[Jesus] 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. 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.’ 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. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 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.’ 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. 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. “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. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? 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.” (Luke 16:10-13) The few verses above are the end to the section on the Parable of the Dishonest Manager, or rather the takeaway of the parable. The parable is about a rich man who had a manager that was wasting his possessions, so he called him to confront him and fire him. Being the dishonest manager that he was, and it notedly said he felt he was not strong enough to dig and ashamed to beg, he hatched a plan to short his now previous master of the debts owed to him by others. The Dishonest Manager The only thing the dishonest manager was commended for was his shrewdness. How sad that the only thing commendable about this man were his sharp-witted ways when it was used to prove his character and integrity was severely lacking. Being shrewd, or clever and sharp-witted may be deemed a good thing in the world’s eyes, but when it’s used for evil it’s certainly not a good thing at all in the eyes of God. Take a look what God not only says about a false balance (or in essence, shorting what is due like what this dishonest manager did), but also look at the contrast to those who are upright before the Lord versus the prideful and crooked: A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them. Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death (Proverbs 11:1-4) Jesus’ Conclusion: Now we can come up with our own conclusions and opinions about the dishonest manager, but really the only conclusion that matters is God’s in this and He laid it out pretty clearly here for us. There are two aspects to this: You should be a faithful steward with what you’ve been entrusted with by God.If you can’t be honest and faithful in handling a little, you won’t be any better with a lot. When it comes down to it, our level of faithfulness is not dependent on how much or little we have to be faithful in. So, the hard truth is, if you’ve been waiting for God to bring something bigger and better along for you to jump in head first in serving, all while pretty much phoning in the smaller stuff He’s already entrusted to you – it’s not a problem with how much or little, it’s a faithfulness problem. Now that’s not to say you can’t grow in this area, because you can. But again, having these heart check moments is so vital to our understanding of ourselves and where our hearts are at so that we don’t get on auto pilot in the wrong direction. The reason Jesus mentions this goes beyond the physical here and is very much so spiritual when He said, “If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?” The truth is that we as followers of Jesus have works that God prepared for us to walk in, Ephesians 2:10 tells us that clearly, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” But if we’re not being faithful to walk in them like we should, how can expect God...
