014:031 Or what king, marching to encounter another king in war,
does not first sit down and deliberate whether he is able
with ten thousand men to meet the one who is advancing against
him with twenty thousand?
014:032 If not, while the other is still a long way off, he sends
messengers and sues for peace.
014:033 Just as no one of you who does not detach himself from all
that belongs to him can be a disciple of mine.
014:034 "Salt is good: but if even the salt has become tasteless,
what will you use to season it?
014:035 Neither for land nor dunghill is it of any use; they throw
it away. Listen, every one who has ears to listen with!"
015:001 Now the tax-gatherers and the notorious sinners were everywhere
in the habit of coming close to Him to listen to Him;
015:002 and this led the Pharisees and the Scribes indignantly
to complain, saying, "He gives a welcome to notorious sinners,
and joins them at their meals!"
015:003 So in figurative language He asked them,
015:004 "Which of you men, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost
one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in their pasture
and go in search of the lost one till he finds it?
015:005 And when he has found it, he lifts it on his shoulder,
glad at heart.
015:006 Then coming home he calls his friends and neighbours together,
and says, `Congratulate me, for I have found my sheep--
the one I had lost.'
015:007 I tell you that in the same way there will be rejoicing in Heaven
over one repentant sinner--more rejoicing than over ninety-nine
blameless persons who have no need of repentance.
015:008 "Or what woman who has ten silver coins, if she loses one of them,
does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully
till she finds it?
015:009 And when she has found it, she calls together her friends
and neighbours, and says, "`Congratulate me, for I have found
the coin which I had lost.'
015:010 "I tell you that in the same way there is rejoicing in the presence
of the angels of God over one repentant sinner."
015:011 He went on to say, "There was a man who had two sons.
015:012 The younger of them said to his father, "`Father, give me
the share of the property that comes to me.' "So he divided
his wealth between them.
015:013 No long time afterwards the younger son got all together
and travelled to a distant country, where he wasted his money
in debauchery and excess.
015:014 At last, when he had spent everything, there came a terrible
famine throughout that country, and he began to feel
the pinch of want.
015:015 So he went and hired himself to one of the inhabitants
of that country, who sent him on to his farm to tend swine;
015:016 and he longed to make a hearty meal of the pods the swine
were eating, but no one gave him any.
015:017 "But on coming to himself he said, "`How many of my father's
hired men have more bread than they want, while I here am
dying of hunger!
015:018 I will rise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have
sinned against Heaven and before you:
015:019 I no longer deserve to be called a son of yours:
treat me as one of your hired men.'
015:020 "So he rose and came to his father. But while he was still
a long way off, his father saw him and pitied him, and ran
and threw his arms round his neck and kissed him tenderly.
015:021 "`Father,' cried the son, `I have sinned against Heaven
and before you: no longer do I deserve to be called
a son of yours.'
015:022 "But the father said to his servants, "`Fetch a good coat quickly--
the best one--and put it on him; and bring a ring for his
finger and shoes for his feet.
015:023 Fetch the fat calf and kill it, and let us feast and enjoy ourselves;
015:024 for my son here was dead and has come to life again:
he was lost and has been found.' "And they began to be merry.
015:025 "Now his elder son was out on the farm; and when he returned
and came near home, he heard music and dancing.
015:026 Then he called one of the lads to him and asked what all this meant.
015:027 "`Your brother has come,' he replied; `and your father
has had the fat calf killed, because he has got him home
safe and sound.'
015:028 "Then he was angry and would not go in. But his father came
out and entreated him.
015:029 "`All these years,' replied the son, `I have been slaving for you,
and I have never at any time disobeyed any of your orders,
and yet you have never given me so much as a kid, for me
to enjoy myself with my friends;
015:030 but now that this son of yours is come who has eaten up
your property among his bad women, you have killed the fat
calf for him.'
015:031 "`You my dear son,' said the father, `are always with me,
and all that is mine is also yours.
015:032 We are bound to make merry and rejoice, for this brother
of yours was dead and has come back to life, he was lost
and has been found.'"
016:001 He said also to His disciples: "There was a rich man
who had a steward, about whom a report was brought to him,
that he was wasting his property.
016:002 He called him and said, "`What is this I hear about you?
