WHOLE-HEARTED: A 5-Day Journey Exploring the Essential Center for MissionSample

In Luke 16, Jesus tells a strange parable to his disciples. For all its difficulties, it is a stepping-stone to making an incisive point about whole-hearted living. The story centers on the thoughts and actions of a shrewd, coldly calculating manager. It illustrates the single-minded purpose employed by a singularly selfish character operating reasonably based on dominant priorities (look out for #1). Within the world of the parable, all the characters share those implicit priorities and values, so the manager’s shrewd manipulation of people and circumstances to his advantage is praised and commended.

However, when Jesus steps outside the story into his disciples' real space and time, he brings our attention back to the central matters of faithfulness and whole-hearted loyalty. Suppose the unscrupulous manager in the parable is meant to represent Jesus’ disciples. In that case, it is not because of his character (shaped by values antithetical to Jesus’ kingdom) but because of his identification as a servant. Jesus shows us that faithfulness is the central characteristic of the relationship between a servant and a master (“faithfulness” is used five times in verses 10–12). In the context of the parable, faithfulness means handling the master’s property with integrity; in the disciples’ “real world” situation, it means handling with integrity the “true riches” of God’s kingdom (v. 11). Such faithfulness is possible only when there is whole-hearted love and undivided, exclusive loyalty to the king: “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money” (v. 13, NLT). Because of his audience, the Pharisees “who dearly loved their money” (v. 14), the competing master named here is money. Still, any other object of desire could siphon off our exclusive loyalty to God and his purposes.

Faithfulness and undivided loyalty continue to be the defining characteristics of whole-hearted living. For those who are fully committed to becoming more like Jesus and joining him in his mission, the intentional rejection of all other “masters” is a requirement.