Current Tunage: Fee – Rise and Sing
Blew my mind.

Along with my friend Noah, I’ve been intentionally studying Scripture lately with the purpose of applying its truth to my life. For me, that means that I’ve been studying finances and economics. For some, this might seem strange – what on earth could the Bible have to say about my money? If you’re asking such a question, the answer might surprise you: quite a lot. Everything, even.

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve found myself at one of life’s crossroads. Namely, I’m a recent grad on the hunt for meaningful, full-time employ. As is the case with any life-phase, I thought I knew what to expect heading into it, and I’ve discovered otherwise. Just like I thought I knew all about marriage before getting married only to find I had barely scraped the surface and that much of what’s to be learned can only be learned through practice and, well, living it. So, these past few months I’ve been overwhelmed by the grace of God as he has provided far beyond all I could have asked or imagined. Besides continuing the on-call position I’ve held for 7 years supporting people with developmental disabilities, I’ve also had the opportunity to work with two businesses doing freelance writing work throughout the summer and into the fall. This has provided many interesting opportunities to accumulate experience and “resume revenue”, and I’m very thankful.

With that in mind, though, I’ve realized that although I know a lot of the basics about finances (debt is bad, savings are good, assets vs liabilities, etc), I can’t think of a time that I’ve seriously studied Scripture to see what God has to say about wealth and riches. So, while my dear friend Noah is working his way through another topic, I’m working my way through finances.

This all started with what is best described as a word study. Being able to search-engine the Bible (thanks to e-Sword and various web-based tools) is a blessing and a curse. It allows us to quickly find that verse in our head (or find related verses easily) but takes away a lot of the impetus to memorize not just words but locations – which are still very important. In any case, my word study turned up a lot of hits on words like “money” and “wealth” and “riches” and “rich” and so on. I felt it most prudent to check all the significant synonyms.

The purpose of this word study was to isolate the most useful and applicable passages (while understanding that all the passages are useful and applicable). As a result, I ended up with a small handful of passages that I will be working my way through over the course of the next few days. Each one bears a significant set of implications on how we view money, finances, economics… and hammers on important characteristics that we as believers are to strive toward. Things like generosity, stewardship, wisdom, sacrificial love, and trusting God.

So, won’t you join me as I work my way through one of Jesus’ parables:

Luke 16:1-8 ESV
He 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.’

Ok, so – first things first, Jesus is hanging out with his disciples and the Pharisees. He decides to bust a parable on them. Parables usually have one “main point”, and we’ll get to that a bit later. First, let’s check out the story itself. There’s a manager and his boss – the rich man. The manager is kind of like a CEO is to a Board of Directors – he’s the one who does the daily ins-and-outs of the business; the one who’s actually got his hands in stuff. He makes the decisions on the rich man’s behalf, for the sake of his estate. He’s the guy the rich man has to take care of collecting from those who owe him stuff – he’s the guy who “takes care of business”. Basically, he’s been blowing his boss’ cash like no tomorrow, he realizes his boss has found him out, and forgives some of his boss’ debtors before he gets fired so he’ll be on their good side.

Luke 16:8-9 ESV
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.

The boss congratulates him for being such a sly, clever larcenist. Of course, it goes without saying he wasn’t happy with the guy, and it’s probably safe to say the ‘commendation’ was sarcasm at it’s finest. I’m envisioning it coming across like this: “I commend you for your shrewdness… and I hope you enjoy how shrewdly I drop your shrewd posterior into Hebrew Penitentiary”.

Which brings us to the highly applicable “parablic commentary” (as I’m fond of calling it). First, Jesus says that ‘sons of the world’ are more shrewd than ‘sons of light’ in ‘dealing with their own generation’. Then, Jesus says that it’s good to make friends with ‘unrighteous wealth’. So what does that mean? Well, I’m inclined to agree with the ESVSB‘s observations:

Jesus applies the parable both as a comparison and as a contrast. In contrast to the manager, Jesus’ disciples must not use their money unrighteously, but like the manager they must use their money in such a way that they prepare for their future life. The “sons of this world” often show more concern and skill in taking care of their earthly well-being than do the “sons of light” in taking care of eternal matters.

