Luke 16:1-18

Summary
In this text, Jesus narrated a parable about a manager who was hired by a wealthy man to manage his finances but mismanaged it. The wealthy man discovered this and called for an audit.
The manager sensing the trouble and his possible dismissal came up with a severance plan. He calls up each of his employers’ debtors and asks the first how much he currently owes. The debtor responds, “Nine hundred gallons of olive oil’ the manager manipulated the record sand reduce the debtors indebtedness by half. He did likewise to another debtor that owes a thousand bushels of wheat, reducing it to eight hundred. When the wealthy man discovered this fraud and commended his shrewdness, relating this to how the people of the word are smarter in their own ways than the children of light. No one can serve two masters, said Jesus, the same way no one can serve God and money at the same time.

Life Application
Jesus is teaching us here that a person who’s trustworthy in small matters is also trustworthy in big matters. The opposite is also true. Like the manager in the text, the person who’s unjust in small matters will be unjust in big matters. In applying this principle, If you don’t handle your earthly wealth in a way that’s trustworthy, then who’s going to trust you with true wealth? And if you’re not a trustworthy manager of someone else’s stuff, who’s going to trust you with your own?
As far as money’s concerned, you can’t spend all your energy trying to earn it and neglecting God.
How are you living your life as a Christian, what are your supreme values, check your life today are you like the manager involved in fraudulent activities at work place or like the Pharisees who claim to be holy in church, doing eye service in public but deep down their heart is full of dirt and are disconnected from God. A person who is not trustworthy in small matters is also not trustworthy in big matters. You have to make a choice about your supreme values. You can’t have it both ways.

Personal Declaration
Lord help me align my values to yours, help me to be a good manager of all you have given to me in Jesus name.

Reading – Luke 16:1-18

The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

16 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. ² So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

³ “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— ⁴ I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

⁵ “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

⁶ “‘Nine hundred gallons^[a] of olive oil,’ he replied.

“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’

⁷ “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’

“‘A thousand bushels^[b] of wheat,’ he replied.

“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

⁸ “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. ⁹ I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

¹⁰ “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. ¹¹ So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹² And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

¹³ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

¹⁴ The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.¹⁵ He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.

Additional Teachings

¹⁶ “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. ¹⁷ It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.

¹⁸ “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.