Don’t Make Yourself Important

⁷ When Jesus noticed that some of the guests were choosing the ·best places [places of honor] to sit [^Cseats were assigned according to social status], he told this ·story [parable]: ⁸ “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, don’t take the ·most important seat [place of honor], because someone more ·important [distinguished; honorable] than you may have been invited. ⁹ The host, who invited both of you, will come to you and say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then you will be ·embarrassed [humiliated; disgraced; shamed] and will have to move to the ·last [least; lowest] place. ¹⁰ ·So [^LBut] when you are invited, go ·sit in a seat that is not important [^Lrecline in the last/lowest place; 7:36]. When the host comes to you, he may say, ‘Friend, move up here to a ·more important [better; higher] place.’ Then ·all the other guests will respect you [^Lyou will be honored in the presence of all the guests]. ¹¹ [^LFor; Because] All who ·make themselves great [exalt themselves] will be made humble, but those who make themselves humble will be ·made great [exalted].”

You Will Be Rewarded

¹² Then Jesus said to the man who had invited him, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite only your friends, your ·family [near relatives; ^Lbrothers; siblings], your other relatives, and your rich neighbors. At another time they will invite you to eat with them, and ·you will be repaid [or that will be your only payment]. ¹³ Instead, when you give a ·feast [banquet], invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴ Then you will be blessed, because they have nothing and cannot pay you back [^Csomething given was typically repaid with goods, favors, or honor]. ·But [For] you will be repaid ·when the good people rise from the dead [^Lat the resurrection of the righteous].”