Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 9 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
Secrets of the Kingdom Life  /  Chapter 39, How to Make Friends with Stolen Money  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 9
David recounts preaching this and seeing “furrowed brows” and “disbelief,” as if he had invented the parable; what does that reaction reveal about the gap between Jesus’ teaching and what many Christians have been conditioned to regard as “orthodox,” and how should a church respond when Scripture sounds “unbelievable” to its own people?
Another way to ask: If people act shocked by this parable, what does that say about the gap between Jesus’ teaching and what many Christians think is “right” teaching? What should a church do when Scripture sounds unbelievable to its own members?

Direct Answer The reaction shows many Christians have been conditioned to treat certain biblical emphases—especially linking money, almsgiving, and final destiny—as “unorthodox,” even when they come straight from Jesus. David’s implied remedy is to re-submit “orthodoxy” to Scripture (and the early Christian reading of Scripture) rather than to comfortable slogans.

Support from Transcript:

  • David says when he preached on this, he saw “furrowed brows and faces expressing disbelief.”
  • He adds, “A person would have thought I had made up this parable myself,” even though it’s Jesus’ teaching in Luke 16.
  • He calls this “the first of many similar experiences when I have preached the same message that Jesus preached.”
  • He admits he initially struggled too because teachers said “giving alms has nothing to do with salvation” and even mentioning alms makes one’s “orthodoxy suspect.”
  • He says early Christians discussed this parable often and found its meaning “obvious,” implying modern Christianity has drifted.
  • He confronts conditioning by citing James 2:24 and asking whether we will believe Luther’s slogan or Jesus/Scripture.
Discussion Follow-ups When the Bible sounds unbelievable, do we assume the Bible is unclear—or that we’ve been trained away from it? What would it look like for a church to patiently re-teach Luke 16 and Matthew 25 until they feel “normal” again?

Jumpstarter 9 of 10
Back Questions Next