You may have heard that Rupert Murdoch, mogul of the world’s biggest media empire, has officially retired. And to think that it all started from taking over his dad’s newspaper business here in Adelaide. He might have been a good news man, but he also knew how to win friends and influence people… with money!
In Luke 16:1-14 Jesus exhorts us to do the same. Well, not with the same ethics that we see behind greedy capitalism – i.e., to get gain for self at all costs. Rather, with the ethics of the kingdom of grace, to generously give away whatever we have whenever we can, in order to get gains for the kingdom of God.
For the kingdom of God to ‘gain’ means that the love and truth of Jesus Christ reaches more and more people, enriches more and more lives, and brings more and more people into God the Father’s family, now, and forever.
God has given us our work, our income and money, all our goods, our friendships and social connections, our abilities and our very personalities, to use and give them away in order that the kingdom of God may be filled and overflow.
[Did you know?… as the owner of HarperCollins & Zondervan publishers, Rupert Murdoch is one of the largest publishers of Bibles and Christian books in the world!]
Grace upon grace, Jonathan.