Render an account of your stewardship, for I cannot let you
hold it any longer.'
016:003 "Then the steward said within himself, "`What am I to do?
For my master is taking away the stewardship from me.
I am not strong enough for field labour: to beg,
I should be ashamed.
016:004 I see what to do, in order that when I am discharged from
the stewardship they may give me a home in their own houses.'
016:005 "So he called all his master's debtors, one by one, and asked
the first, `How much are you in debt to my master?'
016:006 "`A hundred firkins of oil,' he replied. "`Here is your account,'
said the steward: `sit down quickly and change it
into fifty firkins.'
016:007 "To a second he said, "`And how much do you owe?' "`A hundred
quarters of wheat,' was the answer. "`Here is your account,'
said he: `change it into eighty quarters.'
016:008 "And the master praised the dishonest steward for his shrewdness;
for, in relation to their own contemporaries, the men of this
age are shrewder than the sons of Light.
016:009 "But I charge you, so to use the wealth which is ever
tempting to dishonesty as to win friends who, when it fails,
shall welcome you to the tents that never perish.
016:010 The man who is honest in a very small matter is honest
in a great one also; and he who is dishonest in a very small
matter is dishonest in a great one also.
016:011 If therefore you have not proved yourselves faithful in dealing
with the wealth that is tainted with fraud, who will entrust
to you the true good?
016:012 And if you have not been faithful in dealing with that which is
not your own, who will give you that which is your own?
016:013 "No servant can be in bondage to two masters.
For either he will hate one and love the other,
or else he will cling fast to one and scorn the other.
You cannot be bondservants both of God and of gold."
016:014 To all this the Pharisees listened, bitterly jeering at Him;
for they were lovers of money.
016:015 "You are they," He said to them, "who boast of their own goodness
before men, but God sees your hearts; for that which holds
a proud position among men is detestable in God's sight.
016:016 The Law and the Prophets continued until John came:
from that time the Good News of the Kingdom of God has
been spreading, and all classes have been forcing their
way into it.
016:017 But it is easier for earth and sky to pass away than for one
smallest detail of the Law to fall to the ground.
016:018 Every man who divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery; and he who marries her when so divorced
from her husband commits adultery.
016:019 "There was once a rich man who habitually arrayed himself in purple
and fine linen, and enjoyed a splendid banquet every day,
016:020 while at his outer door there lay a beggar, Lazarus by name,
016:021 covered with sores and longing to make a full meal off
the scraps flung on the floor from the rich man's table.
Nay, the dogs, too, used to come and lick his sores.
016:022 "But in course of time the beggar died; and he was carried
by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died,
and had a funeral.
016:023 And in Hades, being in torment, he looked and saw Abraham
in the far distance, and Lazarus resting in his arms.
016:024 So he cried aloud, and said, "`Father Abraham, take pity
on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water
and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.'
016:025 "`Remember, my child,' said Abraham, `that you had all
your good things during your lifetime, and that Lazarus
in like manner had his bad things. But, now and here,
he is receiving consolation and you are in agony.
016:026 And, besides all this, a vast chasm is immovably fixed between
us and you, put there in order that those who desire to cross
from this side to you may not be able, nor any be able to cross
over from your side to us.'
016:027 "`I entreat you then, father,' said he, `to send him to
my father's house.
016:028 For I have five brothers. Let him earnestly warn them,
lest they also come to this place of torment.'
016:029 "`They have Moses and the Prophets,' replied Abraham;
`let them hear them.'
016:030 "`No, father Abraham,' he pleaded; `but if some one goes
to them from the dead, they will repent.'
016:031 "`If they are deaf to Moses and the Prophets,' replied Abraham,
`they would not be led to believe even if some one should rise
from the dead.'"
017:001 Jesus said to His disciples, "It is inevitable that causes of
stumbling should come; but alas for him through whom they come!
017:002 It would be well for him if, with a millstone round his neck,
he were lying at the bottom of the sea, rather than that
he should cause even one of these little ones to fall.
017:003 Be on your guard. "If your brother acts wrongly, reprove him;
and if he is sorry, forgive him;
017:004 and if seven times in a day he acts wrongly towards you,
and seven times turns again to you and says, `I am sorry,'
you must forgive him."