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Luke 16 (AMP)

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¹ ALSO said to the disciples, There was a certain rich man who had a manager of his estate, and accusations were brought to him, that he was squandering his possessions. ² And he called him and said to him, What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management , for you can be manager no longer. ³ And the manager of the estate said to himself, What shall I do, seeing that my master is taking the management away from me? I am not able to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have come to know what I will do, so that they may accept and welcome me into their houses when I am put out of the management. ⁵ So he summoned his master's debtors one by one, and he said to the first, How much do you owe my master? ⁶ He said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, Take back your written acknowledgement of obligation, and sit down quickly and write fifty . ⁷ After that he said to another, And how much do you owe? He said, A hundred measures of wheat. He said to him, Take back your written acknowledgement of obligation, and write eighty . ⁸ And master praised the dishonest (unjust) manager for acting shrewdly and prudently; for the sons of this age are shrewder and more prudent and wiser in their own generation than are the sons of light. ⁹ And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions), so that when it fails, they may receive and welcome you into the everlasting habitations (dwellings). ¹⁰ He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much, and he who is dishonest and unjust in a very little is dishonest and unjust also in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions), who will entrust to you the true riches? ¹² And if you have not proved faithful in that which belongs to another , who will give you that which is your own ? ¹³ No servant is able to serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (riches, or anything in which you trust and on which you rely). ¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, who were covetous and lovers of money, heard all these things , and they began to sneer at and ridicule and scoff at Him. ¹⁵ But He said to them, You are the ones who declare yourselves just and upright before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted and highly thought of among men is detestable and abhorrent (an abomination) in the sight of God. ¹⁶ Until John came, there were the Law and the Prophets; since then the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone strives violently to go in . ¹⁷ Yet it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to fail and become void. ¹⁸ Whoever divorces (dismisses and repudiates) his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman who is divorced from her husband commits adultery. ¹⁹ There was a certain rich man who clothed himself in purple and fine linen and reveled and feasted and made merry in splendor every day. ²⁰ And at his gate there was dropped down and left a certain utterly destitute man named Lazarus, covered with sores. ²¹ He desired to be satisfied with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover, the dogs even came and licked his sores. ²² And it occurred that the man begging died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ And in Hades (the realm of the dead), being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom. ²⁴ And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have pity and mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. ²⁵ But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime fully received comforts and delights, and Lazarus in like manner the discomforts and distresses; but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who want to pass from this to you may not be able, and no one may pass from there to us. ²⁷ And said, Then, father, I beseech you to send him to my father's house-- ²⁸ For I have five brothers--so that he may give testimony and warn them, lest they too come into this place of torment. ²⁹ But Abraham said, They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear and listen to them. ³⁰ But he answered, No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent (change their minds for the better and heartily amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins). ³¹ He said to him, If they do not hear and listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded and convinced and believe if someone should rise from the dead.