The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Luke 12
1 When he finished praying in a certain
place, one of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also
taught his disciples.”
2 He said to them, “When you pray, say,
‘Our Father in heaven, may your name
be kept holy. May your Kingdom come.
May your will be done on earth, as it is
in heaven.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves
also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
Bring us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’ ”
5 He said to them, “Which of you, if you
go to a friend at midnight and tell him,
‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,
6 for a friend of mine has come to me
from a journey, and I have nothing to set
before him,’
7 and he from within will answer and
say, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is now
shut, and my children are with me in bed.
I can’t get up and give it to you’?
8 I tell you, although he will not rise and
give it to him because he is his friend, yet
because of his persistence, he will get up
and give him as many as he needs.
9 “I tell you, keep asking, and it will be
given you. Keep seeking, and you will find.
Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks receives. He
who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will
be opened.
11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks
for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he
asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake
instead of a fish, will he?
12 Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give
him a scorpion, will he?
13 If you then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts to your children, how much
more will your heavenly Father give the
Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
14 He was casting out a demon, and it
was mute. When the demon had gone out,
the mute man spoke; and the multitudes
marveled.
15 But some of them said, “He casts out
demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the
demons.”
16 Others, testing him, soughtfrom him a
sign from heaven.
17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said
to them, “Every kingdom divided against
itself is brought to desolation. A house
divided against itself falls.
18 If Satan also is divided against himself,
how will his kingdom stand? For you say
that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.
19 But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul,
by whom do your children cast them out?
Therefore they will be your judges.
20 ButifIby God’sfinger cast outdemons,
then God’s Kingdom has come to you.
21 “When the strong man, fully armed,
guards his own dwelling, his goods are
safe.
22 But when someone stronger attacks
him and overcomes him, he takes from
him his whole armor in which he trusted,
and divides his plunder.
23 “He who is not with me is against me.
He who doesn’t gather with me scatters.
24 The unclean spirit, when he has gone
out of the man, passes through dry places,
seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I
will turn back to my house from which I
came out.’
25 When he returns, he finds it swept and
put in order.
26 Then he goes and takes seven other
spirits more evil than himself, and they
enter in and dwell there. The last state of
that man becomes worse than the first.”
27 It came to pass, as he said these things,
a certain womanout ofthe multitude lifted
up her voice and said to him, “Blessed is
the womb that bore you, and the breasts
which nursed you!”
28 But he said, “On the contrary, blessed
are those who hear the word of God, and
keep it.”
29 When the multitudes were gathering
together to him, he began to say, “This is
an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. No
sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah
the prophet.
30 For even as Jonah became a sign to the
Ninevites, so the Son of Man will also be to
this generation.
31 The Queen of the South will rise up
in the judgment with the men of this
generation and will condemn them, for she
came from the ends of the earth to hear
the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, one
greater than Solomon is here.
32 The men of Nineveh will stand up in
the judgment with this generation, and
will condemn it, for they repented at
the preaching of Jonah; and behold, one
greater than Jonah is here.
33 “No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it
ina cellar orunder a basket, but ona stand,
that those who come in may see the light.
34 The lamp ofthe body is the eye. Therefore when
your eye is good, your whole body is also
full of light; but when it is evil,
your body also is full of darkness.
35 Therefore see whether the light that is
in you isn’t darkness.
36 If therefore your whole body is full
of light, having no part dark, it will be
wholly full of light, as when the lamp with
its bright shining gives you light.”
37 Now as he spoke, a certain Pharisee
asked him to dine with him. He went in
and sat at the table.
38 When the Pharisee saw it, hemarveled
that he had notfirst washed himself before
dinner.
39 The Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees
cleanse the outside of the cup and of
the platter, but your inward part is full of
extortion and wickedness.
40 You foolish ones, didn’t he who made
the outside make the inside also?
41 But give for gifts to the needy those
things which are within, and behold, all
things will be clean to you.
42 But woe to you Pharisees! For you
tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you
bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to
have done these, and not to have left the
other undone.
43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love
the best seats in the synagogues and the
greetings in the marketplaces.
44 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves,
and the men who walk over them don’t
know it.”
45 One of the lawyers answered him,
“Teacher, in saying this you insult us also.”
46 He said, “Woe to you lawyers also!
For you load men with burdens that are
difficult to carry, and you yourselves won’t
even lift one finger to help carry those
burdens.
47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs
of the prophets, and your fathers killed
them.
48 So you testify and consentto the works
of your fathers. For they killed them, and
you build their tombs.
49 There fore also the wisdomof God said,
‘I will send to them prophets and apostles;
and some of them they will kill and persecute,
50 that the blood of all the prophets,
which was shed from the foundation ofthe
world, may be required ofthis generation,
51 from the blood of Abel to the blood
of Zachariah, who perished between the
altar and the sanctuary.’ Yes, I tell you, it
will be required of this generation.
52 Woe to you lawyers! For you took
away the key of knowledge. You didn’t
enter in yourselves, and those who were
entering in, you hindered.”
53 As he said these things to them, the
scribes and the Pharisees began to be
terribly angry, and to draw many things out
of him,
54 lying in wait for him, and seeking to
catch him in something he might say, that
they might accuse him.