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Lucas 12

BLIVRE · Chapter 12/24

1Juntando-se, entretanto, muitos milhares da multidão, tanto que se atropelavam uns aos outros, começou a dizer primeiramente a seus discípulos: Guardai-vos do fermento dos fariseus, que é hipocrisia.

2E nada há encoberto que não haja de ser descoberto; nem oculto que não haja de ser sabido.

3Portanto tudo o que dissestes nas trevas, será ouvido na luz; e o que falastes ao ouvido nos quartos, será pregado sobre os telhados.

4E digo-vos, amigos meus, não temais aos que matam o corpo, e depois não têm mais o que possam fazer.

5Mas eu vos mostrarei a quem deveis temer; temei a aquele, que depois de matar, [também] tem poder para lançar no inferno; sim, a este temei.

6Não se vendem cinco passarinhos por duas pequenas moedas? E nem um deles está esquecido diante de Deus.

7E até os cabelos de vossa cabeça estão todos contados; não temais, pois; mais valeis vós que muitos passarinhos.

8E vos digo que todo aquele que me confessar diante dos seres humanos, também o Filho do homem o confessará diante dos anjos de Deus.

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

10E a todo aquele que disser [alguma] palavra contra o Filho do homem, lhe será perdoado, mas ao que blasfemar contra o Espírito Santo, não lhe será perdoado.

11E quando vos trouxerem às sinagogas, aos magistrados e autoridades, não estejais ansiosos, como, ou que, em [vossa] defesa deveis dizer, ou que deveis falar.

12Porque na mesma hora o Espírito Santo vos ensinará o que deveis falar.

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

14Mas ele lhe disse: Homem, quem me pôs por juiz, ou repartidor sobre vós?

15E disse-lhes: Olhai, e tomai cuidado com a ganância; porque a vida de alguém não consiste na abundância dos bens que possui.

16E propôs-lhes uma parábola, dizendo: A terra de um homem rico tinha frutificado bem.

17E ele questionava a si mesmo, dizendo: Que farei? Porque não tenho onde juntar meus frutos.

18E disse: Farei isto: derrubarei meus celeiros, e construirei maiores, e ali juntarei toda esta minha colheita, e estes meus bens.

19E direi à minha alma: Alma, muitos bens tens guardados, para muitos anos; descansa, come, bebe, alegra-te!

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

21Assim [é] o que junta tesouros para si, mas não é rico em Deus.

22E disse a seus discípulos: Portanto vos digo, não estejais ansiosos por vossa vida, que comereis; nem pelo corpo, que vestireis.

23Mais é a vida que o alimento, e [mais] o corpo que o vestido.

24Considerai os corvos, que nem semeiam, nem ceifam; nem tem armazém, nem celeiro; e Deus os alimenta.

25E quem de vós pode, com sua ansiedade, acrescentar um côvado à sua altura?

26Pois, se não podeis nem mesmo com algo pequeno, por que estais ansiosos com o resto?

27Considerai os lírios, como crescem; não trabalham, nem fiam; e digo-vos, que nem mesmo Salomão, em toda sua glória, [chegou] a se vestir como um deles.

28E se assim Deus veste a erva, que hoje está no campo, e amanhá é lançada no forno, quanto mais [vestirá] a vós, homens de pouca fé?

29Vós, pois, não pergunteis que comereis, ou que bebereis; e não andeis preocupados.

30Porque todas estas coisas, os gentios do mundo as buscam; mas vosso Pai sabe que necessitais destas coisas.

31Mas buscai o Reino de Deus, e todas estas coisas vos serão acrescentadas.

32Não temas, ó pequeno rebanho; porque vosso Pai se agradou de dar a vós o Reino.

33Vendei o que tendes, e daí esmola. Fazei para vós bolsas que não se envelheçam; tesouro nos céus que nunca se deprecia; onde ladrão não chega, nem a traça destrói.

34Porque aonde estiver vosso tesouro, ali estará também vosso coração.

35Estejam devidamente vestidos vossos quadris, e acesas as lâmpadas.

36E sede vós semelhantes às pessoas que esperam a seu senhor quando voltar do casamento; para que quando ele vier, e bater, logo possam lhe abrir.

37Bem-aventurados aqueles servos, os quais, quando o Senhor vier, [os] achar vigiando; em verdade vos digo que ele se vestirá, e os fará se sentarem [à mesa] ,e chegando-se, os servirá.

38E ainda que venha à segunda vigília; e [que] venha a terceira vigília, e assim [os] achar, bem-aventurados são tais servos.

39Isto, porém, sabei: que se o chefe da casa soubesse à que hora o ladrão viria, ele vigiaria, e não deixaria sua casa sofrer dano.

40Vós, pois, também estejais prontos; porque o Filho do homem virá à hora que não imaginais.

41E Pedro lhe disse: Senhor, dizes tu esta parábola para nós, ou também para todos?

42E o Senhor disse: Qual é, pois, o mordomo fiel e prudente, a quem [seu] senhor puser sobre seus servos, para que [lhes] dê alimento no tempo certo?

43Bem-aventurado aquele servo ao qual, quando seu senhor vier, o achar fazendo assim.

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

45Mas se aquele servo disser em seu coração: Meu senhor está demorando para vir; e começar a espancar aos servos e servas, e a comer, e a beber, e a se embebedar,

46Virá o senhor daquele servo, no dia em que ele não espera, e na hora que ele não sabe; e será partido em dois, e porá sua porção com os incrédulos.

47E o servo que sabia a vontade de seu senhor, e não se preparou, nem fez conforme a sua vontade, será muito espancado.

48Mas o que não sabia, e fez [coisas] dignas de pancadas, será pouco espancado. E a qualquer que muito for dado, muito se lhe pedirá, e ao que muito se confiou, muito mais lhe será exigido.

49Eu vim para lançar fogo na terra; e o que mais posso querer, se já está aceso?

50Porém há um batismo que tenho que ser batizado; e como me angustio até que se venha a cumprir!

51Vós pensais que vim para dar paz à terra? Não, eu vos digo; mas antes [vim para trazer] divisão.

52Porque daqui em diante cinco estarão divididos em uma casa; três contra dois, e dois contra três.

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

54E ele dizia também para as multidões: Quando vedes a nuvem que vem do ocidente, logo dizeis: Lá vem chuva; E assim acontece.

55E quando venta do sul, dizeis: Haverá calor; E assim acontece.

56Hipócritas! Sabeis entender a aparência da terra e do céu; e como não entendeis este tempo?

57E por que também não julgais por vós mesmos o que é justo?

58Pois quando fores com teu adversário à autoridade, procura te livrares dele no caminho, para que ele não venha a te levar ao juiz, e o juiz te entregue ao oficial de justiça, e o oficial de justiça te lance na prisão.

59Eu te digo que não sairás dali enquanto não pagares até a última moeda.

📖 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.

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