Luke 12:4-21

⁴To you who are my friends I say, Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but after that can do no more.

⁵I will show you of whom you should be afraid. Be afraid of him who, after killing you, has the power to fling you into Gehenna. Yes, I say, be afraid of him.

⁶Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? Yet not one of them has escaped God's notice.

⁷No, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

⁸Everyone, I tell you, who publicly acknowledges me, the Son of Man, also, will acknowledge before God's angels;

⁹but the person who publicly disowns me will be altogether disowned before God's angels.

¹⁰Everyone who will say anything against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but for the person who slanders the Holy Spirit there will be no forgiveness.

¹¹Whenever they take you before the synagogue Courts or the magistrates or other authorities, do not be anxious as to how you will defend yourselves, or what your defense will be, or what you will say;

¹²for the Holy Spirit will show you at the moment what you ought to say.”

¹³“Teacher,” a man in the crowd said to Jesus, “tell my brother to share the property with me.”

¹⁴But Jesus said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or an arbiter between you?”

¹⁵And then he added, “Take care to keep yourselves free from every form of covetousness; for even in the height of their prosperity a person's true life does not depend on what they have.”

¹⁶Then Jesus told them this parable — “There was once a rich man whose land was very fertile;

¹⁷and he began to ask himself ‘What will I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?

¹⁸This is what I will do,’ he said; ‘I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them;

¹⁹and I will say to myself, Now you have plenty of good things put by for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself.’

²⁰But God said to the man ‘Fool! This very night your life is being demanded; and as for all you have prepared — who will have it?’

²¹So it is with those who lay by wealth for themselves and are not rich to the glory of God.”