Luke 12:31-49

³¹No, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added for you.

³²So do not be afraid, my little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.

³³“Sell what belongs to you, and give in charity. Make yourselves purses that will not wear out — an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, or moth works ruin.

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

³⁵Make yourselves ready, with your lamps alight;

³⁶and be like servants who are waiting for their Master's return from his wedding, so that, when he comes and knocks, they may open the door for him at once.

³⁷Happy are those servants whom, on his return, the Master will find watching. I tell you that he will make himself ready, and have them take their places at the table, and will come and serve them.

³⁸Whether it is late at night, or in the early morning that he comes, if he finds all as it should be, then happy are they.

³⁹This you do know, that, had the owner of the house known at what time the thief was coming, he would have been on the watch, and would not have let his house be broken into.

⁴⁰You must also prepare, for when you are least expecting him the Son of Man will come.”

⁴¹“Master,” said Peter, “are you telling this parable with reference to us or to everyone?”

⁴²“Who, then,” replied the Master, “is that trustworthy steward, the careful man, who will be placed by his master over his establishment, to give them their rations at the proper time?

⁴³Happy will that servant be whom his master, when he comes home, will find doing this.

⁴⁴His master, I tell you, will put him in charge of the whole of his property.

⁴⁵But should that servant say to himself ‘My master is a long time coming,’ and begin to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk,

⁴⁶that servant's master will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour of which he is unaware, and will flog him severely and assign him his place among the untrustworthy.

⁴⁷The servant who knows his master's wishes and yet does not prepare and act accordingly will receive many lashes;

⁴⁸while one who does not know his master's wishes, but acts so as to deserve a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone to whom much has been given much will be expected, and from the man to whom much has been entrusted the more will be demanded.

⁴⁹I came to cast fire on the earth; and what more can I wish, if it is already kindled?