The Unrighteous Manager

16 Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was ^[a]reported to him as ^(A)squandering his possessions. ² And he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ ³ And the manager said to himself, ‘What am I to do, since my ^[b]master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to ^[c]dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ ⁵ And he summoned each one of his ^[d]master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ And he said, ‘A hundred ^[e]jugs of oil.’ And 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?’ And he said, ‘A hundred ^[f]kors of wheat.’ He *said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ And his ^[g]master complimented the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of ^(B)this age are more shrewd in relation to their own ^[h]kind than the ^(C)sons of light. ⁹ And I say to you, ^(D)make friends for yourselves by means of the ^[i](E)wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it ^[j]is all gone, ^(F)they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

¹⁰ “^(G)The one who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and the one who is unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not ^[k]been faithful in the use of unrighteous ^[l](H)wealth, who will entrust the true wealth to you? ¹² And if you have not ^[m]been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? ^13 (I)No ^[n]servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and ^[o](J)wealth.”

¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, who were ^(K)lovers of money, were listening to all these things and ^(L)were ^[p]ridiculing Him. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “You are the ones who ^(M)justify yourselves in the sight of people, but ^(N)God knows your hearts; because that which is highly esteemed among people is detestable in the sight of God.

¹⁶ “^(O)The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John came; since that time ^(P)the gospel of the kingdom of God ^[q]has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. ^17 (Q)But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one ^[r]stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

¹⁸ “^(R)Everyone who ^[s]divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is ^[t]divorced from a husband commits adultery.