Luke 16:1-13--The Parable of the Dishonest Manager

Luke 16:1-13
English Standard Version

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager
16 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ 5 So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.

​10 “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. 11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? 13 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.”

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This is a strange parable, but I'll try to do my best to get at what Jesus is talking about.  A man who was a steward of another man's wealth had mismanaged and maybe even embezzled money for his own personal gain.  Word of it got to the man who employed the steward and an audit was going to be performed to see just how much money had been lost or stolen due to mismanagement.  The steward knew it was game over and that he would never get another job in the same industry again, because no one would trust him with their money.  The steward also knew that he had no chance at cutting it in a manual-labor type job because he was not accustomed to that type of work.  However, he still had the chance to use his master's money to gain influence for himself so that those he worked with would see him in a positive light and make sure he was taken care of after he was fired.

He called in all who owed his master money and instructed them reduce the amount of debt they owed.  This is even more theft and the reason for doing this is selfish and covering one sin with another, but Jesus is saying that you can appreciate the craftiness of a worldly man like this to leverage his master's wealth for his own benefit to make friends to help him out when things get bad for him.  Even though Jesus is telling us as "the righteous" to learn from this, He's not calling us to be dishonest in our business practices, but I think instead saying that we are all stewards of what God has given us and it's okay for us to use money in a way that seems like we're letting someone take advantage of us for the purpose of making or keeping a friend that will later lead to us being able to share the gospel with that person.

Jesus then concludes explaining the parable and makes it clear that he's not telling us to pattern our lives after this unfaithful steward.  Jesus tells us to be faithful stewards of all that we have been given (for we too will be called to account for what we've been entrusted with one day).  The one who is faithful with a little shows that this is his nature and character and that he can be trusted with more.  The one who is dishonest with little shows this to be his nature and character and that he cannot even be trusted with that which was entrusted to him, and it is taken away and entrusted to someone else who is more faithful.  If you mismanage someone else's money, how then will you be faithful to manage your own, and who in their right mind would give you money that you didn't have to pay back to them knowing that you would squander it (maybe because of drugs, alcohol, gambling or the like)?  Don't you know someone like that whose money disappears sometimes even before it gets into their bank account because they know that they are supposed to get paid on a certain day and they not only plan to spend it, but actually spend it all (and sometimes more than that) before the paycheck ever comes?  This is not being a faithful steward of what God has entrusted to you.

So then, Jesus tells all those listening, and we know this was a hard saying for them to listen to, that they could not serve both God and money.  If they living life to make themselves rich, they would never want to be a part of the kingdom of God where Jesus calls all of us to give up everything to follow after Him.  Just look at what Jesus will say to His disciples after His encounter with the rich, young ruler in Luke 18 (we'll probably be writing this blog in a couple weeks):

24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” 

It is okay for us to use money to accomplish God's purposes, but we should never let money owns and use us.  We cannot serve both God and money.  We will have to choose one or the other.  Will you cling to God or to what you perceive to be your wealth when everything is on the line?