Luke 16:8 ?

[JTC]

This is a parable Jesus told. I copied and pasted it so you don't have to look it up. "

16 He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. ² So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.  ³ “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.  ⁵ “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ And he said, ‘A hundred measures^[a] of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures^[b] of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light." (NKJV)

I checked about 6 different translations and they all end with "sons of the light". I didn't look up any commentaries. I might have to but I wanted to see what the members here think. What does Jesus mean by sons of the light? I guess He means honest people, people who will eventually get to heaven. If so, then again Jesus is saying life is going to be harder for us than those who won't get eternal life. Maybe I'm wrong, I am sleepy. Anyone want to give an opinion?

[Deborah_]

The "sons/people of the light" are believers. The same expression comes up on I Thessalonians 5:5 - "You (i.e. Christians) are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness."

On 10/23/2017 at 12:48 PM, JTC said:

If so, then again Jesus is saying life is going to be harder for us than those who won't get eternal life. Maybe I'm wrong, I am sleepy. Anyone want to give an opinion?

It depends what point you think Jesus is making in the parable. We should learn from the example of the dishonest steward - not to copy his dishonesty but to copy his shrewdness! He realised that his own personal 'judgement day' was about to fall, so he took the necessary steps to ensure that he survived it.

Like the steward, we are ‘on notice to quit’ – we all face certain death, sooner or later, and at the end of our lives we shall have to give account to God for how we have lived. It is sheer folly to bury our heads in the sand, when we have the opportunity now to ensure our future in the next world (Ecclesiastes 11:1).
Worldly wealth is not ours: it belongs to God, and we are accountable to Him for how we use it. For us it is merely a means to an end – a means of blessing other people while we can. It will be worthless in heaven; but if we use our money, possessions and time for the benefit of others, we can convert them into heavenly treasure (I Timothy 6:18,19). And to exchange the temporary things of this world for the permanent ones of the next is a very wise investment (II Corinthians 5:1,2)! 

[simplejeff]

On 10/23/2017 at 6:48 AM, JTC said:

If so, then again Jesus is saying life is going to be harder for us than those who won't get eternal life.

"Why do the wicked party all week? "  "they have their fill of (sinful) [wine, women, and partying]"

"they seem to have no worries all the time" 

"While, I (King David),  a man after Yahweh's heart,  suffers humiliation hiding in the woods from the authorities, ..."

"treated like potatoe peels on society's garbage pile" (NT messengers/disciples)

"persecuted on every side" (NT messengers/ disciples)

 

[simplejeff]

On 10/23/2017 at 6:48 AM, JTC said:

I checked about 6 different translations and they all end with "sons of the light". I didn't look up any commentaries.

This is one case where a particular commentary might be truthfully helpful. (many times they might not be, variously).

The servant in charge of the books,  handling his masters accounting,  was paid by charges he ADDED to the bill.  This was common practice for how they were paid.

Many accountants today do this also, btw.

Anyhow,  the servants in charge of collecting the debts were not required to disclose how much their fee was - the one paying the bill would just pay the whole bill,  and the servant would be paid by what he had added to his master's charges.

Many servants (then as now, today)  would charge more than was just ,  more than was rightly to be expected,

but the "customers" could do nothing about this,  (most likely),  as they simply were shown the final bill, which they would pay, happily or not.

So when the servant "DEDUCTED" from the bill,  it was his to do - he reduced his own fees/charges from the bill, to gain favor with the master's customers,  in the hope they would later hire him in gratitude (or other reasons).

He was not stealing nor robbing from his master in doing this (reducing his own fee thus reducing the total to be billed/ collected).  The master still received all that the master was due.

[Guest]

simplejeff- awesome answer.

 I was thinking of the contrast between “sons of light” and “sons of the world” as being the Jewish religious leaders(who were not likely to let others off lightly to please their master) and the gentiles, who Jesus sometimes commended for their choices which made the Pharisees look bad by comparison.  The Good Samaritan is one such comparison. 

His parable here, I see, may not have been so much a commendation of gentiles, but a very strong indictment against His chosen ones to whom He referred as “sons of light.”