Bible Study series: Luke 12:41-48. “Blessed is that servant whom his master will find doing thus when he comes.” But the opposite is true. If kingdom servant is abusive, the punishment will be severe.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 12:41-48
41 Then Peter said, “Lord, are you saying this parable to us or to everyone?” 42 The Lord said, “Who then is the faithful, wise manager whom the Lord will put in charge over his servants, to give the allotment of food at the right time? 43 Blessed is that servant, whom his master will find doing thus when he comes. 44 Truly I tell you that he will put him in charge over all his possessions. 45 But if that servant were to say in his heart, ‘My master takes his time to come,’ and he were to begin to beat the male servants and female servants and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come at an hour when he does not expect or is unaware of. And he will cut him in two and assign him a place with the unbelievers. 47 But that servant who knows his master’s will and neither prepares nor performs his will shall be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who didn’t know, although he did deeds deserving of blows, will be beaten with a few blows. Everyone to whom much is given, much will be demanded from him; and to him who is entrusted with much, much more will be asked of him.” (Luke 12:41-48)
Comments:
On the word servant possibly being translated as slave, see the introductory comments in vv. 35-40.
This section is the third parable in a series of three. The first two were in the previous pericope (pronounced peh-RIH-coh-pea): vv. 35-38 and 39-40. So many translations have vv. 35-48 as one long pericope. Since Jesus shifts up to a higher level and warns kingdom leaders, I separated this section from the previous one.
41:
Peter introduces this pericope (pronounced puh-RIH-koh-pea) or unit or section, which signals that Jesus is in fact addressing leaders. I like Peter. He is the first to speak out. It shows he has an active mind. It is clear why he was considered the lead apostle.
Jesus had been talking to all of his disciples, but now he is about to address the leaders generally. He is about to answer Peter’s question by saying the word manager. What kind of responsibility does a kingdom leader have? Is the manager a servant? What must he not do? What kind of judgment will he get in his disobedience or obedience? Is judgment meted out in proportion to behavior?
42:
One must get promoted from the ground up. Do you want to be a leader to give food—spiritual food, the bread of life (John 6:30-40)—to people in accordance to how much they can take? An allotment of bread for the mature in their faith and the immature in their faith? Then you know how to feed his sheep. Then that is a sign of a faithful and wise servant. Food allowance also speaks of the Word of God.
“faithful”: it means: “trustworthy, faithful, dependable, inspiring trust or faith”; or in other context it means “trusting, cherishing faith or trust, also believing, faithful.” So you have to be consistent in your service. Are you willing to stack chairs, to set up before the service, to rehearse with the worship team, to go to choir practice? Or do you show up intermittently, when you feel like it?
“wise”: it means: “sensible, thoughtful, prudent, wise.” A wise and prudent manager of God’s household or portion of his kingdom can figure things out by the Spirit. He knows how to plan and surrender his plan to God. He is in constant communication with God through prayer. God gives him heavenly wisdom to apply God’s kingdom principles to everyday life. It is God-given know-how. It may even include shrewdness (Luke 16:8).
“manager”: it can be translated as “steward” or “estate manager.” This is clearly a leadership position in the “kingdom / household.”
“right time”: the noun here is kairos (pronounced kye-ross and is used 85 times), which speaks more of a quality time than quantity. BDAG is considered by many to be the authoritative lexicon of the Greek NT, and it defines the noun as follows: (1) a point of time or period of time, time, period, frequently with the implication of being especially fit for something and without emphasis on precise chronology. (a) Generally a welcome time or difficult time … fruitful times; (b) a moment or period as especially appropriate the right, proper, favorable time … at the right time; (2) a defined period for an event, definite, fixed time (e.g. period of fasting or mourning in accord with the changes in season), in due time (Gal. 6:9); (3) a period characterized by some aspect of special crisis, time; (a) generally the present time (Rom. 13:11; 12:11); (b) One of the chief terms relating to the endtime … the time of crisis, the last times.
All of this stand in a mild contrast—not a sharp contrast—from chronos. Greek has another word for time: chronos (pronounced khro-noss), which measures one day, one week or one month after another.
In this context the wise servant’s actions fit into the first definition and (b).
43:
Jesus call this household servant blessed. Why? When the master returns and find his servant feeding his sheep or taking care of the household business, then that servant is blessed.
“blessed”: see v. 37 for more comments. This is the third time he used this word: twice in the previous pericope and once here. It means that Jesus is willing to heap praise and reward on any manager-servant whom he finds feeding his people with the right allotment or allowance of food at the proper time.
“master”: it is the noun kurios (pronounced koo-ree-oss), and it typically means Lord, as in the Lord Jesus Christ or lord or master or even sir in some contexts. Here it means both: Jesus is the master who returns, and he is the Lord. When Jesus appears on the scene at his return, he changes the title manager to servant. All of us in leadership are manager-servants. We are not the boss. He alone is the boss.
