Luke 16:1-18

The Unrighteous Steward

1 Now He was also saying to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as ¹squandering his possessions.

2 "And he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.'

3 "The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg.

4 'I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.'

5 "And he summoned each one of his master's debtors, and he began saying to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'

6 "And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.'

7 "Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'

8 "And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of ²this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the ³sons of light.

9 "And I say to you, ⁴make friends for yourselves by means of the ⁵wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, ⁶they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.

10 "⁷He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.

11 "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous ⁸wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you?

12 "And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?

13 "⁹No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot * serve God and ¹⁰wealth."

14 Now the Pharisees, who were ¹¹lovers of money, were listening to all these things and ¹²were scoffing at Him.

15 And He said to them, "You are those who ¹³justify yourselves in the sight of men, but ¹⁴God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.

16 "¹⁵The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John; since that time ¹⁶the gospel of the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.

17 "¹⁷But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.

18 "¹⁸Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.

Cross References

• 1. Luke 15:13
• 2. Matthew 12:32; Luke 20:34
• 3. John 12:36; Ephesians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:5
• 4. Matthew 19:21; Luke 11:41; Luke 12:33
• 5. Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:11, 13
• 6. Luke 16:4
• 7. Matthew 25:21, 23
• 8. Luke 16:9
• 9. Matthew 6:24
• 10. Luke 16:9
• 11. 2 Timothy 3:2
• 12. Luke 23:35
• 13. Luke 10:29; Luke 18:9, 14
• 14. 1 Samuel 16:7; Proverbs 21:2; Acts 1:24; Romans 8:27
• 15. Matthew 11:12
• 16. Matthew 4:23
• 17. Matthew 5:18
• 18. Matthew 5:32; 1 Corinthians 7:10, 11

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "accused"
• [b]. Or "lord"
• [c]. Or "lord's"
• [d]. Gr "baths," a Heb unit of measure equaling about 7 1/2 gal.
• [e]. Gr "kors," one kor equals between 10 and 12 bu
• [f]. Or "lord"
• [g]. Lit "generation"
• [h]. Gr "mamonas," for Aram "mamon" (mammon); i.e. wealth, etc., personified as an object of worship
• [i]. Gr "mamonas," for Aram "mamon" (mammon); i.e. wealth, etc., personified as an object of worship
• [j]. Or "house-servant"
• [k]. Gr "mamonas," for Aram "mamon" (mammon); i.e. wealth, etc., personified as an object of worship
• [l]. Lit "before"
• [m]. Lit "before"
• [n]. Lit "is preached"
• [o]. I.e. projection of a letter (serif)
• [p]. Or "sends away"
• [q]. Or "sent away"