Parables 101

As I said in Message 94:

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I have always said that God's laws are for our benefit, not His. If we love our neighbours as ourselves, we are loving God.

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We demonstrate our love for God by demonstrating our love for our fellow man - not by loud cries of "Lord! Lord!" in church (or on Internet forums).In the parable, the steward didn't go to his master and beg for his job back, offer to take a cut in pay, etc. He went and made friends with his master's debtors, to get into their good graces, to get a job from them. And his master was happy with that.So, God doesn't want us to go to Him crying "Lord! Lord!", begging for forgiveness, offering to do favours for Him, etc. He wants us to make friends with each other, take care of each other.The point of the parable seems to be: Don't make a lot of noise about loving God - show that you love God by doing unto others.

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Mat 6:5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
Mat 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

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Show your love openly and God will reward you openly.

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Ringo, I am going to set the first paragraph of your comments aside for now and give attention to what you are calling the parable of the Shrewed Manager. I noticed that the topic is Parables 101, and apparently the Shrewed Manager is just one of the parables being discussed here.First of all, this parable is a part of Christ's teaching concerning prudence in service. And it covers Luke 16:1-13. It follows three parables in Luke 15 about salvation. Now that He has taught in Luke 15 about the finding of the lost coin, the finding of the lost sheep, and the return of the prodigal son He goes on to teach about serving God after one has been thus found, rescued, and returned by means of God's grace.The phrase "the sons of this age" (16:8) points to the unbelievers and unsaved worldly people. The phrase "the sons of light" (v. 8) refers to those saved by Christ. The teaching is aimed at perfecting "the sons of light" who are the saved people who are now to serve the Lord Jesus as their Master.The behavior of the worldlings concerning the unrighteous mammon should be a lesson to the saved believers who are intrusted with the true riches of God's grace. The serving disciples should use money in this age for God's interests, God's kingdom, and God's acts of mercy.In the coming age of the kingdom when the world system of unrighteous mammon fails (the Satanic world is over, and mammon will be of no use), those helped by the prudence of the serving disciples will remember their good deeds (if they themselves are saved to enter into that age) and will show receiving hospitality to those prudent servants of God.The prudent believers will be received into eternal habitations by those who shared the benefit of their prudence. This will be fulfilled in the coming kingdom age (Compare 14:13-14 with Matthew 10:42).That is it for this post because I am having some technical problem. I will continue below.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

This could be your twisting of the teaching to avoid acknowledging that Jesus is the Lord.Suppose we show love for our fellow man and also call "Lord! Lord!" too? Where does Jesus teach that we are not to call Him Lord Lord? So are you saying "I don't call Jesus the Lord Jesus. I show my fellow man kindness instead?" Is this your "anti-Lord calling" way to be a disciple of Jesus?The Bible says to make mention that His name is exalted (Isa. 12:4). And probably every epistle refers to the Lord Jesus. At least the overwhelming majority refer to the Lord Jesus. So where is the demonstration in the New Testament that we should be discouraged from calling Jesus the Lord? It is NOWHERE.The LORD Jesus teaches that we should call Lord Lord AND do the will of the Father for the coming kingdom reward. So showing the Lord's love (not your love mind you) AND calling Him Lord Lord is quite appropriate.And over the Internet I am quite honored to be able to confess Jesus as Lord. I wonder in all the posts of Ringo if there is ONE in which you clearly acknowledge Jesus as Lord. I'd be surprise if you could point to ONE of the hundreds of posts where you unambiguosly acknowledge Christ as THE LORD, the Lord of you.We claim our opinions here. Why cannot we also claim who is our Lord here? Who said calling Lord Lord is only for begging for forgiveness?There is no reason to beg anyway. There is only need to believe and thank God for Christ's redemptive death for our forgiveness. Who wants you to grovel on the ground begging for forgiveness? Not me.How about telling the Lord that we love Him? How about calling "Lord Lord, I love you. I love to serve you my Lord?" Where in the New Testament is the injunction against that? That's your spin. I think at most you could say that the teaching does not want you to ONLY shout Lord Lord and not serve the Lord.It is not a teaching of working for God INSTEAD of confessing or calling Christ Lord. It is not for the fleshly boasting of the skeptic to say "I just work for God and don't call or confess Jesus as Lord."Again, your contempt for believers in the Lord Jesus is showing. It good enough to emphasize that we should not just shout Lord Lord and fail to live as the Lord lived. Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

We acknowledge that Jesus is Lord by doing His will - i.e. by doing unto others as we would have them do unto us - not by empty mouthing of words.

