If you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, (wordly wealth) who will commit to your trust the true riches (souls)?
Luke 16:11
The moral of this verse spoken to the disciples is that they were the stewards to whom Jesus was going to entrust His goods. They would be responsible to use them wisely. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, HE has entrusted us with His goods. Everything we have has come from Him. We are responsible for how we spend His money, talent, Power, wealth, land, job, position (post) which the Lord has given to us. One day the Lord will call on us to give an accounting of how we have utilised them.
Basically Jesus is saying that the money is not the currency of heaven. Let us suppose you undergo a strange experience of being in a foreign country and starving even though you have a lot of Indian currency. In order to buy goods in a foreign country one must go to the bank and exchange your cash with the currency of the country which you are in.
But when we arrive in heaven, we will realize that there are no exchange banks. The only opportunity for us to exchange our currency with heavenly currency is now on earth. If we wait until we arrive at the gate of heaven we will be too late.
Jesus seems to be drawing a contrast between true riches and false riches. The false riches are the riches of this world, that are measured in bank account and material possessions. The true riches are the eternal riches. We read in Matt 6:19 -21 Jesus telling us not to lay up for ourselves treasure on earth, where moths and rust can decay and thieves can break in and steal. But layup treasure in heaven. Material riches are not true riches. True riches are not measured by our account in the bank, but how much we have deposited in our heavenly bank account.
In Lk. 21:1- 4 Jesus reminds us about a widow dropping in a mite, which is less than a penny. Jesus says that she had given more than the rest of them, for they were casting in of their surplus, but she was giving of her livelihood, for that was all that she had. Lk 12:15 we read, ” Then He said to them, watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for life does not consist in possessions, even when someone has more than he need.”
We all are accountable for we are called by the Lord to work in His vineyard, to teach others His Words, to enlarge His border, to take His light to dark places, to work for the fulfilment of His vision. One day we will have to give an account of all our stewardship to Him.
Sol. Dr. Mohan Parmar