Luke 16:11 speaks of the “unrighteous mammon and the true riches.” Faithfulness in use of the unrighteous mammon, is the way “true riches” are committed to our trust. We are to “make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness.” An important lesson in life is to learn the “use and purpose of money.” James 2:1-6, their gold and silver was a witness against them. They heaped up treasure that would be to their eternal condemnation. No wonder we read in Proverbs 30:8 this prayer, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food convenient for me.” Many people are hard up, head-over-heels in debt because they never learned to handle money. Fiscal fumbling is so common among young couples. Credit is so easily obtained and so hard to handle. People who are careless in money matters, are often careless in other manners. Discipline is necessary; unpaid bills means an unheeded testimony. If God can’t provide temporal needs, people wonder how He can provide spiritual needs.
Philemon 4:19 is a good testimony, “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” It is a promise of our “needs,” not our “wants;” that’s another matter. Extravagance and neglect in money matters, failing to live within their means, is a blot on the Truth as bad as drunkenness or [being] depraved. The world’s full of high-powered salesmanship, each crying their wares, promoting their products, praising their goods. Their song is loud and long – it’s constantly drumming in our ears; it attacks prudence and patience, enslaves by its envy and greed. If a saint can’t get the upper hand in this conflict, they will have little influence on others. Can’t stand in a tub and lift it. Their influence null, mouth closed by debts, by misspent and misused mammon committed to their trust.
We are only “stewards” and must be faithful, not accused of wasting the Masters’ goods. Jesus said, “If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?” If there’s a lack of good sense in money matters, it’s hard to find it in spiritual matters. We must be respected before we will be heard. Paul wrote, “Owe no man anything,” and again in the same Epistle said, “I am a debtor unto all men.” There’s no contradiction; he’s dealing with two entirely different provisions. The mammon of unrighteousness and the true riches. “We are our brother’s keeper,” we owe others something. We need to share with them what Christ has done for us.
I Peter 3:15, “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” We need to learn to invest in the worthwhile things of life, the riches of His Grace, of His love, and His knowledge. These are the “true riches” that can never be taken away from us. The mammon of man will fail. You cannot “take it with you,” but you can “take with you” the things it accomplishes to your eternal credit. The importance is to know how to invest it. Not to blow it, but to bless it to have it work for you, not disappear in debt and want. You either use it or lose it. When we invest, we multiply. When we hoard, we subtract.
Some kinds of help only help people downward. You can give money so that it increases that person’s laziness. That’s misguided giving! You can lend support and in so doing, relieve the obligation that should rest upon that person’s immediate family. That’s a mistaken charity. The right attitudes we want to share! We have something so good that it would be evil to keep it all to ourselves. It would be evil, if we had a “cure for cancer” and failed to reveal it to others. We have stewards of even greater revelations. So we are debtors. We owe every lost soul. We care about them – our burden toward them is an obligation as definite as a mortgage. We’ll never get out of debt in this life – a deep concern in the salvation of souls.
Jesus saith, “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness.” Not by building bigger barns, nor by adding acre to acre, not making estates, rather by “making friends, that they may receive you.” It’s acceptance only, Heaven can’t be bought with money. We know how quickly a gift sours if we learn there is an ulterior motive, seeking to buy or influence us. The mammon of unrighteousness is neither sordid nor sacred, neither the goal or god. It’s a medium of exchange. The blessing is involved in the right attitude and use of it. It makes a good servant but a cruel master. It can be shared by showing an interest in others; bearing the burdens of others, especially when misfortune overtakes them; share their sickness and sorrows as well as their joy and gladness, and also in transportation and service. It would be vain if only words and not works.
James 2:16, “Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?” Mammon can be shared when it’s a question of hospitality, so often mentioned in the Scriptures. Homes and furniture can become too good and exclusive to be shared – afraid it’ll be soiled.
How many are moved with Jesus’ instructions as they invite? “When thou makest a dinner or supper, call not (only) thy friends, thy brethren neither thy kinsmen or rich neighbours…but call the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind and thou shalt be blessed for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” Ask someone to “eat with you” and likely know more success when you “ask them to go to meeting with you.” We must make friends before we make disciples. This is not done by withdrawal into a personal paradise rather willing to spend and be spent, to show mercy so as to obtain mercy.
Truth Archive 