Generosity and Wealth 2 Luke 16:1-14

Generosity and Wealth 2 Luke 16:1-14 Jesus told almost 40 parables in the Gospels and about 1/3 of them deal with money. Money played a prominent role in Jesus teaching because it plays a prominent role in the world. We spend a lot of time, energy and thought into making money, saving money and spending money. It s a preoccupation that can dominate our lives and misguide us into self-sufficiency. The Bible reveals both right and wrong ways to obtain money. First: There are Right ways to obtain money 1 You can work to obtain money Proverbs 14:23; 6:6-11; 20:4; 28:19 2 You can save money for the future Proverbs 21:20; 30:24-25 3 You can make money through wise planning Proverbs 27:23-24 4 You can make money through gifts Philippians 4:16 Second: There are Wrong ways to make money 1 Stealing Exodus 20:15 & Eph 4:28 2 Fraud Psalm 37:21 3 Exorbitant interest on loans Exodus 22:25 4 Keeping what is due others James 5:4 5 Gambling Proverbs 13:1; 23:5 Third: The right attitude is to acknowledge that God owns everything and is the source of our ability to make money. Deuteronomy 8:17-18 1 Timothy 6:17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 1

Fourth: The wrong way to regard money is to love it. 1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. 1 - Loving money is destructive 1 Timothy 6:9 2 - Loving money reveals a lack of trust in God Proverbs 11:28; 1 Timothy 6:17 3 - Loving money causes people to behave foolishly Luke 12:16-21 4 - Loving money causes people to rob God Malachi 3:8 5 - Loving money causes indifference to the needs of others 1 John 3:17 Fifth: The Bible establishes the way we are supposed to use money 1 We earn money to support ourselves 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 2 We earn money to care for our families 1 Timothy 5:8 3 We earn money to support the nation Romans 13:6-7 4 We earn money to help people in need Matthew 6:2-3; James 2:15-16 Sixth: There are New Testament Giving Principles 1 Christian giving is voluntary 2 Corinthians 9:7 2 Christian giving is joyful 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 3 Christian giving is personal Matthew 6:2-4 4 Christian giving is regular and systematic 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 5 Christian giving is motivated by love 2 Corinthians 8:8 To help his followers understand the biblical perspective on money, Jesus told the following parable: 2

First: The Parable 1-8 The primary audience was the disciples V 1 The rich man was rich enough to hire a manager. This means the owner was probably an absentee landlord and the manager was probably a free man. The debts incurred to the owner were too large to have been owed by tenant farmers which speaks to the vastness of his holdings and this particular enterprise charges were brought = diaballo = slanderer or accuser Wasting = same word used of younger prodigal in 15:13 V2 On hearing the news, the owner demanded an explanation V 3 He was a white-collar worker and unfit to dig. He was a white-collar worker and ashamed to beg. V 4 His scheme intends to rob his master further V 5-6 One hundred measures of oil = 875 gallons; the yield of about 150 olive trees / about 1000 denarii, more than three years wages for a common laborer The manager cut this debtor s bill in half, to 50 measures of oil V 7 The 2 nd debtor owed 100 measures of wheat and the manager reduced it by 20%. V 8a When the owner heard about the dishonest manager s shrewdness, he praised him. This tells us something about the owner himself. V 8b The point: Unbelievers are far more passionate and skilled in temporal affairs than believers are about eternal things Second: The Application 9-13 1 st v 9 - Use your temporal wealth to gain eternal friends = mercy evangelism Matthew 6:19-21 - Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust [a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Where we invest our money reveals the focus of our hearts. This exposes our passions; what we really love. 3

Albert Barnes - Jesus, here, does not say that we should do it "in the same way" that the steward did, for that was unjust; but only that we should "secure the result." This may be done by using our riches as we "should do;" that is, by not suffering them to entangle us in cares and perplexities dangerous to the soul, engrossing the time, and stealing away the affections; by employing them in works of mercy and benevolence, aiding the poor, contributing to the advance of the gospel, bestowing them where they will do good, and in such a manner that God will "approve" the deed, and will bless us for it. Adam Clarke - The expression seems to be a mere Hebraism: - they may receive you, for ye shall be received; i.e. God shall admit you, if you make a faithful use of his gifts and graces. He who does not make a faithful use of what he has received from his Maker has no reason to hope for eternal felicity. The Biblical Illustrator Our Lord says, You are to make friends with it, who may receive you into everlasting habitations. You are so to use your opportunities that when your present stewardship is over you may not be turned out in the cold and to beggary, but may have secured friends who will give you a welcome to the eternal world. It is the same view of the connection of this world and the next which our Lord gives in His picture of the last judgment, when He says, Inasmuch as ye have done it, etc. Those whom we have done most good to are, as a rule, those whom we have most loved; and what better welcome to a new world, what more grateful guidance in its ways, could we desire than that of those whom here on earth we have loved most dearly? Can you promise yourselves any better reward than to meet the loving recognition and welcome of those who have experienced your kindness; to be received by those to whom you have willingly sacrificed money, time, opportunities of serving yourself? Coffman s Commentaries on the Bible - When it shall fail... is a reference to the ultimate failure of all worldly assets, which under no circumstances can ever continue any longer than the lifetime of the holder; and it is the end of life in view here, because of the Savior's reference to being received into eternal tabernacles. They may receive you... Some have viewed these "friends" as poor people helped during the life of the one received; but this is a forced view, derived from the error of making this parable primarily a teaching on the Christian's responsibility for the proper use of his wealth; but, despite the fact of such teaching being included, the parable lays special stress on making the proper spiritual preparations prerequisite to being received into heaven. John Gill - that when ye fail: of money; or "that fails", as the Ethiopic version reads; or rather, when ye leave that, that is, when ye die; so in Jeremiah 42:22 "know certainly that ye shall die"; the Septuagint renders it, εκλειψετε, "ye shall fall by the sword", &c. they may receive you into everlasting habitations: the mansions of glory, which are many, and of an eternal duration: this is to be understood of their being received thither, not by the poor, to whom they have been benefactors; for though these may now pray for their reception to glory when they die, and will hereafter rejoice at their reception thither; yet they themselves will not be receivers of them, or their introducers into the everlasting tents, or tabernacles: nor are the angels intended, who carry the souls of the righteous into Abraham's bosom, and will gather the 4

