Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁴ ¶ Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, and cut off the poor of the land,

⁵ saying, When the month is over, we will sell the wheat; and after the sabbath day we will open the storehouse of bread, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit;

⁶ that we may buy the poor for money and the needy for a pair of shoes and sell the refuse of the wheat.

⁷ The LORD has sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.

¹ ¶ Halelu-JAH. Praise, O ye slaves of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.

² Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore.

³ From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, the LORD’s name is to be praised.

⁴ The LORD is high above all Gentiles and his glory above the heavens.

⁵ Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwells on high,

⁶ who humbles himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth!

⁷ He raises up the poor out of the dust and lifts the destitute out of the dunghill;

⁸ that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people.

⁹ He makes the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of sons. Halelu-JAH.

2 ¶ I exhort therefore, that, first of all, suppli­cations, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men,

² for kings, and for all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and integrity.

³ For this is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour,

⁴ who desires that all men be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth.

⁵ For there is only one God and likewise only one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

⁶ who gave himself in ransom for all, the testimony of which was confirmed at the time,

⁷ of which I am ordained a preacher and an apostle (I speak the truth in Christ and do not lie), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.

16 ¶ And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.

² And he called him and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou may no longer be steward.

³ Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord takes the stewardship away from me; I cannot dig, and I am ashamed to beg.

⁴ I know what I shall do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.

⁵ So he called each one of his lord’s debtors unto him and said unto the first, How much dost thou owe unto my lord?

⁶ And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.

⁷ Then said he to another, And how much dost thou owe? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill and write eighty.

⁸ And the lord commended the unjust steward because he had done discreetly; for the sons of this age are in their generation more prudent than the sons of light.

⁹ And I say unto you, Make friends unto yourselves with the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when these fail, you may be received into eternal dwellings.

¹⁰ He that is faithful with little is faithful also with much, and he that is unjust with little is unjust also with much.

¹¹ If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true?

¹² And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?

¹³ No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.