WWUTT 2438 The Parable of the Dishonest Manager (Luke 16:1-17)

The parable of the dishonest manager is a challenging parable, but ultimately what we are to take from this is all that exists in the world, let's use it to the glory of God and for the advancement of his kingdom when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's word that we may be filled with the knowledge of his will. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Starting Luke 16 and the Setting for the Parable

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the gospel of Luke, we come back to chapter 16. Well, we don't come back to it. We're actually starting chapter 16 today, but we come back to a conversation that's been going on since chapter 15.

Jesus has been telling parables, and today we get to the parable of the dishonest manager. I'm going to read here chapter 16 verses 1 through 17, hear the word of the Lord. Jesus 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. I'm 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 50. 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 80.

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. 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. The law and the prophets were until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it.

But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become.

Void.".

Why the Parable Is Often Misunderstood

Now this is a very misunderstood parable. I've talked about how the parable of the good Samaritan is often twisted to mean something that doesn't really mean and how the parable of the prodigal son often applied to things that it doesn't really apply to.

But here, this parable of the dishonest manager, I don't think some of the versions of this you've heard are necessarily the result of somebody twisting the word. As much as it is more, they just don't understand it.

It is rather challenging and I had to receive or had to read a few commentaries myself in order to understand exactly what it is that's going here. The big point, the main picture that we want to be looking at here, here's kind of the point that we're getting to and you'll see this when you read Jesus' explanations and his response that he makes to the Pharisees.

The point being that we take those things that ordinarily exist in the world and we use them to bless others and glorify God. We use them in a right and righteous way, not the way the people of the world use them in a dishonest or unrighteous way.

So we'll get to that here. You'll see that meaning come out of this as we go. So Luke 16 beginning in verse one, Jesus said to the disciples, okay, we're still in the same conversation of parables that's been going on since chapter 15.

Remember that Jesus was with the tax collectors and the sinners and he's eating with them and this makes the Pharisees bitter. They grumble saying this man receives sinners and eats with them. And so then we had the trilogy of parables there in chapter 15, the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, the parable of the prodigal son, that last parable, the third one targeting the Pharisees specifically.

Now Jesus disciples are there, but as he's telling this parable, it's not just to his disciples. It's also the Pharisees. They're hearing what Jesus is saying. Hence why we have in verse 14, the Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all these things and they ridiculed him.

So they're still being bitter against Jesus. Now something that I did not draw out of the conclusion of the parable of the prodigal son yesterday is something that the father said to the older son. Remember the older son was grumbling that his younger brother who had gone and squandered his wealth with prostitutes was getting the fat and calf and a huge celebration at home.

Instead, the older brother wanted all the attention to be on himself. And so the father responded to the son, son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours. It is fitting to celebrate and be glad for this.

Your brother was dead and he's alive. He was lost and is found. But the older brother continues to be bitter just as the Pharisees have been embittered about Jesus having fellowship with tax collectors and centers doesn't mean that Jesus endorses their behavior in any way, but that these people, though they have this low reputation, have heard the word of Christ and have come to him.

The picture there is that they're penitent. They're repentant of their sin. And they know that Jesus has the words of eternal life. The Pharisees are not humble about anything. They're prideful and they think of themselves as righteous and everybody needs to be like.

Me.

God needs to celebrate me in his kingdom. It's not about these other people. It's about me. So focusing on themselves in that way. But anyway, as I did not draw out of this yesterday, the father had said to the son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours.

I had mentioned that the older brother was getting the larger share anyway. He was going to receive most of the inheritance that would come from his father. Yet he chose to grumble and complain that his younger brother was being treated in any way like this.

Now, what I did not tie that to when I mentioned that is that Israel was the first to receive the oracles of God. The apostle Paul talks about this in Romans chapter three. What benefit is there to being a Jew?

Much in every way, Paul says, because first of all, they received the oracles of God. To them belong the patriarchs. And it's from the Jewish people that the Messiah came. So there is great advantage to being a Jew.

