The Daily Audio Bible

The Unrighteous Steward: Use Earthly Money For Heavenly Gain

16 And He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a certain rich man who had a steward^[a]. And this one was accused to him as squandering his possessions. ² And having called him, he said to him, ‘What is this I am hearing about you? Render the account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward’. ³ And the steward said within himself, ‘What should I do, because my master is taking-away the stewardship^[b] from me? I am not strong-enough to dig. I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I know what I will do so that they will welcome me into their houses when I am removed from the stewardship’. ⁵ And having summoned each one of the debtors of his master, he was saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe to my master?’ ⁶ And the one said, ‘A hundred baths^[c] of olive-oil’. And the one said to him, ‘Take your writings^[d], and having sat-down quickly, write fifty’. ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And you, how much do you owe?’ And the one said, ‘A hundred cor^[e] of wheat’. He says to him, ‘Take your writings, and write eighty’. ⁸ And the master praised the unrighteous steward because he acted shrewdly^[f]. Because the sons of ^[g] this age are more shrewd in-relation-to their own kind than the sons of the light. ⁹ And I say to you— make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails^[h] they^[i] will welcome you into the eternal dwellings. ¹⁰ The one trustworthy^[j] in a very-little thing is also trustworthy in much. And the one unrighteous in a very little thing is also unrighteous in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you did not prove-to-be trustworthy with unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true^[k] thing to you? ¹² And if you did not prove-to-be trustworthy with the thing belonging to another^[l], who will give you your own thing? ¹³ No household-servant can be serving^[m] two masters. For either he will hate^[n] the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and disregard the other. You cannot be serving God and wealth^[o]”.

Jesus Rebukes The Pharisees: The Thing You Highly Value Is Worthless To God

¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, being money-lovers, were listening-to all these things, and they were sneering-at^[p] Him. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “You are the ones declaring yourselves righteous in the sight of people, but God knows your hearts— because the highly-valued thing among people is an abomination^[q] in the sight of God. ¹⁶ The Law and the Prophets were until John. From that time on, the kingdom of God is being announced-as-good-news, and everyone is forcing-himself ^[r] into it. ¹⁷ But it is easier that the heaven and the earth should pass away than that one stroke^[s] of the Law should fail. ¹⁸ Everyone sending-away^[t] his wife and marrying another is committing-adultery. And the one marrying one having been sent-away from her husband is committing-adultery.