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Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

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He said that the empty words will get you nowhere. Empty words have nothing to do with acknowledging Him as Lord. Exactly my point: the empty words "Lord! Lord! plastered on the Internet are worthless. How about showing Him instead? I'm glad that my contempt for professing "believers" is showing. Jesus showed His contempt for them too. True believers show their beliefs by actions, not by empty words.

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Mat 7:17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Mat 7:18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Mat 7:19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

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Fruit trees don't say "Lord! Lord!"------------- It would be easier for the other readers if you would quote the passages rather than just citing them:

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Luk 14:13 But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
Luk 14:14 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

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Mat 10:42 And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

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We will be rewarded according to our actions, not according to our words.That is why the master said that his servant acted wisely in making friends. That is what The Master wants us to do.Edited by Ringo, : Coordinated "beleivers" with "beliefs".

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I'm afraid that if I answer this post the old OFF TOPIC - Do not Reply Flag will be unfurled.Ask the moderator not to flag my reply as OFF TOPIC, and I'll answer this post.

You may be like Judas Iscariot. He also had a good idea to use the money that the ointment was worth and give it to the poor. Good deed. Much more practical than pouring ointment out on the Lord Jesus to show her love for Him before His death.Many Judases are in the world seemingly doing good deeds to conceal their opposition to the Lordship of the Christ. Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by AdminPD, : No reason given.

Do you have anything to say about the topic?

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Jaywill,

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Please argue your opponent's position concerning the topic and stop trying to characterize your opponent's personal beliefs.

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Please respond to topic related remarks and stop focusing on comments that will lead the discussion off topic.

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Please direct any comments concerning this Admin msg to the Moderation Thread.

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If you respond here, you will get a timeout.

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Thank you

Please time me out.Ringo characterizes my beliefs so why the selective warning? Edited by AdminPD, : Response to Jaywill

You guys need to understand reasoning from analogy. You miss the point entirely as was pointed by PD.It is about God letting people into Heaven who repent after a lifetime of sin or who repent earlier in their life. No one in Heaven is going to begrudge the latter repentent sinner so no discussion of contracting work and fairness of wage is relevant. The person who tried to live a good life by repenting earlier is not going to begrudge the latter repentant his longer time of sinning! They will both be rejoicing they made it into Heaven.And incidentally, "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation" Romans 10:9&10 Also Luke 12:8 "Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God." So mouth confession that Jesus is Lord AND accompanying action is important. This was because Roman soldiers would go up to Christians and ask them if Jesus was Lord and if they said yes they would kill them because they were putting him before Caesar who was supposed to be a God so it was considered treason. Hope this helps a little.

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"...but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables"

No! Thats socialism, which I avoid like the plague! The whole idea is to get paid more than the minimum....thats what an upwardly mobile lifestyle is all about. At Safeway, I just got a raise to $16.35 an hour while the newbies are still hired in at $7.00.We are smart enough to realize that not all employees should make $16.00+ an hour, but we also want to make sure that the wage is available for some of us. Otherwise, Safeway would be like WalMart.(Great for the American consumer yet horrible for the American Worker)

I don't think the point of the parable is about the money at all - it's about the time. All of the workers got the same reward, regardless of when they were hired.Jesus said that's how the kingdom of heaven works: it doesn't matter how long you've been with the company. Everybody gets the same reward.I don't think He meant to say that's how employers should treat their workers. He was just giving a hypothetical illustration to make a point - that the rewarder determines the reward.On the other hand, if you're going to take the Bible literally, you'd better dust off your red flag.

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“Faith moves mountains, but only knowledge moves them to the right place” -- Joseph Goebbels
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You mean that I have to surrender even if the Boss pays all the slackers the same as He pays me?

You never have to surrender. You can go work somewhere else. But the parable isn't about slackers. For all we know the ones hired early in the morning might have slacked the day away and done less work than those hired later.You don't get to decide who's "No True Worker".The Boss decides what He's willing to pay. You have no say in what He pays somebody else.

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“Faith moves mountains, but only knowledge moves them to the right place” -- Joseph Goebbels
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I forgive all the evolutionists for lying to me.Do you think that God puts people in a jail for a time as this suggests or is this not literal? Sort of like a purgatory?