Lessons learned from the Parable of the Shrewd Manager/Steward

The world is full of smart crooks. I have often wondered why people able to come up with incredibly clever ways to steal money from other people didn’t just use their cleverness to make a good legal living. Take, for example, a man I filed a suit against on behalf of a client many years ago. He was a clerk at my client’s retail store and he had a clever scheme using a claim that the cash register was broken to cheat my clients out of over $30,000 over about two years, a substantial raise for a $10 an hour clerk.

He was caught, sued and lost, of course, but I was always a bit confused because with the cleverness to come up with his scheme, he could have made a lot of money honestly.

No, I will not give out the specific details of how he did it and got away with it for years, or how he was caught. The only thing I will disclose is that he has gone to meet his Maker and Judge since he was caught.

But for him, and for the featured man in this parable, something seems to be keeping an honest living from being an option. In this parable we learn about one of those clever but crooked people, a man who was a bad steward over his master’s business.

This clever crook is introduced to the us in the most challenging and most easily misunderstood of all parables told by Jesus, the parable of the shrewd manager. A casual reading of this parable would leave the reader wondering why Jesus appears to be commending the dishonest man who cheats his master. He isn’t commending dishonesty, except as a backhanded insult to the Pharisees who were listening, but you can see why such a misunderstanding is easy.

Luke 16:1-13
1  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 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 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.”

Some writers end the parable at verse 13. I don’t because God didn’t. God continued the parable to show us the response of Pharisees who were listening and Jesus’ retort to them.

Luke 17:14-15
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.

In a number of the parables, God is represented by one of the people. Not in this parable. The steward is certainly not Godly in any sense and the manager does not seem to be much better, or at least he seems to admire scheming dishonest stewardship.

Lessons for the church and for believers

So, what lesson can there possibly be for believers and for the church from this odd parable? One lesson lies in verse 9, where Jesus says, “use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” This goes hand-in-hand with that part of the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus said,

Matthew 6:19-21
19  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

The worldly wealth God allows us to build up, see Deuteronomy 8:18, is not for ourselves but is to be used for kingdom purposes and for God’s glory. 2 Corinthians 9:11-13. Verse 9 of the parable of the shrewd manager is an encouragement to believers to be generous with any wealth they have. By doing this, there will be two results. First and foremost, God will get glory and praise. Second, in the life to come, the generous people will be received “into eternal dwellings.” In other words, people will come to know Jesus through that generosity and be there to welcome you. That is good stewardship.

The shrewd steward does everything for himself and his earthly future, ignoring the conflict of interest as he acts for his own benefit, ignoring the best interests of his master. While the master started with a question and asked for an accounting, there appears to be no hope for the steward to keep his job. The statement by the master in verse 2 is “‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.” Realizing that he will soon be without a job, the steward makes deals behind his master’s back by reducing the amount owed by several people who owed his master money. He isn’t doing this for the master’s benefit but for his own, the deals are cut in exchange for shelter when, not if, he is fired.

The master did commend the steward for his shrewdness, but I doubt he kept the steward on in his employ. The master likely was amazed that someone so dishonest had pulled off such a clever scheme to benefit himself.

The real heart and purpose of this odd parable is to give a sharp contrast between believers and the world, between the people of the light and the people of the world. But that contrast bothers me in some ways because some of the most brilliant, insightful and clever people I know are among the people of the light, believers. The answer to that probably lies in the fact that Jesus said that they are more “shrewd in dealing with their own kind.” No where does Jesus say believers are not clever.

Luke 16:8
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.

There are two points hidden here. The first lies in the word “shrewd. The Greek word is phronomoteroi, which can be read with a negative connotation. There is an old joke about a young college graduate who applied for a job at the Central Intelligence Agency. Together with several other applicants, he was given a sealed envelope and told to take it to the fourth floor. As soon as the young man was alone, he stepped into an empty hallway and opened the packet. Inside, a message read: “You’re our kind of person. Report to the fifth floor.” That is the kind of shrewdness about which Jesus is speaking, a shrewdness about the ways and things of the world, a shrewdness that isn’t necessarily honest. The negative connotation is fitting, that future spy was phronomoteroi.

