Preparing for Another World (1)

And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations (Luke 16:9).

A reader asks, "What does Luke 16:9 mean? What kind of friendship can be made with unrighteous mammon, and how can such friends receive one into an everlasting home when one fails?"

This verse is part of Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1-12). Some have said that this parable is the most difficult to explain of all Jesus’ parables. This may be true, although the meaning in general is clear and, indeed, the Pharisees understood full well what Jesus meant (14).

The main lines of the parable are these. A wealthy man had a wicked steward who was unfaithful in his duties as overseer of his master’s possessions. A steward in Bible times was a servant, sometimes a slave, who, because of his abilities, was given the responsibility of overseeing all the business and the financial affairs of his master. In some cases, he was even responsible for seeing to it that the children of the master were educated. In the Old Testament, we read that Joseph was made steward of Potiphar’s possessions (Gen. 39:4-6, 8-9) and Eliezer was steward of Abraham’s household and business (Gen. 15:2; 24:2). Stewards were always to seek the well-being of their masters, for they were servants and nothing over which they ruled was their own.

As Christians we know that all God’s people are stewards in His house. That is, the creation is God’s world and His possession; He calls His people to be stewards over possessions that are His, but that are entrusted to the saints while in this world to use for their Master’s benefit.

The unfaithful steward in the parable who "wasted his [master’s] goods" (Luke 16:1) was soon to be without a job. In fear, lest he be without any means of support, he took some steps to ensure his well-being in the future. Being too proud to beg and too flabby to dig, he decided that he would make friends by using the remaining days of his stewardship to gain the loyalty of some of his master’s debtors (3-7).

This act was wicked, but it was a shrewd move in preparing for his uncertain future. It was, in fact, so shrewd that even his master, while suffering the loss, could not help but admire the steward’s shrewdness (8). It was a mere earthly shrewdness, but, in this way, the steward did make good preparations for his future.

This merely earthly shrewdness elicits from our Saviour this penetrating remark: "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light" (8). In other words, on a purely natural and carnal level, the wicked in this world do better than God’s people, on a spiritual level, in preparing for their future. The wicked know how to save their money for retirement; the civil government knows how to provide for retired people with its social security program. Businesses know how to care for their employees by profit-sharing plans, retirement funds and pensions. But God’s people, who have a bright and glorious future beyond this life in everlasting blessedness in heaven with Christ, are so frequently foolish in preparing for that day. In this world, the wicked are wiser than the righteous.

In other words, Jesus applies this earthly wisdom of a wicked man to the calling of the "children of light" to be faithful stewards in God’s house by preparing for their own wonderful future when they shall possess all things.

And so we can see clearly what Jesus means by the various elements in His application of the parable. The "mammon of unrighteousness" is this earth’s possessions, all God’s creation, over which we are called to be stewards. It is called "unrighteous mammon" because (a) it belongs to this present world that is under the curse, and (b) it becomes dangerous and destructive when we "waste our Lord’s goods" by using the things that belong to Him for ourselves.

The expression "when ye fail" refers to the moment of our death when we leave this present world forever. To be received into everlasting habitations is to go to heaven where the saints already are and the angels dwell in glory.

But we are called, as stewards in God’s house, to use God’s world and that part of it entrusted to us to prepare for our future—as the unjust steward prepared for his future.

How, specifically, do we prepare for our future in our stewardship over the things that belong to God? We are told "to make friends" of these earthly possessions (9). Making friends of these earthly possessions is explained in verse 10 as being faithful and just (or righteous) in our use of what belongs to God and is never our own.

Then Jesus drives home with great force the importance of making friends with unrighteous mammon. This unrighteous mammon is nothing of importance and is called by our Lord "least" (10) and "another man’s" (12), namely God’s. The everlasting habitations, on the other hand, are called "much" (10), because they are so much better than the possessions of this earth. They are called "true riches" (11) and our own possessions (12) in distinction from these present things we have, which belong to God.