Forefeast of Entry

This is a faithful saying: someone who seeks to be an overseer desires a good work. ²The overseer therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, modest, hospitable, good at teaching; ³not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; ⁴one who rules his own house well, having children in subjection with all reverence; ⁵(for how could someone who doesn’t know how to rule his own house take care of God’s assembly?) ⁶not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. ⁷Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.

⁸Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money, ⁹holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. ¹⁰Let them also first be tested; then let them serve if they are blameless. ¹¹Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things. ¹²Let servants be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. ¹³For those who have served well gain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

He also said to his disciples, “There was a certain rich man who had a manager. An accusation was made to him that this man was wasting his possessions. ²He called him, and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’

³“The manager said within himself, ‘What will I do, seeing that my lord is taking away the management position from me? I don’t have strength to dig. I am ashamed to beg. ⁴I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from management, they may receive me into their houses.’ ⁵Calling each one of his lord’s debtors to him, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe to my lord?’ ⁶He said, ‘A hundred batos of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷Then he said to another, ‘How much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred cors of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

⁸“His lord commended the dishonest manager because he had done wisely, for the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser than the children of the light. ⁹I tell you, make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tents.