And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?
Parallel translations
- WEB If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
- KJV And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?
- BSB And if you have not been faithful with the belongings of another, who will give you belongings of your own?
- NKJV And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?
- NASB And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
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 unfaithful with what belongs to another, we will not be given what is truly our own.
Overview
All earthly wealth belongs ultimately to God; we are stewards of 'another's' property. Faithfulness here leads to receiving our own eternal inheritance. The verse frames Christian use of possessions as a trust whose right handling has eternal consequences.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Luke 19:13–26He called ten servants of his, and gave them ten mina coins, and told them, ‘Conduct business until I come.’
- Job 1:21He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s name.”
- Matt 25:14–29“For it is like a man, going into another country, who called his own servants, and entrusted his goods to them.
- 1 Pet 1:4–5to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you,
- Ezek 16:16–21You took some of your garments, and made for yourselves high places decked with various colors, and played the prostitute on them. This shall not come, neither shall it be.
- 1 Chr 29:14–16But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.
- Col 3:3–4For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
- Hos 2:8For she did not know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.
- Luke 10:42but one thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
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 16:12 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.