Friday, June 29, 2018
Other’s before yours
Luke 16:11,12
Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?
Some years ago, I was speaking with the matriarch of one of the richest families here in Guyana when she told me a story that baffled me for a very long time. Her youngest son had recently returned to Guyana having completed his education overseas. Everyone expected to see him well placed in the family business, but he wasn’t, he was working for another company. She told me that his working there was a deliberate policy.
She further explained that he was very bright, and they had very high hopes for him in the family. As a result, they sent him to work for others first. The logic she outlined was that he was well educated but had no practical experience. They needed him to come in with experience. More particularly, they wanted him to gain the experience with other people’s money before he got his hands on the family purse. Well, what a thing I thought.
I was accustomed to seeing business names like – Thompson & Sons, Persaud and Sons, and even Morgan, Sons & Daughters. In those businesses what I have seen is Thompson and his whole family labouring and the same for the Persauds and Morgans and so on. This idea outlined by this lady was different for me. She said after he learns from his mistakes and learns how to handle business, we will bring him back and put him in place in the family business.
The young man is now deeply involved in the family business. That business had gone through some tremendous change and growth in the last decade and the growth potential has expanded. This growth has taken place in the period that this young man has been involved in the business. I am not close enough to them and their business to know how much of it is as a result of his contribution, but the coincidence is interesting.
Luke records a very baffling story here in Luke 16:1-12, about a business owner who received a bad report about the manager of his business. As a result of the bad report, he determines to terminate the manager’s employment and asked him to bring in his report. It is here that we get the baffling actions. The manager calls in the debtors and negotiates with them to have their bills reduced. His intent was to get into the good books with the debtors by running bad books in the business. But somehow, after this piece of shady business, the business owner commended the manager he was dead set on firing.
Well, as a business owner myself I cannot countenance the managers of my business affairs getting up to these kinds of negotiation and changes in invoices with our customers. Also, with today’s automated inventory systems I am not sure what latitude managers have any longer to determine what is written on the invoices.
While I am left to ponder what the business manager was up to with the billing system, Jesus starts to use this story, as he always does, to teach principles and truth. Scholars have come up with a variety of reasons as to why the manager was able to do what he did because they cannot accept that he was crooked but, nevertheless, an example of what Jesus wants us to learn from him.
Certainly, Jesus doesn’t want us to be crooked in our business affairs, however, He challenges us to recognise that the people in business and other ‘worldly’ endeavours have an understanding of life that ‘church’ people would do well to learn. “So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.” Luke 16:8.
Secondly, Jesus wanted us to learn that money goes a long way in building relationships and we should be careful to ensure that we use what money and resources wisely to build relationships that would be useful to ourselves and the kingdom, “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.” Luke 16:9.
Thirdly, Jesus was teaching that character is consistent. The unfaithful are unfaithful always and the faithful are faithful always. I learned the hard way that if someone has a propensity to steal they will steal. They will steal little when little is available, and they will steal a lot when a lot is available. “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.” Luke 16:10
Fourthly, Jesus makes a leap here to teach a principle that we tend to ignore so often. If you are not faithful in material and monetary things you are not qualified to handle spiritual things. We have seen so much theft in the church recently, that we wonder how these thieves and charlatans made it to the top of the church food chain, It’s because we didn’t examine then enough on their record of handling material and monetary things.
Finally, Jesus was teaching that if we cannot maintain the integrity of someone else’s things we cannot maintain the integrity of our own. No matter how much we gain, we would squander it the way we squandered that of others. “And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? Luke 16:12.
This last point is what that very successful family matriarch was teaching her son and teaching me.
Think on these things:
- Do you have responsibility for the money or other assets of another person or employer?
- Would you say that you have handled the money and resources of others or your employer in a responsible way?
- Do you know anything about the character of your leaders when it comes to money and material things?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would learn, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to be good stewards of other’s property and of ours.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
