Jesus told this parable: There was a rich man who had a manager who was accused of squandering his master's possessions. So the master called him in and told him he couldn't be manager any longer. The manager asked himself what to do, as his master took away his job. He wasn't strong enough to dig, and he was ashamed to beg. Then he told himself what he had to do so that when he lost his job he would be welcomed into the people's houses. He called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first how much he owed his master. He answered 900 gallons of olive oil. The manager told him to take his bill and change it to 450. Then he asked the second the same question. He answered 1000 bushels of wheat. The manager told him to take his bill and change it to 800. The master commended the dishonest manager for acting cunningly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than the people of the light. Jesus then said that we should use worldly wealth to make friends for ourselves, so that when it's gone we will be welcomed into the eternal dwellings. He who can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and he who is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if I haven't been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will entrust me with true riches? And if I haven't been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give me my own property? No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You can't serve both God and money. (Luk 16:1–13).
See this parable explained at time 2:58–12:50 in
THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD PARABLE EVER...EXPLAINED!
The point of the story isn't to to applaud dishonesty or the sneaky way that this dishonest manager does business. It's rather to speak of his clever way of using the resources at his disposal to achieve his goal. Sometimes unbelievers, the people of the world who don't know the Lord, are smarter than God's children in how they use what is available to them.
What Jesus is telling us to do is to think ahead and use what has been given to us to be used for spiritual purposes, for investment in the kingdom of God. We can't buy our way to heaven, see Salvation. But we can use our earthly resources to make a difference in how we are received in the eternal dwellings later. There are rewards in Heaven based on how we have used our earthly resources. For example, he who is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and the Lord will repay him for his deed
(Proverbs 19:17), see Peter Sent to the Gentiles.
We plan for retirement, but that's not when our lives end. We enter eternity and the things that we do in this life will have some payoff in the afterlife. It's easy to forget that. If we only plan for our retirement but not for eternity, we have missed the point of our lives on Earth.
If I have been unfaithful with what I have received on Earth, and it hasn't been an investment for the eternity, for the kingdom of God, I would have no expectation of being trusted later in the next life.
We must also remember that we can't serve both God and money, see
The Love of Money. The Pharisees believed very strongly that the presence of wealth in their lives was proof that they were approved by God. The Pharisees, who loved money, heard this parable and mocked Jesus. Jesus said to them:
"You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God." (Luk 16:14–15). Jesus exposed a common mistake that said you are either blessed or punished by God based on what you have and don't have. The Pharisees thought they must be right in how they lived and what they believed because they had a lot of money. Jesus reminded them that this kind of thinking is wrong (Mat 5:45b).
To think so is self-deception, see The Parable of the Rich Fool.
For information on other parables, see Jesus' Parables.
