UNRIGHTEOUS MAMMON
BIBLE PASSAGE: LUKE 16: 1-13
Picture taken from Google
Lesson Prepared by: Krisha of
Solomon’s Wisdom FB page
Lesson
ideas taken from: enduringword.com/bible-commentary
JULY 11, 2021
MEMORY VERSE
If therefore ye have not been faithful in the
unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
LUKE 16:11
INTRODUCTION:
One of the most people think about is their future. This is
the reason why parents try their best to have a good education for their
children so that when they grow up, they can stand on their own and there’s
possibility that they could be a great help in the family. But what if you are
fired and become jobless. You can no longer get the job you wanted and sad to
say you have no other skills to persuade employers. This is what happened to
our lesson for today; the parable of an unjust steward. When I first read this parable, I
skipped to understand this because I think it takes me more to think and study.
Also, I don’t understand why God commended this dishonest steward in verse 8.
But before we proceed to that and our lesson points, let’s look the first two
verses:
1And he said also unto his disciples, There was a
certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that
he had wasted his goods.
2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it
that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest
be no longer steward.
When the unjust steward heard what his master had
said, he thought of ways on how to live. Like what I’ve said earlier, he was
now jobless and maybe he was thinking how he could provide now the needs of his
family. He had a plan; let’s read verses 3-7. He was desperate and his plan was
another dishonest way. But in verse 8 the master commended the dishonest
steward.
And the
lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the
children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of
light.
Pinuri ng Panginoon ang mandarayang katiwala
dahil sa katalinuhang ipinamalas nito. Sapagkat ang mga makasanlibutan ay mas
mahusay gumawa ng paraan kaysa mga maka-Diyos.
Based from commentaries, the master was not
commending his sins or dishonesty but his wittiness. The unrighteous steward got it right and the sons of light tend to
get it wrong. Jesus is saying that
unbelievers are often wiser in figuring out how to secure temporal wealth than believers are in figuring out how to
secure eternal riches.
In the parable, the steward was squandering his master’s
possessions (16:1). We don’t know exactly how he squandered his master’s
possessions but the steward was not acting in his
master’s best interests, but in his own. What lesson we could get
on these verses? One
of the key concepts of being a steward is that the steward does not own what
the master or owner has entrusted to him. He merely manages it for the owner’s
purposes. If the steward begins to act as if he owns it,
spending the owner’s resources for his personal betterment rather than for the
owner’s benefit, he is an unrighteous, not a faithful, steward. Paul says in 1
Corinthians 4:2, “Moreover
it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.”
This is a warning for all of us who are stewards. We need to
be faithful stewards. Being a faithful steward is easy or there are challenges?
Let me ask you, who knows here about Chinkee Tan? He is a top Filipino motivational speaker, wealth and life coach
whose goal is to inform, educate, motivate, and financial educator His vision is to help
people become financially-literate and debt-free. We can see him in any social
media platform. He has many followers. We don’t see any bad thing about what he
wants to educate but let me say the caption he posted in one of his videos, the
caption is, how can you be rich? His caption is an attention getter because
everybody wants to be rich, right? No one would say, I don’t want to be rich.
If it’s not possible for our present situation to be rich, all we want is to
have a financial stability. Am I right? Like for example: we could pay our
bills, buy food and eat three times a day. And if these needs are supplied
regularly, the desire to have a good house to live in, begins to sprout in us?
Then another thing, you want to have a small business for preparation of your
retirement. These are just some of the thoughts the unbelievers think for their
future. How about Christians, do they think the same way? Yes, that’s why we
study and work hard. The question is, how could we guard ourselves from the
power of money or wealth? But
what if we spend our lives pursuing success only to
find out that we’re already heading in the wrong direction? What if we get rich
only to discover that we’re really poor?
Let’s go back to the
question, how could we guard ourselves from the power of unrighteous mammon,
the riches of this world?
LESSON OUTLINE:
1. USING MONEY NOW WITH AN EYE TO
ETERNITY (LUKE 16:9)
And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that,
when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
Tagalog: At
nagpatuloy si Jesus sa pagsasalita, “Kaya’t sinasabi ko sa inyo: gamitin ninyo
sa pakikipagkaibigan ang kayamanan ng sanlibutang ito. Maubos man ito’y may
tatanggap naman sa inyo sa tahanang walang hanggan.
Here’s a question, if we hear of a
good investment opportunity that is reasonably
certain to earn a decent profit and we have the funds to invest, we
will probably jump at the chance,
right? This is the job of my brother-in-law; he looks for investors and make
sure he would invest it in right company. He also needs to guard his rating as
financial adviser because if he made a wrong choice, his rating got low, and he
would have a hard time finding investors. Like the steward, he was banned being
a manager. Let me ask you again, would you invest some of your funds to Apple Inc., an American multinational technology company? Yes, of course! How about in spiritual matters, if we hear of a
window of opportunity for the gospel, should we do all we can to seize it while
we can? In the same way, if we hear of an opportunity for the gospel and God
has given us funds to invest, should we
go for it?
