Luke 12:32-48

(32) Fear not little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (33) Sell that ye have, and give alms: provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. (34) For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (35) Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; (36) And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. (37) Blessed are those servants whom the lord when he cometh, shall find watching: verily, I say unto you, That he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. (38) And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. (39) And this know, that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. (40) Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not. (41) Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? (42) And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? (43) Blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. (44) Of a truth I say unto you, That he will make him ruler over all that he hath. (45) But, and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; (46) The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. (47) And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. (48) But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes; for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more,

I shall have no occasion to offer much comment on this very blessed discourse of Jesus. His language is so plain as to need none. I shall only here and there call the Reader's attention to some of the more striking expressions the Lord is pleased to use. There is somewhat very interesting in Jesus calling his Church a little flock. Little, in comparison of the world's wide wilderness; but when all brought home by electing, redeeming, and effectual calling in grace, here in the present life, and to glory above, the Church is said to be a multitude which no man could number, Revelation 7:9. The Lord hath been pleased to dignify his Church with several very striking names; but all highly descriptive. A beautiful flock, Jeremiah 13:20. A flock of slaughter, Zechariah 11:4. An holy flock, Ezekiel 36:38. And by his same servant, most blessedly doth he call it, My flock, Ezekiel 34:17. All Which prove the special and peculiar character of the Lord's people, 1 Peter 2:9. And it is equally worthy the Reader's attention what Jesus saith in relation to the kingdom. It is said to be given. Fear not, little flock, it is your heavenly Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So that it is not man's purchase by merit, but God's gift by grace. And it is not only a gift, but a free gift, and wholly the result of God's good pleasure, Isaiah 43:21; Matthew 11:26. Jesus's direction to his disciples, to wean themselves from earth and earthly connections, is very striking. And the figure of a man with his loins girded, and his light burning, is a beautiful allusion to servants of the east; whose long vestures were always

tucked up, and fastened to their girdles, when in waiting, that they might be able to run with speed, when their master's services required it. And this explains to us what the Prophet saith of the ministers of the Gospel, whose feet are uncovered when they run on the mountains, Isaiah 62:7. But the most lovely of all the similitudes in this discourse of Jesus, is that in which he describes himself as girding himself, and coming forth to serve his faithful servants, whom he will make to sit down to meat. It is indeed impossible to form equal apprehensions of the grace and humility of the Lord Jesus. He who washed his disciples' feet, when in the moment he knew himself to be Lord of all, and all things were given into his sovereign hand, who shall calculate the wonderful extent of such grace? But without straining the expressions to the utmost limits, in beholding Jesus serving them, whose very happiness must be made up of serving him, it may serve to shew, in some measure, the overflowing love of his heart, which is wholly theirs; and every act of it directed for their happiness here, and to all eternity, Song of Solomon 2:14.