Luke 12:18-49

¹⁸Then he said: ‘This is what I will do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my produce and my goods.

¹⁹And I will say to my soul: Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and enjoy yourself!’

²⁰But God said to him: ‘Stupid! This very night your life is being taken back from you; then who will get the things you have prepared?’

²¹Just like that is he who accumulates treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

²²Then He said to His disciples: “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will wear.

²³Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.

²⁴Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storeroom nor barn, and God feeds them. You are far more valuable than the birds!

²⁵And who among you can add one cubit to his height by worrying?

²⁶So if you cannot do even such a little thing, why worry about the rest?

²⁷“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; I say to you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of these.

²⁸So if God so clothes the grass that today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into an oven, how much more you, O little-faiths!

²⁹Do not concentrate on what you may eat or what you may drink; do not be anxious.

³⁰All these things really occupy the nations of the world, and your Father knows that you need them.

³¹Rather, concentrate on the Kingdom of God, and all these things will be provided for you.

³²“Do not fear, little flock, because it pleased the Father to give you the Kingdom.

³³Sell your possessions and give to charity. Make for yourselves ‘purses’ that will not wear out, an unfailing treasure in the heavens, where a thief cannot approach, nor a moth destroy.

³⁴Because where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

³⁵“Let your waists be belted and your lamps burning,

³⁶and you yourselves like men waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding celebration, so that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately.

³⁷Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find watching when he comes. Assuredly I say to you that he will gird himself and have them recline, and will come and serve them.

³⁸And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those slaves.

³⁹But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and not allowed his house to be broken into.

⁴⁰Therefore you also be ready, because the Son of the Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

⁴¹Then Peter said to Him, “Lord, are you directing this parable to us, or to everyone?”

⁴²So the Lord said: “Who then is the faithful and prudent steward whom his master will place over his household to give them the food allowance at the right time?

⁴³Blessed is that slave whom his master will find so doing when he comes.

⁴⁴I tell you truly that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

⁴⁵But if that servant should say in his heart, ‘My master won't come for a while,’ and should begin to hit the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk,

⁴⁶the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour that he does not know, and will cut him in two and appoint his portion with the unbelievers.

⁴⁷“That servant who knew his master's will, but neither got ready nor did according to that will, will be beaten with many blows.

⁴⁸But he who did not know, yet did things worthy of blows, will be beaten with few. Everyone to whom much has been given, from him much will be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him much more will be asked.

⁴⁹“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!