elect together at the last day; for not they, but God and Christ, receive the saints to glory: the words may be rendered impersonally, "you may be received"; in a way of welldoing, though not for it; A.T. Robertson - When it shall fail (οταν εκλιπηι hotan eklipēi). Second aorist active subjunctive with οταν hotan future time. The mammon is sure to fail. That they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles (ινα δεχωνται υµας εις τας αιωνιους σκηνας hina dexōntai humas eis tas aiōnious skēnas). This is the purpose of Christ in giving the advice about their making friends by the use of money. The purpose is that those who have been blessed and helped by the money may give a welcome to their benefactors when they reach heaven. There is no thought here of purchasing an entrance into heaven by the use of money. That idea is wholly foreign to the context. These friends will give a hearty welcome when one gives him mammon here. The wise way to lay up treasure in heaven is to use one s money for God here on earth. That will give a cash account there of joyful welcome, not of purchased entrance. Calvin - When you fail. By this word he expresses the time of death, and reminds us that the time of our administration will be short, lest the confident expectation of a longer continuance of life should make us take a firmer grasp. The greater part are sunk in slumber through their wealth; many squander what they have on superfluities; while the niggardliness of others keeps it back, and deprives both themselves and others of the benefit. Whence comes all this, but because they are led astray by an unfounded expectation of long life, and give themselves up to every kind of indulgence? Of the mammon of unrighteousness. By giving this name to riches, he intends to render them an object of our suspicion, because for the most part they involve their possessors in unrighteousness Though in themselves they are not evil, yet as it rarely happens that they are obtained without deceit, or violence, or some other unlawful expedient, or that the enjoyment of them is unaccompanied by pride, or luxury, or some other wicked disposition, Christ justly represents them as worthy of our suspicion; just as on another occasion he called them thorns, (Matthew 13:7.) It would appear that a contrast, though not expressed, is intended to be supplied, to this effect; that riches, which otherwise, in consequence of wicked abuse, polluted their possessors, and are almost in every ease allurements of sin, ought to be directed to a contrary object, to be the means of procuring favor for us. Let us also remember what I have formerly stated, that God does not demand sacrifice to be made from booty unjustly acquired, as if he were the partner of thieves, and that it is rather a warning given to believers to keep themselves free from unrighteousness. 2 nd v 10-12 Some people claim if they had more, they would give more. Jesus says this is not true. You will only ever be as generous as you presently are 3 rd The Master/Slave relationship does not provide options A slave could not work a part-time job to make extra income. They were the property of masters who had absolute control over them. Our devotion to Christ is equally exclusive. 5

A person cannot be a slave to God and material wealth. God accepts no co-regents of the heart. Calvin on Matthew 6:24 Where riches hold the dominion of the heart, God has lost his authority. People who love money will resent God s demands. Those who love God will see money as a vehicle to further God s agenda in their own lives and in the world. Matthew Henry - 16:1-12 Whatever we have, the property of it is God's; we have only the use of it, according to the direction of our great Lord, and for his honour. This steward wasted his lord's goods. And we are all liable to the same charge; we have not made due improvement of what God has trusted us with. The steward cannot deny it; he must make up his accounts, and be gone. This may teach us that death will come, and deprive us of the opportunities we now have. The steward will make friends of his lord's debtors or tenants, by striking off a considerable part of their debt to his lord. The lord referred to in this parable commended not the fraud, but the policy of the steward. In that respect alone is it so noticed. Worldly men, in the choice of their object, are foolish; but in their activity, and perseverance, they are often wiser than believers. The unjust steward is not set before us as an example in cheating his master, or to justify any dishonesty, but to point out the careful ways of worldly men. It would be well if the children of light would learn wisdom from the men of the world, and would as earnestly pursue their better object. The true riches signify spiritual blessings; and if a man spends upon himself, or hoards up what God has trusted to him, as to outward things, what evidence can he have, that he is an heir of God through Christ? The riches of this world are deceitful and uncertain. Let us be convinced that those are truly rich, and very rich, who are rich in faith, and rich toward God, rich in Christ, in the promises; let us then lay up our treasure in heaven, and expect our portion from thence. Small Group Interaction: 1 What are some of the biblical ways to earn money? (See notes) Which of these ways have you employed? 2 What are some of the wrong ways to make money? Why are these wrong? a) They don t reflect God s character. b) They don t reflect trust in God. c) They steal from others who have earned money. d) They take what belongs to others. D) They don t provide for the poor 3 What is the right attitude toward money? a) God gives us the means to make money. b) God gives us money to care for ourselves. c) God gives us money to care for others 4 What are some of the reasons we should not love money? (See notes) Have you been guilty of any of these? 5 What are some principles of New Testament giving? (See notes) 6

6 Restate the parable in your own words. 7 Is Jesus commending the unjust manager s actions? No. What is he commending? The forward-thinking of the manager. Living in the light of the future. 8 What is the point of the parable? We should do now with our money what will secure the best heavenly future for us. 9 According to Jesus, how can we do that? Matthew 6:19-21. 10 How do you lay-up treasures in heaven? According to Jesus, in this parable, it s by giving money to care for those whom you will meet in heaven. This could mean mercy ministry or evangelism. 7