Luke 16:1-9 “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 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 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. (9) "And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.”
In the above passage of scripture, our Lord Jesus gives us a bit of a disturbing insight, regarding the residences of the saints in the New Jerusalem. The passage describes how the unfaithful steward loses everything, including his home, because of his unfaithfulness. The passage goes on to describe how he shrewdly compensates for the loss of his home, by being accepted into the homes of others. Our Lord closes off His teaching, by implying that there will be some of the Lord’s saints that because of their unfaithfulness in this life, will forfeit their eternal residences in the New Jerusalem. In other words, they will be in the city but have no homes of their own. The apostle Paul also referred to such an individual, when he spoke about the one who’s works were burned up and thus suffered the loss of his eternal inheritance, but nevertheless remained saved (1 Corinthians 3:15). In the above passage, our Lord then advises us to use mammon in this life to bless others, so that if we fail then we will be welcomed by those individuals, to stay with them in their homes in the New Jerusalem. And so, we see that it is possible that some saints will have no home in the New Jerusalem. Some would say that their problem would be solved because as our Lord taught in this passage, they can live in the home of a fellow saint. That is true, but imaging living in someone else’s home for the rest of eternity. It means that the person will not have the liberty to invite people over for meals whenever they choose, etc, because they will not be living in their own home.
Michael E.B. Maher
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