The parable of the unjust steward
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📚✭And he also said to his disciples, “There was a certain rich man who had a manager, and an accusation was made to him that this man was wasting✭ his property. 2 📚And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ 3 📚“Then the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking away from me this position of manager. I cannot dig. I am ashamed to beg. 4 📚✭I know what to do, so that when I am dismissed from the position of manager people will receive me into their homes.’ 5 📚So he called each one of his master’s debtors, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 📚“And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’ 7 📚Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’
8 📚✭“And the master commended the unrighteous manager, because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this world✭ are more shrewd among their people than the children of light.
9 📚✭“And I say to you, Make friends for yourselves through money, that unrighteous thing✭, so that when it fails, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
Jesus speaks of faithful service
10 📚✭He who is trustworthy in very little is trustworthy also in much, and he who is unrighteous in very little is unrighteous also in much. 11 📚✭Therefore if you have not been trustworthy in the matter of money, the unrighteous thing who will entrust the true riches to you? 12 📚And if you have not been trustworthy in what belongs to another,✭ who will give you what could be your own?
13 📚✭“No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money”.
14 📚✭And the Pharisees also, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they scoffed at him.
15 📚✭And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
16 📚“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. From that time the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone is forcibly pressing into it. 17 📚✭And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one pen stroke of the Law to fail.
18 📚✭“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.
The illustration of the rich man and Lazarus
19 📚✭“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and delighted in luxury every day. 20 📚✭And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus who was laid at his gate, covered with sores, 21 📚✭and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 📚“And it happened that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels✭ into Abraham’s✭ bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. 23 📚And in hell✭ he raised his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 📚✭And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.✭’
25 📚✭“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, just as Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted, and you are in agony. 26 📚✭And besides all this, between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, so that those who would cross over from here to you cannot, nor can those who are there cross over to us.’
27 ✭“Then he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, 28 📚(for I have five brothers) so that he can testify to them, so that they too will not come to this place of torment.’
29 📚“Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets✭. Let them hear them.’
30 📚✭“And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
31 📚✭“And he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”