The Worthless Manager

“1) Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. 2) And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3) The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. 4) I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ 5) And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6) And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ 7) Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He *said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ 8) And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.” 10) “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.” Luke‬ ‭16‬:‭1‬-‭9

We now have the story of the worthless steward. A wealthy man had made him the chief financial officer over his entire estate.

There was only one problem, he was squandering his possessions and mishandling everything. He had numerous unsecured loans, many debtors who owed the estate much with no plans of repayment. Even worse, he had a failed record keeping system. He was living the good life at his masters expense.

Then one day, his master formed the department of government efficiency. The unrighteousness manager was exposed and put on notice that his position was about to be abolished.

Recognizing his pending doom, he took action and began to clean up his financial fiasco. He called in every debtor, determined their actual debt, set up a repayment plan, cut his loses and settled the accounts. He did it in a manner that showed grace to the debtors but also accountability toward his master.

His ingenious plan worked and all parties were satisfied with the results. Even his master was impressed and praised his manager who acted shrewdly. Though the text does not state it clearly, this sudden change of heart may have saved his position.

When you stand back and examine this story, it deals with exposure, debts, accountability, grace and forgiveness. It furthermore underlines a genuine change of heart.

It emphasizes the value of people above money. Some exploit people to gain money, God wants us to wisely use money to reach people. Don’t destroy relationships over some bad business deals. Learn how to balance grace and accountability.

The truth is that each of us are sin debtors before God. Through Christ, He has found a way to show grace, forgive our debt and give us a second chance in life.

Daily Bible Commentary

By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global