you are not content with what you have, you’ll never be content with what you want.
Ian Vail
We refuse God’s invitation because we think He is expecting perfection, when all He wants is relationship.
Ian Vail
No matter what your problem is – don’t nurse it, don’t curse it, don’t rehearse it. Just call on God. He’ll reverse it.
Jussar Badudu
Relationships don’t thrive because the guilty are punished but because the wounded are merciful.
Max Lucado
In the first half, you think LIFE is all about achievement, but at the end you realize it’s all about relationship.
Rick Warren