The world is filled with
financial planners and advisers; and it is good for Christians to learn how to
use their money wisely. But when most Christians talk about wise money
management, they forget to practice the most important kind of long-term investing:
investing with an eye to eternity, an everlasting home. The
important thing is to invest your resources for the Lord now; most of us
wait until the day when we think we will have enough and that’s wrong.
But we can use our money now to
store up treasures in heaven by making eternal friends through the gospel. Can you imagine the joy someday of meeting
someone in heaven who says, “Thank you
for giving to the cause of world of missions or evangelization! Because you
gave, missionaries came to my country, and I got saved.” What an
investment!
2. FAITHFULNESS IN THE LITTLE THINGS
SHOWS HOW ONE WILL BE FAITHFUL IN THE LARGE THINGS (LUKE 16:10-12)
He that
is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is
unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
If therefore ye have not been faithful in the
unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And if ye have not been faithful in that which is
another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
Is
money a big deal to unbelievers? How about to believers, is it a big deal as
well? Let me tell you a story in a church in USA.
In a church in
California, a very wealthy man who was in his eighties had set up a fund to
help young people who wanted to go into Christian work attend Christian
colleges or seminaries. He had moved out of the area and the fund was depleted,
so a person in charge wrote him a very tactful letter thanking him for his
generosity, telling him of some of the young people who had been helped, and
informing him that the fund had been depleted. He wrote back an angry letter
accusing the church of being after his money and telling the church that if they
ever asked him for money again, he wouldn’t give!
The church
hadn’t even asked for money; they had just informed him that the fund was
depleted. They were sure that he could have given $100,000 to the fund and he
still would have had plenty left for all his years on this earth. Sadly, none
of this man’s four grown children were Christians, and they were all
financially successful. But rather than willing his large estate to the Lord’s
work, he probably willed it all to his unbelieving children. His money was a big deal to him! (story taken from:
https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-74-how-be-truly-rich-luke-161-13)
YES,
it’s a big deal to everybody. Let’s go back to verse 1:
a) He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much: Money is a big deal to people but we see in Jesus’ words, money is
considered to be one of the least things.
Therefore, if a person cannot be faithful in managing the things that are least, they should not be trusted to be faithful in
handling the things that are much.
I remember what Pastor Rod mentioned, if you’re not faithful giving your
tithes in 5,000 which is P500 how can you be trusted to P500,000 worth of
money, the 10% of it is 50, 000.
b) If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit
to your trust the true riches?
If there are
true riches, it means there are false riches. The false riches are the riches
of this world, that are measured in bank accounts and material possessions. There’s
a story about a prospector who was searching for gold in the Panamint Range of
the Mojave Desert. He was evidently trying to walk out in that desert heat
carrying two heavy bags. The exertion of trying to carry the heavy load was too
much and he was overcome with heat prostration and dehydration. Realizing that
he was about to die, he scribbled his last words on a piece of paper that was
found clutched in his hand. It read, "I
died rich." They opened that bags that he had been carrying and found
them filled with iron pyrite or fools' gold. Some of you may think that you are
going to die rich, but you are deceiving yourself, you will be an eternal
pauper. The riches you possess are false riches.
How about the Christian leaders who are entrusted with ministries? They must
be good managers of their own money. If a person can’t be faithful before God
with the money He gives, how can they be faithful with the care of people?
- This certainly does not
mean that leaders in the church have to be wealthy or make a lot of money. It
is an issue of how they manage the
resources God has given to them, not how great their resources are.
The true
riches are the eternal riches. Jesus told us not to lay up for ourselves
treasure on earth, where moths and rust can decay and thieves can break in and
steal, material riches are not true riches, but lay-up treasure in heaven. True
riches are not measured by how much you have in your account in the local bank,
but how much have you deposited in your heavenly bank account. God has an
interesting way of accounting your deposits, it is not how much the deposit
was, but how much did it cost you.
c) If you have not been faithful in what is another man’s: Here, Jesus seems to refer to the fact that all our riches belong to
God, and we must see that we are managing His resources.
Faithfulness in this will result in blessing that is our own (who will give you what is your own).
- So, God is testing men by giving
them money, that He may know how far to trust them...” (Meyer)
- God owns everything and we are
stewards or managers of what He has entrusted to
us. We are stewards of our time,
our abilities, and our possessions and money.
But God views our money as
a very little thing. It is the litmus test by which God tests us to see if we can handle true riches, namely,
souls. If we are faithful in managing the money
God gives us for His purposes, He will entrust eternal souls into our care. We
will have eternal rewards in heaven,
even if we don’t have much in terms of earthly possessions. The ironic thing is you are 100 percent
certain to lose all the money you accumulate on this earth—it will fail (16:9). You are 100 percent certain to keep all the rewards you lay up in heaven—they are your
own (16:12), secure where neither moth nor rust
destroys, and where thieves do not break in to steal (Matt.
