Luke 12
12
Can’t Hide Behind a Religious Mask
1-3By this time the crowd, unwieldy and stepping on each other’s toes, numbered into the thousands. But Jesus’ primary concern was his disciples. He said to them, “Watch yourselves carefully so you don’t get contaminated with Pharisee yeast, Pharisee phoniness. You can’t keep your true self hidden forever; before long you’ll be exposed. You can’t hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known. You can’t whisper one thing in private and preach the opposite in public; the day’s coming when those whispers will be repeated all over town.
4-5“I’m speaking to you as dear friends. Don’t be bluffed into silence or insincerity by the threats of religious bullies. True, they can kill you, but then what can they do? There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.
6-7“What’s the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never overlooks a single one. And he pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.
8-9“Stand up for me among the people you meet and the Son of Man will stand up for you before all God’s angels. But if you pretend you don’t know me, do you think I’ll defend you before God’s angels?
10“If you bad-mouth the Son of Man out of misunderstanding or ignorance, that can be overlooked. But if you’re knowingly attacking God himself, taking aim at the Holy Spirit, that won’t be overlooked.
11-12“When they drag you into their meeting places, or into police courts and before judges, don’t worry about defending yourselves—what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there. The Holy Spirit will give you the right words when the time comes.”
The Story of the Greedy Farmer
13Someone out of the crowd said, “Teacher, order my brother to give me a fair share of the family inheritance.”
14He replied, “Mister, what makes you think it’s any of my business to be a judge or mediator for you?”
15Speaking to the people, he went on, “Take care! Protect yourself against the least bit of greed. Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.”
16-19Then he told them this story: “The farm of a certain rich man produced a terrific crop. He talked to himself: ‘What can I do? My barn isn’t big enough for this harvest.’ Then he said, ‘Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. Then I’ll gather in all my grain and goods, and I’ll say to myself, Self, you’ve done well! You’ve got it made and can now retire. Take it easy and have the time of your life!’
20“Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?’
21“That’s what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.”
Steep Yourself in God-Reality
22-24He continued this subject with his disciples. “Don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the ravens, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, carefree in the care of God. And you count far more.
25-28“Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can’t even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?
29-32“What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.
33-34“Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
When the Master Shows Up
35-38“Keep your shirts on; keep the lights on! Be like house servants waiting for their master to come back from his honeymoon, awake and ready to open the door when he arrives and knocks. Lucky the servants whom the master finds on watch! He’ll put on an apron, sit them at the table, and serve them a meal, sharing his wedding feast with them. It doesn’t matter what time of the night he arrives; they’re awake—and so blessed!
39-40“You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be lazy and careless. Just when you don’t expect him, the Son of Man will show up.”
41Peter said, “Master, are you telling this story just for us? Or is it for everybody?”
42-46The Master said, “Let me ask you: Who is the dependable manager, full of common sense, that the master puts in charge of his staff to feed them well and on time? He is a blessed man if when the master shows up he’s doing his job. But if he says to himself, ‘The master is certainly taking his time,’ begins beating up on the servants and maids, throws parties for his friends, and gets drunk, the master will walk in when he least expects it, give him the thrashing of his life, and put him back in the kitchen peeling potatoes.
47-48“The servant who knows what his master wants and ignores it, or insolently does whatever he pleases, will be thoroughly thrashed. But if he does a poor job through ignorance, he’ll get off with a slap on the hand. Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!
To Start a Fire
49-53“I’ve come to start a fire on this earth—how I wish it were blazing right now! I’ve come to change everything, turn everything rightside up—how I long for it to be finished! Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I’ve come to disrupt and confront! From now on, when you find five in a house, it will be—
Three against two,
and two against three;
Father against son,
and son against father;
Mother against daughter,
and daughter against mother;
Mother-in-law against bride,
and bride against mother-in-law.”
54-56Then he turned to the crowd: “When you see clouds coming in from the west, you say, ‘Storm’s coming’—and you’re right. And when the wind comes out of the south, you say, ‘This’ll be a hot one’—and you’re right. Frauds! You know how to tell a change in the weather, so don’t tell me you can’t tell a change in the season, the God-season we’re in right now.
57-59“You don’t have to be a genius to understand these things. Just use your common sense, the kind you’d use if, while being taken to court, you decided to settle up with your accuser on the way, knowing that if the case went to the judge you’d probably go to jail and pay every last penny of the fine. That’s the kind of decision I’m asking you to make.”
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Luke 12: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Luke 12
12
1 Then, as great crowds were standing so close that they were stepping on one another, he began to say to his disciples: "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
2 For there is nothing covered, which will not be revealed, nor anything hidden, which will not be known.
3 For the things that you have spoken in darkness will be declared in the light. And what you have said in the ear in bedrooms will be proclaimed from the housetops.
4 So I say to you, my friends: Do not be fearful of those who kill the body, and afterwards have no more that they can do.
5 But I will reveal to you whom you should fear. Fear him who, after he will have killed, has the power to cast into Hell. So I say to you: Fear him.
