Holman Christian Standard Bible (308 page)

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22
 “But the father told his
•slaves
, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger
 
and sandals on his feet.
23
 Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let's celebrate with a feast,
24
 because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found! ' So they began to celebrate.
25
 “Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.
26
 So he summoned one of the servants and asked what these things meant.
27
 ‘Your brother is here,' he told him, ‘and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'
 
28
 “Then he became angry and didn't want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him.
29
 But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
30
 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets
 
with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.'
31
 “ ‘Son,'
 
he said to him, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.
32
 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' ”
Luke
The Parable of the Dishonest Manager
16
He also said to the disciples:
“There was a rich man who received an accusation that his manager was squandering his possessions.
2
 So 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 should I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I'm not strong enough to dig; I'm ashamed to beg.
4
 I 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 50.'
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 80.'
8
 “The master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted astutely. For the sons of this age are more astute than the sons of light in dealing with their own people.
 
9
 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous money so that when it fails,
 
they may welcome you into eternal dwellings.
10
 Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much.
11
 So if you have not been faithful with the unrighteous money, who will trust you with what is genuine?
12
 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is your own?
13
 No household slave can be the
•slave
of two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can't be slaves to both God and money.”
Kingdom Values
14
 The
•Pharisees
, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and scoffing at Him.
15
 And 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 strongly urged to enter it.
 
17
 But 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.
The Rich Man and Lazarus
19
 “There was a rich man who would dress in purple and fine linen, feasting lavishly every day.
20
 But a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, was left at his gate.
 
21
 He longed to be filled with what fell from the rich man's table, but instead the dogs would come and lick his sores.
22
 One day the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's side.
The rich man also died and was buried.
23
 And 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.
26
 Besides 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 —
28
 because 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.' ” 
Luke
Warnings from Jesus
17
He said to His disciples,
“Offenses
 
will certainly come,
 
but woe to the one they come through!
2
 It 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
.
 
3
 Be on your guard. If your brother sins,
 
rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.
4
 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,' you must forgive him.”
Faith and Duty
5
 The 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
•slave
tending sheep or plowing will say to him when he comes in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat'?
8
 Instead, 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'? 
9
 Does he thank that slave because he did what was commanded?
 
10
 In the same way, when you have done all that you were commanded, you should say, ‘We are good-for-nothing slaves; we've only done our duty.' ”
Ten Men Healed
11
 While traveling to Jerusalem, He passed between Samaria and Galilee. 
12
 As He entered a village, 10 men with serious skin diseases met Him. They stood at a distance
13
 and raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us! ”
14
 When He saw them, He told them,
“Go and show yourselves to the priests.”
 And while they were going, they were healed. 
15
 But one of them, seeing that he was healed, returned and, with a loud voice, gave glory to God. 
16
 He fell facedown at His feet, thanking Him. And he was a
•Samaritan

17
 Then Jesus said,
“Were not 10 cleansed? Where are the nine?
18
 Didn't any return
 
to give glory to God except this foreigner? ”
19
 And He told him,
“Get up and go on your way. Your faith has made you well.”
The Coming of the Kingdom
20
 Being asked by the
•Pharisees
when the kingdom of God will come, He answered them,
“The kingdom of God is not coming with something observable;
21
 no one will say,
 
‘Look here! ' or ‘There! ' For you see, the kingdom of God is among you.”
22
 Then He told the disciples:
“The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the
•Son
of Man, but you won't see it.
 
23
 They will say to you, ‘Look there! ' or ‘Look here! ' Don't follow or run after them.
 
24
 For as the lightning flashes from horizon to horizon and lights up the sky, so the Son of Man will be in His day.
 
25
 But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
 
26
 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man:
27
 People went on eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day Noah boarded the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
28
 It will be the same as it was in the days of Lot: People went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building.
29
 But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all.
30
 It will be like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
 
31
 On that day, a man on the housetop, whose belongings are in the house, must not come down to get them. Likewise the man who is in the field must not turn back.
32
 Remember Lot's wife!
 
33
 Whoever tries to make his
•life
secure
will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
 
34
 I tell you, on that night two will be in one bed: One will be taken and the other will be left.
35
 Two women will be grinding grain together: One will be taken and the other left.
[
36
 Two will be in a field: One will be taken, and the other will be left.]”
 
37
 “Where, Lord? ” they asked Him.
He said to them,
“Where the corpse is, there also the vultures will be gathered.”
Luke
The Parable of the Persistent Widow
18
He then told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not become discouraged: 
2
 “There was a judge in a certain town who didn't fear God or respect man.
3
 And a widow in that town kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.'
4
 “For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, ‘Even though I don't fear God or respect man,
5
 yet because this widow keeps pestering me,
 
I will give her justice, so she doesn't wear me out
 
by her persistent coming.' ”
6
 Then the Lord said,
“Listen to what the unjust judge says.
7
 Will not God grant justice to His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay to help them?
 
8
 I tell you that He will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the
•Son
of Man comes, will He find that faith
 
on earth? ”
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
9
 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else:
10
 “Two men went up to the
•temple
complex to pray, one a
•Pharisee
and the other a tax collector.
11
 The Pharisee took his stand
and was praying like this: ‘God, I thank You that I'm not like other people
 
 — greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
12
 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth
of everything I get.'
13
 “But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven but kept striking his chest
and saying, ‘God, turn Your wrath from me
 — a sinner! ' 
14
 I tell you, this one went down to his house
•justified
 rather than the other; because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
 

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