Count Your Time, Not Money - Part 3

In Part 1 and 2, we talked about the biblical wisdom of counting our time instead of counting our money. We pointed out that money is the only master that can be competed with God. 

The devil doesn't have to give you any warfare. He just needs to tweak a little of your perspective on money (i.e. going after financial independence) and you will be unknowingly worshiping Mammon, which disempowers God's assignment for your life on earth.

In Luke 16, Jesus shared about the parable of the unjust steward (shrewd manager). Many people think that Jesus was teaching about financial stewardship by equating it to growing the money we have. That's how Christian leaders and Christian financial gurus teach, "You got to multiply your income. You got to have passive income. You got to have many streams of income so that you can achieve financial independence! That's stewardship! God is going to look at how faithful you are in managing your finances!"

Disclaimer: There is nothing wrong to have multiple streams of income. But what you pursue will reveal your true heart treasure. You can't run away from what you spend your heart, mind, time and efforts on. 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟 ---- 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧.

We cannot read a parable and try to interpret every single line without understanding the context and the punchline. Every parable has an important context and the ultimate punchline. In fact, if we don't understand the parable of the sower, it will be difficult to understand the rest of the parables.

Jesus said to them, “𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞? 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬?" - Mark 4:13

The context of Luke 16 did not start in Luke 16. The audiences of Jesus were the tax collectors, sinners, Pharisees and scribes (Luke 15:1). It was after a statement of self-centredness/self-righteousness that resulted in the start of a series of parables.

And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” 𝐒𝐨 𝐇𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦, saying... - Luke 15:2-3

The parable of the unjust steward is a continuation from the parable of the lost sheep. In other words, Jesus' heart was set on 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐭. Luke 16 is not a parable on how to be a good steward by growing all your finances. That's not kingdom financial stewardship. That's just interpreting the Scriptures from a worldly perspective.

Read the following punchlines and you will roughly know what Jesus is targeting at.

“𝐍𝐨 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” - Luke 16:13

Now the Pharisees, 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."

And Jesus continued talking about the rich man and Lazarus...

Is there anything to do with growing finances so that you can become financially independent and expect God to say, "Well done, My good and faithful servant; you've been faithful with money, now I'm going to entrust you with true riches?" 

Let me submit to you that you are going to have that bubble burst as we dig deeper. As there is just too much to unpack for Luke 16 in this post, we will try to finish up in the next part.