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Luke 16:10–13
“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” (v. 13).
Though the dishonest manager in the parable that bears his name is commended for his shrewdness in reducing the debts of those who owed payment to his master (Luke 16:8), Jesus is not praising dishonesty. We know this because of His high respect for God’s law, which commends truth-telling (Matt. 5:17–19; see Ex. 20:16). The context of the parable of the dishonest manager also tells us that Jesus is not approving of sin. In today’s passage, Jesus contrasts dishonesty with faithfulness, implicitly condemning dishonesty.
Christ makes this contrast in Luke 16:10, where He notes that he who is faithful in little will be faithful in much and he who is dishonest in little will be dishonest in much. Jesus’ point is that character matters, as seen in the commonsense truth that people who cannot be trusted with a little can by no means be trusted to handle a lot. Among other things, this warns us not to quickly trust people with great responsibilities in the church and the world until they have proved themselves able to handle matters of lesser import.
Jesus continues, noting that if we have not been faithful in “unrighteous wealth,” no one will trust us with “true riches” (v. 11). Here Jesus seems to be saying that our reception of spiritual goods depends in some manner on how we use material goods and other things of the world. Our Lord calls these things unrighteous not because they are inherently evil but because worldly wealth can be a motivator for evil and because money will pass away when the unrighteous world is judged. The point is that the Lord does not entrust the grace of salvation and other spiritual goods to people who by their use of material goods show themselves to be dishonest, and this is because impenitent dishonesty reveals hearts that do not rest only in the Lord (Rom. 6–7). Matthew Henry comments, “Though our faithful use of the things of this world cannot be thought to merit any favor at the hand of God, yet our unfaithfulness in the use of them may be justly reckoned a forfeiture of that grace which is necessary to bring us to glory.”
If we are not faithful with the worldly goods that do not ultimately belong to us, our hearts are not ready to receive the kingdom that does belong to us by grace (Luke 16:12). Wealth ultimately forces us to choose how we will use it or acquire it, and we know that there are some ways to acquire or use money that are sinful. If we engage in such things, we have chosen to serve money, not God (v. 13).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Matthew Henry writes, “He that serves God, and does good, with his money, will serve God, and do good, with the more noble and valuable talents of wisdom and grace, and spiritual gifts, and the earnests of heaven.” The way that we use our goods reveals the state of our hearts as well as who our true Master is. Let us endeavor to use our earthly goods to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
for further study
- Ecclesiastes 5:9
- Matthew 25:14–30
- 1 Timothy 6:10
- Hebrews 13:5
the bible in a year
- Psalms 88–89
- Romans 10:5–21