{"id":4779,"date":"2013-11-30T00:05:10","date_gmt":"2013-11-30T08:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=4779"},"modified":"2013-12-01T22:47:48","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T06:47:48","slug":"4779","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2013\/11\/30\/4779\/","title":{"rendered":"Dishonest"},"content":{"rendered":"

He also said to the disciples: \u201cThere was a rich man who received an accusation that his manager was squandering his possessions. So he called the manager in and asked, \u2018What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you can no longer be my manager.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the manager said to himself, \u2018What should I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I\u2019m not strong enough to dig; I\u2019m ashamed to beg. I know what I\u2019ll do so that when I\u2019m removed from management, people will welcome me into their homes.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo he summoned each one of his master\u2019s debtors. \u2018How much do you owe my master?\u2019 he asked the first one.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018A hundred measures of oil,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Take your invoice,\u2019 he told him, \u2018sit down quickly, and write 50.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cNext he asked another, \u2018How much do you owe?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018A hundred measures of wheat,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Take your invoice,\u2019 he told him, \u2018and write 80.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted astutely. For the sons of this age are more astute than the sons of light in dealing with their own people. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous money so that when it fails, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings. Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much. So if you have not been faithful with the unrighteous money, who will trust you with what is genuine? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is your own?\u201d (Luke 16:1-12)\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tJesus\u2019 parable of the dishonest manager is disturbing because Jesus seems to be encouraging dishonesty. The hero of Jesus\u2019 story is was a dishonest man. He squandered his employer\u2019s property. Then he had his employer\u2019s debtors alter their bills to their advantage.<\/p>\n

\tBut his employer praised him for his cunning. And Jesus encouraged his disciples to be just as cunning. So what\u2019s going on here? Did Jesus encourage stealing and lying? <\/p>\n

\tNo, but the parable should still be taken at face value. Jesus was encouraging his disciples to be as shrewd in their work for the kingdom of God, as the people like the Pharisees were in working for the kingdom of the world. Work as hard for God as this crooked manager worked to protect himself. Go ahead and make money, but use it for God\u2019s kingdom, not for your own selfish ends. Money is worthless, except as it is used in this world to make preparation for the next.<\/p>\n

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He also said to the disciples: \u201cThere was a rich man who received an accusation that his manager was squandering his possessions. So he called the manager in and asked, \u2018What is this I hear about you? Give an account … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4779"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4788,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4779\/revisions\/4788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}