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So, thank you for that. Thank you to Mighty Muscadine for sponsoring this episode. Let's jump in. There are many Christians who are very intelligent when it comes to the Bible; they know the good book inside and out, but a colossal failure when it comes to daily life decisions. Where do you fall in that discussion?
Let's find out together on the Clearview Today Show. You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis.
Welcome to the Clearview Today show. We got a great conversation today here in the studio with our host, Dr. Abadon Shah. And today's your first day listening to the show, or even if it's not, we want to hear from you. Text in and let us know that you're listening at two five two four two nine six zero six nine.
That's right, Dr. Shah. All you Christians, y'all, y'all, y'all smart. You that you got your book learning and you got your fancy suits and your nice clothes and your PhDs, but I'm on the streets. You know what I'm saying?
I'm the real deal. I got street smarts. I've been there. You understand what I'm saying? And sometimes they may even say things like, "Oh, you're saved and all that," but I.
I have the real life knowledge. Yeah, you don't because I've been through it. I've been through it. I've been there, done that. And sometimes you can see that their decisions are actually better than our decisions, and it's it makes you wonder.
And it it's something that even Jesus pointed out. Yeah, yeah. It's something that I think a lot of times we hear and we think that. You know, it might be just a crutch, and for some people, maybe it is is really true. But then there is this idea that the smarter you are, the less.
That you have, like, in real life, applied experience. Yeah, I feel like there's that distinction that people often draw between like book knowledge and street smart. Because you've got all this—that's kind of the eternal discussion, right? Do you want to be intelligent, your IQ higher, or do you want to like be savvy? Do you want to know your way around situations and people and things like that?
Because you've got all this time to sit around read books, then you can't have been out there doing it. You can't been out there living life. And also, as I mentioned, sometimes it is like now you may have all this Christian. Faith, information, but you don't know real life like we do. We know how to make money.
We know how to build relationships. We know how to make plans and execute them and and make things happen. You guys sit together, hold hands, and sing kumbaya. That's the most you can do. But your daily life decisions are horrible.
I mean, they're terrible. They won't hack it in the real world. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of funny because I think people do have that that idea about, especially ministry, like vocational ministry. Like people see what you do on Sunday.
On Sunday, it's clear, but what do you do the rest of the week? Like Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, I'll just kind of visit people, just sit around and look at the Bible. Because typically, what do you see? Pastors and and ministry workers doing throughout the week. Maybe I'll see them on Sunday, on Thursday.
Oh, excuse me, on Wednesday night. But I don't see them the rest of the week. I don't know what they do. Yeah, and unfortunately, you know, there are times there are some pastors who that's pretty much all they do. They show up on Sunday morning and give a little discourse, and then then then you see them maybe Wednesday night, and that's the end of that.
Yeah, but that's that's a different situation. Most past. I know work very hard. Yeah, what do you do, Doctor Shaw, when these people who say this kind of thing are actually right? You've got people who actually do know the Bible, and they're very intelligent about the Bible, but not very wise in real life.
Yeah, that's that's what our discussion is all about today. It's it's not enough to say, "Hey, I know where I'm going when I die." Well, where are you going in this life? Not quite sure. That's a great distinction. We want to make sure that in this life and that life, we are making the best decisions—the decisions that God wants us to make.
That's right. The decisions that bring joy and and fulfillment and have eternal consequences or eternal blessings, I should say.
So, you know, Jesus gave. Parables, parables are not illustrations. Parables were stories given by Jesus to make things clearer to those who were accepting his teachings, and to make things obscure for those who were rejecting his teachings. Very interesting. Parables are not like, for example.
Let me tell you this: the other day, no, it's not like that. It's just the opposite. You understand? You receive me. You are following my teachings.
All right.
So I'm going to tell you a story, and you're going to understand what I'm saying even better. Oh wait! You, on the other hand, are not reject, not accepting me. You're rejecting me. I'm going to tell a story, and you're going to get more confused.
Yeah, you're going to leave here with more question marks than you came in with. But you know that's how it is to the things of God. If you close your mind and your heart to what God is saying to you, it's going to become more difficult.