6 Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? And yet not one of these is forgotten in the sight of God.
7 But even the very hairs of your head have all been numbered. Therefore, do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.
8 But I say to you: Everyone who will have confessed me before men, the Son of man will also confess him before the Angels of God.
9 But everyone who will have denied me before men, he will be denied before the Angels of God.
10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven of him. But of him who will have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.
11 And when they will lead you to the synagogues, and to magistrates and authorities, do not choose to be worried about how or what you will answer, or about what you might say.
12 For the Holy Spirit will teach you, in the same hour, what you must say."
13 And someone from the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me."
14 But he said to him, "Man, who has appointed me as judge or arbitrator over you?"
15 So he said to them: "Be cautious and wary of all avarice. For a person's life is not found in the abundance of the things that he possesses."
16 Then he spoke to them using a comparison, saying: "The fertile land of a certain wealthy man produced crops.
17 And he thought within himself, saying: 'What should I do? For I have nowhere to gather together my crops.'
18 And he said: 'This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And into these, I will gather all the things that have been grown for me, as well as my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods, stored up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, and be cheerful.'
20 But God said to him: 'Foolish one, this very night they require your soul of you. To whom, then, will those things belong, which you have prepared?'
21 So it is with him who stores up for himself, and is not wealthy with God."
22 And he said to his disciples: "And so I say to you: Do not choose to be anxious about your life, as to what you may eat, nor about your body, as to what you will wear.
23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.
24 Consider the ravens. For they neither sow nor reap; there is no storehouse or barn for them. And yet God pastures them. How much more are you, compared to them?
25 But which of you, by thinking, is able to add one cubit to his stature?
26 Therefore, if you are not capable, in what is so little, why be anxious about the rest?
27 Consider the lilies, how they grow. They neither work nor weave. But I say to you, not even Solomon, in all his glory, was clothed like one of these.
28 Therefore, if God so clothes the grass, which is in the field today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more you, O little in faith?
29 And so, do not choose to inquire as to what you will eat, or what you will drink. And do not choose to be lifted up on high.
30 For all these things are sought by the Gentiles of the world. And your Father knows that you have need of these things.
31 Yet truly, seek first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added to you.
32 Do not be afraid, little flock; for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.
33 Sell what you possess, and give alms. Make for yourselves purses that will not wear out, a treasure that will not fall short, in heaven, where no thief approaches, and no moth corrupts.
34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
35 Let your waists be girded, and let lamps be burning in your hands.
36 And let you yourselves be like men awaiting their lord, when he will return from the wedding; so that, when he arrives and knocks, they may open to him promptly.
37 Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he returns, will find being vigilant. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, while he, continuing on, will minister to them.
38 And if he will return in the second watch, or if in the third watch, and if he will find them to be so: then blessed are those servants.
39 But know this: that if the father of the family knew at what hour the thief would arrive, he would certainly stand watch, and he would not permit his house to be broken into.
40 You also must be prepared. For the Son of man will return at an hour that you will not realize."
41 Then Peter said to him, "Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or also to everyone?"
42 So the Lord said: "Who do you think is the faithful and prudent steward, whom his Lord has appointed over his family, in order to give them their measure of wheat in due time?
43 Blessed is that servant if, when his Lord will return, he will find him acting in this manner.
44 Truly I say to you, that he will appoint him over all that he possesses.
45 But if that servant will have said in his heart, 'My Lord has made a delay in his return,' and if he has begun to strike the men and women servants, and to eat and drink, and to be inebriated,
46 then the Lord of that servant will return on a day which he hoped not, and at an hour which he knew not. And he will separate him, and he will place his portion with that of the unfaithful.
47 And that servant, who knew the will of his Lord, and who did not prepare and did not act according to his will, will be beaten many times over.
48 Yet he who did not know, and who acted in a way that deserves a beating, will be beaten fewer times. So then, of all to whom much has been given, much will be required. And of those to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be asked.
49 I have come to cast a fire upon the earth. And what should I desire, except that it may be kindled?
50 And I have a baptism, with which I am to be baptized. And how I am constrained, even until it may be accomplished!
51 Do you think that I have come to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but division.
52 For from this time on, there will be five in one house: divided as three against two, and as two against three.
53 A father will be divided against a son, and a son against his father; a mother against a daughter and a daughter against a mother; a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
54 And he also said to the crowds: "When you see a cloud rising from the setting of the sun, immediately you say, 'A rain cloud is coming.' And so it does.
55 And when a south wind is blowing, you say, 'It will be hot.' And so it is.
56 You hypocrites! You discern the face of the heavens, and of the earth, yet how is it that you do not discern this time?
57 And why do you not, even among yourselves, judge what is just?
58 So, when you are going with your adversary to the ruler, while you are on the way, make an effort to be freed from him, lest perhaps he may lead you to the judge, and the judge may deliver you to the officer, and the officer may cast you into prison.
59 I tell you, you will not depart from there, until you have paid the very last coin."
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