Scripture Saturday
I’ve been posting about my scripture reading on Friday’s, but this week, it happens on Saturday. Just like the garbage collectors pick up trash a day late when there is a holiday, I’m posting my scripture a day late. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I’m in the middle of reading the gospel of Luke. This week I read a lot of familiar stories such as the one about the Prodigal Son. I also read a story that I’ve read before, but never paid much attention to. It’s one I had to think about. Here is Luke 16:1-12
Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’
“The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’
“So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
“‘Nine hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’
“Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
“‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’
“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
For me this was a difficult scripture to decipher. It couldn’t be telling us to be dishonest. So what is it saying? Here is what I read from a commentary by Matthew Henry. “Worldly men, in the choice of their object, are foolish; but in their activity, and perseverance, they are often wiser than believers. The unjust steward is not set before us as an example in cheating his master, or to justify any dishonesty, but to point out the careful ways of worldly men. It would be well if the children of light would learn wisdom from the men of the world, and would as earnestly pursue their better object.” If you’d like to read more of what Mr. Henry has to say about this passage you can read it here.
Are there any scriptures you’ve read lately that aren’t completely clear to you?
