Luke 16:1-13 The Dishonest Manager’s Liquidation Sale
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: October 3, 2018 Luke 16:1-13
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
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.’ 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. “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.”
(Understanding the Text) This is a parable that confuses me. The lesson that Jesus draws doesn’t seem to fit the parable that He told. In the parable, the dishonest manager is discovered, and he knows that his days in his position are numbered. He thinks quickly about how to land on his feet when his employer cuts him loose. He basically cheats his employer by accepting less than is owed to his employer; thus, he makes friends with the people who are debtors, but in the process loses money for his employer, yet in the end the employer admires the manager’s strategy.
Jesus’ first lesson I understand in relationship to the parable. This is another parable told in reaction to the criticism that Jesus accepted sinners. He was saying that even worldly people know that if you are in a tight situation, you make allies with those that you might have had an adversarial relationship with before in order to have a safety net. Jesus said that the people of God didn’t understand this basic idea. Essentially, He was saying that they cut off their noses to spite their faces. In refusing to find a way to accept the Jewish sinners back into their group, they were cutting themselves off from allies who could help them face the rest of the dangerous world that they lived in.
I guess the parable makes sense if the Pharisees are the bad manager. Jesus was saying that He was charging the religious leaders of the Jews with wasting His precious resources. Then He was telling them how to get back into God’s good graces. Instead of wasting the resources on themselves, they should waste them on their fellow Jews who they had excluded before. They were given management of the Jewish people and had wasted many of God’s precious people, but they were given a chance to redeem themselves by practicing generosity. By forgiving the people and not holding them to strict standards that they could not meet, the Pharisees could form a cohesive group again.
(Revelation of God) Jesus knew that the Pharisees would not follow His instructions because of their greed for money and power, so He addressed that issue. He told them that they had to choose who they would serve-God or money. He said that they were trying to serve two masters, and in the process they were wasting God’s possessions. They might not see it because they thought that what they were doing was just a little thing, but Jesus told them that being faithful in the little things was what would bring about faithfulness in big things. They had proven themselves untrustworthy with their own people, so how could God trust them with the Gentiles that He would be bringing in to the fold?
Edersheim says “For, the ‘disciples,’ to whom the first Parable was addressed, were not primarily the Apostles, but those ‘publicans and sinners’ whom Jesus had received, to the great displeasure of the Pharisees.” When I look at the parable from this viewpoint, Jesus is telling the repentant sinners that they have money that they made unrighteously (through extortion, cheating, etc.) but that now they have to be accountable to God. This is instruction on how to use their wealth. Jesus tells them to use their wealth to make friends for God. This does not earn them a place in heaven, but it is the way that God wants them to use their wealth. They can return some of the wealth to people they have cheated before and use it to make others’ burdens lighter and in the process they will be pleasing their Master who they had ignored in the past. Edersheim says “In the first Parable we are told, what the sinner when converted should learn from his previous life of sin”
Guzik’s commentary says ” Yet, the dishonest steward is a praiseworthy example on several points. First, he knew he would be called to account for his life and he took that seriously. Christians should take seriously the idea that they will be called to account, and that idea can be a joy if we are about our Master’s business! Second, he took advantage of his present position to arrange a comfortable future.”
(Application) Jesus equates money with something of limited worth and contrasts it with true riches. He advises people to use the money they have in order to build up a sure place in heaven. The way to do that is to use it to make friends in heavenly places. We must look at wealth as a tool, not a goal. As a tool, we can use it to serve our Lord without it controlling us. As a goal, we will look upon money as the end and may be willing to act unethically in order to obtain that end. Money is seen as a little thing by Jesus. When we make money our goal in life, we are denying heaven and focusing on this world. If we cannot be trusted to put money in its correct importance, how can we be entrusted with other people’s lives? In God’s eyes, people are greater treasures than money.
(Prayer) I pray to be faithful in the small things and the large things. I pray to please You. I still don’t understand everything about this parable except that it is saying that the ways of the kingdom of heaven don’t make sense to worldly viewpoints. I pray to see with the wisdom of heaven.