The second point lies in “in dealing with their own kind.” The old saying “it takes one to know one” has an element of truth to it. The sneaky, conniving people of the world are best recognized by … the sneaky, conniving people of the world! That should be no surprise.

One contrast is extraordinarily sharp in this parable, and that is the contrast between an ungodly and a Godly steward. The unjust steward saw an opportunity to benefit himself using his master’s resources. On the other hand, a Godly steward knows he or she owns nothing and that everything belongs to God. See Psalm 24:1-2 and 1 Corinthians 10:26.  As Godly stewards, we use our Master’s property and resources to further our Master’s goals.

In Luke 16:10-13 Jesus lays out boundaries for the Master/steward relationship.

Luke 16:10-13
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.”

The summarizing principle governing the Master/steward relationship lies in verse 13. If you serve yourself and feed your greed, you have money as an idol; God is not your Master and Jesus is not your Lord.

But there is at least one more question remaining about the scope of this parable. What “possessions” of the master was the steward over? We are never told all of the possessions of the Master the steward oversaw and there is probably a very good reason for that lack of detail. The reason is best given by another question – what has the Lord given you over which you are a steward? The answer is, “everything you have, including your own life.” Thus, when the master accused the steward of wasting what belonged to the master, it could have been anything or everything given to him to oversee.

In that sense, we are stewards and everything we have belongs to God. That includes every breath we take from morning to evening, every skill or bit of understanding, intelligence, insight, love, or compassion we have been given, very opportunity we have, even every friend and neighbor we have.

Deuteronomy 8:18
18  But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

Acts 17:24-25
24` “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.
25  And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

Acts 20:28
28  Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

1 Corinthians 4:2
2  Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

God has called us to be faithful stewards over ourselves, all we have and all He has given us, especially His church.

That raises very important questions; are we as believers good stewards and is the church itself a good steward of what God (and members) have given it? Jesus spoke this parable for the sneering Pharisees as well as for the people. I believe He spoke this parable for modern believers as well as for the modern church.

The context

This parable was the fourth in a series of teachings by Jesus. Those teachings, which start in Luke 15, follow what appears to be an outreach effort by Jesus to Pharisees. In Luke 14 Jesus had dinner with and spoke with a prominent Pharisee and his guests. Those lessons appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

In Luke 15 the Pharisees looked down on Jesus because Jesus “welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:2. Then Jesus spoke the parable of the lost sheep, Luke 15:3-7, the parable of the lost coin, Luke 15:8-10, and the parable of the lost son or the prodigal son, Luke 15:11-32. Each of those parables was a rebuke to the elitist and separatist attitude of the Pharisees who were listening. Each of those stories is also a rebuke to any church or believer in a church who does not welcome in the lost – anyone who does not eat with sinners.

The final lessons of this parable, what I call holiness lessons, start with this thought; there is a tension between the idea of holiness, which is a separation from the world, and the call of Jesus to interact, share, help, and eat with sinners. The very word “holy” has a principle meaning of being “set apart” for God, according to Christianity Today. There is a definite secondary meaning of moral purity, a behavioral element because we are no longer to behave and be like the world. Romans 12:2. Yes, we are “set apart,” but if we become monks and isolate ourselves from the world, we can never be salt and light to the world as Jesus called us to be in Matthew 5:13-16.

There is no perfect formula for how much of the world is too much, but there is no doubt that there is too much of the world in much of the church. Believers are not being transformed into the image of God, they are being conformed to the image of the world, and so is much of the church. Romans 12:1-2.

Do not be a lover of money

The first holiness lesson is that we as believers and the church cannot be “lovers of money” like the Pharisees. Could that happen to a church? Of course, it could. The church is made up of very fallible, very weak, fallen people.

