Investing in People
by Dr. Tony Evans

In His Presence: The day of the Lord will come like a thief . . . and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness (2 Peter 3:10-12).

In our economy today it is very important to start saving for retirement early. Those who are only present-day oriented will just spend money, but those who are future-oriented will invest. That’s the difference between immaturity and maturity: the immature spend, and the mature save for tomorrow. Jesus‘ parable in Luke 16 demonstrates that the sons of darkness are often wiser than the children of light because they are future-oriented. If men are willing to do that in finite time, how much more should Christians “make friends for yourselves . . . [who] will receive you into the eternal dwellings” (v. 9)? God tells us to wisely use our stewardship in something that has eternal value: people. 

When we stand before Christ, He is going to play a cosmic video, reviewing our life from salvation to death. We will see how responsibly we used the time, talents, and treasures God gave us, and how good or bad our stewardship was for Him. We will see the impact we had on other people and how much we invested in others for eternity. 

In verse 9, Jesus told us to make friends. How do we do this? We make friends by sharing the Gospel so that those we know have an opportunity to hear it. We must see that people are important in God’s economy. God measures our effect on people not by how many dollars we have in the bank, but by how we have used our time, talents, and treasures to invest in the eternal destiny of people.

One Minute Please

Either God will reign over your time, talents, and treasures, or you will make them your god.