If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? Luke 16:11
If your heart is not pure and blameless toward money and wealth, how then can God entrust ANY spiritual riches to you? If He can’t trust you with money, He can’t trust you with anything more.
It means that the covetous-prosperity-money-preachers are spiritually TOTALLY BLIND. Anyone who loves money is spiritually blind, they have nothing from God.
https://ianvincent.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/jesus-and-money/
http://www.youareallbrothers.com/current/show_article.php?id=025,20020901
Full article in COMMENTS
Ian Vincent 
June 27, 2012 at 2:00 am
From: Ian Vincent
To: All
Subject: Jesus and Money
Date: September 1, 2002
Sitting in the Bombay-Howrah Mail train, on my way to Australia, whiling away the hours with the “clickety-clack” rhythm of the carriage, and the pervasive foul cigarette smoke in the air, and loud and animated conversations going on around me, i was thinking and praying, “Lord, why can’t Christians in India see that the religious system is so bad? Why don’t more awake to righteousness? What is this blindfold which is preventing them from seeing? Why do the majority not seem to understand or obey even your most basic commands? Why do your ways seem so strange, peculiar and threatening to most? Why is it that the supposed leaders of the church are so ignorant concerning spiritual things? It’s like there is a barrier preventing them from seeing! My heart cried out to Father for answers.
Then I believe the Lord put a scripture on my heart, so i pulled out my Bible and searched it out. It’s Luke 16:11, which reads:
If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous riches,(mammon), who will commit to your trust the true? (true riches, spiritual things)
Could it be that our heart-attitude toward such a simple and basic and “earthy” thing as money, be the doorway or barrier, to the unfathomable riches of Christ, and all that His Spiritual realm and Kingdom holds? Jesus seems to be saying just that in this scripture. It then became more evident to me than ever, that the “bottom-line” underlying all the errors inherent in, and by virtue of, the “christian-religious power system”, (a.k.a. “the whore”, or “babylon”) is related to money, either directly or indirectly.
Many are familiar with the symbolic juxtaposition of the Bride and the Whore/Prostitute, in the book of Revelation: ie. The Bride is the pure Church, and the Whore is the defiled church, and as a “prostitute”, she has defiled what is holy, primarily, through financial contract. ie. you shouldn’t “hire” a wife! and, likewise, you shouldn’t “hire” a pastor! God calls it prostitution. There is a difference between a wife and a prostitute, just as there is a difference between a relational pastor/elder and a hired pastor: a hireling. We may “hire” a plumber; thats fine! …because we are not in a holy relationship with the plumbing. Yep. But we are in holy relationship to God and to one another, be they wife, husband, elder/pastor, brother, sister. That’s the strong language and imagery of the book of Revelation. We must not defile that which is Holy. But He also speaks …grace, grace to you… and, …come out of babylon my people… I write these things in accordance with God’s redemptive purposes and not His condemnation.
God spoke, Paul wrote:
For the love of money is the root of all (kinds of) evil: which while some coveted after, they have been seduced from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1 Tim.6:10.
It would “behove” saints everywhere to check that our use of, and attitude toward, money is a Godly one; one that our Lord would describe as …faithful in the unrighteous riches… Here is what i believe that our Lord showed me in response to my grieving and lamenting for Christianity in India:
That He is withholding the true spiritual riches from those who are unfaithful in the heart-issues concerning money, and who build their “life” around it’s supposed security, and the pride of life it engenders.
The effect of the Lord withholding His true riches is: gross ignorance and darkness and confusion and ever spiralling sin within a vicious circle. Only the Truth sets us free. Man, by himself, can’t set himself free. If God withholds the true riches, (which is His Truth, which is Himself) because the first works have been by-passed, then there is no getting off the “meloncholic merry-go-round” of addictions, habits, and covetousness, and the delusions that accompany them. The first mistake is to look at this truth superficially; ie. to think of the most blatant and obvious ways saints are tempted to, and do, grasp after money: you know, the situations where it is obvious that the fellow who is befriending you only has money on his mind! He sees you as a walking cash machine! A cow to be milked. A sheep to be fleeced. Someone to be used. This is quite normal here in the 3rd world, but I dont mean such obvious covetousness as this.
Also, there is the fact that many christians borrow money or things and never repay, and evade paying taxes, and do “shady” and unethical deals etc. This is also unfaithfulness in the unrighteous riches.
