So if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will entrust you with true riches?
Parallel translations
- WEB If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
- KJV If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
- NKJV Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
- NASB Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true wealth to you?
- NLT And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
If we are unfaithful with worldly wealth, we cannot be trusted with true spiritual riches.
Overview
Money is a test; the 'true riches' are the spiritual treasures of the kingdom. Mishandling the lesser disqualifies one from the greater. Jesus presses that faithful stewardship of material things prepares the heart for the weightier trusts of God's grace.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Luke 12:33Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with purses that will not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
- Prov 8:18–19With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and righteousness.
- Jas 2:5Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?
- Luke 16:9I tell you, use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings.
- Luke 18:22On hearing this, Jesus told him, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
- Eph 3:8Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- Rev 3:18I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 16:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.