Luke 16:1

¹⁰As each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another, as good managers of the grace of God in its various forms.

¹⁴“For it is like a man going into another country, who called his own servants and entrusted his goods to them. ¹⁵To one he gave five talents,^[+] to another two, to another one, to each according to his own ability. Then he went on his journey. ¹⁶Immediately he who received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. ¹⁷In the same way, he also who got the two gained another two. ¹⁸But he who received the one talent went away and dug in the earth and hid his lord’s money.

¹⁹“Now after a long time the lord of those servants came, and settled accounts with them. ²⁰He who received the five talents came and brought another five talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Behold, I have gained another five talents in addition to them.’

²¹“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

²²“He also who got the two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Behold, I have gained another two talents in addition to them.’

²³“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

²⁴“He also who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you didn’t sow, and gathering where you didn’t scatter. ²⁵I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the earth. Behold, you have what is yours.’

²⁶“But his lord answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I didn’t sow, and gather where I didn’t scatter. ²⁷You ought therefore to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received back my own with interest. ²⁸Take away therefore the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. ²⁹For to everyone who has will be given, and he will have abundance, but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away. ³⁰Throw out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

¹So let a man think of us as Christ’s servants and stewards of God’s mysteries. ²Here, moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

⁴²The Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the right times?

³You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

⁷For the overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward, not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain;

³⁰But when this your son came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’

¹³Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.

²⁰Another came, saying, ‘Lord, behold, your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief,

⁹One who is slack in his work is brother to him who is a master of destruction.