11/9/2023 0 Comments Luke 16 19 31 commentary"A foolish person lives only for the present and uses personal wealth only for the present. Thus Jesus contrasted the temporary nature of money with the eternal value of saved lives. They will welcome us into eternal, in contrast to temporal, dwellings. Even though money will fail us when we die, those whom we have led to salvation will not die. "When money fails" is another way of saying "when you die." Money no longer supports a person after he or she dies. The phrase does not mean wealth acquired by dishonest means. The word "mammon" is a transliteration of the Aramaic word mamon meaning "what one trusts" and therefore "wealth." "Mammon of unrighteousness" means worldly or material wealth, wealth associated with unrighteous living contrasted with heavenly treasure (cf. We should not consume it all on ourselves or pass it all on to our heirs or hoard it, but invest it in "the Lord’s work." Disciples should use our money to lead people to Jesus Christ. Jesus pictured the converts as dying before the disciples and welcoming them into heaven when the disciples arrived. In other words, disciples should sacrifice their money to bring others to faith in Jesus and so secure a warm reception into heaven. They should spend their money to make friends who would welcome them into the kingdom and heaven when the disciples died. Jesus next explained the application of the parable for His disciples. People of the light should be as shrewd in their kingdom investments for God as people of the darkness are in their business investments for themselves. Disciples can do well by learning from them as we anticipate the future. Jesus’ point was that prudent dealings characterize unbelievers more than believers. The implication is that they are believers who are in fellowship with God (cf. Sons of the light are people who live in the light of God’s revelation and are therefore believers (cf. The sons of this age are unrighteous unbelievers who live simply by the principles that govern most people in the present age. The fact that he had not been shrewd at first sets off his later shrewdness as even more commendable. That simply marked him as an unrighteous man. He did not, of course, approve of his squandering his master’s money earlier through incompetence or dishonesty ( Luke 16:1), whichever option may have characterized him. He commended him for his wise use of opportunity. phronimos, i.e., practical wisdom) in spending his (the steward’s) wealth (his commission) to secure his future (cf. Jesus commended the agent’s shrewdness or prudence (Gr. Whatever the sum that the servant discounted, it must have come out of his own pocket rather than that of his employer. It appears that the steward cancelled the interest due that would have come to him as a commission. Another possibility is that the steward eliminated his fee plus illegal interest that had been charged. Probably the commission was part of the original bill. Even a 100 percent commission ( Luke 16:6) was not unknown in Jesus’ culture. The agent could well have received a commission for each of the transactions that he had negotiated for his employer and deducted these commissions from the debtors’ costs. The second alternative is possible and probable. Furthermore if the agent had chosen to cheat his employer further he probably would have ended up in jail rather than in the good graces of his master’s debtors. However it seems unlikely that Jesus would have proceeded to commend the manager and hold him up to the disciples as an example to follow if he was that dishonest ( Luke 16:9). This was and is a standard accepted way of doing business.ĭid the manager dishonestly cheat his master out of what others owed him, or did he deduct the interest that would have come to him as the agent for each transaction? The first alternative is a real possibility. The debtors were probably people who had received goods from the master’s estate and had given the agent a promissory note rather than cash. Therefore the discount each one received represented a significant amount of money and drew the goodwill of the debtors to the manager. The amounts these debtors owed were quite large. The fact that he dealt in commodities rather than cash is inconsequential since many traders dealt on these terms in Jesus’ day, as they do in ours. The agent’s plan involved discounting the debts of the people who owed his master money, probably by canceling the interest they owed.
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