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Transcript 759A — The "Mammon of Unrighteousness" Explained [Lu 16:9]
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Brother Camping, I have a question on Luke 16. I was wondering, it talks about the unjust steward, and he gave away half of what his lord's debts were. And then in verse 9 it says, "Make yourself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness." I was wondering exactly what that means.
HC: The context is that Jesus is teaching that the unsaved people, living by the principles that the unsaved live by, do have a concern for the future. They are always protecting themselves insofar as the future is concerned. But He is faulting the believers that they do not have a proper concern for the future.
Now our concern for the future is entirely different than the unsaved man's, and the principles that we live by are altogether different. But nevertheless God is underscoring that we have to do a lot better job in being concerned about the future.
Now in verse 9 He points out what He has in view for us. The mammon of unrighteousness is the wherewithal that exists in the world, our money, our property, our inheritance, the things of this world. That is the mammon of unrighteousness. There is nothing righteous in itself about money or land or buildings or property that we own. These are the tools of the world to get on with their unrighteous practices.
But we are to utilize this to make friends. Now what kind of friends does God have in view? He says, "that when ye fail" Now at what point do we fail? Well, we fail at the point that our work has ended. We no longer can get on with the task God has assigned to us. Our time has ended. And what is going to happen when we fail? "They . . ." Who are "they"? These friends that we have made. "May receive you into everlasting habitations." That means that God is focusing our eyes on the fact that we are to use the things of this world, the money that God has entrusted to our care, the property God has entrusted to our care, to get on with the task of sending forth the Gospel, so that others might become saved. Then, when we are through with the task of sending forth the Gospel, these who have become saved because we have generously given that the Gospel could go out, will greet us. They will have become saved, and they will greet us as we come into Heaven. And that is the planning for the future that God has in mind for the believers. We are to keep our eyes focused on Heaven. We are to realize that there is no point in building a lot of financial successes in this world for ourselves. We are to utilize the money that God has entrusted into our care to send forth the Gospel. And when we get to Heaven, then we will see the results of the fact that we have been faithful stewards. And every believer of course to some degree will be faithful.
CALLER: A lot of Christians prefer to deal with Christians, in a money context. Is what He's saying that we're not to consider that, that we're just to go out and deal with everybody?
HC: No. What He's saying is that, and if we put this in the context of all the other verses in the Bible that speak about the chief task of the believer, what He is saying is that the number one priority of the believer in this world is not to look for financial security for himself. It is not to make sure that he's got plenty of money for his old age. That's what the unsaved do. They're worried about their financial future in this life. But our concern has to be with looking at eternity, and what our task is in relationship to eternity. And that task is to be a preacher of the Gospel, to be obedient to the command to go into all the world with the Gospel.
And as we lay our life on the altar of service, as we make the money that God has given us available so that the Gospel can go forth by radio or by missionaries or by the printed page, however it is, we are making friends by use of this money. In other words, God is saving people through the fact that we have made this money and our property available.
Now in verse 13 God really underscores a very important aspect of this. And this is something that all of us have to take very seriously. It's something that won't go away. He says in verse 13, "No servant can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
Now one of the greatest temptations that we have as Christians is that because we live in a world that is totally money-oriented and totally earthbound, because our security comes in the things that money will buy, the houses we own, the stocks and bonds we own, the insurance policies we have, the savings account that we have, which is the strength and security of the unsaved man, the strength and security of the world, and we are surrounded by this kind of a philosophy, which is pounded at us, dinned into our ears and taught us by everything that we look at and hear about, there is a temptation to be like the world in this. But we are not to live like the world. We are to recognize that there is no security in this world. If we die owning ten houses, so what? Or even if we own ten houses and don't die, God can take all of it away from us in a minute anyway, through fire or through pestilence or through war, etc. And this happens all the time, all over the world. There is no security in the things of this world. We have to get rid of that notion, that we have a lot of security if we have so much money in the bank or if we have so many properties with our name. We really don't have any security, even though the world thinks they have security in this.
For the believer our security is only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now on the other hand, the property that we own and the money that we have is to be made available that the Gospel can go forth. Christ is our security. We're not to look to this money and the property as our security. Christ is our security, and we are to make our money as available as possible that the Gospel can go forth. And because we've learned that our money and our houses and our property and our land and our stocks and bonds and our insurance policies are not our security, we are not hesitant to give very generously. We're not hesitant to sell of this and sell off that so that more money can be available that the Gospel can go forth.
Do you see the large scope of the message that God is teaching us here?
CALLER: You've really helped a lot with it. Money isn't that important, and it just a vehicle to get the Gospel out.
HC: That's what it is. For the world money is an end in itself. It is the security of the world. For the believer, that is not our security. Our security is the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we find in our life that we've been tempted into thinking that money and houses and land are our security, we're to ask the Lord for forgiveness. And instead, like you put it so well, we recognize that money is simply a vehicle, a marvellous means God has placed at our disposal, to get the Gospel out into the world. And if all of us who are children of God would really catch this very clearly, my, there would be so much money available to send forth the Gospel that our cup would be running over. If all of us would catch this, Family Radio would never be in a position where we didn't have enough money to meet the bills for this month. All of us would recognize that the things of this world are not important. We've got to be more dedicated and committed than ever to use our money and whatever else we have that the Gospel might go out. That is the mandate that God has given us.
CALLER: That's why the steward's lord wasn't upset when he . . .
HC: There is an implication there. He was giving away of his master's goods, and thus he was being protected for the future. Yes, there is an implication there that this man is a picture of a believer. We give away what God has given to us, in order to prepare for the future. Yes, I think that's a good insight.
CALLER: Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Camping.