Luke 12:1–21

Fear Only God

¹At this time, after ¹so many thousands of the crowd had gathered together that they were trampling on one another, He began saying to His disciples first, “^aBe on your guard for the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

²“^aBut there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known.

³“Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have ¹whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon ^athe housetops.

⁴“But I say to you, ^aMy friends, do not fear those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do.

⁵“But I will show you whom to fear: ^afear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into ^1bhell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!

⁶“Are not ^afive sparrows sold for two ¹assaria? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.

⁷“^aIndeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit

⁸“And I say to you, everyone who ^aconfesses Me before men, the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God,

⁹but ^ahe who denies Me before men will be denied ^bbefore the angels of God.

¹⁰“^aAnd everyone who ¹speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him.

¹¹“Now when they bring you before ^athe synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not ^bworry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say,

¹²for ^athe Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”

Parable of the Rich Fool

¹³And someone from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.”

¹⁴But He said to him, “^aMan, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?”

¹⁵Then He said to them, “^aWatch out and be on your guard against every form of greed, for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”

¹⁶And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive.

¹⁷“And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’

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

¹⁹‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, ^ayou have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’

²⁰“But God said to him, ‘^aYou fool! This very night ^1byour soul is required of you; and ^cnow who will own what you prepared?’

²¹“So is the one who ^astores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”