Prudence in Giving Unrighteous Mammon (1)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Bible Verses~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Luke 16:1 And He said also to the disciples, There was a
certain rich man who had a steward, and this one was accused to
him of squandering his possessions. (3) And the steward said
within himself, What shall I do, because my master is taking
the stewardship away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I
am ashamed to beg. (4) I know what I will do so that when I am
removed from the stewardship they may receive me into their own
houses. (5) And when he had called to him each one of his
master's debtors, he said to the first, How much do you owe my
master? (6) And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said
to him, Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.
(7) Then to another he said, And you, how much do you owe? And
he said, A hundred measures of wheat. He said to him, Take your
bill and write eighty. (8) And the master praised the
unrighteous steward because he had acted prudently; for the
sons of this age are more prudent in their dealings with their
own generation than the sons of light. (9) And I say to you,
Make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of
unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they may receive you
into the eternal tabernacles.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Words of Ministry~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Part 1 of 3]
The parable regarding the prudence of a steward is simple and
brief. Nevertheless, this parable contains a puzzling point,
and this is the Lord's using an unrighteous steward to
illustrate the service of a steward in God's house. ...this
does not mean that the Lord is teaching us to be unrighteous as
we are serving. The important matter here is the steward's
prudence. In verses five through seven we see that the
discharged steward, while he was still in the house, took the
opportunity to do something for others in order that later they
might do something for him. This was the steward's prudence.
Here [vs. 8] the Lord certainly is not teaching us to be
unrighteous. Instead, He is teaching us to be prudent, that is,
to do things at the right time, to take the opportunity at
hand.
To make friends by means of mammon [vs. 9] is to help others by
the use of money to do things according to God's leading.
Mammon, that is, money, is of the satanic world. It is
unrighteous in its position and existence. The steward in the
parable exercised his prudence by his unrighteous act. The Lord
teaches us, His believers, to exercise our prudence in the use
of unrighteous mammon. Verse nine indicates that those who have
been benefited by our proper use of money will welcome us into
the eternal tabernacles. This will be in the coming age of the
kingdom. When the Lord Jesus comes back and we are received
into His kingdom, some of us will have a number of people
welcoming us. Who will be these welcomers? They will be those
who have received benefit in this age by our prudent use of
money.
Let me give a simple illustration of this. Suppose you use an
amount of your money to publish gospel tracts for the purpose
of bringing people to the Lord. Those who have been benefited
by this use of your money will welcome you in the future. They
may say, "Brother, we want you to realize that we were saved
through one of the tracts paid for by you."...while we are
still on the way to the kingdom, we should use our money for
the benefit of others. We should not use it for ourselves, for
our luxury, amusement, pleasure, or indulgence. There is a
great deal of need, and there is much that we can do that will
be a benefit to others. This is to be prudent in serving the
Lord.
[Continued tomorrow]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(c) 2007 Living Stream Ministry. Bible verses are taken from
the Recovery Version of the Bible (RcV) and Words of Ministry,
from Witness Lee, Life-study of Luke, pp. 306-314. Both are
published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. (Repeat
2/12/01)
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