No one can serve two masters. You will disappoint either one or both of them.
Luke 16:1-13 – Focus on verses 10 to 12
16 Jesus told his disciples: ‘There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.”
3 ‘The manager said to himself, “What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg – 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.”
5 ‘So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, “How much do you owe my master?”
6 ‘“Three thousand litres of olive oil,” he replied.
‘The manager told him, “Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifteen hundred.”
7 ‘Then he asked the second, “And how much do you owe?”
‘“Thirty tons of wheat,” he replied.
‘He told him, “Take your bill and make it twenty-four.”
8 ‘The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
10 ‘Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
13 ‘No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.’
Ultimately, this is a story about serving and obeying two masters. The masters in this story are God and money. But these masters can apply pretty much anywhere. They just have to be God and any desire of your heart. It can be money, power, status, material possessions. Anything that is not God is a master that can be served. ‘Whoever dies with the most toys wins’ is a common saying of the need to accumulate more and give less. What the people who have that mentality need to know is that whoever dies with the most toys, still dies. Accumulating more and more does not change the final outcome. At the end, everybody dies.
Even if you do have plenty of possessions and you still worship God, you must be faithful stewards of what you do have. Firstly, how people look after a little is an indicator of how they look after a larger amount (10). If people are poor stewards of money, they can hardly be trusted with more important possessions (11). Secondly, if you can’t exercise proper care over something given to you in trust, you can hardly be trusted with wealth of your own. This is about using and spending money responsibly and not ending up in debt. Anything that causes you to waste money (gambling, betting) is an activity that you need to stop. We need to manage our money and possessions responsibly, not worship them or be reckless with them.
The good news is we do have a master that we can turn to who is better than anything that we can accumulate on earth. All masters let us down and fall short of our expectations. The only master that meets and fulfils our needs is Jesus. Whilst the other masters take up our time and our money, Jesus is the master who gives us everything we need. Forgiveness from our sins and eternal joy in heaven. He has stored up an inheritance for us, a treasure that can only be found in heaven. And he is as good as his word. This is more valuable than anything that the fake masters can give us.
Head: Jesus is calling us to live generously for the sake of the kingdom of God. How can we unhitch ourselves from power and money so we can do this?
Heart: How can you use what you have to be a blessing and commit to stewarding your money as something entrusted in your care?
Hands: How can you invest in things that are precious to God and have practical value- people’s lives?
Prayer: Father God, thank you for being the greatest master anyone can wish for. You do more for us than we can do for you. We’re sorry for the times when we get distracted and worship the things of this world. We’re also sorry for the times when we can be reckless with our money and use it to be selfish instead of generously giving. Please forgive us when we stumble and fall. We know that the real treasure is in heaven and we look forward to receiving it one day. Amen
A song to listen to: Only You Can Satisfy
Michael Lather
Living Church Creek Road
