Lucas 12

ARC · Chapter 12/24

1Ajuntando-se entretanto muitos milhares de pessoas, de sorte que se atropellavam uns aos outros, começou a dizer aos seus discipulos: Acautelae-vos primeiramente do fermento dos phariseos, que é a hypocrisia.

2Mas nada ha encoberto que não haja de ser descoberto; nem occulto, que não haja de ser sabido.

3Porquanto tudo o que em trevas dissestes á luz será ouvido; e o que fallastes ao ouvido no gabinete sobre os telhados será apregoado.

4E digo-vos, amigos meus; Não temaes os que matam o corpo, e depois não teem mais que fazer.

5Mas eu vos mostrarei a quem deveis temer; temei aquelle que, depois de matar, tem poder para lançar no inferno; sim, vos digo, a esse temei.

6Não se vendem cinco passarinhos por dois ceitis? E nenhum d'elles está esquecido diante de Deus.

7E até os cabellos da vossa cabeça estão todos contados. Não temaes pois; mais valeis vós do que muitos passarinhos.

8E digo-vos que todo aquelle que me confessar diante dos homens, tambem o Filho do homem o confessará diante dos anjos de Deus.

9Mas quem me negar diante dos homens será negado diante dos anjos de Deus.

10E a todo aquelle que disser uma palavra contra o Filho do homem ser-lhe-ha perdoada, mas ao que blasphemar contra o Espirito Sancto não lhe será perdoado.

11E, quando vos conduzirem ás synagogas, aos magistrados e potestades, não estejaes solicitos de como ou do que haveis de responder nem do que haveis de fallar.

12Porque na mesma hora vos ensinará o Espirito Sancto o que vos convenha fallar.

13E disse-lhe um da multidão: Mestre, dize a meu irmão que reparta comigo a herança.

14Mas elle lhe disse: Homem, quem me poz a mim por juiz ou repartidor entre vós?

15E disse-lhes: Acautelae-vos e guardae-vos da avareza; porque a vida de qualquer não consiste na abundancia dos bens que possue.

16E propoz-lhes uma parabola, dizendo: A herdade d'um homem rico tinha produzido com abundancia;

17E arrazoava elle entre si, dizendo: Que farei? Não tenho onde recolher os meus fru*ctos.

18E disse: Farei isto: Derribarei os meus celleiros, e edificarei outros maiores, e ali recolherei todas as minhas novidades e os meus bens;

19E direi á minha alma: Alma, tens em deposito muitos bens para muitos annos: descança, come, bebe, e folga.

20Porém Deus lhe disse: Louco, esta noite te pedirão a tua alma; e o que tens preparado para quem será?

21Assim é o que para si ajunta thesouros, e não é rico para com Deus.

22E disse aos seus discipulos: Portanto vos digo: Não estejaes solicitos pela vossa vida, no que comereis, nem pelo corpo, no que vestireis.

23Mais é a vida do que o sustento, e o corpo mais do que o vestido.

24Considerae os corvos, que nem semeiam, nem segam, nem teem dispensa nem celleiro, e Deus os alimenta: quanto mais valeis vós do que as aves?

25E qual de vós, sendo solicito, pode accrescentar um covado á sua estatura?

26Pois, se nem ainda podeis fazer as coisas minimas, porque estaes solicitos pelo mais?

27Considerae os lirios, como elles crescem; não trabalham, nem fiam; e digo-vos que nem ainda Salomão, em toda a sua gloria, se vestiu como um d'elles.

28E, se Deus assim veste a herva que hoje está no campo, e ámanhã é lançada no forno, quanto mais a vós, homens de pouca fé?

29Vós pois não pergunteis que haveis de comer, ou que haveis de beber, e não andeis inquietos.

30Porque as gentes do mundo buscam todas essas coisas; mas vosso Pae sabe que haveis mister d'ellas.

31Buscae antes o reino de Deus, e todas estas coisas vos serão accrescentadas.

32Não temas, ó pequeno rebanho, porque a vosso Pae agradou dar-vos o reino.

33Vendei o que tendes, e dae esmola. Fazei para vós bolsas que não se envelheçam; thesouro nos céus que nunca acabe, aonde não chega ladrão, e a traça não roe.

34Porque, onde estiver o vosso thesouro, ali estará tambem o vosso coração.

35Estejam cingidos os vossos lombos, e accesas as vossas candeias.

36E sêde vós similhantes aos homens que esperam a seu senhor, quando houver de voltar das bodas, para que, quando vier, e bater, logo possam abrir-lhe.

