Book of Common Prayer
14 where we found Christians, who encouraged us to stay with them for seven days.
And so we came to Rome. 15 Christians from there, hearing about us, came to meet us as far as Appian Forum and Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took heart.
16 When we arrived in Rome, Paul was allowed to lodge privately. He had a soldier to guard him.
17 After three days, Paul called together the leading men of the Jews. When they arrived, he began to speak.
“My brothers,” he said, “I have done nothing against our people or our ancestral customs. Yet I was made a prisoner in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. 18 The Romans put me on trial and wanted to let me go, because they couldn’t find me guilty of any capital crime. 19 But the Judaeans opposed this, and forced me to appeal to Caesar. This had nothing to do with my bringing any charges against my nation! 20 So that’s why I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel, you see, that I am wearing this chain.”
21 “For our part,” they responded, “we haven’t received any letters about you from Judaea. Nor has anyone of our nation come here to tell us anything, or to say anything bad about you. 22 We want to hear from your own lips what you have in mind. However, as for this new sect, the one thing we know is that people everywhere are speaking out against it.”
The end is where we start from
23 So they fixed a day and came in large numbers to Paul’s lodgings. He spoke to them and gave his testimony about the kingdom of God. From morning to night, he explained to them the things about Jesus, from the law of Moses and the prophets.
The parable of the shrewd manager
16 Jesus said to his disciples, “Once there was a rich man who had a steward, and charges were laid against him that he was squandering his property. 2 So he called him and said to him, ‘What’s all this I hear about you? Present an account of your stewardship; I’m not going to have you as my steward anymore!’
3 “At this, the steward said to himself, ‘What shall I do? My master is taking away my stewardship from me! I can’t do manual work, and I’d be ashamed to beg . . .
4 “ ‘I have an idea what to do!—so that people will welcome me into their households when I am fired from being steward.’
5 “So he called his master’s debtors to him, one by one. ‘How much,’ he asked the first, ‘do you owe my master?’
6 “ ‘A hundred measures of olive oil,’ he replied.
“ ‘Take your bill,’ he said to him, ‘sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’
7 “To another he said, ‘And how much do you owe?’
“ ‘A hundred measures of wheat,’ he replied.
“ ‘Take your bill,’ he said, ‘and make it eighty.’
8 “And the master praised the dishonest steward because he had acted wisely. The children of this world, you see, are wiser than the children of light when it comes to dealing with their own generation.
9 “So let me tell you this: use that dishonest stuff called money to make yourselves friends! Then, when it gives out, they will welcome you into homes that will last.”
Teachings on stewardship
10 “Someone who is faithful in a small matter,” Jesus continued, “will also be faithful in a large one. Someone who is dishonest in a small matter will also be dishonest in a large one. 11 If you haven’t been faithful with that wicked thing called money, who is going to entrust you with true wealth? 12 And if you haven’t been faithful in looking after what belongs to someone else, who is going to give you what is your own?
13 “Nobody can serve two masters. You will end up hating one and loving the other, or going along with the first and despising the other. You can’t serve God and money.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.