Give today to get tomorrow!

Luke 16:9-15

Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home. 10 “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. 11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? 12 And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own? 13 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” 14 The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, heard all this and scoffed at him. 15 Then he said to them, “You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God.

Food for thought!

Today's gospel reading follows Luke 16:8, inwhere Jesus states that the sons of this world are wiser in their generation than the sons of light. He was comenting on the story of dishonety manager. What Jesus is saying is that, if only the Christian was as eager and ingenious in his attempt to attain goodness as the man of the world is in his attempt to attain money and comfort, he would be a much better man. If only we would give as much attention to the things which concern our souls as we do to the things which concern our profession and business, we would be much better people. Over and over again we do expend twenty times the amount of time and money and effort on pleasure, hobby, garden, sport as we do on our soul. Our Christianity will begin to be real and effective only when we spend as much time and effort on it as we do on our worldly activities.

In Lk.16:9 the lesson is that material possessions should be used to cement the friendships wherein the real and permanent value of life lies. The rich help the poor in this world, but the poor help the rich in the world to come; charity given to poor people stands to our credit in the world to come; our true wealth does consist not in what we keep, but in what we give away. Let us use our wealth not selfishly but to make life easier, not only for himself, but for others too. Possessions are not in themselves a sin, but they are a great responsibility, and the person who uses them to help others has gone far to discharge that responsibility.

In Lk.16v10-11 the lesson is that a man's way of fulfilling a small task is the best proof of his fitness or unfitness to be entrusted with a bigger task. That is clearly true of earthly things. No man will be advanced to higher office until he has given proof of his honesty and ability in a smaller position. But Jesus extends the principle to eternity. He says, "Upon earth you are in charge of things which are not really yours. You cannot take them with you when you die. They are only lent to you. You are only a steward over them. They cannot, in the nature of things, be permanently yours. On the other hand, in heaven you will get what is really and eternally yours. And what you get in heaven depends on how you use the things of earth. What you will be given as your very own will depend on how you use the things of which you are only steward."