6:20).
3. NO ONE CAN BE FAITHFUL TO MORE THAN
ONE MASTER (LUKE 16:13)
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.
a.
No servant can serve two
masters: Having two masters is not like
working two jobs. Jesus has the master and slave relationship in view. A slave
can’t belong to two masters at the same time.
-
Jesus states that serving
two masters is a simple impossibility. If you think that you are successfully
serving two masters, you are deceived. One
can have both money and God; but one cannot serve both money and God.
-
Certainly, Jesus spoke
about the heart here. Many people
would say they love God, but their service of money
shows that in fact they do not. How can we tell Who or what we serve? One way
is by this principle: You will sacrifice for your God.
If you will sacrifice for the sake of money, but will not sacrifice for the
sake of Jesus, don’t deceive yourself: money is your God.
-
On a Friday afternoon in
1990, a businessman staggered to the steps of his Los Angeles office. Before he
died of the gunshot wound to his chest, he called out the names of his three
children. But he still had his $10,000 Rolex watch clutched in his hand. He was
the victim of a rash of Rolex robberies – and was killed as a sacrifice to his god.
-
A 1992 story in the Los
Angeles Times talked about Michelle, a successful writer and editor, who fears
the day her husband might discover her secret stash of credit cards, her secret
post office box or the other tricks she uses to hide how much money she spends
shopping for herself. “I make as much money as my husband… If I want a $500
suit from Ann Taylor, I deserve it and don’t want to be hassled about it. So,
the easiest thing to do is lie,” she explains. Last year, when her husband
forced her to destroy one of her credit cards, Michelle went out and got a new
one without telling him. “I do live in fear. If he discovers this new VISA,
he’ll kill me.”
-
A schoolteacher explained
more: “Men just don’t understand that shopping is our drug of choice,” she
joked, even while admitting that some months her salary goes exclusively to
paying the minimum balance on her credit cards. “Walking through the door of
South Coast Plaza is like walking through the gates of heaven. God made car
trunks for women to hide shopping bags in.”
-
A young professional named
Mary explained: “Shopping is my recreation. It’s my way of pampering myself.
When you walk into [a mall] and you see all the stores, it’s like something
takes over and you get caught up in it.”
b.
You cannot serve God and
mammon: Some think that just because they are not rich, they are not a slave
to money (mammon). But you don’t have to be rich to serve mammon; the poor have just as much potential for greed
and covetousness as the rich have.
-
“When God is served, Mammon
is used beneficently. When Mammon is served, the claims of God are ignored.”
(Morgan)
-
“The worldling’s wisdom (as
the ostrich’s wings) to make him outrun others upon earth, and in earthly
things; but helps him never a wit toward heaven.” (Trapp)
- “Money possessing a man is
the direst curse, for it hardens his heart and paralyzes his noblest powers.
The money of a God-possessed man is a blessing, for it becomes the means of his
expressing his sympathy with his fellows.” (Morgan)
CONLUSION:
Every business manager knows that the owner will be checking the books
to see how things are going. If the business has been earning a profit for the
owner, then the manager may get a raise. But if the manager has been skimming
off the profits to finance his new yacht and his Mercedes, he’s going to be in
trouble when the books are examined. The idea of accountability is inherent in
the concept of management or stewardship.
Crucial to being a good steward is understanding the owner’s purpose for
his business. In the world, the purpose usually is to make all the money you
can. But what is our Master’s purpose? Jesus tells us in verse 9: “Make friends
for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that when it fails,
they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.” Mammon comes from an Aramaic
word meaning riches. By “the mammon of unrighteousness,” Jesus means money,
which the world uses for unrighteous purposes, but which believers can use for
God’s purposes. Jesus means that just as the unrighteous steward used his
master’s money to make friends for himself, so that when he got fired, they
would welcome him into their homes, so we should use our Master’s money to make
friends for ourselves in heaven. Like what I have said previously and based
on some bible scholars this refers to the friends who have become Christians
because of our faithful stewardship. When earthly riches fail, as they surely
will when we die, we will have friends in heaven who are there because we gave
to the cause of world evangelization.
Each of us must ask ourselves the sober question, “Am I managing the resources God has entrusted to me with a view to
giving an account some day in light of His purpose of being glorified among all
the nations through the spreading of the gospel?” God is a generous and
gracious Father, who gives to us not only enough for our basic needs, but also
for our enjoyment. So, it is not wrong to enjoy many things beyond the bare
essentials. But, if we grasp the concept of faithful stewardship and
accountability, our focus will not be on our own financial success, but rather
on the financial “success” of God’s enterprise, namely, the gospel.
