“The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” Luke 16:14-15 ESV
Reflection: how can we know what is pleasing to God?
One of my favorite jobs I have done was as a strategist for a large service business. And the work involved seeing and understanding trends in a rather complex picture. To then align these trends with operational capabilities and business goals to form directional statements that people across the world could understand and align to. The best strategies therefore are simple and clear, and as a result moving the company in the direction you intend.
When we read the word of God, it is easy to get overwhelmed. There is so much there to pay attention to, to understand and learn, so that we can live a life that is aligned with God as opposed to what the world is teaching. Many can probably quote the Ten Commandments from memory. But as you start digging deeper, say through psalms and the prophets, it gets more complicated. And then you try to align the Old Testament with what Jesus is teaching, it can all get pretty confusing, and is probably why we have so many denominations and beliefs.
Thankfully, Jesus is also the master strategist. In today’s focus verses, Jesus gives us a very simple strategy, a pattern that is easy for us to understand and to live by. But first, let’s look at some context.
As you might remember, he had just given the parable of a dishonest manager, pointing out his shrewdness of using money was to achieve something that benefited him. And, we might first conclude that Jesus is encouraging us to be dishonest with money since it is of the world, which of course he is not. In fact, quite the opposite. He says “If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?” Luke 16:11-12 ESV. His message was for us to be intentional with money and resources, serving God and not money.
Now we have to remember that he was speaking to the Pharisees. And we pick up from there, “The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.” Luke 16:14 ESV And in the very next verse, we learn why they ridiculed Jesus. “And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.” Luke 16:15a ESV. Now, that hit the nail on the head, so to speak. Everything the Pharisees did was for show. They were hypocrites, speaking of God, being religious, but they loved the world. And then Jesus gives them, and us today, a perfect, simple strategy to sort this out:
“For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” Luke 16:15b ESV.
How perfect!! Just turn whatever man praises in the world (money, fame, status, power, control, war, etc) on its head, and you can pretty much understand what is pleasing to God. Now, as with any strategy, you have to always understand that it is a directional statement, not to be taken as a literal definition in all cases. Men may at times praise peace, helping our neighbors, etc, which of course is in the heart of God. But even there, in peace talks and helping our neighbors, evil shows up and it all gets corrupted. If you take a step back and look at what “the world” exalts, you can always find what is an abomination to God.
A simple pattern to live by.