37Bemaventurados aquelles servos, os quaes, quando o Senhor vier, os achar vigiando! Em verdade vos digo que se cingirá, e os fará assentar á mesa, e, chegando-se, os servirá.

38E, se vier na segunda vigilia, e se vier na terceira vigilia, e os achar assim, bemaventurados são os taes servos.

39Sabei, porém, isto, que, se o pae de familia soubesse a que hora, havia de vir o ladrão, vigiaria, e não deixaria minar a sua casa.

40Portanto, estae vós tambem apercebidos; porque virá o Filho do homem a hora que não imaginaes.

41E disse-lhe Pedro: Senhor, dizes essa parabola a nós, ou tambem a todos?

42E disse o Senhor: Qual é pois o mordomo fiel e prudente, a quem o senhor poz sobre os seus servos, para lhes dar a tempo a ração?

43Bemaventurado aquelle servo, o qual o senhor, quando vier, achar fazendo assim.

44Em verdade vos digo que sobre todos os seus bens o porá.

45Mas, se aquelle servo disser em seu coração: O meu senhor tarda em vir; e começar a espancar os creados e creadas, e a comer, e a beber, e a embriagar-se,

46Virá o senhor d'aquelle servo no dia em que o não espera, e n'uma hora que elle não sabe, e separal-o-ha, e porá a sua parte com os infieis.

47E o servo que soube a vontade do seu senhor, e não se apercebeu, nem fez conforme a sua vontade, será castigado com muitos açoites;

48Mas o que a não soube, e fez coisas dignas de açoites, com poucos açoites será castigado. E, a qualquer que muito fôr dado, muito se lhe pedirá, e ao que muito se lhe confiou muito mais se lhe pedirá.

49Vim lançar fogo na terra; e que quero, se já está acceso?

50Importa, porém, que seja baptizado com um baptismo; e como me angustio até que venha a cumprir-se!

51Cuidaes vós que vim dar paz á terra? Não, vos digo, mas antes dissensão;

52Porque d'aqui em diante estarão cinco divididos n'uma casa: tres contra dois, e dois contra tres:

53O pae estará dividido contra o filho, e o filho contra o pae; a mãe contra a filha, e a filha contra a mãe; a sogra contra sua nora, e a nora contra sua sogra.

54E dizia tambem á multidão: Quando vêdes a nuvem que vem do occidente, logo dizeis: Lá vem chuva, e assim succede.

55E, quando assopra o sul, dizeis: Haverá calma; e assim succede.

56Hypocritas, sabeis distinguir a face da terra e do céu, e como não distinguis este tempo?

57E porque não julgaes tambem por vós mesmos o que é justo?

58Quando pois vaes com o teu adversario ao magistrado, procura livrar-te d'elle no caminho; para que não succeda que te conduza ao juiz, e o juiz te entregue ao meirinho, e o meirinho te encerre na prisão.

59Digo-te que não sairás d'ali emquanto não pagares o derradeiro ceitil.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jesus warns against hypocrisy and the fear of man, teaches about each person's worth to God, and tells the parable of the rich fool who hoards wealth without regard for God. He urges his listeners not to worry about provision and to be ready for his return.

Explanation

The parable of the rich fool shows someone who plans for the material future with no spiritual consideration at all, and dies the very night he felt secure — a warning against the illusion of security based only on possessions. The teachings about the ravens and the lilies invite trust in God for basic needs, free from paralyzing anxiety. The final exhortation to watch like servants awaiting their master reinforces the urgency of living with responsibility and purpose in light of eternity. Today's practical application is to assess whether life's priorities are set on accumulating things or on what truly matters.

