1 Jesus also said to his followers, “Once there was a rich man who had a manager to take care of his business. This manager was accused of cheating him. 2 So he called the manager in and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give me a report of what you have done with my money, because you can’t be my manager any longer.’ 3 The manager thought to himself, ‘What will I do since my master is taking my job away from me? I am not strong enough to dig ditches, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I know what I’ll do so that when I lose my job people will welcome me into their homes.’
5 “So the manager called in everyone who owed the master any money. He asked the first one, ‘How much do you owe?’ 6 He answered, ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write four hundred gallons.’ 7 Then the manager asked another one, ‘How much do you owe?’ He answered, ‘One thousand bushels of wheat.’ Then the manager said to him, ‘Take your bill and write eight hundred bushels.’ 8 So, the master praised the dishonest manager for being clever. Yes, worldly people are more clever with their own kind than spiritual people are.
9 “I tell you, make friends for yourselves using worldly riches so that when those riches are gone, you will be welcomed in those homes that continue forever. 10 Whoever can be trusted with a little can also be trusted with a lot, and whoever is dishonest with a little is dishonest with a lot. 11 If you cannot be trusted with worldly riches, then who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you cannot be trusted with things that belong to someone else, who will give you things of your own?
13 “No servant can serve two masters. The servant will hate one master and love the other, or will follow one master and refuse to follow the other. You cannot serve both God and worldly riches.”
14 The Pharisees, who loved money, were listening to all these things and made fun of Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You make yourselves look good in front of people, but God knows what is really in your hearts. What is important to people is hateful in God’s sight.
16 “The law of Moses and the writings of the prophets were preached until John came. Since then the Good News about the kingdom of God is being told, and everyone tries to enter it by force. 17 It would be easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for the smallest part of a letter in the law to be changed.
18 “If a man divorces his wife and marries another woman, he is guilty of adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman is also guilty of adultery.”
Read Luke 16:1-18 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Have you ever read a passage and assumed a specific detail was present, only to realize later that it is nowhere to be found?
This passage is one that is like this for me.
Up until now, when I read in this passage, I always assumed that when the master “praised the dishonest manager”, he also chose to not fire him – but this is nowhere stated, and not really even implied.
The dishonest manager is praised for using his last ounce of position to make friends, but while this puts a little bit of social pressure onto the master to not fire him, these actions themselves make the manager less trustworthy for this position than even before. The dishonest manager’s actions, while they made him some friends, sealed the decision in place that he should no longer be employed.
However, just under the surface is an interesting truth that goes along with this idea: When we are facing significant changes in our lives (such as a job loss in this case), we recognize that relationships are more important than money, knowledge, fame, or a large estate. This single event caused the dishonest manager, who likely didn’t have any friends (dishonesty will do that) to shift his focus onto making friends over accumulating stuff.
Significant life changes cause us to review and reprioritize our focus.
In your life and in mine, when we see big changes coming, we begin to look for ways to manage these changes. Most often in this search, we look for someone who can help us navigate the unknown. Moving through life’s challenges with a friend is much better than facing these challenges alone.
Everyone learns this lesson at some point. It is better to learn it now, before a significant event forces us to change. Facing trials changes our character: we either become more of what we were before, or we choose to change directions moving forward.
This dishonest manager shifted his focus from the money to the relationships. Would these relationships last? Maybe, but only if this event changed his character. Without honesty and/or integrity, friendships don’t last.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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