Word of Salvation – Vol. 22 No. 37 – June 1976

Be Wise: Practise Christian Love In Your Dealings With Money

Sermon by Rev. J.J. Van Wageningen, B.D. on Luke 16:1-900

Scripture Reading: Luke 12:13-34

Psalter Hymnal: 263; 233:1; 240:1,2; 46; 278

There are people who do not like to hear a sermon about money.  It seems to annoy or irritate them.  They want to hear about the spiritual things.  That is what the church and preaching is for.

The difficulty is that the Lord Jesus Himself speaks about money, for example in THIS PARABLE OF THE DISHONEST STEWARD.  And we would have to cut out many parts of the Bible, if we had to remove all that is written about this subject in God's Word.

We listen this morning to what Jesus tells us in and through the parable of the dishonest steward.  The message is:

BE WISE: PRACTISE CHRISTIAN LOVE IN YOUR DEALINGS WITH MONEY!

The content of this parable is clear, at least in its first part.  There is a rich man who has a steward, a manager.  This manager however is not a reliable fellow.  On the contrary, he is called dishonest, unrighteous, for he wastes his master's goods.  He leads a life of plenty and ease.  But he is found out.  The rich man is informed of his mismanagement and he calls him in and commands him to give an account of his stewardship.  He must give an exact statement of the actual condition of the property, for the owner wants to know the extent of the wastefulness and disorder into which the steward has brought the business, so it will be possible for his successor to take up his work.  For this steward gets the sack.  "You can not be my manager any longer.”  The steward is perplexed at first.  He says to himself, "What shall I do?"  He analyses the situation and considers the possibilities: "I am not strong enough to dig."  It is clear that he does not like digging.  "And I am ashamed to beg."  This is pure pride.  And then suddenly, he knows what he will do.  He has a nice plan to look after his own interests.  If he is dismissed without doing anything, not only his master, but all the people will despise him.  When the money is gone, the friends are gone as well.  But he has a plan which will guarantee him a lot of friends, people who will receive him into their houses when he is put out of the stewardship.  And even his master will praise him.........!

What is this shrewd plan?  Well, he calls in all the people who are in debt to his master, one by one.  To the first he says, "How much do you owe my master?"  The answer is, "A hundred measures of oil."  This is quite a bit: 868 gallons.  And the steward says to him, "Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty."  To another he says, "How much do you owe?"  The debt is a hundred measures of wheat, a thousand bushels, and he makes him write eighty, eight hundred bushels.  And so he deals with all the debtors of his master.  And in the end the rich owner praises him for his prudence, for doing such a shrewd thing.  He praises him because the steward is such a smart fellow.

Most probably you think it is a strange story, especially the happy ending.  After all the money-wasting he finally robs his master, and the master praises him!  Is that not strange?  If the master would have him immediately arrested and punished for deceit and theft, the end would not have been so happy for the steward, but it would have been more realistic.

You are right, this point is not clear, unless you take into account the practices of the Jews with regard to the paying of interest.

"To lend upon interest' was forbidden.  In Deuteronomy 23:19-20 we read, "You shall not lend upon interest to your brother, (your fellow-Jew), interest on money, interest on victuals (food), interest on anything else that is lent for interest.  To a foreigner you may lend upon interest, but to your brother you shall not lend upon interest; that the Lord your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are entering to take possession of it."

In other places (Exodus 22:25: Leviticus 25:36,37; Deuteronomy 15:7,8) it is said that this concerns the poor brother, the poor fellow-citizen.  One was not allowed to make use of his need for one's own interest.  The rabbis however considered it to be a general rule.  No interest at all!  Therefore a pious, God-fearing Jew would not lend upon interest.  However not all the Jews were so strict.  Many were less pious and asked for interest.  It is known that in the days when Jesus was on earth the interest rate was very high.  If the borrowed money or goods were repaid with wheat, the interest rate was at least 20%, and in the case of repayment with oil it was at least 50%.  The rates were different because of the different values.  Especially the value of oil was an uncertain factor, dependent on quality and changes in prices.

The question is, Could this be done and yet remain unpunished?  Was it not possible that a debtor went to the court and served a process on his creditor?  The answer to this question is that if in the written acknowledgement of debt nothing was mentioned about interest, nothing could be done about it.  And this was apparently the case with the accounts or bills in this parable.  Therefore when the steward says to one debtor, "Write fifty measures of oil, instead of hundred", then he does nothing else but drop the fifty measures interest which was officially forbidden.  And the same is true in the other cases.  The hundred measures of wheat were changed into eighty, that means again that the 20% interest was crossed out.

