Never the let money be the master or idol that captures your focus, and the grace of God will grant to you riches beyond belief—riches that never fade away—eternal riches of heaven itself, the true and lasting treasure of the heart.

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager (Luke 16:1-13) is considered to be one of the most difficult of Jesus’ parables to understand. It’s about money. It’s about using it wisely without it becoming an idol, a master over us. The parable itself illustrates how the manager was shrewd and wise even in his unrighteous acts against his employer, but it is in Jesus’ poetic wisdom that follows the parable where we can clearly see the lessons about how we as Christians should view money.

“The sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.”

The parable begins with a manager who was wasting his wealthy employer’s property. The rich man heard of it and fired the manager. He then directed the manager to give him the accounting books and be gone.

Now the manager went to work. Thinking he would have no way of making a living, he decided to do favors for some of his employer’s debtors—he would reduce their debts and in appreciation they would make sure the fired manager would be taken care of. The rich man heard about this and commended his fired manager “for his shrewdness,” while observing that “the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light” (Luke 16:8). In other words, the unrighteous “sons of this world” are wiser with how they use their wealth than God’s “sons of light”; they are more shrewd than those who follow Jesus and are called Christians.

A little dishonesty tends to lead a person to greater dishonesty.

Beginning with faithfulness and dishonesty, Jesus then explains. The manager was unfaithful and dishonest. Jesus declares the wisdom of God—the wisdom of how we humans operate:

“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?” (Luke 16:10-11)

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