But instead of receiving that Messiah who came to them from their own bloodline, through the line of David, instead of receiving him, the Pharisees and those who hated Jesus put him to death. As said in John chapter one, he came to his own and his own did not receive him.

But to those who did receive him, he gave the right to them to become children of God. And that's all of us who put our faith and trust in Jesus. So there was indeed great inheritance that was going to be promised to the Jews, even to these Pharisees, if they would have honored and worshipped the Lord Christ as the son of God.

But they didn't. They hated him and they put him to death. So there's a connection there between that with the father saying, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours. Yes, based on the covenant that was made with that people, they would always belong to God if they had been obedient to the covenant.

But instead, they did not receive the one whom God had sent as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. And you'll notice we have a mention of the law and prophets come up here in this parable in verse 16, where Jesus says the law and the prophets were until John.

Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, but the Pharisees will not enter into it. Nonetheless, as Jesus is saying here to his disciples, there are still things to learn from the Pharisees and from those who are worldly.

How could that be? Well, let's keep going here. So there was a rich man who had a manager and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And the manager in this sense, this dishonest manager represents the Pharisees.

This is the same word that is used for a steward, manager, steward of one's household. And Jesus has already referred to the apostles as stewards. I think this was back in chapter 12. So that which Christ has entrusted to them as messengers of the kingdom, they have become stewards of the household of God.

The apostle Paul talks to Timothy about this as well, that Timothy is a steward of the household of God as an elder in the church. He is taking care of God's house, the church. And so here that same word is applied, but to the Pharisees, they are also stewards, but they're false stewards.

They are dealing falsely instead of doing that, which God has instructed them to do according to his word. They are not acting according to his word. They're acting according to their own word. So the manager or rather the rich man called the manager 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. Now as I've said of parables, we got to be careful not to overanalyze things because there's one main point that we're supposed to be drawing out about this, but this could definitely be the parallel here could be of God taking the kingdom away from the Jews and giving it to the Gentiles.

Those Gentiles who would believe as Jesus had said in Matthew 8, 11, I tell you, many will come from East and West and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.

In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And so those who were descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who thought they were going to get the kingdom, it's being taken away from them and it's being given to another.

So here, at least as far as the way it's worded here in this parable, this is just showing how the kingdom is being taken away from those who though they were to be recipients of it were not faithful to God and did not recognize his son when his son came.

So in verse three, the manager said to himself, what shall I do? Since my master is taking the management away from me, I'm not strong enough to dig and I am ashamed to beg. And these things have direct correlations with the Pharisees.

I am not strong enough to dig. Their strength is gone. And Jesus is even kind of taking a poke at them at their manliness. They're not even strong enough to be able to do manual labor. They have become soft with their false doctrine.

And also, I am ashamed to beg. So they know of their error, but they're not going to come out and admit it. Instead, they're going to try to cover it up by doing something else, by doing other deeds that they think will be righteous to cover over their unrighteous deeds.

So in verse four, it says the manager decides what to do so that when I'm removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. He's got a plan here. So, verse five, 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. And he said to him, take your bill, sit down quickly, write 50. And then he said to another, how much do you owe? And he said, a hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, take your bill and write 80.

You know, there are a lot of people out there that will say that the point of this parable has to do with money. And it kind of does. I'll draw that out in a moment, but that's not the main point. It's not about rightly handling finances.

You've probably heard it said that Jesus talked about money more than he talked about any other subject. That's not true. He talked about God more than he talked about any other subject. But even those, those stories that have something to do with money are not Jesus talking about money, but using money to make another point.

And that's what's going on here. So you can't even really count this as, see, look at how much of a point Jesus means to make with money. Now he's got another lesson that he's teaching with this. So here the manager is reducing the debt that people owe the master saying, no, you're going to pay me this much instead.

And now he's gaining the favor of other people so that when he loses his job, he's still going to have homes and households that he can go to where people are going to feed and take care of him. He will still have fellowship and won't be going hungry.

