The Dishonest Manager
The Dishonest Manager
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 masters 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 [when ye may fail–YLT], you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. (Luke 16:1-9)
I have suggested "when ye may fail" (Young's Literal Translation) in place of "when it is gone," since "eternal dwellings" implies that after the dishonest manager dies he will be received in habitations in the spirit world.
The manager is termed "dishonest" because he had been accused of wasting the rich man's possessions. So the rich man fired him.
The manager had been a person of importance and he was too proud to beg. He had had a sedentary position and was not physically capable of strenuous work.
But he was crafty and dishonest. So he thought of a solution. He told the rich man's debtors to diminish the amount they owed the rich man.
The rich man found out about the scheme, and so changing the debts did nothing but get the manager and his new dishonest friends in trouble.
However, the rich man commended his manager for his craftiness.
Jesus went on to speak about being trustworthy, and then about not making a god out of money.
These admonitions we understand. But the idea of being welcomed into eternal dwellings is not as familiar to us.
In order to gain some clarity about being welcomed into eternal dwellings, we have to look at the spirit world in an unconventional manner.
Customarily we think of the spirit world as being divided into Heaven and Hell. There certainly is a Heaven and a Hell.
But the spirit world is far larger than we imagine, in that all the dead from the beginning of the creation are there. It probably is true that most of those people had never heard of Jesus or the Bible before they died.
I think it is a fact that unless they sincerely repent, truly wicked people are in Hell, whether or not they have "accepted Christ." Receiving Christ as our Lord and Savior means we now can start on the path of discipleship, deny ourselves, place our treasures in Heaven, take up our cross and follow the Master. In so doing we gain in holiness and righteousness of personality and behavior.
But it may be true that such change is not true of all who "accept Christ." Because of the false teachings of lawless grace and the "rapture," many believers do not grow in Christ. After fifty years as a disciple they still are selfish, self-centered gossipers. Sometimes they are dishonest or immoral. Yet they attend a Christian church and have done so for years.
Some may even be wicked enough to be assigned to Hell when they die. But there may be many unchanged believers whom God is not ready to assign to the Lake of Fire or Hell.
Since what I have just said may well be the case, we have untold multitudes who are not fit to enter the "Heaven" part of the spirit world, which is Mount Zion, the home of the Royal Priesthood, and yet they are not wicked enough to be sent to Hell.
Since God does not like mixtures, it is not unreasonable to imagine that such people undergo seasons of schooling in which they are taught the Bible, and also live in communities with people like themselves.
Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled. Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together. Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. (Deuteronomy 22:9-11)
It may be true that Christian people believe that by "accepting Christ they have become a new creation, models of righteous and holy being and behavior.
If they follow the Lamb conscientiously they indeed will finally become models of righteous and holy behavior.
But there is an error in much of today's Christian teaching. It ignores the exhortations of the Apostles to put off the old man with his deeds and to put on the new man.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Colossians 3:5-10)
Have you ever heard the above passage preached from the pulpit? Perhaps not. What you may have heard is that Christ has taken all this on Himself and all we are to do is believe.
But look at the commandments!
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature . Did Christ do this for us, or do we do it?
You must also rid yourselves of all such things as these . Did Christ do this for us, or do we do it?
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Who is it that is to take off the old self and put on the new self? Does Christ do this for us?
How horrible it would be to die and pass into the spirit world, and then have no one to welcome us into their home! Perhaps we were not wicked enough to be assigned to Hell. Perhaps we had "accepted Christ" but had not followed the Master conscientiously.
We had supposed we would be welcomed into the fellowship of the members of the Royal Priesthood, but we had made little or no progress in becoming a new creation.
We had not put our treasures in Heaven. We had lived the ordinary casual life of the American Christian, supposing that Jesus has "done it all" for us.
Now we find ourselves standing alone in the spirit world with no one to greet us or welcome us. Thankfully, demons do not appear to escort us to Hell.
