Jesus' story about a man who prepared for his future
1 Jesus told another story to his disciples: ‘A rich man had a servant who took care of his money and the things in his house. Some people told the rich man that the servant was wasting his things. 2 So the rich man told the servant to come to him. He said to his servant, “I am hearing bad stories about you. So write down everything that you have done with my things. You can no longer take care of these things for me.”
3 The servant thought, “I must decide what I should do. My master will not let me work for him any longer. I am not strong enough to dig in the ground. I would be ashamed to ask other people for money. 4 But I must have a way to live after I stop working for my master. Now I know! I know what I can do so that people will accept me into their homes.”
5 Many people had a debt that they had not paid back to the master. So the servant told those people to come to him. He asked the first man, “How big is your debt to my master?” 6 The man replied, “I have to give him 100 barrels of olive oil.” The servant said to him, “Here is the paper with your debt written down on it. Take the paper. Sit down now and write 50 barrels there.”
16:6A barrel is a large, round, wooden container for water or oil.
7 He asked the next man, “How big is your debt to my master?” The man replied, “I have to give him 100 baskets of wheat.” The servant replied, “Here is the paper with your debt written down on it. Take the paper and write 80 baskets.” ’
16:7The servant was making friends because he could make their debts smaller.
8 Jesus then said, ‘The servant in the story was not an honest man. But his master spoke well about the clever thing that he had done. People who belong to this world are clever in the way that they make friends. They do that better than the people who live in God's light. 9 So I tell you this. Use the money that you have in this world to help other people so that they become your friends. One day you will die and your money will be finished. Then they will welcome you in heaven, your home for ever.
10 If you can trust someone with a very small thing, you can also trust them with bigger things. But if someone is not honest with a very small thing, you cannot trust them with anything bigger. 11 So if people cannot trust you with this world's money, God will not trust you. He will not give you his true riches. 12 And if you have not faithfully taken care of other people's things, God will not give you things for yourself.
13 A slave cannot work for two masters at the same time. Maybe he will hate one of the masters, but he will love the other one. Or he will work well for one master, but he will think bad things about the other one. God and money are like different masters. You cannot work for both of them.’
14 The Pharisees heard all this. They loved money very much, so they laughed at Jesus. 15 Jesus said to them, ‘You are happy when people give you honour as good people. But God sees inside you. He knows what you are thinking. The things that many people give honour to are the things that God hates.’
16:15The Pharisees thought that they were good people who obeyed God. They wanted people to respect them.
16 Jesus then said, ‘The books of God's Law and God's prophets had authority until John the Baptist came. Since then, God's servants tell people the good news about the kingdom of God. Everyone is now trying to get into that kingdom. 17 But this does not mean that anyone can destroy God's Law. One day, the earth and the sky will finish. But until that time, nobody can remove even a small thing from God's Law.
18 A man must not send his wife away and then marry another woman. If he does that, it is the same as if he had sex with another man's wife. Also, if a woman has left her husband, another man must not marry her. That is the same as if he had sex with another man's wife.’