Fun facts

  • The phrase 'fear not, little flock' (v.32) uses a common pastoral image from ancient Palestine, where small flocks were more vulnerable to attacks by wild animals and thieves, making the promise of care all the more meaningful.
  • Satan's expulsion from heaven 'like lightning' — a theme picked up again in chapter 10 — and the warning about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (v.10) are two of the most debated teachings among scholars, generally understood as the deliberate, definitive rejection of God's work, not a sin committed by accident.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Lucas 12:1Leaven is an image of something small that spreads through the whole batch of dough — Jesus uses it to describe how the Pharisees’ hypocrisy contaminates everything around it, even though it seems small at first.
  2. Lucas 12:2This warning that nothing stays hidden forever is specifically about hypocrisy: sooner or later, what is faked on the outside ends up exposed.
  3. Lucas 12:3Houses had flat roofs sometimes used for public announcements — saying something ‘upon the housetops’ meant making it known to everyone, the opposite of whispering in secret.
  4. Lucas 12:4Jesus calls the disciples friends and reassures them: the human power to harm them ends at physical death, and goes no further.
  5. Lucas 12:5By contrast, He points to the one who has authority over eternal destiny after death — that is the fear that truly matters, not the fear of human violence.
  6. Lucas 12:6A farthing was a coin of very low value, and five sparrows for that price shows how little these birds were considered worth in the marketplace. The argument rests on exactly that contrast: if God notices something so cheap, His care for a person is even greater.
  7. Lucas 12:7Saying that even the hairs of one’s head are numbered is an exaggerated way of describing God’s detailed care — if He notices that, He also cares for each person individually.
  8. Lucas 12:8Confessing Jesus publicly has a future consequence: the Son of Man will acknowledge that person before the angels of God.
  9. Lucas 12:9The opposite also holds: denying Jesus before others results in being denied before the angels — public loyalty carries weight beyond the present moment.
  10. Lucas 12:10This distinction is a hard one: speaking against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but blaspheming the Holy Spirit cannot — generally understood as a stubborn, final rejection of God’s own action, not a slip of the tongue.
  11. Lucas 12:11Before synagogues, authorities, and courts, the disciples are not to worry beforehand about how they will answer.
  12. Lucas 12:12The reason for that calm is a concrete promise: the Holy Spirit Himself will teach, at the exact moment, what needs to be said.
  13. Lucas 12:13Someone in the crowd asks Jesus to settle an inheritance dispute with his brother — showing that rabbis of the time were seen as possible arbiters in family and legal matters too.
  14. Lucas 12:14Jesus refuses that role, asking who appointed Him judge between them — He does not want to be pulled into a civil dispute, preferring to go straight to a deeper concern.
  15. Lucas 12:15The warning against greed comes with a central claim: a person’s life is not defined by the abundance of possessions — the thesis that opens the way to the parable that follows.
  16. Lucas 12:16The parable begins with a picture of prosperity: the rich man’s land produced abundantly, with no problem yet in sight.
  17. Lucas 12:17The man thinks only of himself, worried only about where to store so much abundance — notice how his reasoning revolves entirely around ‘I’ and ‘my soul.’
  18. Lucas 12:18His solution is simply to expand: tear down the small barns and build bigger ones to store everything.
  19. Lucas 12:19He speaks to his own soul as if he had total control over the future: rest, eat, drink, and be merry, as if time were guaranteed.
  20. Lucas 12:20Demanding someone’s soul was a way of saying the person would die suddenly, without warning — that is what the listeners understood at once. The man’s problem in the parable is not being rich; it is having planned his whole life around his own comfort without accounting for the fact that no one controls how much time they have left.
  21. Lucas 12:21The parable’s conclusion contrasts someone who only stores up wealth for himself with someone who is ‘rich toward God,’ two very different kinds of wealth.
  22. Lucas 12:22Jesus applies the lesson directly to the disciples: do not worry about what to eat or wear — a direct continuation of the warning against material anxiety from the previous parable.
  23. Lucas 12:23Life is worth more than the food that sustains it, and the body is worth more than the clothing that covers it — a person’s identity cannot be reduced to basic needs.
  24. Lucas 12:24The ravens, which neither sow nor reap, are still fed by God — using precisely this bird, considered unclean and without prestige, strengthens the argument about human worth even more.
  25. Lucas 12:25The question about adding a cubit to one’s own height just by worrying shows how anxiety, by itself, solves nothing concrete.
  26. Lucas 12:26If not even the simplest thing can be changed by worrying, there is no point spending energy worrying about the rest.
  27. Lucas 12:27The lilies neither work nor spin, and yet not even Solomon, with all his legendary wealth, was dressed as beautifully as they are — natural beauty outdoes even the most famous human luxury.
  28. Lucas 12:28The grass of the field, used as fuel for the oven the next day, still receives this care from God — the argument moves from the lesser, temporary grass, to the greater, people made to last.
  29. Lucas 12:29The instruction is direct: do not live anxiously asking what to eat or drink, nor live unsettled because of it.
  30. Lucas 12:30Jesus contrasts the nations that do not know God, always chasing after these things, with the heavenly Father, who already knows exactly what the disciples need.
