Luke 16:8-18

⁸That 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.

⁹This 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.’”

¹⁰Then 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.

¹¹So 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.

¹²And if you don’t handle other people’s things properly, God will not give you things for yourself.

¹³You 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.”

¹⁴The Jewish law men, called Pharisees, they loved their money. They heard Jesus teach these things, and they laughed at him.

¹⁵Then 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.

¹⁶You know, God gave Moses the law for people to follow, and he sent other men to tell people God’s messages. And God’s people followed those words, from the time of Moses until the time that John the Baptiser came. Then John told people about the new way. And I’m telling people about that new way too. I’m telling them how to join God’s family, too, and now lots of people are trying hard to get into God’s family.

¹⁷But the laws from Moses will not go away. You know, the sky and the earth will stay here for a long time, and while they stay here, God’s words will stay here too. God won’t change any little bit of them. They will stay here till everything in them happens.”

¹⁸Then Jesus said, “Some of those words from God are about people that want to break up their marriage. It is wrong. If a man divorces his wife and marries another woman, he is sleeping with the wrong woman. She is not his proper wife. And if another man marries the divorced woman, that man is sleeping with the wrong woman, too.”