16:9 mammon of unrighteousness. Mammon was an Aramaic term meaning “wealth” or “money.” As “the love of money is the root of all evil” (I Timothy 6:10), mammon can easily become “the mammon of unrighteousness.” As the Lord says (Luke 16:13): “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Nevertheless, He exhorts the “children of light” to make friends with this mammon of unrighteousness. That is, we should use it for spiritual purposes that will make eternal friends.

16:9 everlasting habitations. As the unjust steward was using mammon to assure his own future earthly habitation, so the believer can use whatever wealth (or other gifts he may have) to win others to forgiveness in Christ. Then, when his own life “fails,” he will find many friends waiting for him in “everlasting habitations” in heaven.