So it's better to say, God. What is it that you want me to see in this story? See, parables are like mirrors. You are to look in the mirror and see yourself.
So when you hear these stories, Jesus gave parables. You have to ask the question: Who am I in the story? Yeah, we did a great episode on the parable of the sower at the very at the very start of this series on the parables, and I think it was it was pretty much. Universally agreed that if you look at yourself in the story and you see the good soil, something's probably wrong. Like you're supposed to identify with the sin in the story because that's why the parable was given.
And if you do see yourself as the one that is not bearing, right, you're the you're the thorny ground or the stony ground or the wayside, then you're actually the good ground. Yeah. Yeah, you just become the good soil. You just became the good soil. But if you see yourself as the good soil, then more than likely you're not.
Yeah, chances are you're not. You know, I love that because it keeps people humble and it keeps them hungry to keep digging into God's word. Absolutely, trying to figure out, you know, parse out what the parable actually means. How does it apply to my life? Where do I see myself in the parable?
Instead of just like, oh, I think I'm good. Oh, that was an interesting story. And it does separate the truly wise from just the people who are knowledgeable. And I want to look at this parable in a little bit more. Detail.
I want to take a quick break. Let's thank our sponsors, and then we'll be right back to dive in. You ever get halfway through the afternoon and you realize that everything you've had to drink today requires either a coffee maker, a vending machine, or a drive-through? Yeah. It's time to start drinking some water, and our friends over at Le Blue Ultra Pure Water take the purity of your drinking water very seriously.
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This is probably the most difficult of all of Jesus's parables. Wow, the most difficult. I mean, there there are others that are tough to understand, but this takes the prize. And it's difficult because on the surface, it's it just it feels wrong. It just feels like really.
And Jesus actually approves that that can be. Surely there must be a mistake. Yeah, let's read it. Luke chapter sixteen, verses one through eleven.
So, Ryan, take it on. Let's take a quick break. Hey guys, John here with the Clearview Today show, and I want to just take a second and talk to you about today's sponsor, WatchSafe. If you're a parent, you know that your child going on YouTube unsupervised is a no-go. Even a few minutes of unchecked viewing can expose them to content that is inappropriate, confusing, harmful, downright evil.
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Now let's get into the show. He also said to his disciples, "There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.
So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you?'" Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward. Then the steward said within himself, "What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig. I am ashamed to beg.
I have resolved what to do: that when I am put out of the stewardship, that may receive." I'm so sorry. They may receive me. They may receive me into their houses.
So he called every one of his master's debtors to him and said to the first, "How much do you owe my master?" He said, "A hundred measures of oil." So he said to him, "Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty." Then he said to another, "And how much do you owe?" So he said, "A hundred measures of wheat." And he said to him, "Take your bill and write eighty." So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly, for The sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light, and I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. 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 you trust? The true riches. Make yourselves friends.
By unrighteous mammon, surely someone is just putting words in Jesus's mouth because Jesus would never say that. He can't have said that, right? He used the money, which is which is horrible, evil, to make friends. It doesn't sound like Jesus. No, yeah, it's it's difficult at first read through.
It's like, is this right? Is this actually in the Bible?
So the first things first, we have to suspend those judgments now. And let the story unfold, because if we make the judgment and say, "Now that's just wrong. That's just flat out wrong," then you're going to miss the point that Jesus is making. And if you miss the point, it's a great point, by the way. We're going to get to it towards the end.
So listen again to verse five. All right, this man, as you know, the story goes, he is wasting his master's goods. And the master picks up on it. He figures out, okay, wait, this guy is is not doing his job. He's making you know horrible decisions, and he is wasting what I have.
So he fires him. But before he cleans his office, this man, this this guy, this employee decides to take advantage. Of his very limited access, right? I mean, he's about to have his locks changed, his passcodes changed, turning ID, turning ID, all that's going to go away. Before that can happen, he decides to, you know, pardon part of the debts that others owed.
To his ex boss, so he's like, "Hey, I know that you owed my master going pardon a lot of that. You don't have to worry about it." Yeah, we just cut that into about half. Yeah, so let's look at it here in verse five.
