“He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much... If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?”
The Treasure
Jesus names a direct correlation here between faithfulness in small matters and faithfulness in larger ones, extending specifically to money, named here as unrighteous mammon, contrasted with true riches. Faithfulness with ordinary, earthly money is described as the actual proving ground for whether greater, truer riches will eventually be entrusted.
This is worth examining honestly because financial faithfulness can easily be treated as a lesser spiritual concern, separate from the deeper spiritual maturity true riches presumably represents. Jesus’s own words here connect them directly, refusing to let financial faithfulness be dismissed as merely secondary or unrelated to deeper spiritual entrustment.
Notice unrighteous mammon, a striking phrase for ordinary money, suggesting even faithful stewardship of money occurs within a genuinely compromised system, and yet faithfulness within that compromised system is still named as the actual, necessary proving ground before true riches can be trusted to follow.
Consider today whether your own handling of ordinary money, however modest or however this compromised system currently functions, reflects the kind of faithfulness this verse names as prerequisite for true riches. Steward this least category faithfully today, trusting Jesus’s own direct connection between the two.
Steward the Treasure
- Examine your own faithfulness in ordinary money, however modest or seemingly small.
- Steward one specific financial matter today with deliberate, genuine faithfulness.
- Trust Jesus’s direct connection between this least category and the true riches that follow.
Prayer
Lord, let me be faithful in the least, unrighteous mammon, trusting your own words that this faithfulness is what makes true riches trustworthy to entrust to me. Amen.
Carry this today
Faithfulness with ordinary money is the proving ground for true riches.