Here is God's response: "Go ahead. Put your trust in unrighteous riches, in the worldly people who are obligated morally to Me. Tell them their debt is only half of what it is. You are wise to become friends with them because you will live with them for eternity.

"You will not serve Me faithfully and so you no longer have a place with Me. You need to gain the friendship of someone so you will have a place to go when the results of your lack of faithfulness leave you impoverished."

Every man who is called by the Lord into His service must make up his mind whether he is on the Lord's side or on man's side. He must decide whether he will trust in the Lord to support him, to give him all the security, pleasure, and achievement he needs and desires, or whether he will trust in his fellow man to provide these things.

There is no middle ground here. In this parable the Lord Jesus was pointing out the weakness of the middle ground. Either be faithful to your master or else gain favor with your master's debtors. You are foolish if you do not choose one course or the other.

It is time for men and women of God to come forth—men and women who are on the Lord's side. There always is an adversary relationship in the Christian ministry. The people whom we serve are debtors to God. They will, without realizing it perhaps, bring pressure to bear on us, hoping we will minimize God's demands on them.

They believe that if they can get us to say they are acceptable to God as they are, somehow it will prove to be true; if we change their account they actually will "owe less money."

The Lord's debtors are holding us responsible (as indeed we should be held) to say to them precisely what God is saying to them. Yet they will pressure us to relax the demands of God.

The minister of God who yields to this pressure, who attempts to gain security by seeking favor with the people, who misrepresents their debt to God, is worthless in the Kingdom of God. His life is meaningless. He is serving no function. He does well to ingratiate himself with the people because they alone will be his comfort throughout eternity.

Blessed is the man or woman who stands in the world as the oracle of God. He goes up to the mountain of prayer and hears what God is proclaiming. Then he comes down from the mountain and announces the Word of the Lord—every tiny bit of it.

The prophet does not depend on people for his security. He looks to God alone for all his needs. He is consumed with the desire to please the Lord, to be a faithful servant.

He is a faithful steward. His eye is single. His whole body is full of light. He will be fed in the days of famine. His waters are sure. He will be defended against his enemies. He will be lifted up on high in the day of trouble because he has set his love on the Lord.

Those who are lazy and careless in serving the Lord should make friends with the people of this unrighteous world system so when their strength fails they may be received into the eternal homes. (from Faithful Stewardship, from It Is Time for a Reformation of Christian Thinking)