He Is No Fool: What a Dishonest Manager Taught Us About Eternity

Meta Description: Pastor Ben unpacked one of Jesus' most puzzling parables to reveal a powerful truth: be shrewd with the temporary to gain what lasts forever. URL Slug: shrewd-with-the-temporal-luke-16-parable-dishonest-manager Featured Image: A close-up of two hands, one releasing coins or sand and the other holding something solid and luminous — visually representing the contrast between temporal and eternal treasure.

Some sermons make you uncomfortable in the best possible way. This past Sunday, Pastor Ben Wales brought us face to face with one of the most puzzling parables Jesus ever told — and by the end, the challenge was impossible to shake.

The text was Luke 16:1–9, the Parable of the Dishonest Manager. It's a passage many people avoid because, on the surface, it seems like Jesus is commending dishonesty. But Pastor Ben helped us see that the point was never the manager's ethics. The point was his shrewdness — and what that shrewdness should stir in every follower of Christ.

A Story That Doesn't Seem to Add Up

Pastor Ben walked us carefully through the parable so we could understand what was actually happening before drawing any conclusions.

A wealthy landowner discovers his estate manager has been wasting his possessions. The manager is called in and told he's finished — but he's given a window of time to wrap things up before he's removed. Realizing he's too weak for manual labor and too proud to beg, the manager hatches a plan. He calls in his master's debtors one by one and reduces their debts — 100 measures of oil becomes 50, 100 measures of wheat becomes 80. He uses his remaining window of authority to create goodwill that will outlast his position.

And then the surprising twist: the master commends him. Not for dishonesty, but for shrewdness.

Pastor Ben was careful to draw the right distinction here. "The master commended him for his shrewdness," he noted. "To be shrewd is to have a sense for how things work, and then to make choices so that they work out the best for you in the long term." The manager saw what was coming, acted quickly, and used what he had to secure a future beyond his present circumstances.

Then Jesus turns to his disciples and says: do likewise.

We Are Stewards, Not Owners

The first principle Pastor Ben drew from the parable is foundational: everything we have belongs to God, not us.

The text is unambiguous. The possessions wasted by the manager were never his — they were the master's. And so it is with everything we hold in our hands. Pastor Ben pointed us to Moses in Deuteronomy 10:14: "Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it." King David echoed this in Psalm 24:1: "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein."

And Paul puts it most personally in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20: "You are not your own. You were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body."

Your time, your mind, your relationships, your money, your body — none of it is ultimately yours. You are a manager. And like the manager in the parable, there is a day of accounting coming.

Pastor Ben also issued two pointed challenges about how we waste what God has entrusted to us: don't fritter away your life on empty entertainment, and don't spend it hoarding wealth as though it were the point. "God has chosen to bless the world through his people," he reminded us. "You are a channel of blessing — not a dead end."

Earthly Treasure Has an Expiration Date

The second principle Pastor Ben drew out is one that the shrewd manager understood clearly: the temporal will fail.

In verse 9, Jesus says to use unrighteous wealth to make friends, "so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings." The word fails is key. Everything on earth — our money, our health, our relationships, our influence — will eventually run out. Jesus contrasts earthly wealth with "true riches" in verse 11, making clear that our bank accounts are, in his words, "funny money" in the eternal economy of God's kingdom.

Pastor Ben brought in the words of Jesus from Matthew 6:19–21: "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

He also cited C.S. Lewis, who wrote that "we are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he can't imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

The sons of light, Pastor Ben argued, should be more strategic about eternity than the sons of this world are about their earthly futures — not less.

Make Friends Who Will Welcome You Into Eternal Dwellings

The third and most practical principle: use what you have to make friends — in the church and in the world.

The manager used the master's resources to reconcile debtors to the master. Jesus tells us to do the same. Use what God has entrusted to you to point people toward him, to alleviate burdens, to build genuine community.

Pastor Ben pointed to the "one anothers" of Scripture — serve one another (Galatians 5:13), show hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9), encourage one another daily (Hebrews 3:13), walk in fellowship with one another (1 John 1:7). He challenged us to slow down after service, to get to know a brother or sister, to pray with someone on the phone, to be a family — not just an audience.

And then he turned outward. Jesus was the master of making friends: touching the unclean, sitting with the outcast, calling sinners to himself. And at the very end, on the cross, he looked at a dying thief and effectively said, "Take your bill and write zero — I'm paying it right now." That, Pastor Ben said, is the ultimate model for how we use the fleeting resources of our lives.

The Quote That Ties It All Together

Pastor Ben opened and closed with a quote from missionary Jim Elliot, who was killed in 1956 while attempting to bring the gospel to an isolated tribe in Ecuador. In his journal, Elliot had written:

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Beneath that quote, Elliot had written a scripture reference: Luke 16:9.

The parable of the dishonest manager isn't a confusing story about a crooked employee. It's a call to live with eternity in view — to be shrewd with the temporary, generous with what isn't ours to keep, and strategic about what will last forever.

We left Sunday with a clear and convicting question ringing in our ears: How is God calling you to be a steward of the temporal for the sake of the eternal?

If you missed Sunday's message, we encourage you to watch the full sermon on our YouTube channel — it's well worth your time. And if this message stirred something in you, share it with someone who needs to hear it. The best response to a sermon about eternal investment is to pass it on.

Social Media Excerpt (Facebook/Instagram): "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." — Jim Elliot. This Sunday, Pastor Ben unpacked Luke 16's puzzling Parable of the Dishonest Manager and revealed a stunning challenge for every follower of Christ: be shrewd with the temporary to gain what lasts forever. Don't miss this one. 🎙️ [Link in bio / Watch on YouTube]

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