Thoughts on Luke 12:41-48

I’ve been going through the book of Luke slowly this summer and gleaning as much as I can from our Savior’s words and parables. I have read some things that I had forgotten about. Good things, things that challenge me and cause me to pause and think about which character I can relate to in any given story. Take this one for example….

Luke 12:42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. 47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

After reading this, I felt very sober. It was like I understood many things I hadn’t fully grasped before. First, we are ALL servants, whether we want to be or not, either Yehovah is our Master or Satan is our Master. Those are our only two choices. I am going to assume that if you are reading this, you have chosen to serve Yehovah. So with THAT established, then we need to know what our Master requires of us! It’s really hard to serve a Master if you don’t know what the heck you are doing OR what He expects from us! Not knowing what is expected of me is a situation I don’t handle well, it causes lots of anxiety. In any job I have had, I like to know exactly what I’m supposed to be doing so that I can do a good job. Yes, I like to do well at the things I put my hand to and I suspect others feel that same way. And here’s the thing, Yehovah created me like this! He created many of us like this!!! Which is why He gave us a manual to follow….many don’t want to bother with it though or they just read bits and pieces and skip the parts they don’t understand. Let’s read the Luke passage again,

42 The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? 43 It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. 44 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 45 But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. 46 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers. 47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be a faithful and wise servant. I want blessings and not beatings, maybe I’m weird. Because I tend to want blessings instead of beatings, I tend to want to learn more and more about my Master and how He likes things done. Maybe you’re like me too? There is a warning attached to learning these things though….if you learn about them and choose to disregard what the Master desires, then we risk even more severe beatings! This is something you should strongly consider. Are you up to the challenge? Have you weighed the consequences? Are you ready for the responsibility? Do you still want to be a faithful and wise steward? If you are ready, I want to encourage you as you learn about my Master and His way of living. I would love to share with you what He has been teaching me in His Word and I invite conversation, leave a comment and I’d love to respond! What has He been teaching you?!