Luke 16:13 Explained in Context

Selected verse

Verse 13. No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Quick Meaning

Luke 16:13 makes service to God and mammon mutually exclusive masters.

Read It With

Luke 16:1–16:13

Read Luke 16:13 with 16:1–16:13. In isolation, this contribution—makes service to God and mammon mutually exclusive masters—can be detached from its speaker, audience, scene or teaching sequence, and outcome. The complete unit establishes: A manager facing dismissal reduces debtors' bills, wins social obligations, and is commended for shrewd foresight; Jesus then calls for faithful use of unrighteous wealth and insists no one can serve both God and mammon.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Luke 16:13 makes service to God and mammon mutually exclusive masters. This precise contribution belongs inside “A Dishonest Manager Forces a Decision about Wealth” because A manager facing dismissal reduces debtors' bills, wins social obligations, and is commended for shrewd foresight; Jesus then calls for faithful use of unrighteous wealth and insists no one can serve both God and mammon.

Follow the Context

Identify the actors, setting, and initiating speech or action in Luke 16:1–16:13.
A manager facing dismissal reduces debtors' bills, wins social obligations, and is commended for shrewd foresight; Jesus then calls for faithful use of unrighteous wealth and insists no one can serve both God and mammon.
Hold this material interpretive limit in view: The parable commends decisive foresight, not fraud. Details of debt, interest, landlord complicity, and the meaning of 'make friends' remain disputed; application must stay under 16:10-13.

What This Verse Is Not Saying

This verse does not detach its specific contribution—makes service to God and mammon mutually exclusive masters—from the complete unit or override the unit's explicit boundary: This parable does not authorize embezzlement, bribery, prosperity schemes, manipulation of debtors, or buying salvation.

What Remains True

Luke 16:13 makes service to God and mammon mutually exclusive masters. Read inside Luke 16:1–16:13, this contribution supports the unit's proportionate truth: A manager facing dismissal reduces debtors' bills, wins social obligations, and is commended for shrewd foresight; Jesus then calls for faithful use of unrighteous wealth and insists no one can serve both God and mammon. Its use remains accountable to affected people and the unit's explicit boundary.

How It Can Shape Life

Luke 16:13 makes service to God and mammon mutually exclusive masters. Its faithful response is proportionate to that role: Use money with foresight, honesty, and accountability in service of people rather than self-preservation; shrewdness never excuses fraud, bribery, manipulated debt, or purchasing salvation.

Teach It Back

Explain Luke 16:13's specific contribution to Luke 16:1–16:13: makes service to God and mammon mutually exclusive masters. Include the preceding and following movement, one source-controlled uncertainty, one affected person or group, and what the verse does not authorize.

Explain the verse in context

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Continue in Context

The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.

Read Luke 16:1–16:13 — A Dishonest Manager Forces a Decision about Wealth

Sources used for this Verse Lens

How certain is this explanation? probable

Where care is needed

The parable commends decisive foresight, not fraud. Details of debt, interest, landlord complicity, and the meaning of 'make friends' remain disputed; application must stay under 16:10-13.

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and coverage.

Exact location: Luke 16:1–16:13, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus

Open source ↗

Greek textual evidence

The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition

Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos

Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010

Supports: Greek wording and sentence relations; the edition is not treated as a complete apparatus.

Exact location: Faithlife SBLGNT official repository, data/sblgnt/text/Luke.txt, 16:1–16:13

Open the Luke Greek text file ↗

open translation and translator notes

NET Bible First Edition Notes: Luke

Biblical Studies Press

Biblical Studies Press, 2006

Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, KJV-language clarification, historical notes, Synoptic parallels, and textual alternatives.

Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Luke PDF, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to Luke 16:1–16:13

Open source ↗

Open the complete thought-unit research record