33: The Unrighteous Manager & foolish Pharisees & Lazarus story (Luke 16:1 – 31)

“Make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth, so that when it runs out, you will be welcomed into the eternal homes.” (16:9)

👉 Read Luke 16:1-31

Q1. This is one of the difficult parables to comprehend. For such a text, we should focus on the conclusion of Jesus (v. 8-9) rather than evaluate the servants' behavior by ourselves. What will be Jesus' message to us in our present life? (4, 9)

ANS: Make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth.

As he prepared for life after dismissal with what he had. We must use the resources given to us now to prepare for life after death.

Use perishable and temporary possession to buy unperishable and eternal assets. 

Even if he had the legal proxy to adjust debts, doing so to bail himself out at his master's expense was a breach of fiduciary duty. It was morally compromised. We’d better focus on the master's (and Jesus') observation of the man's shrewdness, not his ethics. Verse 9 is the pivot: use "unrighteous mammon" to make eternal friends.

The deceitfulness of worldly wealth: The Greek expression for "worldly wealth" can be translated to "unrighteous (or deceitful) mammon". Why is Mammon, the god of wealth, deceitful? At beginning, money comes as a useful servant, but slowly it starts to enslave us when we start relying on it and when it becomes the highest priority. This is the deceptive nature the god of wealth. Once you become a slave of Mammon, you cannot serve God (13). 

Q2. (10-12) We should learn from ‘shrewdness’ of the manager, not his ethics. He understood his situation and behaved shrewdly. We can find some common perspectives between the worldly wealth given to us and the master’s assets entrusted to the manager. Both are (              ) compared to the true riches of God’s kingdom. Both are not our own but are (                     ) to us as someone else’ property. We will be held accountable for how we (      ) them.

Both are ( very little) compared to the true riches of God’s kingdom. Both are not our own but are ( entrusted ) to us as someone else’ property. We will be held accountable for how we ( use ) them.

Q3. (Verse 10-13) The reasons we cannot faithfully manage what God has entrusted to us are as follows. We treat what has been entrusted to us as though it were our own eternal possession (v. ___). When wealth that will one day disappear becomes the core value of our hearts, we are deceived by the lies of this world and cannot perceive the heavenly truth (v. ___). Because we cannot see the far greater blessings of heaven, we become obsessed with the things of this world (v. ___). As a result, we rely on the wealth God has entrusted to us. By becoming obsessed with it and making it our core value, we make Mammon our god (v. ___).

ANS: 12, 11, 10, 13

‘dishonest in a very little’: obsession of worldly wealth of very little value.

‘dishonest in much’: ignoring the ultimate value of His kingdom.

"dishonest/unrighteous" means "not right." Because the "unrighteous wealth" seduces people, it is not right. 

If you are seduced by the unrighteous wealth of no true value and, thus, cannot manage it (not faithful to God in dealing with it), you cannot handle the glory of truth.

The Greek word for "money" in verses 9, 11, and 13 is ‘Mammon’ the god of wealth.

Q4. What are the problems of Pharisees? (14-18)

Loving the money

Seeking praise in human eyes

Negligence of the gospel (Jesus’ teaching) 

Distorting the Word of God: He who seeks the glory of men distorts the Word of God for his own glory.

Luke 16:14–15. The Pharisees believed that material blessings were God's reward for their good deeds. That is why they ridiculed Jesus when He said, "You cannot serve both God and money." Their failure was that they evaluated everything by human eyes, failing to look into own sinful heart. Therefore, what people highly esteem—e.g. to be rich—is often detestable in God's sight.

Verses 16–17 show both the discontinuity and the continuity between the Law and the gospel. In other words, the gospel accomplishes the Law on a higher level. For example, “What is mortal may be swallowed up by life" (2 Cor 5:4), life doesn’t come in a way to deny the death penalty of sin required by the law, but in a way to bring resurrection from the death.

Verse 18 shows how the gospel fulfills the Law in fuller measure. Jesus not only forbids divorce but also forbids marrying a divorced woman, thereby condemned to finalize the breakup of the marriage. (no way to re-marry x-husband)

Q5. Why do you think the rich man has ended up with Sheol (here, we could understand this term as hell)? (25, 31, Lev 25:35-36)

ANS: He didn't care of Nazarus in front of his door and enjoyed wealth himself alone, nor did he listen to Moses and the prophets, just like his brothers. According to the Old Testament law, he had to help the poor.

He gives a typical example who fails to be faithful in a very little, worldly wealth, and someone else’s property. That’s why much valuable, the true riches and his own life was not given to him.

More insight about the Unrigteous Manager story.

Comparison between worldly wealth and the riches of the Kingdom: very little vs. much, deceitful vs. true, someone else's vs. our own.

The expression "faithful in" (Greek, πιστὸς ἐν, not into) should be understood as "faithful in the matter of," not "believe in" nor "be faithful in serving." In verses 10–12, "faithful," "trustworthy," and "entrust" all come from the same Greek root: πιστός / πιστεύω. We should understand this in the context of someone giving or entrusting (vv. 11–12) something valuable to us to manage. In this sense, being "faithful" is not being faithful to the thing itself, but to the One who entrusted it.

"Dishonest" or "worldly" (Greek, ἄδικος) contrasts with "true" (Greek, ἀληθινός). If we combine these two key words—dishonest and faithful—we can say this: faithfulness in stewardship and knowing the truth are closely related.

Verse 11. Unless you put down your hold of worldly wealth, heavenly wisdom won’t be given. If we use what has been entrusted to us merely to satisfy ourselves, what is truly our own—our eternal inheritance and glory—may not be given to us. It is because we cannot handle the weight of heavenly glory and would become boastful over it rather than grateful.

While the manager's deceptive debt adjustment was morally wrong, his brilliance lay in recognizing two structural truths: his authority was temporary, and the wealth he controlled belonged to another. Verse 8 praises only this urgent foresight, while Verse 9 delivers Jesus' radical command to use worldly wealth—which belongs entirely to this passing world—for eternal purposes. 

Ultimately, faithfulness in unrighteous mammon means acknowledging its absolute temporariness, refusing to claim ownership over it, and aggressively liquidating it to serve God.

The following parable of Lazarus shows the failure of the rich man who failed to make friend with worldly wealth.