Daily Bible Reading 25th September 2026 // Luke 12:35-48
35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting 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 knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have 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 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
41 Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” 42 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming’, and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. 47 And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.
Look, then, at this threefold emphasis made by Jesus. Life is a stewardship committed to us by God. 'Use it for Me', He says. It is difficult not to think back to the parable of the rich fool earlier in the chapter. What sort of stewardship did he exercise? What a tragic, prodigal squandering of a precious commitment! This bids me ask myself the question: 'What have I done, what am I doing with my life? Life is something for which we will have to give account. This is why we are to live with eternity's values in view. Jesus' parables are all unequivocal in this: there is a uniform emphasis on the day of reckoning (cf also 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 3:12-15). If we waste our lives, we may depend on it that we shall suffer loss. We are making our future now. This is made plain in Jesus' words in 37 and 44, in the divine approbation on the one hand and the divine commissioning on the other. Faithfulness here will mean responsibility bestowed there. The future holds unimagined prospects of responsibilities, duties and privileges, and service, for which we are being prepared, and are preparing ourselves, now, in this probationary time, by being faithful, by living with eternity's values in view, by living as those that will give account of their stewardship. Faithfulness creates capacity for future service. And, as a postscript to that - if we live in the light of eternity, if by so doing we are ready for that Coming and that day of reckoning, we will also be ready for anything in the meanwhile! And that is a worthy way to live, indeed!