Luke 16:9 · World English Bible
Luke 16:9 Meaning I Tell You
I tell you, make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tents.
What does Luke 16:9 mean?
The things of the world have no value in themselves, yet a mind can put even them to the one purpose that heals. Every encounter, every possession, every fleeting circumstance can be handed to love and used to join rather than to divide, and when this is done the passing thing becomes a means of forgiveness rather than a monument to gain.
From the Christian Psychology reading below.
Luke 16:9 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Christian Psychology
CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY
Christian Psychology
The things of the world have no value in themselves, yet a mind can put even them to the one purpose that heals. Every encounter, every possession, every fleeting circumstance can be handed to love and used to join rather than to divide, and when this is done the passing thing becomes a means of forgiveness rather than a monument to gain.
What the mind stores up in fear will fail it, for all that belongs to the dream must dissolve when the dream ends. But the loving use it makes of the world's poor coin leaves something that does not fail, the relationships turned toward truth, the bonds of forgiveness that welcome the mind into a reality time cannot touch. The world offers nothing lasting, yet the purpose a mind lends it can open the door to what lasts.
Mammon of unrighteousness: the goods and circumstances of a world made in fear, worthless in themselves yet able to serve love when spent on joining rather than gain. Everlasting habitations: the changeless reality of union, the home a mind enters when its passing use of the world has all been turned to forgiveness.
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Live Luke 16:9 today
- Spend money on one small thing today with someone else in mind, the coffee, the delivery tip, the thing in the cart you were going to skip. Let the money do something besides accumulate.
- Use one ordinary tool of yours to close a distance instead of manage it, a phone call instead of a text, your car to pick someone up, your calendar to make room for a person rather than a task.
- In a negotiation or a tense email thread about money or resources, aim for the thing that keeps the relationship rather than the thing that wins the point. Write the version that lets you both walk out whole.
What am I holding onto that would mean more if I spent it on someone?
The same truth in other traditions
Zen
Chop the wood, carry the water. The task is nothing special. What you bring to it is everything.
Bhagavad Gita 3
Act in the world, handle its things, but hold them for something larger than your own getting. The doing is the same; the direction changes everything.
Stoicism · Epictetus
None of this is yours to keep, it is all on loan. So use it well while it passes through your hands.
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