Jesus taught us how to use money without being corrupted by it, in the Parable of the Unjust Steward in Luke 16. The passage in question is:

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. “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Luke 16:8–13,emphasis added).

The fact that “the unjust steward” (ton oikonomon tēs adikias) is associated in Luke 16:8 with “the sons of this world” (hoi huioi tou aiōnos toutou) suggests that “unrighteous mammon” (tou mamōna tēs adikias) in Luke 16:9 is equivalent to the idea of the mammon [or wealth] of this world. This seems to fit the idea found in Luke 16:11 where unrighteous mammon is contrasted with true riches.

In other words, the mammon of this world is contrasted with the mammon of eternity, which are true riches.

So I conclude that I am to use the wealth I have in this life to “make friends” (i.e., meet the needs of my fellow believers and of those who are proclaiming the gospel) that I might rejoice with them in the age to come (“they may receive you into an everlasting home”) and I may be entrusted by God with true riches, the wealth of the world to come. I am not to love the wealth of this world (Luke 16:13), but I am rather to use it to gain eternal reward.

Jesus was not teaching that money is inherently evil, but rather that I must not strive for unrighteous mammon. There seems to be a real temptation to strive for the wealth of this world (1 John 2:16), which has no eternal value at all unless it is used to please God.

I think that this fits perfectly with what Jesus had said previously in Luke 12:32-34:

“Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s

good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell

what you have and give alms; provide yourselves

money bags which do not grow old, a treasure

in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief

approaches nor moth destroys. For where your

treasure is, there your heart will be also” (cf. Matt

6:19-21).