The Purpose of Money
After telling a story about a shrewd manager who was about to be fired, Jesus said, “Learn some lessons from this crooked but clever asset manager. Realize that the purpose of money is to strengthen friendships, to provide opportunities for being generous and kind. Eventually, money will be useless to you. But if you use it generously to serve others, you will be welcomed joyfully into your eternal destination” (Luke 16:9, The Voice).
When the man in the story realized he was about to be fired, he contacted all the customers who owed his boss money. He struck deals with them to pay off their debts at reduced amounts. He figured if he got fired, maybe one of his customers would hire him because he had reduced their bill.
The man used money as leverage to create friendships and bonds that could potentially benefit him down the road.
Jesus said, “The purpose of money is to strengthen friendships, to provide opportunities for being generous.” The world and the universe watch what we do with the money that passes through our hands. Notice, I deliberately avoided saying “our money.” We don’t own it. You may have a wad of it in a bank account with your name on it, but it’s not really yours.
Everything we have is on loan to us—our homes, time, material goods, money, even our families. How we manage these assets reveals if we can be trusted with an unlimited supply—eternally!
The reason we’ve been given jobs, talents, and assets is to see if we’ll use our circumstances to bring good to life and make the world a better place or if we will spend it all on ourselves.
Money talks, and if we listen, we’ll hear the competing messages it sends, the people it empowers, and the causes it supports.
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Rich DuBose writes from Northern California.