So he called every one of his master's debtors to him and said to him, "How much do you owe my master?" And he said, "A hundred measures of oil." So he said, "Take your bill and sit down and quickly write fifty." Everything in me is screaming, like, "Hey, that's not right! Can't do that!" Now I did some math on this.
Okay, so that the once once you look at it, you know, with you know dollars and cents, it begins to make it makes you even more frustrated.
So that's about four to five hundred gallons of oil. Oh my goodness!
Now even that is not really convincing. But here's some information. This would take 75 olive trees to produce. Good grief! And it would be the wages of an average worker for two years.
So two years pay.
So what are you making two years, Ryan? Just joking. But I mean, it's it's a lot. That's a lot of money. About 75 olive trees worth of oil.
That's a ton of money. And then in verse seven, he said to another.
So that's not the only one. He keeps going. He said to another, "How much do you owe?" So he said, "A hundred measures." You remember the last one was about hundred measures of oil, but this one is a hundred measures of wheat. And he said to him, "Take your bill and write eighty." Now, losing twenty measures of wheat would come to losing the produce of twenty acres of land. Wow!
So, bro is really cutting some corners here. Yes, not corners. I mean, he's cutting people's bills. Yeah, huge, huge bills, and that would be equal to about five hundred dinari. Again, that's a lot of money.
Also, these were just two examples listed, but he did that with all. You know that's what he says in the opening. He called every one of his master's debtors to him.
So we're just told about two. Why not just steal the money? Why like why not just if you're going to do all this, be like, hey, just I mean at that point, just take from your take from your soon to be ex company.
Well, if he had done that, he would be caught stealing and then punished severely.
Well, that makes sense. He's like, I'm not stealing, yeah.
So this is, I see what he's he's doing favors for people because he knows I'm about to be in a tough spot. I'm going to need to cash in some favors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not. I was seeing it more like, okay, I'm going to cut all these bills and then take the extra.
But what he's saying is, hey, when I get up out of here, no, my behind is almost out of. He's buying favor. Remember that I helped you.
So in verse eight, so guess what the master does. He commended Aponeo means praised the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. That's wild. Yeah, the master is like, "Are you serious? That's what you did." I mean that's that's pretty smart.
Pretty smart. I'm out a little bit. I'm going to do the same thing. That's a smart move. I'm out a little bit of money, but I respect the game.
Respect the game. Respect the hustle. Yeah. You know what boss or owner in his right mind would do that? But you know, keep in mind this is a parable, a made up story.
The point was that the steward did not steal from his ex boss. He did not steal. Instead, he made a clever decision to take advantage of his situation and make friends for a rainy day. That's what he did. And also, also, he did not take the customers away from the boss because the customers like all of a sudden I have a lot more money here.
Guess what I'm going to do. I'm gonna buy more oil. I'm gonna buy more wheat. I'm gonna buy whatever else this this boss is selling.
So the boss is like, I mean, probably was not gonna be able to recover all that money, anyways. But this guy cut their bills in half.
So now they feel like they're back in the game. They're going to buy some more. They're going to buy some more. So it's a win-win situation. Although there is a loss from me, but ultimately it's going to be a win for me.
Yeah, smart. That's smart. What you what you did was dishonest, and it hurt me in the short term, but it will benefit me in the long term. And ultimately, I'm going to come out on top either way. We think we think people two thousand years ago were stupid.
People were just real simple. No, that was very cunning. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's that's what a great decision he makes. Yeah, and even the boss is impressed, and he praises him for that.
He's like, Ah, I should, I should ring your neck, but you know what? You you did not cost me the customers because now they, I probably would have had to pardon some of that debt. You took care of that. They're gonna come back and buy from me now because all of a sudden they have some capital left and they feel like they have some life in them to invest.
So, okay.
Now, I want us to hear Jesus's conclusion because that's what this parable is about. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation. Than the sons of light, the Greek word for shrewd is the word phronimos, which means insight and wisdom, sensibility, thoughtfulness, prudence. You know, wisdom. The same word is also used by Jesus in Matthew twenty four, Matthew chapter seven verse twenty four, where it says, "Whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man." So that word there, shrewd, can also mean wise.