But, what our Lord is meaning when He refers to …faithfulness in the unrighteous riches… is faithfulness first and foremost to God! …in regard to all earthly matters and issues of life, of which money plays a large part. When God is really your God , and really your Father, in truth, then we can be free from the love of money, as we look to Him daily as our source of life and everything: joy, peace, satisfaction, identity…. ad infinitum.. A satisfied man is not easily tempted to covet. We are freed from lust, in Jesus. He that believes on me shall never hunger or thirst again. Selah. There will be no more… “I wish I had that”, …”If only I had this or that then I could begin to serve God…” etc. If you’re still hungry and thirsty for “things that perish”, then simply take Jesus at His Word and trust Him to fulfill you, as He promised to do, and He will “come through”, without fail.
To be unfaithful in the unrighteous riches is to let the love of money sway us, or influence us, or be the determiner, in the choices of life: ie. when the main determiner of the course we take is, at the end of the day, how financially better off and how financially secure for the future, we and our family will be, whether it be: … a career choice. … a job choice. … the choice of the type of “church” and type of friends we have. … whether we walk by faith alone or whether we embark on “fund-raising” or raising support. … whether we make our needs known to God alone or whether we broadcast them. … whether we will serve God and use His gifts by faith alone, trusting Him to supply, or whether we will seek a salary or some sort of surety in return for serving God’s people, or, God-forbid, merchandise the Word of God for profit. … or simply, how we spend our time etc. There is a LOT of humanistic wisdom that one can draw on to try to justify one’s covetousness, and there’s no shortage of worldly and pseudo-spiritual clergy to counsel one along the path of greed and selfishness,(all for God, of course!)
To be faithful in the unrighteous riches is to lay yourself, and all you possess,(really, we possess nothing, we are only stewards of God’s property for a short time, and then we “take-off” and can take nothing out with us), and all you ever will “possess” in the future, before the King, the Lofty One, High and Lifted up: The Lord of Glory, Jesus Christ the Righteous, the soon-coming King; to lay it all before Him, preferably daily, and seek to live for Him, to obey Him, to have a testimony of Him, to radiate Him,(a.k.a. the gospel), and to use and distribute His gifts and abilities with all wisdom.
To be faithful in the unrighteous riches is to be a generous, hilarious, kind, and merciful giver. Freely you have received, freely give. Not grudgingly. Not calculating the blessing God will give in return…(that’s not giving, that’s a business deal, and it makes God sick: again, defiling the Holy things). Not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing. …As good and faithful stewards of God. There, we have a door to the true riches! …faith that results in action. Jesus said that He will not entrust the true riches to those who are unfaithful and dishonest with God’s money, time and talents. They will stay barren and unfruitful Christians until they “let go” and lay it all on the altar, as Abraham, the father of our faith did, with his dear son Isaac. He gave back to God the “thing” that he cherished most. No doubt, Isaac was more precious to Abraham than all the money in the world; than anything in this world, but!! he had faith in God, and when He gave back to God what was His, God made him a father of many nations.
Its only from a place of submission and humility that anyone can be faithful with, and toward, money. Otherwise its impossible. But with God, nothing shall be impossible. So, everywhere where saints have not “layed it all out before the Lord” in truth, meaning:
“Lord, I will do whatever you want for my life, I will go wherever you send me. My life is no longer my own to do with as I please, it’s unreservedly yours!”
…Where this has not happened… according to Jesus, the true riches are withheld: ie. the “life”, the vision, the understanding of the ways of the Lord, and true wisdom in God. Many search and strain for wisdom and insight and are frustrated because some others seem to obtain God’s wisdom so freely and easily: …out of the mouths of babes…!!, and out of the mouths of fishermen who were considered unlearned.
Why do many seek and never find? Because the foundations of their lives are not right.
Jesus said that the wise man who built his house on a rock, (and his house withstood the storms of life), was the man who heard His sayings, (teaching and commands), and DID them. Not just saying “amen” to them, but doing them, out of love for Him. Anyone not actively seeking to know what Jesus taught and commands today, and who is not actively obeying, is a FOOL, according to Jesus’ plain and simple definition. His house, meaning his life, will fall. Maybe not straight away, but in due time it will fall. Babylon WILL fall! We have the priviledge, through scripture, of seeing the end from the beginning. The nations will turn against the whore,(false Christianity) and despise her. Thats happening now. Its already patently obvious in the way that the whore is being exposed from every side in these days, by way of unprecedented scandals etc. Every one of us has had his/her fair share of foolishness because of disobedience. Let’s use that experience; let’s turn it around, so we can have compassion on those who are still ensnared, and help them.
