Luke 16:11“If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you the true riches?”
It’s 2am here in Paris, but I am jetlagged and excited about this verse, so I thought I’d take a second and share something I got out of reading tonight.
Let me begin by saying I believe the apostle Paul perfectly summed up how we Christians ought to live our lives in Phil. 3:12: “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of me.” I structure my life and make my decisions based upon the Holy Spirit’s moving me closer to obtaining, or becoming, whatever it was that Jesus had it mind for me to obtain or become when he suffered and bled for me.
Every inch I get closer to this goal is more valuable than every mile of hardship, difficulty, and expense I’ll have faced in order to get it. These “inches” are the “true riches” of which Jesus speaks in Luke 16. The “unrighteous wealth,” in my view, is the other aspects of life that each of us must manage in order to reach God’s intent: education, talent, money, time, experience, culture, relationships, health, etc.
The “true riches” are the only measure of my life’s value before God, but there are prerequisites and/or supplements to His perfect will. Thus we must be whole in our development, creating value in each area of “unrighteous wealth.” But all is nothing without “true riches.” It’s like my MacBook with all the components but a dead battery: useless. Intimacy with God powers the effectiveness of my life in accordance with his will. It brings life and meaning and fulfillment to what is otherwise full of form but without power.
So why am I here in France? I have a responsibility to develop and manage the “unrighteous wealth” of my life. I must develop the gifts he’s given me (language), move forward in the assignment he’s given me (school), and pursue the inclinations he’s put on my heart (knowing and understanding the world). The point in all of it, though, is only to obtain and make way for the “true riches” of intimacy with God to be fully developed within and expressed through my life.
I will gladly manage a mountain of “unrighteous wealth” if I might only gain another ounce of “true riches!” This pursuit has brought me into many situations and places and experiences in life, but the common denominator is a relentless pursuit of the gold, silver, and precious stones of a life lived for the sake of true riches. I am chasing the will of God wherever He leads me on this earth, even covering thousands of miles to gain just a few precious inches closer to His heart!