  31. Lucas 12:31The order of priorities is reversed: seek first the kingdom of God, and material needs follow as a consequence, not as life’s main goal.
  32. Lucas 12:32Jesus fondly calls the disciples a ‘little flock,’ reassuring this small, vulnerable group: the Father has already decided, gladly, to give them the kingdom.
  33. Lucas 12:33The instruction is concrete: sell possessions, give alms, invest in a treasure in heaven that no thief steals and no moth destroys — a practical generosity meant to last beyond this life.
  34. Lucas 12:34This principle works as a diagnosis: where someone puts their treasure reveals, in practice, where the true focus of their heart lies.
  35. Lucas 12:35Girding the loins meant tucking the long tunic into a belt at the waist to move and work quickly — the image of someone ready to act, not relaxed. Wedding feasts could stretch on into the night with no set end time, so the servant who stayed dressed and ready, waiting for the master to return at any moment, was not being excessive, just realistic.
  36. Lucas 12:36The image of servants waiting for the master to return from a wedding, ready to open the door as soon as he knocks, describes a state of watchfulness in the face of an unpredictable hour — wedding feasts could stretch on into the night.
  37. Lucas 12:37The scene is surprising: the master who returns and finds the servants watching dresses himself to serve them at the table — an unusual reversal of roles as a reward for faithfulness.
  38. Lucas 12:38Even if the master arrives in the second or third watch of the night, divisions used to mark the night hours, the servants who keep watching that late are called blessed.
  39. Lucas 12:39The comparison to the homeowner who would stay alert if he knew the exact hour of the thief reinforces that unpredictability demands constant attention, not just at the obvious moments.
  40. Lucas 12:40Jesus applies the parable directly: the disciples must always be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour no one expects.
  41. Lucas 12:41Peter asks whether this parable applies only to the disciples or to everyone — a question that opens room for Jesus to spell out more clearly what it means to be a faithful steward.
  42. Lucas 12:42Jesus answers with the image of a faithful and wise steward, put in charge of giving the household its portion of food at the right time — someone entrusted with delegated responsibility who must be reliable.
  43. Lucas 12:43That servant is called blessed if the master finds him carrying out that task well when he returns.
  44. Lucas 12:44The reward for that faithfulness is even more responsibility: being put in charge of all the master’s goods.
  45. Lucas 12:45The contrast comes with the servant who thinks, ‘my lord delayeth his coming,’ and begins to mistreat the others, eat, drink, and get drunk — the delay in giving account becomes an excuse to behave badly while unwatched.
  46. Lucas 12:46The master returns at an unexpected hour and cuts that servant off, placing him among the unfaithful — a severe consequence for abusing the trust he was given.
  47. Lucas 12:47The servant who knew his master’s will and did not prepare will be punished more severely — prior knowledge increases responsibility.
  48. Lucas 12:48Whoever did not know, but still did wrong, receives lighter punishment — and the final rule sums it all up: the more that is entrusted to someone, the more will be required of that person.
  49. Lucas 12:49Fire was a common image in prophetic texts for a judgment that separates and purifies, not necessarily literal destruction. The saying sounds harsh next to Jesus’ gentler image, but it warns that His mission will force choices and create division — as the following verses, about a divided family, make clear.
  50. Lucas 12:50Jesus speaks of a ‘baptism’ He still has to undergo, an indirect way of referring to His own suffering and death yet to come, revealing the real anguish He feels while waiting for it.
  51. Lucas 12:51Jesus corrects a common expectation: He has not come to bring immediate peace to the earth, but division — a statement that contradicts the idea of a Messiah who is only a peacemaker.
  52. Lucas 12:52This division will reach even inside the home: five people in the same family will be divided, three against two.
  53. Lucas 12:53The list of family conflicts — father against son, mother against daughter, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law — echoes a passage from the prophet Micah about social breakdown, here applied to the divisive impact of responding to Jesus in different ways.
  54. Lucas 12:54A cloud coming from the west, from the direction of the Mediterranean Sea, usually brought rain to the region — a weather sign everyone recognized.
  55. Lucas 12:55Wind coming from the south, from the desert regions, usually brought heat — another simple weather sign known to everyone.
  56. Lucas 12:56Jesus calls them hypocrites for knowing how to read the sky and the earth with precision, yet being unable to discern the meaning of the present moment they are living through.
  57. Lucas 12:57The final challenge is personal: judge for yourselves what is right, instead of needing outward signs to recognize the truth.
  58. Lucas 12:58The practical illustration of settling a dispute with an opponent on the way, before reaching the judge, works as a warning: it is better to act and settle now than to face harsher consequences later.
  59. Lucas 12:59An unpaid debt could genuinely end with a person imprisoned until every last coin was paid — this is not a rhetorical exaggeration, it is how the system of the time actually worked. Jesus uses this very concrete, well-known legal risk to warn that certain things need to be settled quickly, before the situation gets worse.

Chapters

Our apps

Our apps →

Bible in Stories

The Bible told as a story, with audio and videos.

📱 Get the app

World in Stories

True stories of humanity that sound made up.

Feito! Pequenas Vitórias

A light daily routine for people who lose track of the day.