Received into Eternal Dwellings

by Edwin Crozier

Many things about what we often call the Parable of the Dishonest Manager in Luke 16 give us trouble. I’m sure you could ask all kinds of questions I couldn’t answer. However, Jesus’s statement in Luke 16:9 explains His point, even if it doesn’t answer every question we have about the story.

As we walk this life, we are stewards. We steward God's great blessings. Nothing we have is our own. It all belongs to God. The question is whether we are exercising our stewardship shrewdly, wisely, and sensibly. Jesus used a dishonest or unrighteous steward as His example. However, even though he was dishonest and unrighteous, he was shrewd.

Jesus explained that the people of the world are often more shrewd than the sons of light are. In saying this, he recalled the Matthew 10:16 instruction to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” “Wise” here translates the same word as “shrewd” in Luke 16:8. We understand being innocent as doves, but shrewd as serpents? That doesn’t seem right.

We are not to be as unrighteous or dishonest as those in the world might be, but we are to be as shrewd. That is, we are to use the stewardship God has given us wisely. Then He explains the goal of using our stewardship wisely.

“Make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.”

That is, use the world’s wealth to serve others so they enjoy God’s eternal dwellings. With such shrewdness, they will welcome us into the eternal dwellings when our time of stewardship ends.

This parable and Jesus’s explanation drive home an important point. What we do in this life goes beyond this life. The way we use our money. The way we treat other people. All of it ripples into eternity. Our lives and our influence do not end with our biological deaths.

Basically, Jesus’s point is that folks prepare a lot better for retirement than for eternity. The dishonest manager only thought about retirement. If we only use our money to prepare for retirement, we are no better off than the dishonest and unrighteous of the world. We need to use our money and every other blessing we have in this life to prepare for eternity. More than that, to help others prepare for eternity so they can welcome us into the eternal dwellings. That will be a meaningful life.