The Parable Of The Unjust Steward...a Question.

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whirlwind

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In the Parable of the Unjust Steward Jesus spoke of a rich man and his steward that he was accusing of wasting his goods. The steward, in trying to make a place for himself after being fired, determined to under-cut what certain debtors owed his lord to gain favor with them so that "they may receive me into their houses."

That seems unscrupulous to me. It is stealing from his lord and yet....


Luke 16:8-9 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mam'-mon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.​


So my question is....who is this lord that commends his unjust steward for "doing wisely?" Why would he consider it wise for one that works for him to essentially steal? This same lord that says those of the world are wiser than the children of light? This same lord telling them to be friends of unrighteousness so that when "ye fail," then those of unrighteousness invite you to live with them...forever.


Is the lord in this parable Satan? Is Christ teaching in irony? Jesus continues and, I believe, gives the truth in the parable.....


16:10-12 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and that that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mam'-mon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?​
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brionne

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In the Parable of the Unjust Steward Jesus spoke of a rich man and his steward that he was accusing of wasting his goods. The steward, in trying to make a place for himself after being fired, determined to under-cut what certain debtors owed his lord to gain favor with them so that "they may receive me into their houses."

That seems unscrupulous to me. It is stealing from his lord and yet....
Luke 16:8-9 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mam'-mon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.​
So my question is....who is this lord that commends his unjust steward for "doing wisely?" Why would he consider it wise for one that works for him to essentially steal? This same lord that says those of the world are wiser than the children of light? This same lord telling them to be friends of unrighteousness so that when "ye fail," then those of unrighteousness invite you to live with them...forever.

the point that Jesus was making was that the steward made friends by means of 'unrighteous riches' in order to have somewhere to go to when his master fired him.

In this way christians are told that they too should make friends with God by means of their 'unrighteous riches' so that they are invited 'into the everlasting places'

Our unrighteous riches are our material things...our cars, our houses, our money....all these are 'unrighteous riches' because they belong to this world. If we willingly use them to advance the intersts of God, then he will receive us into the everlasting places.
 

Selene

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Apr 12, 2010
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In the Parable of the Unjust Steward Jesus spoke of a rich man and his steward that he was accusing of wasting his goods. The steward, in trying to make a place for himself after being fired, determined to under-cut what certain debtors owed his lord to gain favor with them so that "they may receive me into their houses."

That seems unscrupulous to me. It is stealing from his lord and yet....


Luke 16:8-9 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mam'-mon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.​


So my question is....who is this lord that commends his unjust steward for "doing wisely?" Why would he consider it wise for one that works for him to essentially steal? This same lord that says those of the world are wiser than the children of light? This same lord telling them to be friends of unrighteousness so that when "ye fail," then those of unrighteousness invite you to live with them...forever.


Is the lord in this parable Satan? Is Christ teaching in irony? Jesus continues and, I believe, gives the truth in the parable.....


16:10-12 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and that that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mam'-mon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?​

Hello Whirlwind,

According to the footnotes in my bible regarding Luke Chapter 16, it says:

16, 1-8a The parable of the dishonest steward has to be understood in the light of the Palestinian custom of agents acting on behalf of their masters and the usurious practices comon to such agents. The dishonesty of the steward consised in squandering of his master's property (1) and not in any subsequent graft. The master commends the dishonest steard who has forgone his own usurious commission n the business transaction by having the debtors write new notes that reflected only the real amount owed the master (i.e., minus the steward's proft). The dishonest steward acts in this way in order to ingratiate himself with the debtors because he knows he is being dismissed from his position (3). The parable, then teaches the prudent use of one's material goods in light of an imminent crisis.

Luke 16, 8b-13 Several originally independent sayings of Jesus are gathered here by Luke to form the concluding application of the parable of the dishonest steard.

Luke 16, 8b-9 The first conclusion recommends the prudent use of one's wealth (in the light of the coming of the end of the age) after the manner of the children of this world, represented in th eparable by the dishonest steward.

Luke 16, 9 Dishonest wealth: literally, "mammon of iniquity." Mammon is the Greek transliteration of a Hebrew or Aramaic word that is usually explained as meaning "that in which one trusts." The characterization of this wealth as "dishonest" expresses a tendency of wealth to lead one to dishonesty....

