Advent - Luke Chapter 16

This is part of a series exploring Luke’s Gospel for the Advent season. One chapter a day for the first 24 days of December. (We’ll see how we go!) I hope you enjoy :)

- Jeff

The Lord Jesus said that ‘wisdom is justified of all her children’ (Luke 7:35). In chapter 16 of Luke ‘the Lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light’ (‭‭Luke‬ ‭16‬:‭8‬ ‭KJV‬‬,

https://bible.com/bible/1/luk.16.8.KJV).

Sometimes wisdom can be found in unlikely places. Nathanael asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46), when of course Jesus Himself, the Messiah, came from there.

I like the story of the unjust steward (Luke 16). I’m not always very good at it, but wherever I have been able (by God's grace) to maintain a positive relationship with people it’s usually turned out well - selfishly speaking, but also I hope (at least in some cases) for them. The psalmist wrote, ‘how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity’ (Psalm 133:1). I like to think that the Lord blesses efforts for peace: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, because they will be called sons of God’ (Matthew 5:9).

Anytime that we feel there are people we struggle to get on with, but we know we ought to, perhaps we can try and remember that we were enemies of God when Christ died for us (Romans 5). Easier said than done: there’s a temptation to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to (Romans 12:3).

May God give us grace this Christmas time to ‘seek peace and ensue it’ (1 Peter 3:11), and to invest in relationships as He would have us do. ‘When the way you live pleases the Lord, he makes even your enemies live at peace with you’ (Proverbs 16:7 NIV). I pray we’ll know the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) in our hearts and homes this Christmas.

Postscript edit:

The Lord said, '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'

‭‭(Luke‬ ‭16‬:‭9‬ ‭KJV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/1/luk.16.9.KJV). I noticed after pressing to publish this post the first time around that the Lord (at least in this translation) doesn't say 'if' we fail, but 'when'. In other words, let's not be so proud as to think that we get all of this right - certainly not in our own strength anyway. May God give us more grace (James 4:6).