Christian Values

When I lived in India, a businessman told me, “I never deal with Christian businessmen; they can’t be trusted. They tell me one thing and do another. They cheat.” I was heartbroken to hear that because I have several Christian friends who are honest and trustworthy. Sad, he hadn’t met such Christians.

Within the context of an unrighteous servant, who was nevertheless shrew in acquiring friends, Jesus said,

“The one who is faithful in a less important task is also faithful in many important tasks. The one who is unjust in a less important task is also unjust in many important tasks.” (Luke 16:10)

I was a chemistry major in high school, and I learned what was true in a test tube, a small apparatus, was true of a large factory. While working with test tubes and experiments, we used mm or millimeters. But those same numbers would be converted to gallons and liters in factories, and the products would remain the same. Similarly, if someone isn’t faithful at a small task we assign, we can’t expect that person to be faithful if we give more tasks.

The Lord Jesus said this parable to say,

“If you do not become faithful to the unrighteous mammon, who will believe your truth?” (16:11)

A stranger who observed the disciples, if they didn’t find them faithful with mammon, i.e., wealth or money, why would they want to believe the truth they were sharing? A correlation existed (and still exists) between material faithfulness and one’s reception of the gospel truth. If someone were unfaithful in how they handed wealth or money, it would be difficult for their hearers to accept their message.

But one’s faithfulness should extend beyond wealth, money, or mammon; it should extend to caring for others.

“If you are not faithful to another’s, who will give you yours?” (16:12)

Translations make this caring for another’s property (e.g., the NIV). But Jesus’s words are vague: two simple adjectives – another’s (allotrios) and yours (singular to umeteros). Since these adjectives are in the neuter gender, the translations may be correct in thinking of them as properties or wealth. But, most likely, the Lord Jesus meant “anything.” If the disciples weren’t faithful to anything any other had – wealth, name, honor, family, respect, etc. – why would they give any of theirs to the disciples?

We must respect who others are, what they believe, and what they have so that they can trust who we are, what we believe, and what we have (including the gospel message). These days, people wish to shut others down by talking loudly, interrupting their speeches, and arguing without listening to them intently. My teacher used to say, “You can’t understand one’s point of view unless you can defend it as if you believe it.”

Only when we accept others for who they are will they become tender enough to give themselves to us. That’s why fly-by-evangelism often fails, and friendship-evangelism happens. When people know we genuinely care for them, they listen and follow.