Luke 14:7-14

Contemporary English Version

How To Be a Guest

⁷ Jesus saw how the guests had tried to take the best seats. So he told them:

^8 (A) When you are invited to a wedding feast, don't sit in the best place. Someone more important may have been invited. ⁹ Then the one who invited you will come and say, “Give your place to this other guest!” You will be embarrassed and will have to sit in the worst place.

¹⁰ When you are invited to be a guest, go and sit in the worst place. Then the one who invited you may come and say, “My friend, take a better seat!” You will then be honored in front of all the other guests. ^11 (B) If you put yourself above others, you will be put down. But if you humble yourself, you will be honored.

¹² Then Jesus said to the man who had invited him:

When you give a dinner or a banquet, don't invite your friends and family and relatives and rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return, and you will be paid back. ¹³ When you give a feast, invite the poor, the paralyzed, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴ They cannot pay you back. But God will bless you and reward you when his people rise from death.