Living Each Day as a Steward: The Steward’s Purpose
Three Rules for Wealth
Luke 16:1-15
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. Sept. 27th, 2026
What a strange tale Jesus gives to us this morning. A manager is charged with misappropriation of funds. If he’s fired he will have no place to stay and the last thing he wants to do with honest work. He doesn’t want to be a beggar either. So he conspires to settle accounts with his master’s debtors. If they owe a hundred jugs of oil, he’ll write it off if they pay fifty. If they owe a hundred containers of wheat, he’ll write it off if they pay eighty. He does this so when he is fired they would all look on him favorably and give him a place to stay. After all, he got them out of some serious debt. When the master realizes what his manager has done he is not upset. Instead he commends the dishonest manager for being shrewd. What are we supposed to make of his parable? The manager, the steward, is a thief. But he is commended. Is Jesus commending his dishonesty?
Jesus wraps up the parable by saying, “the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone they may welcome you into the eternal homes.” He is not commending the dishonesty so much as he is commending the prudence of the dishonest manager. He gave wealth away that he might have a place to stay. He forgave debts that he might enter into the debtors homes. Jesus says that there is a good way for the children of light to make use of their wealth. A shrewd way. A prudent way. We, too, should give it away so that we might be received into eternal homes.
John Wesley commented on this passage in his sermon called “The Use of Money.” There he offered three simple rules for how the “children of light” might use our resources prudently. That is to say, with practical wisdom. Those three rules were to gain all you can, save all you can, and give all you can.
First, he says, gain all you can. In his second letter to the Thessalonians Paul warns against idleness. He says that in his churches the rule is the one who does not work will not eat. There’s an old saying “idle hands are the devil’s plaything.” But Paul is also worried about the idle turning into busybodies who get into everyone’s business. Paul was a worker himself, he made tents. And he funded his ministry through his tent making. So while it may seem all too secular, the first rule is simply to make as much money as you can.
But John Wesley makes sure to qualify this. He says make as much as you can but not in such a way that hurts you. Don’t burn the candle out at both ends. Don’t take jobs that wear your body down or make you sick. And don’t take jobs that would hurt others. He’s not interested in ill-gotten gains. This isn’t a counsel to make as much as you can by hook or by crook. And this isn’t a counsel to be greedy. But it is a counsel to be industrious and entrepreneurial. Make as much as you can.
Secondly, John Wesley says, save all that you can. Don’t be a spendthrift. Don’t waste what you earn. The money you earn is not your money at the end of the day. All the wealth of the world belongs to God. And you are called to manage it. Don’t throw it away. The examples he gives are expensive foods or expensive clothing. Jesus would remind us that the lilies of the field are clothed better than Solomon in all his glory. We do not need to seek to rival Solomon. Instead save all you can.
But if you earn all you can and save all you can that just makes you a very good capitalist. A Scrooge. The Kingdom ethic has to be more than that. Earning and saving are means to the third and final rule: give all you can. For John Wesley giving all you can meant acknowledging that you are a steward of God’s resources. All you possess is not your own. Even your own body is a gift. If we are disciples of Christ we are called to put our whole lives to his employ. And that includes our resources.
How do we give all we can? John Wesley suggested that once you can pay for your food, and once you can pay for your clothes, and once you can pay for your shelter, and finally once you can pay for the needs of family or employees, you have enough. The rest should be put to God’s employ. That is a very high bar. Even in the early days of the Methodist movement John Wesley despaired that most of his people were not clearing this high bar. Methodists were gaining all they could and saving all they could, but they wouldn’t give all they could. Instead through their industriousness they found themselves in the burgeoning middle class and wished to stay there. The pleasures and luxuries grew to be too much.
But this is the high calling of Christians in all ages, and one we seek to grow into. Once you have paid for your needs, and once you have established the savings to weather retirement or whatever troubles might come your way, you are called to give. What Jesus reminds us this morning is that such giving is not foolishness. It’s actually wise. That by giving we are returning to God what is his and participating in his work. We may make friends through what we give with those Christ died for. And in such giving we may find blessing because we work with the groove of the kingdom.
Gain all you can, save all you can, give all you can. This is the Methodist ethic of wealth. Be industrious, be wise, and be generous. This is the steward’s purpose.