1 He also said to the disciples: "There was a rich man who had a factor, and this factor, he found, was accused of misapplying his property.
2 So he summoned him and said, 'What is this I hear about you? Hand in your accounts; you cannot be factor any longer.'
3 The factor said to himself, 'What am I to do, now that my master is taking the factorship away from me? I am too weak to dig, I am ashamed to beg.
4 Ah, I know what I will do, so that people will welcome me to their houses when I am deposed from the factorship.'
5 So he summoned every single one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much are you owing to my master?'
6 'A hundred barrels of oil,' he said. The factor told him, 'Here is your bill; sit down at once and enter fifty barrels.'
7 Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' 'A hundred quarters of wheat,' he said. 'Here is your bill,' said the factor, 'just enter eighty.'
8 Well, the master praised the dishonest factor for looking ahead; for the children of this world look further ahead in dealing with their own generation than the children of Light.
9 And I tell you, use mammon, dishonest as it is, to make friends for yourselves, so that when you die they may welcome you to the eternal abodes.
10 He who is faithful with a trifle is also faithful with a large trust, and he who is dishonest with a trifle is also dishonest with a large trust.
11 So, if you are not faithful with dishonest mammon, how can you ever be trusted with true Riches?
12 And if you are not faithful with what belongs to another, how can you ever be given what is your own?
13 No servant can serve two masters: either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will stand by the one and despise the other, you cannot serve both God and Mammon."
14 Now the Pharisees who were fond of money heard all this, and they sneered at him.
15 So he told them, "You are the people who get men to think you are good, but God knows what your hearts are! What is lofty in the view of man is loathsome in the eyes of God.
16 The Law and the prophets lasted till John; since then the good news of the Realm of God is preached, and anyone presses in.
17 Yet it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for an iota of the Law to lapse.
18 Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
19 There was a rich man, clad in purple and fine linen, who lived sumptuously every day.
20 Outside his door lay a poor man called Lazarus; he was a mass of ulcers,
21 and fain to eat up the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. (The very dogs used to come and lick his ulcers.)
22 Now it happened that the poor man died, and he was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man died too, and was buried.
23 And as he was being tortured in Hades he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus in his bosom;
24 so he called out, 'Father Abraham, take pity on me, send Lazarus to dip his fingertip in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in these flames.'
25 But Abraham said, 'Remember, my son, you got all the bliss when you were alive, just as Lazarus got the ills of life; he is in comfort now, and you are in anguish.
26 Besides all that, a great gulf yawns between us and you, to keep back those who want to cross from us to you and also those who want to pass from you to us.'
27 Then he said, 'Well, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house,
28 for I have five brothers; let him bear testimony to them, that they may not come to this place of torture as well.'
30 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone only goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'