Get Smart with Money

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

Luke 16:9

These words follow a parable about a steward who lived by his wits. He has no hesitation in pulling a fast one on his master in order to feather his own nest. A report came to his master that this man was guilty of shady practices, and so it was wasting his goods. Without any investigation, the master called the steward in and dismissed him, but required an account of the stewardship before he left. And so the steward faced the bleak alternative of either having to go to work and dig ditches for a living, or begging his living from someone else. Neither of these alternatives suited him at all. So he suggests a third alternative that he decides to follow. He cleverly decides to put his master's debtors in his own debt. Evidently they owed the master a certain amount of rent. So he called those debtors in and reduced their debts. All of this finally comes to the attention of the master who, instead of being angry when he hears what his clever servant has done, commends him for this dishonest action. He regards him as a clever scoundrel. Jesus concluded the parable by saying, For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.

Within the limits of their view, people of this world are often more consistent in obtaining their goals than Christians are. Here is this steward, and although he is a scoundrel, at least he thinks of the future and prepares for it. He anticipates what is coming and he spends time getting ready for it. Our Lord clearly suggests that we Christians should take seriously the fact that this life is but preparation for a far greater life to come. What we learn here is what prepares us for living there, and if we fail to learn here we will not be ready, as we could be, for that life to come. The trouble with Christians is that they will not take their view of life seriously. If they did, they would imitate the assiduous effort that children of this world put into preparing for the future, even though that future will crumble apart at death.

Our Lord's conclusion is: Be wise about money, use it to make friends for yourselves, so that when the money fails — and it will — that money spent well will provide friends who will welcome you into the eternal habitations. Use money while it still has value. Do not avoid it, or pretend it is beneath you, as something unspiritual. On the other hand, do not save it up as though it were an end in itself. The thing about this steward is that he understood that money is to be used. It was not to heap up in a bank account and watch it grow; it was to be used for something. The believer also is to use money as a temporary vehicle to accomplish permanent good. If this clever steward understood to use money to serve his own best ends, how much more must Christians do the same in their life? Make friends by the proper use of money while it still has value, for there is coming a day — and it is absolutely certain — when it will lose its value.

Lord, you have spoken plainly and clearly. Grant that I may have the grace to take this seriously and live not for this world but the next.