Gospel according to Luke 16

¹ He also said to his disciples, ‘There was a rich man and he had a steward denounced to him for being wasteful with his property.

² He called for the man and said, “What is this I hear about you? Draw me up an account of your stewardship because you are not to be my steward any longer.”

³ Then the steward said to himself, “Now that my master is taking the stewardship from me, what am I to do? Dig? I am not strong enough. Go begging? I should be too ashamed.

⁴ Ah, I know what I will do to make sure that when I am dismissed from office there will be some to welcome me into their homes.”

⁵ Then he called his master’s debtors one by one. To the first he said, “How much do you owe my master?”

⁶ “One hundred measures of oil” was the reply. The steward said, “Here, take your bond; sit down straight away and write fifty”.

⁷ To another he said, “And you, sir, how much do you owe?” “One hundred measures of wheat” was the reply. The steward said, “Here, take your bond and write eighty”.

⁸ ‘The master praised the dishonest steward for his astuteness[*a]. For the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light.’

⁹ ‘And so I tell you this: use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into the tents of eternity.

¹⁰ The man who can be trusted in little things can be trusted in great; the man who is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in great.

¹¹ If then you cannot be trusted with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches?

¹² And if you cannot be trusted with what is not yours, who will give you what is your very own?

¹³ ‘No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.’

¹⁴ The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and laughed at him.

¹⁵ He said to them, ‘You are the very ones who pass yourselves off as virtuous in people’s sight, but God knows your hearts. For what is thought highly of by men is loathsome in the sight of God.

¹⁶ ‘Up to the time of John it was the Law and the Prophets; since then, the kingdom of God has been preached, and by violence everyone is getting in.

¹⁷ ‘It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for one little stroke to drop out of the Law.

¹⁸ ‘Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery, and the man who marries a woman divorced by her husband commits adultery.

¹⁹ ‘There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day.

²⁰ And at his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores,

²¹ who longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even came and licked his sores.

²² Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried.

²³ ‘In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his bosom.

²⁴ So he cried out, “Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames”.

²⁵ “My son,” Abraham replied “remember that during your life good things came your way, just as bad things came the way of Lazarus. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony.

²⁶ But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our side to yours, and to stop any crossing from your side to ours.”

²⁷ ‘The rich man replied, “Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father’s house,

²⁸ since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too”.

²⁹ “They have Moses and the prophets,” said Abraham “let them listen to them.”.

³⁰ “Ah no, father Abraham,” said the rich man “but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent.”

³¹ Then Abraham said to him, “If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead”.’