Life of Christ 128
Jesus and His Apostles
are traveling and preaching through Perea in the months immediately prior to
His crucifixion. In our story today (Luke 16) we find Jesus primarily
instructing the Apostles (Luke 16.1). He had been focused on them like a laser
since the previous summer. He knew His time was almost gone, and He had to
prepare them to be the human foundation of the Church (Ephesians 2.20). One of
the great temptations that come to church leaders is money, and He gives this
chapter primarily to prevent these problems, and to help the Apostles view and
use money correctly in the Church.
To me, the centerpiece
of the entire chapter is this: 'No servant can serve two masters: for either he
will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon' (Luke 16.13).
Money is one of those
demanding things that occupies more and more of your attention, priority,
emphasis, and life if you allow it. Like the infamous kudzu of the South, it
easily gets out of control and swallows up everything. In this sense, it
reminds me of God. I say this carefully – neither God nor money is ever content
with the amount of attention you pay it. God always wants more of you, and so
does money.
Money, like fire, is
very useful if it is carefully controlled and used, but an uncontrolled
appetite for it destroys everything in its path. 'For the love of money is the
root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the
faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows' (I Timothy 6.10).
Because of this, if a
person's life is out of control in the area of money they will automatically
have a bad relationship with the Lord. 'You cannot serve God and mammon' at the
same time and with the same passion. I want to be careful to say here that
money is not wrong, nor is getting money wrong. The Bible is clear about these
things. But if we let it take control, or rather, get out of control in our
life, it will ruin many things, including first of all our relationship with
the Lord.
Let us look, now,
briefly at the specific lessons about money which Christ lays before the
leadership of the Church in this chapter. First, money used wisely brings
rewards in the next world (Luke 16.8-9). Jesus commended the unjust steward,
not for being unjust, but for preparing a place to receive him later by acting
carefully now. As I understand this chapter it is not allegorical, in the sense
that it is actually about money and how I am to approach it and handle it.
Thus, if I handle the stewardship of my money, in this life, carefully I will
find it has helped to prepare my everlasting habitation (Luke 16.9). I do not
mean by this that you and I can purchase Heaven, but when we invest our earthly
money in the Lord's work it will reap us eternal dividends.
I learned this at the
age of 14 or so, when I first began working in ministries in my local church. I
discovered that they cost me money. But what I was purchasing with that money
was not the treats for a Sunday School class or the necessary equipment for a
youth activity, no, I was purchasing investments in the kingdom of God. I am
now the exact reverse of the age at which I first learned this and I cannot
think of a single better thing to do with my money then to invest it in the
Lord's work. This is a wise use of money.
Next, we learn in this
chapter that we should not expect God to trust us with a lot unless we have
learned to handle the little we do have wisely (Luke 16.10). We often think our
financial problems would be solved if we just had as much money as so-and-so.
The truth is that we would almost certainly soon find ourselves in the same bad
financial situation. The problem is not how much money we have; the problem is
how we steward the money that we do have. Another way of saying this is that we
do not have a money problem. We have a stewardship problem.
Third, there is a direct
connection between how we handle our money and what God trusts us with in more
spiritual areas (Luke 16.11). This, alone, does not supersede other biblical
principles about money. However, all other things being equal, if we handle
money wisely God looks at us and says, 'There is a person I can trust with true
spiritual riches.'
What are those riches?
That would make for an interesting study, but here are several examples: learning more of 'the unsearchable riches of
Christ' (Ephesians 3.8), being 'rich in faith' (James 2.5), and experiencing
fiery trials and the blessings they bring 'that thou mayest be rich'
(Revelation 3.18).
Lastly, all the money in
the world will not help the wicked man when he dies. The entire last half of
Luke 16 is the story of the rich man who died without faith as contrasted with
poor Lazarus who wound up in Heaven. Money will not keep you out of hell. Money
will not buy you one drink of water in hell. Money will not comfort you one whit
in hell. Money will not buy you a hearing from those you love once you are in
hell. It will not do a blooming thing for you after you die.
Guard your heart. Do not
let money get out of control in your life. Use it scripturally and wisely. Keep
it in its proper place so that you may continue to serve God. It must be done
if you are to serve Him for the long term.
'Ye cannot serve God and
mammon.'
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