Book of Common Prayer

¹⁶ Do not be mistaken, my dear brethren. ¹⁷ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of light, with whom is no variableness nor turning to darkness. ¹⁸ Of his own will he begat us with the word of life, that we should be the first fruits of his creatures.

¹⁹ Therefore, dear brethren, let everyone be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. ²⁰ For the wrath of man does not work that which is righteous before God. ²¹ Therefore lay apart all uncleanness, and all lingering evil and vice, and receive with meekness the word that is grafted in you, which is able to save your souls. ²² And see that you be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves with sophistry. ²³ For if anyone hears the word and does it not, he is like a man that looks at his bodily face in a mirror. ²⁴ For as soon as he has looked at himself, he goes his way and forgets immediately what his appearance was. ²⁵ But whoever looks in the perfect law of liberty and continues in it (if he is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work), this one shall be happy in his deed.

²⁶ If anyone among you seems devout, yet refrains not his tongue, but betrays his own heart into mischief, this one’s devotion is in vain. ²⁷ Pure devotion, and undefiled before God the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their adversity, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

The parable of the wicked mammon. Not one tittle of God’s word shall perish. Of the rich man and poor Lazarus.

16 And he said also to his disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a steward that was accused of wasting his goods. ² And he summoned him and said to him, How is it that I hear this of you? Give accounts of your stewardship, for you may no longer be steward.

³ The steward said within himself, What can I do? For my master will take away from me the stewardship. I cannot dig, and to beg I am ashamed. ⁴ I know what to do, so that when I am put out of the stewardship, people may receive me into their houses.

⁵ Then he called all his master’s debtors, and said to the first, How much do you owe to my master? ⁶ And he said, A hundred tons of oil. And the steward said to him, Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty. ⁷ Then he said to another, What do you owe? And he said, A hundred quarters of wheat. The steward said to him, Take your bill and write eighty.

⁸ And the lord commended the unjust steward because he had done wisely. For among their own, the children of this world are wiser than the children of light. ⁹ And I say also to you, make friends for yourselves with the wicked mammon, so that when you depart this world, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.