So Jesus is really saying that the lost people, people of the world, are wiser with money than Christians are. I think that's yep. I think that's an important thing for us to latch onto because for so many of us, the word "shrewd" has a negative twist to it. It's got a negative connotation. If somebody's shrewd, they're like calculating and they're and they're emotionless and they're cold and they're going to manipulate and do whatever they need to do to get on top.
But here, shrewd is really this guy's a good businessman. He's he's wise in his dealings and with with people and with money. And I think a lot of Christians have been have been programmed to think that money. Is evil, so it's like I don't care about it. I don't care about money at all.
We might, yeah, we got to pay money to keep the lights on, but it doesn't bother me. Whereas people of the world are like, no, I need this. This is important to me, and I've got it. And they get good at it, and they get they make wiser decisions than Christians. Yeah.
And something else, Jesus says here. He says in verse nine, and I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail. They may receive you into everlasting home. In other words, Jesus was telling his listeners to use money to make friends, so that when life does not go as planned, their wise investments would help them out. That that's powerful.
Yeah. Again, some people, you know, they have misunderstood. And they claim that this cannot be. You know, there's no way this is right. Maybe Jesus was simply using irony, or maybe he was using sarcasm here.
But then it says in verse ten, "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, therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to you, to your trust? The true riches. That's a good point. I think we Christians want to do this thing where like money is no big deal because I got true riches on the other side.
But it's like if you can't even handle that, if you can't be smart and wise with your own money, why would God give you those heavenly? You know what I'm saying? I've I've even heard some Christians talk about money like almost like it's dirty, like it's like we just want to avoid it at all costs. Yes, we need it to survive, but that should be as far as we take it. Don't let it have any yeah any impact on your life beyond that.
No, let me also clarify because you know money is a master. You know you have to be careful. You cannot serve God and Mammon. Having said that, what Jesus is saying here is, if you are not faithful with the money that you have, the earthly money that you have, how can you keep talking about Heavenly riches. Listen to what it says in verse twelve.
If one of you want to read it, it says, "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." Now, now it begins to make a little more sense. Jesus was not saying. God's people should be more like the people of the world.
Neither was he saying that God's people should use other people's money to outsmart them. I don't think that was the point either. Instead, Jesus was saying, "Learn from those sons of this world who use money to make friends. If you don't know how to use money properly, why should God trust you with His true riches?" Something else. If you claim to serve God, stop serving money.
You cannot serve both. You will love one or the other. Yeah. Now, why did Jesus go through all this trouble? You know, that's the big question.
Why go through all this trouble just to tell us that hey, you need to outsmart the the the people of the world? No, because verse fourteen tells us everything. What does it say?
Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things and they derided him. Ah, they love money. Oh, those Pharisees! Yeah, they just can't catch can't catch a break, man. It's just like you know when you you know there's that phase in your toddler's life where you're just getting onto them for every little thing.
This was the whole three years of Jesus's ministry. I mean, these Pharisees. I mean they they were always opposing Jesus, always on him about every. Thing, so Jesus gave this parable to tell them, you know, who are you? You are not even as good as the unjust steward.
You are not even as good as this man who took advantage of his master to outsmart. I mean, you are not even good. You should be making friends with me because I have the keys of of heaven and earth, of death and life. Of the grave, I mean, I have the keys, but you don't have the sense enough to make friends with me. It's like the tax collectors are at least, yeah, like yeah, they're taking the money, but they're using it to further themselves in life.
You guys just love it, you just like it. Yeah, tax collectors are making friends. Zacchaeus brings Jesus inside his home and says, "Hey, you know, I'm going to return stuff, and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that." And and Jesus says, "Today, salvation has come to this house." So. You know the Bible does not condemn money; it only condemns the love of money. You know in First Timothy chapter six, verse ten, for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
And then again in Second Timothy chapter three, verse one, but but notice that in the last days perilous times will come for men. Will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money. Yeah. What happens when you love money? Yeah, you you just live for it.
You are slave to it. You go you go chase it. Yeah, you you start doing. I think you start really know that you got a problem when you start doing things you wouldn't normally do.
