Book of Common Prayer
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear family. 17 Every good gift, every perfect gift, comes down from above, from the father of lights. His steady light doesn’t vary. It doesn’t change and produce shadows. 18 He became our father by the word of truth; that was his firm decision, and the result is that we are a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
The word that goes to work
19 So, my dear brothers and sisters, get this straight. Every person should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. 20 Human anger, you see, doesn’t produce God’s justice! 21 So put away everything that is sordid, all overflowing malice, and humbly receive the word which has been planted within you and which has the power to rescue your lives.
22 But be people who do the word, not merely people who hear it and deceive themselves. 23 Someone who hears the word but doesn’t do it, you see, is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. 24 He notices himself, but then he goes away and quickly forgets what he looked like. 25 But the person who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and goes on with it, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer who does the deed—such a person is blessed in their doing.
26 If anyone supposes that they are devout, and does not control their tongue, but rather deceives their heart—such a person’s devotion is futile. 27 As far as God the father is concerned, pure, unsullied devotion works like this: you should visit orphans and widows in their sorrow, and prevent the world leaving its dirty smudge on you.
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.”
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.