7 Then the manager asked the next man, ‘What did you borrow from my boss?’ That man answered, ‘I borrowed 100 bags of flour.’ The manager said, ‘We can change that. Here is the paper, I’ll let you change it right now. Make it 80 bags of flour.’
8 That manager was cheating his boss, but his boss thought, ‘This man is a liar and a cheat, but he is smart too. He has done something that will help him get his food later.’” Then Jesus said, “You know, the people that don’t care about God, but only care about the things in this world, they are smarter with the things of this world than God’s people.
9 This is what you can learn from that story. Use your money now to help people that need money, and then later, after you die and have nothing on this earth, God will say, ‘Good on you. Come and live for ever here in heaven.’”
10 Then Jesus said, “If people can trust you with little things, they can trust you with big things too. If you cheat with little things, you will cheat with big things too.
11 So if you cheat when you handle money and other things of this world, God will not trust you to handle the very dear spiritual things of heaven.
12 And if you don’t handle other people’s things properly, God will not give you things for yourself.
13 You see, you can’t work for 2 bosses at the same time. If you try to do that, you will like one boss and work properly for him, and you will not like the other boss, and not work properly for him. You see, you can’t have God as your boss, and money as your boss, both at the same time.”
14 The Jewish law men, called Pharisees, they loved their money. They heard Jesus teach these things, and they laughed at him.
15 Then Jesus told them, “You mob want everyone to think you are good, but God knows what you are really like, and he knows what you think inside your heads. You see, there are things that people reckon are important, but God thinks those things are rubbish.