So I can get some more money. You said something on an episode recently, Doctor Straw, that really has kind of stuck with me. If you don't master your possessions, they're going to possess you. Oh yes, and that's that's a chilling thought, and and none of us are immune to that because you have all the way back in the Bible where people are, you know, there are some people in the Bible who. Used money as a resource, as a tool to be able to live life well and to do things that would further the kingdom of God.
There are other people who were mastered by their money, who were mastered by their possessions, and it was ultimately their downfall. Even when you don't have a whole lot of money, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. You like even when you're poor, it can still master you. Like there are people out there who think, you know, I could make a good five thousand dollars knocking over a gas station.
I could I could rob a store and and make like five six thousand dollars. That's a pretty good night. And there's no wisdom. There's no. Cernment at all because even though I don't have a lot of money, that drive and that love for it is completely possessing me.
Right. My encouragement to people who are listening today is is understand your your heart towards money. Having money is not the problem. Not having money is not the problem, but when money has you, that is the problem. Don't let money control your life.
Look beyond and see the things that money cannot buy, and that's what Jesus was teaching them. That parable was to show them, "Who are you in that story?" In this, in this parable, is very interesting. You're not even as good as that unjust steward, is what Jesus was telling the Pharisees.
So this is a very interesting thing. The mirror is almost like. I don't even see myself, right, right, yeah, because you're not even that good, you know, you're not even that good, yeah, because the tax collectors are actually spending their money and making friends. You guys are simply friending money. Wow, that's pretty crazy.
So how do we improve? How do we get better? If we're a Christian today, and you say, you know, I don't want to become obsessed with money, but I do want to use it to further the kingdom. We always say that, and we're very good at saying it. But how do we do it?
How do we use our money? Learn, learn, learn to give money. You know, learn to give money. One of the ways that we have seen God bless us at church is that we keep our hands open. When you keep your hands open, God blesses you even more.
I mean, I mean, try to close your fist, and you will see very quickly you cannot take anything else. But if you open it, then yes, money will go out, but money will also come in.
So learn to be generous. Learn to be good stewards, and that's tough. I mean, at church we try to be as good stewards as possible, making sure that. Our expenses are properly accounted for. We make sure that we are not just frivolously spending money.
That if you need to buy something, hey, wait, do we have something like that here?
Okay, then let's use that. Wait, do we really, really need it? Can we make it work without it? Yes, we can. It'll make this and this difficult.
I get it, but is it worth spending that much money? And and I love our team because they will come back and say, honestly, we can get by without it right now. Or I think we're fine for right now. In several months, maybe not. And I love that because they they have the same hearts that they're not going to just waste money.
That's right, you know.
So learn to be generous. Learn to be good stewards. Tithed. If you don't tithe, my encouragement to you is tithe. I know people get into all, you know, been out of shape over tithing.
Is Old Testament okay? Whatever. Grace giving, okay. That should be more than tithing. That's right.
Yeah, I don't want to be tied down by the Old Testament, old legalism. Oh, you got it. Go with the New Testament. Yeah, yeah, grace. Yeah, which means go above and beyond.
That's right. We go for twenty percent, twenty five percent. There you go. There now, now we're talking. Yeah, that's right.
Give half. There you go. Yeah, you want to really be generous? No Old Testament of me. Let's go.
Let's go New Testament. You know, one of my favorite, my heroes of the faith was R. G. Letourneau. You know, he was a businessman.
He made big, big, big—you know—earth-moving machines, and his model was he gave away close to ninety percent of his wealth. He said, "It's no longer now." And I'm paraphrasing about how much I need to give is how much God. Let's me keep. That's right. I said I'm keeping ten percent because I don't need any more.
He kept giving, giving, giving. Amen. Wow!
What an example. Let us have that attitude of generosity, where we're not mastered by our wealth, but we use it for God's kingdom and for His glory, so that many people would come to know Him. That's right. And we say, you know, well, you know, when I've got that much, then I'll have that heart. No, no, no.
You have that heart first, and God is going to give you that much. That's right, guys. If you enjoy enjoyed today's episode, make sure you text in and let us know two five two four two nine six zero six nine. Also, you can become a financial sponsor of the Clearview Today Show by visiting abaddonshad. dot com forward slash give.
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