And in verse eight, it says the master commended the dishonest manager, the false steward. He commended him for his shrewdness. Now what does this have to do with anything like this? This guy's dishonest.

So how is it that the master is now commending him? He's not praising him for his evil, but rather, so, so let me get to kind of the point here. Let me, let me get to the picture that's being painted and then hopefully you'll be able.

To see it.

Verse eight again. So the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness for the sons of this world are more shrewd and they're 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.

Is Jesus actually encouraging his disciples to be dishonest? No, that's not what's going on here. Rather, take those things that are ordinary to this world and use them, but for a greater and higher purpose.

What was this dishonest manager doing? He was using money to benefit himself. He really wasn't trying to benefit somebody else. He wasn't looking after those debtors that owed to the master. He was trying to survive.

It was a survival of the fittest sort of a thing for this guy. And by the way, the reference to this money, it's also a reference to Mammon. You've heard that before, right? Jesus saying, as he will say here, even in this parable, you cannot serve God and Mammon.

And Mammon was like a Chaldean deity that was the personification of money and success and wealth. So as if money could get up and talk and have a personality, that's what Mammon is. And it's that same word that's being used here.

Even where Jesus says, you cannot serve God and money in verse 13, that's the same as you cannot serve God and Mammon in other translations. So where the dishonest manager is telling these debtors that you don't have to pay 100, you can just pay me 50.

Essentially, what he's doing, if we make the parallels here, is this is like the Pharisees telling the people, all you need to do is this in order to enter the kingdom of God. And they're not giving them the truth, what you really owe.

They're saying, no, you owe this thing. So give me this, and that will get you into the kingdom. We see this in other false religions today. The Roman Catholics that will say you need to do this work, this work, and this work, and then you'll enter the kingdom of God.

So they're not willing to tell you the truth. Here's what you really owe, and you can't pay it. Only Christ can pay it. You must believe in Christ in order to enter the kingdom of God. No, they add works to it.

You have to do these works in order to enter the kingdom of God. And many other false religions do the same thing. You have to do this, this, and this in order to enter the kingdom of God. The prosperity preachers out there who say, you got to give money to me.

You got to pay this much money in order to enter the kingdom of God. So they're not willing to tell them what you really owe. Instead, they try to give them a lesser amount. And if you pay this much, that will get you into the kingdom of God.

But they're still dishonest. They're still lying. Now, verse eight, it gets kind of tricky because it says the master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. Why would the master be commending the dishonest manager?

Well, don't necessarily think of the master as being God in this sense, because the master is still a worldly figure in this parable as well. But the master commends the dishonest manager and going, hey, that was pretty good.

The way that you kind of manipulated the situation to be able to survive yourself, yeah, I can admire that. As if the manager's going, if I was in the same position, I probably would have done the same thing.

Or would I have even thought of that? So that's pretty sharp. It's like game recognizing game. But then going on, Jesus says the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.

The sons of light being those who are believers, those who are followers of Jesus Christ, as the apostle Paul calls us children of light in Ephesians chapter five. So Jesus says in verse nine, I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth mammon again, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwelling.

So here's the point. We can take things that exist here in this world that aren't going to survive with this world like it's all going to be burned up and gone when Jesus returns with his angels and flaming fire.

As the apostle Peter talks about in second Peter chapter three, that all of this world is going to be burned up with fire, the fire of God's wrath that is being stored up for the day of judgment. So all the things that exist in this world are going to burn up, but we can still use the things that exist in this world to do something great for God's kingdom.

Not that we should be in pursuit of money like, like that is our end goal. Let's just heap up a bunch of money. But if we can make wealth for ourselves, then let's do it and use it in a way that advances the kingdom, paying for missionaries to go overseas, helping those who are in need, and then using that opportunity to share the gospel with somebody else, being a benefit to one another in the body of Christ, helping to plant churches, helping to spread the gospel in some way or whatever it might happen to be.

We can use that wealth. We can use that money and do so for the purposes of advancing the kingdom. And there are many other things in this world, not just strictly money that we can use, but even technology, iPhones, droids, you know, androids talking about the phones, all these different smartphones are made by unrighteous people.

