Luke 16:1-15

International Children’s Bible

True Wealth

16 Jesus also said to his followers, “Once there was a rich man. He had a manager to take care of his business. Later, the rich man learned that his manager was cheating him. ² So he called the manager in and said to him, ‘I have heard bad things about you. Give me a report of what you have done with my money. You can’t be my manager any longer!’ ³ Later, the manager thought to himself, ‘What will I do? My master is taking my job away from me! I am not strong enough to dig ditches. I am too proud to beg. ⁴ I know! I’ll do something so that when I lose my job, people will welcome me into their homes.’

⁵ “So the manager called in everyone who owed the master any money. He said to the first man, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ The man answered, ‘I owe him 800 gallons of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Here is your bill; sit down quickly and make the bill less. Write 400 gallons.’ ⁷ Then the manager said to another man, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ The man answered, ‘I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat.’ Then the manager said to him, ‘Here is your bill; you can make it less. Write 800 bushels.’ ⁸ Later, the master praised the dishonest manager for being smart. Yes, worldly people are smarter with their own kind than spiritual people are.

⁹ “I tell you, make friends for yourselves using worldly riches. Then, when those things are gone, you will be welcomed in that home that continues forever. ¹⁰ Whoever can be trusted with small things can also be trusted with large things. Whoever is dishonest in little things will be dishonest in large things too. ¹¹ If you cannot be trusted with worldly riches, then you will not be trusted with the true riches. ¹² And if you cannot be trusted with the things that belong to someone else, then you will not be given things of your own.

¹³ “No servant can serve two masters. He will hate one master and love the other. Or he will follow one master and refuse to follow the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

God’s Law Cannot Be Changed

¹⁴ The Pharisees were listening to all these things. They made fun of Jesus because they all loved money. ¹⁵ Jesus said to them, “You make yourselves look good in front of people. But God knows what is really in your hearts. The things that are important to people are worth nothing to God.