Luke 12:4-21

⁴I say to you my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that they have no more that they can do.

⁵But I will warn you about whom to fear. Fear the one who, after he has killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I say to you, fear him.

⁶Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them is forgotten in the sight of God.

⁷But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear. You are more valuable than many sparrows.

⁸I say to you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will also confess before the angels of God,

⁹but he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

¹⁰Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.

¹¹When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you will speak in your defense, or what you will say,

¹²for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that hour what you should say.”

¹³Then someone from the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

¹⁴Jesus said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or a mediator over you?”

¹⁵He said to them, “Watch that you keep yourselves from all greedy desires, because a person's life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions.”

¹⁶Then Jesus told them a parable, saying, “The field of a rich man yielded abundantly,

¹⁷and he reasoned with himself, saying, 'What will I do, because I do not have a place to store my crops?'

¹⁸He said, 'This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all of my grain and other goods.

¹⁹I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods stored up for many years. Rest easy, eat, drink, be merry.”'

²⁰But God said to him, 'Foolish man, tonight your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'

²¹That is what someone is like who stores up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”