Why did Jesus call money unrighteous riches? Does that mean it’s dirty? No. It’s a comparative term; ie. compared to true wealth it is unrighteous. And the place it has , and the hold and sway it has, in every one of our lives, is unrighteous. The Bible also talks about the deceitfulness of riches ; i.e. it has the power to deceive, because it is a false power which tends to make men think they are God. “Wealth is power” is the old maxim. Somehow it tends to usurp the thing with which we are supposed to trust God with: our hearts. I think it was William Booth who used to pray that God will keep all the Salvo’s poor so that they will stay on their knees, and continue to pray fervently.
Charge them that are rich in this world, that they don’t be highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy… 1Tim. 6:17.
Money is unrighteous , in Jesus’ words, because it is a by-product of the fall, and not a product of heaven. Heaven’s economy and currency is love. God is love…, therefore money would be irrelevant there. There there are no such concepts as: units of exchange, supply and demand, and ownership of capital etc. (no real estate salesmen in heaven). So, in comparison to heaven’s “currency”, money is just downright unrighteous, but during this dispensation it’s a necessary “evil”, (along with governments, armies, prisons, police etc.), and it can also be used for a lot of good, can’t it! Our Lord said of the coin that was shown Him by the pharisees with Caesar’s inscription on it, that it belonged to Caesar. How much interest did Jesus have in money? Did He get a lot done without it? You bet. Jesus showed us the true riches, and true wealth. True riches has to do with knowing God; the truth that is in Jesus. It is the revealing of Jesus Christ. “Eagle-eyed” saints know that the truth expressed in Luke 16:11 is descriptive and not prescriptive. In other words, it describes the outcome of something, and is not a prescription of how to attain something. For example, at the final judgement it will be revealed that the ones whose names are written in the book of life have good works. It’s a simple description of their condition. It doesn’t pre-scribe that good works are the way or means by which one gets one’s name into the book of life; but it looks back and manifests that all those written in the book had good works, because they were truly converted and changed into the image of Christ, for the glory of God the Father. They had good fruit because they were regenerated from being evil trees into good trees at the new birth.
Everyone I know who is saved has good works, and those good works began the very day they were born again. The same applies here: Jesus is not saying, “All you have to do is get your finances in order and then I will entrust to you the true riches”, because faithfulness in money matters toward God can only come about as a result of a conversion of heart by faith in Jesus, by virtue of the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, without which it’s impossible to make things right. Without faith it’s impossible to please God. …all our (own) righteousness is as filthy rags… So, our Lord is speaking of an effect and not a cause. So, Luke 16:11 really only speaks directly to those of us who are already converted, as a reminder of something we already know and practise by virtue of our new nature. If Jesus speaks such things to us, it is because we need to be reminded; because we still have an old nature of which we need to consider ourselves dead to. (Yet still, Luke 16:11 could speak to anyone. It could be a catalyst to faith in Jesus, as any scripture can.)
Let’s analyze this statement some more, (Luke 16:11). In the first half of the statement our Lord speaks of faithfulness in regard to money. This tells us that He sees money as something in which men should be faithful in. One can only be faithful concerning something when its in relation to another: so He is saying, that from His point of view, (Father’s), man owns nothing, but he is entrusted with things and is required to be faithful in his management and use of these earthly things, in relation to God, (and not in relation to man, or mans’ pretzel logic and wisdom). Both the richest and the poorest will have to give an account to God of their stewardship.
In the second half, in His counter-point, our Lord speaks of the true, (“riches” is in italics), which He will …commit to your trust, (one condition being: that you have been proved faithful toward God with money). Whatever is entrusted to, and not given to another, is a stewardship, and its from the greater to the lesser, and it never becomes the property of the trustee. Why are we entrusted with true riches and simply not given them? Because it is principally not given for the benefit of the trustee, us, but for the benefit of the giver. If it was intended solely for the benefit of the trustee, then it would simply be given to him and that would be the end of the matter, and there would be no further accountability.
