The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Luke 16:9,
"I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings."
This exhortation from Jesus summarizes the moral of the story he had just given. That account was about a dishonest manager who manipulated his master's wealth in order to provide a secure future for himself. Jesus tells us to use worldly wealth in a way that secures us a welcome into "eternal dwellings." Wealth, here, does not indicate how rich one is. It is merely a reference to whatever it is we do have. If I have a nickel in my pocket, that is the wealth Jesus is speaking of. If I have five million in the bank, that is the wealth Jesus is speaking of.
Jesus went on to say that whoever cannot be trusted with the comparative "little" in terms of the wealth this life can offer, cannot, likewise, be trusted with "true riches". The "true riches" he speaks of are set against "worldly wealth". This leaves me with the notion that the greatest of wealth anyone has amassed in this life is "little" compared to the "true riches" that will be the possession of the faithful in God's kingdom for eternity. See verses 10-12.
He also said that if we have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, then, "who will give you property of your own?" Luke 16:12. I am reminded that God, as our Creator, owns it all. How we use of his that we have been blessed with in this life will make a difference in what we are blessed with in our "eternal dwellings", verse 9, in terms of "true riches", verse 11.
What I read here is in stark contrast to this political season where appeals are made to the crudest and most base of sinful instincts. We are encouraged to vote in such a way that we might take the wealth of others for ourselves, in some scheme of "redistribution" or another. Envy, the desire to seize what is not ours, what we did not earn, what belongs to others is appealed to. If someone has more than I do, I am encouraged to vote in a way that might bring harm to someone else's wealth ("raise their taxes!"), as if that could somehow bring about "fairness." The notion that somehow the "one percent's" wealth should be taken and given to the less wealthy "ninety-nine percent" is a bogus pursuit to keep us all squabbling over the meager "riches" of this life to keep our minds off what could be ours in the next. "Economic Justice" is the new phrase to cloak the pursuit of violating the tenth commandment, "Thou shalt not covet."
In a very practical and insightful anecdote, Jesus tells us to use whatever we have been given in this life to secure for ourselves, "true riches" in the next. May we all turn from the avarice, bitterness, self-centeredness and greed that consumes so many to turn to our Lord who loves us and desire to give us "true riches"!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
No comments:
Post a Comment