Luke 12:35-40

You Must Be Ready

35 ¹“Stay dressed for action^[a] and ²keep your lamps burning,

36 and be like men who are ³waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and ⁴knocks.

37 ⁵Blessed are those servants^[b] whom the master finds ⁶awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, ⁷he will dress himself for service and ⁸have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.

38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants!

39 ⁹But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour ¹⁰the thief was coming, he^[c] would not have left his house to be broken into.

40 You also must be ¹¹ready, for ¹²the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. ”

Cross References

• 1. 12:35 Eph. 6:14; 1 Pet. 1:13
• 2. 12:35 [Matt. 25:7]
• 3. 12:36 See 2 Pet. 3:12
• 4. 12:36 Rev. 3:20
• 5. 12:37 See Matt. 24:42, 46
• 6. 12:37 See Matt. 24:42, 46
• 7. 12:37 John 13:4; [ver. 35; ch. 17:8]
• 8. 12:37 [ch. 22:27]
• 9. 12:39 For ver. 39-46, [Matt. 24:43-51]
• 10. 12:39 [1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10; Rev. 3:3]
• 11. 12:40 ver. 47; Matt. 25:10
• 12. 12:40 ch. 21:27

Footnotes

• [a] 12:35 Greek 'Let your loins stay girded'; compare Exodus 12:11
• [b] 12:37 Greek 'bondservants'
• [c] 12:39 Some manuscripts add 'would have stayed awake and'