Luke 16:13 uses the Greek word for “servant,” oiketes, referring to a household servant, but the concept applies to all people and even groups of people, including a church.

Luke 16:13
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.”

Jesus is not just giving this as an instruction against allowing money to become an idol, but also as a warning that money demands the right to be a person’s exclusive idol. It demands more than it can ever give back.

The nearly impossible has to take place; preachers need to preach on the danger of money and they need to demonstrate a healthy respect for that danger by openly not having too much personal wealth. I think back to W. A. Criswell, Pastor of First Baptist church of Dallas, who in 1974 returned his entire salary to the church – all of it he had ever earned!

Be generous with money

The second holiness lesson is that we must be generous with our money, using it as a beacon to show the world that believers and the church are different.

In verse 9 of the parable Jesus said, “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” Once you come to the deep understanding that you are a steward, it becomes easier to be generous. After all, it is easier to give away someone else’s property than your own, isn’t it? We have what God has given us not to keep it but to share it, all for God’s glory.

2 Corinthians 9:11-13
11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
12 This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of the Lord’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
13 Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.

On Matthew 19:23-30, Christian expositor J.C. Ryle wrote:

“Let us beware of the love of money. It is possible to use it well, and do good with it. But for each one who makes a right use of money, there are thousands who make a wrong use of it, and do harm both to themselves and others. Let the worldly man, if he will, make an idol of money, and count him happiest who has most of it. But let the Christian, who professes to have “treasure in heaven,” set his face like a flint against the spirit of the world in this matter. Let him not worship gold. He is not the best man in God’s eyes who has most money, but he who has most grace.”

Along the same thought, in Autopsy of a Deceased Church: Twelve Ways to Keep Yours Alive, author Thomas Rainer noted that one of the signs of a declining church is that the church’s use of money becomes focused on itself rather than its mission, reaching the lost.

As individuals and as a church we should have grace and be generous with what God has given to us. That is one of the blessings I have being the Executive Director of The Idlewild Foundation. It is simply a joy to be able to be generous. I have often said that it is a lot of fun giving away someone else’s money. I usually get a smile or even a laugh from someone who hears that. The full truth is that I also am giving my own money since as a Trustee and Executive Director I donate to The Idlewild Foundation – even though I am a volunteer and receive no salary. Still, it is a joy being generous to students, widows and widowers, foster families and children and many others through the work we do and the service we provide.

Be a good steward

The final holiness lesson to be learned comes as we are told to be good stewards of all we have received.

1 Peter 4:10
10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

If you have little money to give, you can still be generous by giving the time God has given to you, your ability to work, share, teach or serve in any fashion at all. See What About Generosity When Money is Scarce? and What About Giving and Generosity? Churches need servants, people willing to ask, “what can I do to help” who roll up their sleeves and serve whenever and wherever needed. There is no job too small, too “insignificant,” or too unimportant. In such service, we prove ourselves as faithful. 2 Corinthians 9:13 and 1 Corinthians 4:1-2.

Conclusion

The message of this parable for the church and for believers is mainly one of stewardship. We are called to handle what we have from God cautiously, generously, faithfully, and for the glory of God, not for ourselves.

Good stewardship will never save you. But good stewardship does serve as a demonstration to the world that we are Christians and have received God’s grace. After all, our stewardship serves as a blessed contrast to the stewardship of the shrewd and dishonest manager.

About the Author

John Campbell has retired from a 40-year legal practice as a trial attorney in Tampa. He has served in multiple volunteer roles at Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Florida, where he met Jesus. He began serving as the Executive Director of the Idlewild Foundation in 2016. He has been married to the love of his life, Mona Puckett Campbell, since 1972.

This is the tenth in a series of articles on financial and other issues facing the American church in this no longer very new millennium. These articles represent the personal thoughts and reflections of the author and are not necessarily a statement of The Idlewild Foundation. These articles are based upon parables told by Jesus and stories from the gospels on events in His life, applying His life and teachings to the lives of believers and to the church as a whole and not to any one church in particular.