Jesus used stories to get across His point to all who listened…and we too, need to listen.

(NASB) Luke 16:1 “…‘There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions.
2 ‘And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you?  Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
3 ‘The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me?  I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg.
4 ‘I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’
5 ‘And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 ‘And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’  And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’
7 ‘Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’  And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’  He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’
8 ‘And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light.
9 ‘And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.”

  This is a difficult story Jesus told.  Perhaps the master had also used unrighteous means to acquire his wealth…shrewd people recognize shrewdness in others. 

  People who put wealth, power, and/or position above God will do whatever it takes to gain their ends.  They leave God out of their motives and making their calculations in their own best interests.

  As followers of Christ, don’t we need to put God first in our motives and calculations for the eternity we will be spending in the presence of God?  We too are to be shrewd but with a completely different mind-set from that of the manager in this story.

  Jesus said at another time:
(NASB) Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Be shrewd in your motives and calculations in pleasing God!