Should I Make Friends with Money?

I finally understand Luke 16:9! It reads:

And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

First, we must at least consider the importance of this scripture because it is spoken from the mouth of Jesus, our Savior!  This scripture has baffled the church for so long because it sounds contradictory.  It sounds like Jesus is telling us to become friends with or come into covenant with money.  So the first scripture pops up in your head, my head, and everyone else’s head is 1Tim 6:10 (the love of money is the root to all evil).

But to understand this scripture, you must read the story of the unjust steward (Luke 16:1-8) and realize that Jesus used that parable to illustrate how the children of this world use their (now get this) TWISTED CREATIVITY to make a way for themselves.  Jesus said that in the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.

I had the words “twisted creativity and their generation” in bold type because these words are important.  First, Jesus was emphasizing the importance of using your God given creativity or infinite intelligence (1 John 2:20) to make yourself valuable because you can produce and implement ideas that produce wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18).  The children of this world have been using their twisted creativity to make money.  But God wants you to use your righteous creativity to fulfill His will in the earth and the children of this world will pay you for it because to them that’s the most valuable thing they can come up with to exchange for your God given brilliance! 

If you read Luke 16:10-13, you’ll see the word “faithful” used over and over.  Now in order for you to grasp the insight of this parable, you must understand the word “faithful”.  Faithful means to be full of faith or to be full of God’s instructions, which produces consistency.  So if you apply that definition to those verses, then you’ll see that Jesus is pointing our focus on using God’s intelligence on the small assignments. Using God’s intelligence when handling money.  Using God’s intelligence when we are on our jobs!  If we do that, then God will know that we’ll use His intelligence on the big assignments, He’ll give you the wisdom that controls everything, and He’ll cause you to be promoted to own your own!  That sounds like money, riches, wealth chasing you!

The Jesus finally culminates this parable by saying verse 13 of Luke the 16th chapter.

 ¹³No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

Jesus was letting us know that, when we perform services or give our labor, that we must give our 100% percent effort by using all that we know and what God knows to accomplish our task, regardless of pay.  When you do that, you are serving God, and He becomes your Rewarder.  Money is no longer a master because you are not working for money rather working to express your creativity. And for that the Greatest Rewarder alive will reward you!

So when Jesus told us to make friend with unrighteous mammon, He was telling us to use our creativity or God infinite intelligence to perform on the earth.  If you need an example of someone making friends with unrighteous mammon, read the story of Joseph (Genesis chapters 37, 39, 40, & 41)

Finally, the children of this world are no longer wiser than us because we are going to begin using God’s intelligence (1 John 2:20) to perform in the earth!

Releasing the Spirit, Provoking Thought, and Causing Increase,

Leroy Thompson Jr.

www.ucanbeatdebt.com