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also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you can no longer be my manager’.
3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is removing me from my job? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I know what I will do, so that when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their homes’.
5 “So he called in each one of his master’ s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 “ ‘A hundred measures of olive oil’, he replied.
“ ‘Take your bill’, the manager told him, ‘and sit down quickly and make it fifty’.
7 “Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’
“ ‘A hundred measures of wheat’, he replied.
“ ‘Take your bill’, the manager told him, ‘and make it eighty’.
8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may welcome you into eternal dwellings.
10 “Whoever is faithful with very little is also faithful with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little is also dishonest with much. 11 So if then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is your own?
13 “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
14 The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this and they ridiculed Jesus. 15 So He told them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly valued among men is detestable in the sight of God.
16 “The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time the good news of the Kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone tries to force his way into it. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter in the Law to be dropped off.
18 “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and the man who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
19 “There was a rich man who would dress in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20 At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, 21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs would come and lick his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died, and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was being tormented, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off, with Lazarus at his side. 24 He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames’.
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot do so, nor can anyone cross over from there to us’.
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers. He can warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment’. 29 Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; they should listen to them’.
30 “ ‘No father Abraham’, he said, ‘but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent’.
31 “But he said to them, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead’.”