Wealth Is Not the Goal of Life

6 There^(A) is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men: ² A man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, ^(B)so that he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires; ^(C)yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but a foreigner consumes it. This is vanity, and it is an evil ^[a]affliction.

²² So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. ^(A)Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

²³ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

²² So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to ^(A)Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, ^(A)who had married his daughters, and said, ^(B)“Get up, get out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city!” ^(C)But to his sons-in-law he seemed to be joking.

Rich Oppressors Will Be Judged

5 Come now, you ^(A)rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! ² Your ^(B)riches ^[a]are corrupted, and ^(C)your garments are moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. ^(D)You have heaped up treasure in the last days. ⁴ Indeed ^(E)the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and ^(F)the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of ^[b]Sabaoth.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and ^[a]fared sumptuously every day.

The Parable of the Unjust Steward

16 He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was ^[a]wasting his goods. ² So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an ^(A)account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

³ “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

⁵ “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ And he said, ‘A hundred ^[b]measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred ^[c]measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ 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 ^(B)the sons of light.

⁹ “And I say to you, ^(C)make friends for yourselves by unrighteous ^[d]mammon, that when ^[e]you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home. ^10 (D)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. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your ^(E)own?

^13 (F)“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.”

¹⁶ Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. ¹⁷ And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, ^(A)“Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; ^(B)eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night ^(C)your soul will be required of you; ^(D)then whose will those things be which you have provided?’

²¹ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, ^(E)and is not rich toward God.”