Chronological NT Plan

¹Now he said to the disciples: “There was a rich man who received an accusation that his manager was squandering his possessions.

²So he called the manager in and asked, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you can no longer be my manager.’

³“Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do since my master is taking the management away from me? I’m not strong enough to dig; I’m ashamed to beg.

⁴I know what I’ll do so that when I’m removed from management, people will welcome me into their homes.’

⁵“So he summoned each one of his master’s debtors. ‘How much do you owe my master? ’ he asked the first one.

⁶“‘A hundred measures of olive oil,’ he said. “‘Take your invoice,’ he told him, ‘sit down quickly, and write fifty.’

⁷“Next he asked another, ‘How much do you owe?’ “‘A hundred measures of wheat,’ he said. “‘Take your invoice,’ he told him, ‘and write eighty.’

⁸“The master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the children of this age are more shrewd than the children of light in dealing with their own people.

⁹And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of worldly wealth so that when it fails, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings.

¹⁰Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much.

¹¹So if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with what is genuine?

¹²And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is your own?

¹³No servant can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

¹⁴The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and scoffing at him.

¹⁵And he told them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly admired by people is revolting in God’s sight.

¹⁶“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then, the good news of the kingdom of God has been proclaimed, and everyone is urgently invited to enter it.

¹⁷But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter in the law to drop out.

¹⁸“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and everyone who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

¹⁹“There was a rich man who would dress in purple and fine linen, feasting lavishly every day.

²⁰But a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, was lying at his gate.

²¹He longed to be filled with what fell from the rich man’s table, but instead the dogs would come and lick his sores.

²²One day the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.

²³And being in torment in Hades, he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off, with Lazarus at his side.

²⁴‘Father Abraham! ’ he called out, ‘Have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this flame!’

²⁵“‘Son,’ Abraham said, ‘remember that during your life you received your good things, just as Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.

²⁶Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that those who want to pass over from here to you cannot; neither can those from there cross over to us.’

²⁷“‘Father,’ he said, ‘then I beg you to send him to my father’s house — 

²⁸because I have five brothers — to warn them, so they won’t also come to this place of torment.’

²⁹“But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.’

³⁰“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said. ‘But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

³¹“But he told him, ‘If they don’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’”

¹He said to his disciples, “Offenses will certainly come, but woe to the one through whom they come!

²It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

³Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.

⁴And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

⁵The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”

⁶“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed,” the Lord said, “you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

⁷“Which one of you having a servant tending sheep or plowing will say to him when he comes in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’?

⁸Instead, will he not tell him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, get ready, and serve me while I eat and drink; later you can eat and drink’?

⁹Does he thank that servant because he did what was commanded?

¹⁰In the same way, when you have done all that you were commanded, you should say, ‘We are worthless servants; we’ve only done our duty.’”