It was a great relief for the debtors, but at the same time it meant obedience to the law.  The debts were reduced to the original amount of the loan, without interest!  IT made the impression that the master was a very pious Jew, who wanted to stick to the law.  It could only benefit his good name.  And therefore instead of dragging his steward before the court because of deceit and theft, the master praised him. – What a clever fellow!  "The master commended the dishonest steward for his prudence", he commended him for his smartness.  This is cleverness practised and admired!

In the verses 8 and 9 the Lord Jesus draws a conclusion and makes an application: "The sons of this world are wiser in their own generation than the sons of light.  And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal habitations."

The Lord Jesus does not approve the deeds of the steward.  Not at all, The steward is unrighteous, dishonest.  He is a selfish man, a lover of money.  He is a son of this age, or of this world.  He is a worldling, who looks at things from the standpoint of this world; only material things count, the earth and this life is all, and he reckons only with men.  It is a very limited view and a very shallow way of thinking.

Over against the sons of this world Jesus mentions the sons of light.  The sons of light are those who follow Him, the Light of the world, and therefore they do not walk in the darkness.  They are born of God, they belong to the Kingdom of light.  Their viewpoint is not limited to this world, to this temporal life and the material things.  No, they live in the light of eternity, in the light of God's love and grace.

You would expect the sons of light to deal with others in a wise and clever way, with the wisdom and cleverness of love.  Yet Jesus says, that the sons of this world are wiser in their own generation than the sons of light.  Worldlings generally act towards their fellow-men in a wise, clever, diplomatic manner, in order to achieve their aims, their selfish aims.  In contrast with this the sons of light too often act unwisely and undiplomatically towards others, in a manner that does not fit in with the high standards of the Kingdom of light.  They too often act in a loveless, tactless, stupid way.  Instead of behaving in such a manner, that they bind others to themselves, they act so that people are unnecessarily repulsed.

This is a sharp rebuke of the Saviour.  He spoke to His disciples, but they were not the only hearers.  We read in verse 14: "The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they scoffed at Him."  They made fun of Jesus.  He had also these critical Pharisees in mind, who pretended to be sons of light.  His disciples however were really sons of light, as all true believers are, and just to them He directs Himself rebuking them because of their absence of acumen, wisdom, keen discernment in the highest things.

How do we deal with our fellow-men?  What are our motives?  Do we act out of true Christian love, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit?  What are our aims?  Are they unselfish?  Do we seek the temporal and eternal wellbeing of our fellowmen?  Are the ways in which we deal with them really wise, clever, suited to this purpose?  Wise, clever, not in a worldly, but in a Christian sense?  Is what we say and do attractive, winning, or repulsive?

Important questions!

Our Saviour does especially mention the role of money, of material goods, because in the parable it plays a role too, "I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations."

Here our Lord gives instruction on the right use of mammon, of money.  Mammon means material possessions, material wealth.  We can use the word MONEY, for then everybody knows what you are talking about.

Why does the Lord call it the UNRIGHTEOUS mammon?  Is money wrong, sinful?  No, the Lord nowhere teaches that.  But we all know how often injustice, sin, is involved in getting and using money, in getting and using earthly possessions.  It is man's sinful attitude, man's sinful conduct in connection with money, that makes it a curse.  Therefore Jesus calls it the "mammon of unrighteousness".  Everything depends on how it is used.  And how we use it depends on the condition of our heart, on how we think in our deepest life.  Nothing reveals the thinking of a man more clearly than the use he makes of money,

Our Lord has one thing to say: "Make friends for yourselves by means of it."  No, not make friends of mammon, but make friends BY MEANS of it.

Do we understand this?

We must be free from the low, selfish and covetous motives that dominated the unjust, dishonest steward of the parable.

As Christians we must use money, worldly goods, in a manner that will bring blessing to others.  We must use mammon to gather friends.  Free from covetousness, free from love of money, you must share your material possessions with persons who need them, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal habitations.

We draw your attention to two expressions in this last sentence of our text: "WHEN IT FAILS" and "THE ETERNAL HABITATIONS”.

When mammon fails, yes, it shall fail; mammon or money; it always does.  You may have it, you may trust in it, your life long, but at the most decisive moment, the moment of your death, it fails.  It cannot help you; it does not give you what you really need.  If that is the only thing you have, mammon, you are poor; you have nothing at all; you are lost.

The eternal habitations: To His disciples, to all those who are children of light, Jesus speaks about the eternal habitations, the eternal dwellings which He has prepared for them.  There they will be with God, in the house of the Father.

Who will welcome them?

The friends they made here on earth by means of unrighteous mammon.

A final question: Do we use our worldly possessions in such a manner that there will be persons in eternity who will be glad to receive us?  Or will there be numbers who will point accusing fingers at us?