But everything that God has entrusted to us is so that we can employ it, and invest it, and plough-it back into His Kingdom, and see a return; and that return, or profit, consists solely and purely in the Glory and Worship that is generated through all this, and of which we return to God; which is His due, and …our reasonable service of worship. Simply, it is right and good, and anything less is wrong and wickedness in the sight of God. And, in God’s economy, whatever benefits Him, benefits us, so we can’t lose! (God is not a beneficiary in terms of need, as He has no need, but in terms of rightness. God doesn’t need worshippers, but it is SO RIGHT to worship Him to the extent that to not worship Him is a defrauding of Him of epic proportions. Especially post-Calvary! If we are silent even the rocks would cry out hosannah!)
But, let’s remember always that the truths and revelations which we receive from Jesus, which are of Jesus, are ENTRUSTED with us so that we will SHARE them, so OTHERS will grow. Brother Sundar Singh said that a great river is fed by hundreds of little brooks, each one contributing and making the river what it is, so no one should think that their small contribution is not worth sharing.
Moving on: This scripture highlights to us the interconnectedness between the affairs of “earthly” life, (ie. how we live, what we are), and the spiritual life: our relationship to Father through His Son. By showing us that they are inseparable, our Lord is assisting us to avoid hypocrisy, and fake-phoney-pseudo-spirituality, which is the leaven of the pharisees. Here, our Lord Jesus is showing the stark difference between true-religion, (ie. following Him), and ALL the religions of the world, by showing that His true disciples have a one dimensional life ; eg. Paul saying, …to live is Christ…, meaning, that Christ is not a part of our life, or the “religious dimension” of our lives, or our “spiritual-side”, but He IS our life! …Period. He occupies our hearts and minds continually, and all we do, we should do in reference to Him. …to live is Christ, to die is gain… But all the religions of the world are idolatry, meaning, a deity is “employed” to get a certain result, but the devotee still keeps his own autonomous and rebellious life, and in that sense, the adherents have a two dimensional life, which we could define as secular and sacred/spiritual.
Only a true Christian is in union with his God. The idolater can never come into union with the idol, or false God. And anyway, demon-possession, which is usually the end-product of idolatry, is not union anyway, but it is simply a demon using someone up, at the host’s expense. Also, in this sense, the Christian whose relationship with God has God solely as a vendor of their selfish wants and needs, may be just as deep into idolatry as any of the so-called heathen. Simply put, to have a double life, a sacred and a secular, is idolatry, and the “Christian” religious system promotes that in nearly every aspect of it’s existence. It has to. It couldn’t exist if people only had a spiritual life, and were sold-out to, and knew and obeyed Jesus, and were led by His Spirit! If all the gifts in the Body of Christ were “allowed” to be expressed as they should be, (BECAUSE GOD GAVE THEM FOR THAT PURPOSE, ie. TO BE EXPRESSED!), and …every joint supplies… was a reality, then the traditional Nicolaitan clergy system would crumple and fold under the weight of Glory revealed! It’s absurd irrelevance, and nakedness would be revealed. Lastly, here are some questions related to the meaning of Luke 16:11:
* How many saints, over the history of the church, have there been, who have really been instruments of God to bring change, holiness and life to the Church, but have been compromised and defiled financially and organizationally, ie. a preacher on a payroll, employed to do the work of the Holy Spirit ie. to lead and guide, under a financial contract to his congregation, whom he must please to keep his “job”? I don’t know of any. *How many “hirelings” have “set the church on fire”? I don’t know of any. *Are there any of the “money-minded” evangelists who understand much of the ways of Jesus of Nazareth? I’ve never seen one. *Ever seen one whose not shallow, deceived and compromised about many things? Nope. *How many professional clergy are there today, who you know of, that understand and live by ALL of Jesus’ teaching and commands, and teach others to do so? I don’t know of any. But Jesus said …teach… them to observe ALL the things that I have commanded you… Matt. 28:20a Now, that would be something to see in these days! Let’s do it.
*Are there any of such people who really understand the ways of the Lord as they should? Why aren’t there? The reason is simple: Luke 16:11 If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous riches, who will commit to your trust the true? …Jesus Christ.
End.
June 28, 2012 at 10:57 am
Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Most men serve money. Very few serve God.
We can’t serve both.
January 15, 2013 at 5:20 am
BUMP