Luke 16,10-12 The second conclusion recommends constant fidelity to those in positions of responsibility.

Luke 16, 13 The third conclusion is a general statement about the incompatibility of serving God and being a slave to riches. To be dependent upon wealth is opposed to the teachings of Jesus who counseled complete dependence on the Father as one of the characteristics of the Christian disciple (Luke 12:22-39)......Mammon is used here as if it were a god.


From what I understand from the footnotes, the dishonest steward was being commended because when he called the master's debtors, he had them writing new notes that reflected the true amount owed to the master after the dishonest steward took away his profit. I hope this explanation helps.

In Christ,
Selene
 

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To Selene:

Excellent post.

To Peg:

Your post was close, but just slightly off target.
It is the way of men to use earthly gifts to ingratiate one's self with others.
(Folks in Washington do it all the time.)

However, one cannot use earthly possessions to bribe God.

I honestly don't think you meant it that way, but that's the way it reads.
 

brionne

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May 31, 2010
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To Selene:

Excellent post.

To Peg:

Your post was close, but just slightly off target.
It is the way of men to use earthly gifts to ingratiate one's self with others.
(Folks in Washington do it all the time.)

However, one cannot use earthly possessions to bribe God.

I honestly don't think you meant it that way, but that's the way it reads.

no i most certainly didnt mean to 'bribe' God.

The man in the illustration was not bribing anybody...he was 'making friends by means of unrighteous riches'

Jesus told us to do that also with regard to God...make friends through a willingness to give back to him the things we possess. There is nothing in this world that doesnt belong to God anyway, so we might as well use what we have for Gods benefit.
 

Grat

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Firstly, remember that this is a parable.
As Jesus taught, parables were meant to hide the information in an “everyday” story. I do not believe that they were meant to portray a detailed theological discourse.
Just mentally thinking through all of the parables of Jesus that come to mind, they all seem to contain one, maybe two truths and most of all, they get people thinking.
They also do not necessarily contain the “explanation”. In fact I think only 1 or 2 in the NT do include the explanation (the sower comes to mind, but I can’t think of another example).
Look at this parable in context of the series that Jesus was talking about (from at least chapter 14). Jesus is talking about the attitudes of people. He rips into all sorts of “socially acceptable” bad behaviour, especially with the self-righteous.
In this case, the owner commends the manager on his behaviour not because he would particularly enjoy getting ripped off to that extent, but because he appreciated the strategy used. . He still fired him.
I believe the actual point of the parable is that if even a “dishonest manager” used what he had responsibility for to gain earthly reward, shouldn’t the “children of light” be just as shrewd using what they are responsible for to gain everlasting reward? It’s like the parable of the treasure in a field. My personal view is that if I found a treasure in a field I should tell the owner, not buy the field, but that wasn’t what Jesus was trying to teach. It’s the idea that if a “natural” man acts this way over “worldly” wealth, how much more so should we act over “heavenly” wealth.
 

JohnDB

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Uh oh...my turn.

This is the problem with reading commentaries...most are wrong.

This is one of many parables in a series in Luke...They cover the types of sins that God forgives and the order of least severe to greatest severety.


Lost Sheep....sins of ignorance

Lost coin.......sins of Neglegence

Lost son/Prodigal...two different sins closely related.
.......................sins of Planning/apostacy lifestyle
.......................sins of unforgiveness Judgmentalism.

The story of the manager is a counterbalance parable to this sin of unforgiveness/judgmentalism.

What Jesus is saying with this parable is that because we are human we cannot and are not capable of complete forgiveness the same way that God can and will.

BUT WE NEED TO DO ALL WE CAN.

(the value of the forgiven debts was equal in an agricultural/commodity based society/economy) Sure each of them debtors all had debts outstanding and some were more than others...but some hurts take a while to forgive. Considering the fact that this means that we all will never be able to put this worst sin completely out of our lives we all are guilty of the worst sin imaginable... judgmentalism. However if we do our best to use our forgivenss muscles we can too be forgiven of our worst crime against God.