The wise couple will make money their servant. They will seek to use money for the good of their family and to help others. They will never allow money to be their master, dictating their decision. Jesus addressed this issue when He said, “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and live the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (16:13).

Because they “dearly loved their money,” the Pharisees mocked Jesus (16:14). And because they “dearly loved their money,” according to Jesus’ teaching, they could not also live God. As Jesus taught, live of money and live for God cannot coexist.

Take some time to pray asking God…

To show you any love of money in your heart and to free you from it;

To teach you to be trustworthy with worldly wealth so that you can be trusted with the true riches of heaven;

To help you rightly see the higher value of relationships over money.

Reflecting on more thoughts:

How have you experienced that love of money and love of God are incompatible?

To what extent do you feel like money is your servant, and to what extent do you feel enslaved to money?

What financial decisions are you facing, and how can you use Jesus’ teaching in Luke 16 to guide your choices?

Consider studying more passages on money:

Psalm 119:36 Turn my heart^(A) toward your statutes
and not toward selfish gain.^(B

Hebrews 13:5

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”^[a]

I John 3:16-18 ¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

Luke 16:1-17

Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. ² 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.’

³ “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— ⁴ I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

⁵ “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

⁶ “‘Nine hundred gallons^[a] of olive oil,’ he replied.

“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred and fifty.’

⁷ “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’

“‘A thousand bushels^[b] of wheat,’ he replied.

“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

⁸ “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. ⁹ I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.¹⁰ “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. ¹¹ So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? ¹² And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?¹³ “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”¹⁴ The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. ¹⁵ He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.Additional Teachings¹⁶ “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John.Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it. ¹⁷ It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law.

These passages and thoughts allowed me to think of my talents and to know what I can control. Control your riches and serve the Lord to the best use of your talents and skills. That is what we can do according to what the Lord has given us.

These thoughts are from Gary Chapman.

What did you learn from these passages and thoughts?