This brings up a couple important principles for those of us who belong to Christ – we who are “called by his name”, who are ‘sons of light’:

1. We are to strive to show far greater care, concern, and stewardship of our resources (financial or otherwise) than unbelievers.
2. We are to strive in this way not for our earthly well-being, but for eternal matters; primarily for the building of God’s kingdom and not our own.

Luke 16:10-13 ESV
“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.”

At this point, Christ begins to speak of faithfulness. Isn’t it remarkable that in the midst of a parable about finances and wealth, Jesus talks about fidelity? I think so.

I think it’s amazing that the measure of our economics and our financial dealings isn’t numbers, but faithfulness. If it were purely numeric, we’d all be toast; our ‘unrighteous wealth’ (that is – money that is so easily and quickly either unrighteously acquired or used or made an idol of) would forever be ‘too much’ or ‘not enough’. If poverty were the measure of our righteousness in wealth, all us rich folks in the West (and that’s all of us, arguably) would be condemned. Likewise if luxury were the measure of righteousness in wealth, all the poor people in third world countries would be condemned. Praise God! His standard is not one of “you must make this much to pass!” or “you must not make more than this much to pass!”, but “you must be faithful with what you have!”.

The measure of our financial dealings (and all the numbers that represent it) is not how much or how little we have, but our faithfulness with what we do have. Think about the parable of the widow at the temple. Some rich dude drops in a couple big moneybags for show, then she waddles up and drops in two coins:

Mark 12:42-44 ESV
And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Jesus praises her for what she gave. Why? Because generosity toward God looks very different when you’re rich compared to when you’re poor. It’s percentage-oriented, not numeric-value-oriented. “Aha!”, you might say, “percentages can be turned into numbers!”. You’re right, but you’re missing the point. The point is, the widow gave all she had to God and that action reflected the fact that her heart was trusting Him in faith. The rich dude gave a tiny fraction of his horde of coin – and that reflected the fact that he was still trusting in his cash to save the day (or… alternately, his life, his health, his dignity, etc) – and that’s beside the fact he was making a show of it.

So, what are the principles we can pull from this as ‘sons of light’?

1. When it comes to giving, think in terms of faithfulness – not in terms of bank balance. “What does faithfulness look like in my context?”
2. Be faithful with little (most of us, if you’re like me, have ‘little’). Be generous to God – everything you have is on loan from Him anyway.
3. What faithfulness looks like in your heart and in your bank balance never changes, no matter whether you have much or little.
4. Financial faithfulness is rooted in trusting God to provide:

Matthew 6:31-33 ESV
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Throughout Scripture, God delights in being the one who ultimately meets our needs and sustains us. When we focus on meeting our needs and sustaining ourselves (regardless of the method), that is an act of idolatry – we’ve removed God from one of his self-declared functions and replaced him with a Saviour of our own making. In the context of what we’re talking about, this means we must strive not to allow ourselves to be anxious about our finances, but to entrust them to the God who provides and sustains us as we strive to be faithful and “seek his kingdom” above our own. It doesn’t mean that we be foolish/lax in earning or handling our resources (Proverbs has much to say about that), only that we entrust them to God and live that out in faithful, trusting serenity. God PROMISES to take care of us when we trust him to. Test that promise!

This brings us to the close of our passage:

Luke 16:14-15 ESV
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

Let us be mindful of the fact that living out the principles of this parable will appear utterly worthy of ridicule to ubelievers (and to ourselves in our unbelief!). Particularly if we are among those who have made a god of money – to whom it is a (dys)functional saviour, all of the above is utter nonsense. Remember that what the unbelieving world exalts (debt lifestyle, getting rich quick, extravagant living, unnecessary poverty, laziness, workoholism, loving money and using people rather than using money to love people) is an abomination in God’s sight.

With that in mind, let those of us who are ‘sons of light’, who belong to Christ Jesus and are “called by his Name” be those who entrust ourselves to God, wholly and faithfully handling what we have (little or great) and leveraging it for His Kingdom, for His Honour, and for His Glory.

Let’s close with an admonition from Paul:

2 Corinthians 9:6-11 ESV
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

Amen.