44:
Do you want promotion in God’s kingdom? Then do the small things, like feeding the little lambs their food allowance at the proper time in Sunday School. Feed the elderly lambs in the convalescent or rest home with their food allowance at the proper time. Go out to the highways and hedges to draw—compel—people into the banquet, to give them their food allowance at the proper time (Luke 14:12-24). God promotes faithful and wise servants. When he deems you wise and faithful, he will put you in charge over all his possessions.
45-46:
Now the manager-servant becomes arrogant, which comes from self-deception. He is being pulled away from his duties by the lust of his flesh. He sees that his authority has been God-given and people respect him, and this respect and admiration opens the door just a crack, so that self-deception and arrogance creeps in. This is similar (some say) to the pride of Satan, who had been given God’s authority, but pride filled his heart when the heavenly beings admired him and worshiped under his leadership (see. Is. 14:12:20 for a possible reference to this). One thing is certain: novices or recent converts should not be appointed as leaders in the church, or else they will fall into the punishment of the devil (1 Tim. 3:6). But are these leaders necessarily novices? No, but something is going wrong. One of the seeming wrong things is the delay of the Lord. This manager-servant misinterprets the long time of his return as a license to escape judgment and therefore do as he pleases (see 2 Pet. 3:4, 8-10).
What actions does the manager-servant do? He “eats and drinks.” This is more than just eating and drinking for daily sustenance. It refers to Is. 22:13, which says that some people say they should eat and drink, for tomorrow they will die (see 1 Cor. 15:32). More precisely it refers to Is. 56:12 which shows some people getting strong, intoxicating wine, because tomorrow will be just like any other day. And that’s why Jesus finished his three-fold description of a deficient manager-servant as getting drunk. Not every day will be like the last day. One day will be unlike any other—the return of the Lord. The added wrongdoing is that these misguided leaders use the resources of the kingdom for their own selfish benefit. Worst of all, they have lost the ability to provide the allowance or allotment of food for the various citizens of the kingdom at the proper time.
“cut … in two”: the phrase is not taken literally but shows the severity of judgment. It literally means “cut in two.” Reader’s Greek-English Lexicon suggests “punish severely.” Note how the bad manager is still alive after being sawn in two, so the punishment cannot be taken literally.
“unbelievers”: it is the negation of the adjective pistos (see. v. 42) and stands in the opposite camp as the wise and faithful manager-servant. So it could be translated as “unfaithful.” So the defective kingdom leader is the opposite of the faithful and wise manager.
47-48:
And now Jesus teaches that judgment-punishment will be distributed based on knowledge. If someone knows what God’s will is but does not do it and in fact does bad deeds, then his punishment will be more severe. If someone does not know but does bad deeds deserving blows, then his punishment will be less severe. Of course, let’s not forget that Jesus pronounced a blessing on the manager-servants who did what the master wanted (v. 43), so the outcome is not only bleak. The wise and faithful manager-servant will be rewarded.
Luke 12:47-48 “shows that knowledge influences the severity of the punishment, which in turn is meted out with various intensities. … the more one knows, the more responsible one becomes, so that more will be asked of one when evaluated” (Bock, pp. 1184-85).
Are There Degrees of Punishment, Rewards after Final Judgment?
God’s wrath is judicial.
It is not like this:
(Source)
But like this:
(Source)
That is a picture of God in judgment.
The Wrath of God in the New Testament
Do I Really Know God? He Shows Wrath
The Wrath of God in the Old Testament
Everyone Shall Be Judged by Their Works and Words
Bible Basics about the Final Judgment
Luke 21:5-33 Predicts Destruction of Jerusalem and Temple
Now Jesus finally delivers the punchline to this entire pericope. If God has given a kingdom leader a greater responsibility to lead, then an equal accounting will be demanded of him when the day of reckoning arrives. Next, if the leader has been assigned much, then the corresponding account of what he has done with his leadership will be asked of him, and even more so. So in his repetition Jesus raised the standard, just to drive home the main point.
This verse recalls James 3:1, which says that there should not be many teachers because they will incur a greater judgment or judged with greater strictness. Further, Heb. 13:17 says that leaders will have to give an account, so the people should be sensitive to the leaders’ ultimate responsibility and not be a burden to them.
Stein on the divine passives in v. 48: “This statement contains two divine passives, ‘has been given [by God]’ and ‘will be demanded [by God],’ and two uses of the third person plural as a circumlocution for God: ‘has been entrusted [by God]’ (literally they entrust) and “will be asked [by God]” (literally they will ask).
GrowApp for Luke 12:41-48
1. How do you become faithful and wise in the small things and then get promoted over all God’s possessions?
2. Study Luke 6:46-49 and 9:23. What must you do first to discover God’s will in his kingdom living?
RELATED
11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND MORE
To see the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the bottom. You will also find a “Summary and Conclusion” for discipleship.
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