Luke 16:12

And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?

The lesson of the parable has really begun in the previous section, and it may be that the entire judgment of verse 8 was spoken by Jesus. The children of this world, the people of the present day and age, are wiser than the children of light, the believers that have been enlightened by the Spirit of God, in their generation, toward their own kind; they exhibit much more keenness and business ability in their concerns than the children Of the Church in theirs. They show their wisdom in relation to men of their own kind and in reference to worldly matters. It behooves the Christians to profit by their example and to show the same zeal, the same keenness, the same business ability in matters of the kingdom of God. One application of the lesson the Lord Himself makes with the emphasis peculiar to Him (as for Me, to you I say). The Christians should make for themselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness. Mammon, a term found in several ancient languages, denotes money. Now, one evidence of the wisdom of the children of the world consists in this, that they make provision for the future, that they make all their business ventures serve this end. To put themselves and their families beyond care as soon as possible is their object, and therefore they make use of every possible advantage to attain to this end. The children of light, on the contrary, are often anything but energetic and diligent in the things that pertain to God's kingdom. They forget, also, that the end is coming, that they will have to give an account to the Lord in regard to their business transactions for Him. Therefore Jesus here admonishes them that they should so conduct their affairs, and principally those that concern temporal goods, wealth and money in general, that they, like the steward, shall make friends with the goods, with the mammon entrusted to them. Christians will use their money in the interest of the kingdom of God, in establishing and extending the Church of Jesus Christ throughout the world. And wherever they can, they will be actively interested in true charity in all its phases. In this way the poor congregations, the heathen, and others that receive the benefit of such investments, and the poor and suffering of the household of faith, will be under obligations to them. All these debtors will later show their true friendship in such a way that they will receive the Christians into the everlasting habitations. For the time will come that earthly wealth and mammon will fail; it is entrusted to every person only for the short space of this earthly life"; and they themselves must leave this world behind. Then the wisdom of their investment will be demonstrated. For all those that have received any form of benefit from the money of the Christian brethren and sisters will then speak for them before the throne of God, testifying to the gifts which they enjoyed here in this world by the kindness of the members of the Church that were willing to share with the less fortunate in the possession of this world's goods. "All the good that ye do to poor people here, the friendship and benefits which we show them, those works will on the last day not only be witnesses that we have conducted ourselves as brethren and Christians, but will also be rewarded and paid. Then someone will come and praise: Lord, this person gave me a coat, a dollar, a loaf of bread, a drink of water when I was in trouble."

But Jesus draws other conclusions from the parable. Faithfulness in small, apparently insignificant things is a criterion. It will follow that he who shows the right spirit, true faithfulness, in the less, will be faithful also in the greater, while the opposite holds true in the opposite case. Now, if a person does not prove faithful in the administration of the money which the Lord has entrusted to him for the short space of this earthly life, who will be foolish enough to entrust matters of real value and importance to such a one? The care and charge of spiritual gifts and goods presupposes the faithfulness in the less important temporal goods. Faith, which accepts and preserves the heavenly goods, all the gifts of God through the means of grace, will prove itself in the faithful discharge of earthly duties, in conscientious use of earthly goods, in mercy and beneficence. He that is not conscientious in the use of the money and goods entrusted to him gives evidence of lack of faith and of a contempt of heavenly goods. And if people are not faithful in the administration of the things that belong to another, who will be willing to give them such, as are their actual property? People of wealth in this world are administrators, stewards of God's goods,' which He has entrusted to them in the form of money or its equivalent. This involves responsibility, and the day of reckoning is coming. If God finds that such people could not even be trusted with strange property, He will conclude that they cannot be trusted either with the gifts of His grace, which are intended for their property for all eternity. All spiritual gifts, all that the heritage of heaven implies, are, unlike the temporal possessions, outright gifts. But the latter are given only to such persons as have given proof of their faith by works which proved that they could be trusted. The presence of faith is invariably shown by works of love.