We can still use those tools to advance God's kingdom. YouTube owned by unrighteous people. But I'm making videos out there that tell people the truth of the Bible, institutions of education and higher learning, mostly teaching some really, really bad stuff.

But you can still go to those institutions, protect yourself from some of the lies that they're trying to pour into people's brains, and at least use those institutions to gain a degree so that you can go out and with that degree, attain a high enough position that you can teach the truth.

You went to those who are teaching lies to get a degree so you could go out and teach.

Truth.

Or you go to school to learn a trade and it might be some unrighteous person that's teaching you how to do a trade, but you can learn that trade to now go out, work, make money that you can give that money back into the kingdom.

Are you getting the feel of this now? Do you find the application there? So that's the point. That's where Jesus is going with all of this. It's not strictly about money, though money plays a role in it, but it's not strictly about money.

Faithfulness in Little and the True Riches

So Jesus says in verse 10, one who is faithful in a very little and a very little in this case would be money. Like this is the lesser things of this world. This is not what's great in the world. So one who is faithful in a very little, if he's faithful with money, then he's also going to be faithful in much.

He's going to be faithful in opportunity, in righteous works, in doing well for others. And one who is dishonest in a very little, if he's dishonest with his money, well, he's going to be dishonest with everything else that he might be using that money on.

The ends don't justify the means in this particular case. If he's dishonest with his money, he's going to be dishonest with everything else that he does with that money. So if then you have not been faithful in unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?

Those things that are great in God's kingdom, those works and opportunities that God has prepared us for, as said in Ephesians 2 .10, that we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared for us beforehand that we would walk in them.

If you have not been faithful in that which is another's, Jesus says, who will give you that which is your own? The stuff that belongs to another in this case is the stuff that belongs to God. And if you've not been faithful in that which belongs to God, who will give you that which is your own, your eternal reward that you will receive in glory?

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. So again, our love and our affections are to be for Christ first and foremost.

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. So now he's bringing this home. Yeah, this is about you.

And you're picking it up. You're picking up what I'm laying down. You justify yourselves before men, just like the older brother was justifying himself before his father. But God knows your hearts for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God that which you place as being the most important, which is money because they were lovers of money.

That is an abomination in the sight of God and all these works that you are heaping up for yourself and thinking, I'm going to be able to get into the kingdom on my works.

Nope.

Your works are an abomination to God. Verse 16, the law and the prophets were until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone forces his way into it. That's he's talking about the Pharisees there.

They're trying to force their way in. If I do just enough works and even, you know, their own standard of righteousness that they're laying out for themselves, then that's how I'm going to get in. But Jesus says it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void.

Pointing out to them what you're doing is worldly and just like everything else in this world, it's going to pass away too. But it's only the word of God that remains forever. And the word of God, of course, was coming from the mouth of Jesus, which the Pharisees didn't want to listen to and trying to enter the kingdom of God by their own way.

They would instead fall into judgment and perish. And so once again, drawing out the application to this, that we can use that which exists in the world, that that stuff that's ultimately not going to go from here into eternity, it's going to burn up with the judgment.

But we can use that stuff and these opportunities for the advancement of God's kingdom. And so let us do all things to the glory of God, because again, as Jesus said, you can't serve God and money. You can use money for glorious purposes.

But if you become a slave to that money, then you're not a servant of God. Let us become servants of the most high king. And do all things to his glory and the advancement of his kingdom. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here.

Difficult topic to kind of take apart and understand, but we thank you for your spirit that gives us understanding and lead us into all truth, that we may live our lives in such a way that are a glorious act of worship unto you in all that we do today, whether it's our job, whether it's even recreation, the fun that we're going to have, whether it's work we're doing at home, whether it's being charitable and serving one another and building one another up in the Lord.

May we do all these things with a glad heart that gives glory and praise to you who has given us all good things through Jesus Christ. For whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Closing Announcements

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.