Facing Financial Responsibilities

MEMORY VERSE: “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

LUKE 16:10-15

THIS portion of today’s study contains the lessons which Jesus drew from his Parable of the Unjust Steward. In this parable the steward who was found to be dishonest with his master’s goods was threatened with dismissal, so he used his authority as a steward, while he still possessed it, to reduce the amounts owed to his master by certain debtors, hoping thus to gain their favor in the hope that they would take care of him when he was finally dismissed from his stewardship.

Phillips’ translation refers to this steward as a “rascally fellow”—dishonest, in other words. The lesson Jesus draws from this is, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in that which is 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 [as was the case with the unjust steward of the parable] who shall give you that which is your own?”

This seems to contradict the King James’ translation of verse 9 of the parable, which reads, “I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness.” There is no punctuation in the original manuscripts of the Bible, and some translations use a question mark here, making the text read, “say I unto you, make yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness?” Judging from what Jesus says in the next three verses condemning the dishonest use of other men’s goods, the question form of verse 9 seems to harmonize the entire statement.

“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.” This is a self-evident truth. The unjust steward mistakenly thought he could use the mammon of unrighteousness dishonestly to provide future security for himself, and serve his employer also; although his master complimented him for making a clever effort to do so.

In verse 15 Jesus said to the Pharisees, “who were covetous” (verse 14) “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” The expression, “Ye are they which justify yourselves before men,” seems to indicate that the unjust steward may picture the Pharisees.

LUKE 20:45 – 21:4

Jesus did not hesitate to warn his disciples against the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. In this passage of scripture he sounds this warning “in the audience of all the people … Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts; which devour widows’ houses, and for a show make long prayers: the same shall receive greater condemnation.”

In our day the thought of devouring widows’ houses would probably be expressed by the idea of lending money on a mortgage, and then foreclosing the mortgage if an opportunity offered. Jesus seems to suggest that the scribes guilty of this would make a pretense of praying for the very widows toward whom they were themselves unwilling to show mercy.

Verses 1-4 of chapter 21 present Jesus’ well-known lesson on the true spirit of giving to the Lord’s cause. Jesus saw the rich men “casting their gifts into the treasury.” No doubt these gifts were sizable amounts of money, and Jesus did not condemn them for this. Then he saw a poor widow cast in her two “mites”—worth less than a penny—and he explained that in the Lord’s sight this was a greater amount than the larger gifts of the rich, because it was “all the living that she had.”

QUESTIONS

Is it ever proper to make dishonest use of money, especially if it belongs to others?

Is it possible to serve both God and mammon successfully?

What is the important principle set forth in the story of the “widow’s mite”?

| Home Page | Table of Contents |