Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus, give us grace to take Your heavenly sermon to heart. Amen.
Text: Luke 16:10-13
“He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? 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.”
Devotion
These words of the Lord shed remarkable light on the use of earthly things and show how immeasurably important it is to use them properly. What He calls “least” is clearly just the same as what He later calls “unrighteous mammon” and again “what is another man’s.” With these names He gives earthly goods their proper value and tells us how we should consider them. Temporal things are “least” and should be the least to us. To the children of the world these things are the most important, yes, everything. To a person with his heart in the right place earthly goods belong to someone else: the heart is not created for mammon, but for something infinitely higher and nobler. So to us then it should also be “another’s.” It should have no place in our heart. When in your mind unrighteous mammon (goods and money) is “least” to you and “that which is another’s,” then you have power over it and do not serve it, but use it to serve you. Then you can be “faithful” in these things, that is, wise like the wicked steward in Sunday’s Gospel, but as righteous as he was unrighteous. If you do not consider and use mammon in this way, but cling to it with your heart and serve it and regard it as something glorious; if you do not use earthly things for doing good, but misuse them in covetousness or sinful luxury: then you are also unfaithful in the use of spiritual, imperishable things, which the Lord began to give you: wisdom, knowledge of God, love, joy, and other gifts of the Spirit; and if you continue this way, you will lose them entirely. You become a servant of mammon and cannot be a servant of God. You have been unfaithful with what is another’s, your heart has robbed itself of what belonged to it, and thereby became a slave of corruption. How then can you be fit for holy dominion over all things in heavenly communion of love with the eternal God?
Fellow believers, take the golden wisdom of the words of our text with you into your life and conduct. Now we constantly deal with earthly things, and our faithfulness in them is a measure of our heavenly possession.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, let me never become a servant of mammon, but give me grace to use what is another’s in such a way that I may receive something of my own: love and all incorruptible treasures, to which You, my God, have appointed me. Amen.
Hymn
O Jesus, You so faithful are forever
And unto death Yourself in love delivered;
Grant me the strength until the day I die
From my heart to remain loyal and true.
When I am weak, and soon my heart is fainting,
Then let me look to where my crown is waiting,
That one day Your own hand will bring to me,
Then I find strength and courage all anew.
Rambach: Det koster meer, end man fra først betænker L 503:7-8 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Min Aand ved dig; alternate hymn: Love divine, all love excelling ELH 407:2-3