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12 If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours? 13 No servant can serve two masters.[a] He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”(A)

A Saying Against the Pharisees. 14 [b]The Pharisees, who loved money,[c] heard all these things and sneered at him.

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Footnotes

  1. 16:13 The third conclusion is a general statement about the incompatibility of serving God and being a slave to riches. To be dependent upon wealth is opposed to the teachings of Jesus who counseled complete dependence on the Father as one of the characteristics of the Christian disciple (Lk 12:22–39). God and mammon: see note on Lk 16:9. Mammon is used here as if it were itself a god.
  2. 16:14–18 The two parables about the use of riches in chap. 16 are separated by several isolated sayings of Jesus on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees (Lk 16:14–15), on the law (Lk 16:16–17), and on divorce (Lk 16:18).
  3. 16:14–15 The Pharisees are here presented as examples of those who are slaves to wealth (see Lk 16:13) and, consequently, they are unable to serve God.