Luke 16: 10 – 15 The Right Use of Money

Luke 16: 10 – 15 The Right Use of Money

The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones. If, therefore, you are not trustworthy with dishonest wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? No servant can serve two masters. 8 He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all these things and sneered at him. And he said to them, "You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.”

The eyebrow-raising previous scripture is followed by this: use your possessions to make friends in this world (presumably by doing good?) so that when your possessions fail you, you will still have your friends. Well that is certainly true on the level that at some point things fail to matter – if you don’t have love, if you don’t have your health. I also think Christ is saying that our goods are meant to be used and not hoarded, or just spent on ourselves. I believe we will be judged on how we use what is given to us. Perhaps that is part of the “trustworthiness” issue Jesus raised a couple of scripture ago. This scripture passage goes on to say famously that you cannot serve two masters - both God and Mammon by which I think is meant money or maybe this culture of consumerism. We must choose between them. Is what we are given by God – our talents, our resources, our possessions – a test in God’s eyes to see how we use them, to benefit ourselves or others? Or to hoard them? Perhaps.