We do not belong with the fervent saints. We would be in an agony of conviction as we saw the brilliant white light coming from the saints, while we ourselves had not washed our robe by confessing and turning from our sins.
Finally we saw three people approaching us. Their robes were clean in some spots but dirty in others.
We recognized them as being members of our church. They could be counted on to find fault with other members, making it difficult to keep the assembling in the bond of unity and love.
They were not the people we would want to spend eternity with.
One of them said, "Welcome, brother. We heard you were coming. We have huts that we live in, and you are welcome to come with us and share a bowl of soup.
How are you going to feel if when you die that the only people who will welcome you in the spirit world are people like yourself?
The dishonest manager had no problem convincing the debtors to change the amounts they owed. They were as dishonest as he was. They now were his associates for eternity.
The parable of the unjust manager applies to numerous American churches in our day. The pastors and evangelists desire to have large churches, so they change the amounts the people of the congregation owe to God.
"The Christian life is easy. Christ himself has done all the hard work. He became poor that you might be rich. He suffered so you would not have to. Just believe that He has done these things, and all Heaven is yours.
"There will be a rapture, maybe as soon as this afternoon. Then you will not have to worry about the conditions in the world. You will be reclining comfortably on your sofa in your mansion, while the angels will be standing around with the most delicious food you can imagine.
"In the meanwhile, Jewish evangelists will be preaching the Gospel during the terrible Tribulation period. Antichrist will seize many of them. But you are not to worry about them because you are safe and comfortable in Heaven."
There are some today who require that we preach pleasant things. Such may gain a large congregation of people like themselves.
If Christ had wanted a large following He would not have commanded people to eat His flesh and drink His blood.
What good does it do to build a congregation of ten thousand people who have "accepted Christ" but who are not following on to know the Lord? Who are not confessing and renouncing their sins and exchanging their own will for Christ's will? Who are not becoming new creations of righteous, holy behavior?
We may protest that if we can get these people to Heaven, then we have accomplished God's will. But it is not so. God's will is that we be in His image, not in Heaven. If the members of the congregation choose not to be changed, then nothing of eternal value has been done.
Sinful, self-centered people are not going to remain in Mount Zion, which is what we mean by "Heaven." If they refuse to cooperate as the Spirit of God attempts to change them into righteous, holy creations, they shall not be permitted to remain in the Presence of God.
I think the popular assumption is that once we get to Heaven we somehow will be changed automatically into the image of God. We no longer will sin or seek to live according to our own will.
But sin and self-will began in Heaven, when a covering cherub guarding the Throne of God chose to follow his own will.
If sin and self-will began in Heaven, how then could entrance into Heaven make us new creations of righteous, holy behavior who seek always to live according to the will of Christ? If the atmosphere of Heaven did not keep Satan free from self-will, why would it keep people from attempting to supplant the glory and authority of Christ by living according to their own will?
Christ will make us a new creature if we follow Him obediently and obey Him implicitly. But living in Heaven will not in and of itself make us in the image of God, a new creation of righteous, holy being and behavior.
A preacher of the Gospel of the Kingdom who trims his or her message to please the pleasure-loving American people will stand, at his death, before the King.
The Lord Jesus will ask that preacher if he has preached the whole truth. Then there will appear pictures of the preacher preparing his sermon, making sure there would be nothing in his sermon that possibly could offend anyone.
Then Jesus will say, "I am going to send you to live with the members of your congregation who lived happily under your ministry, knowing that Christ would never demand of them that they be unhappy."
You would turn away sorrowfully, because you realized those people might be very angry with you when they realized they would not be permitted to enter Mount Zion and pursue righteousness. They understood it was because of you and your watered-down gospel that they were clothed in dirty robes.
Is this the group you want to spend eternity with?
If not, go to Christ right now and tell Him you want to receive a report card; and, if you are failing the course, to help you repent and become a true disciple.
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26)