Luke 16
Use God’s money for eternal purposes
Jesus told his students,
“It was reported to a rich man that his property manager was wasting his wealth, so the rich man called his manager and said,
‘What is this I hear about you? Hand over the accounting documents, because you are fired.’
The manager thought to himself,
‘What am I gonna do? He’s taking away my management position, and I’m too weak for construction, and it’s too shameful to beg. Oh, I know! There is one thing I can do so that when I’m fired people will still welcome me into their homes.’
So he contacted everyone who owed his master money, and said to them,
‘You owe my master 100 barrels of oil, but you can take your contract and change it to 50.’
‘You owe my master 100 barrels of wheat, but you can take your contract and change it to 80.’
And then his master commended the corrupted manager for acting so cleverly. Descendants of the physical realm behave more sensibly toward their own kind than they do toward descendants of light. Use your temporary money to make friends, so that when it runs out, you’ll have people to welcome you into your eternal home.
Prioritize God over the money you manage for him
Whoever proves to be trustworthy with the minor things is also trustworthy with the major things; and whoever proves to be corrupt with the minor things will also be corrupt with the major things. So if you haven’t been faithful in the way you use temporary money, then who would ever entrust you with true riches? If you can’t even be faithful with someone else’s stuff, then who would ever give you something of your own? No one can be enslaved by two different owners: either he will hate one and love the other, or cling to one and despise the other. You can’t be enslaved to God and riches.”
God hates the things that humanity loves
The church leaders loved money, so when they mocked him when they heard this illustration. But Jesus told them,
“You justify yourselves to humanity, but God knows your hearts. Things that humanity highly esteems are atrocious to God.
The law still stands
God’s Law and the Prophets have been proclaimed up until John. But now that the exciting news of God’s empire has been announced, everyone has been violently forcing their way into it. But it is more likely that heaven and earth will crumble away than one letter of the Law to fall.
Remarriage after divorce is infidelity
Whoever sends his wife away and marries another commits infidelity, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits infidelity.
The law outlines the way to eternal life
There was a rich man who always wore expensive clothes like linen and happily lived in splendor every day. There was also a beggar named Lazarus who always laid near his gate, covered with sores, and dogs would come lick his sores. The poor man craved to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table, but eventually died and the messengers carried him away to Abraham’s hollow. The rich man also died and was buried. Tormented in the home of departed spirits, he looked up and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his hollow. He shouted,
‘Ancestor Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to cool off my tongue with a drop of water, because this fire is agonizing me.’
But Abraham replied,
‘Descendant, remember that you received your good during your life, and Lazarus equally received evil—now he is being comforted here and you are being tormented. On top of that, there’s an impassible gap between us to prevent anyone from crossing over from side to side.’
The man said,
‘Then I beg you, ancestor, that you send him to my dad’s household to warn my 5 brothers so that they don’t come to this tormenting place.’
Abraham said,
‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let your family listen to them.’
The man said,
‘No, ancestor Abraham: if someone visits them from the dead, they will change their ways!’
But Abraham said,
‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, then they won’t be convinced even if someone appears from the dead.’”