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12. Teaching to Be Watchful and Faithful

35. Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning,
36. And you be like men waiting for their own master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately.
37. Blessed are those slaves whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Truly I tell you that he will gird himself and will have them recline at table, and he will come to them and serve them.
38. And if he comes in the second watch, or if in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.
39. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into.
40. You also, be ready, because at an hour when you do not expect it, the Son of Man is coming.
41. And Peter said, Lord, are You saying this parable to us, or also to all?
42. And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and prudent steward, whom the master will set over his service to give them their portion of food at the proper time?
43. Blessed is that slave whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.
44. Truly I tell you that he will set him over all his possessions.
45. But if that slave says in his heart, My master is delaying his coming, and begins to beat the male servants and the female servants and to eat and to drink and become drunk,
46. The master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him asunder, and will appoint his portion with the unbelievers.
47. And that slave who knew his masters will and did not prepare or do according to his will, will receive many lashes;
48. But he who did not know, yet did things worthy of stripes, will receive few lashes. But to every one to whom much has been given, much will be required from him; and to whom much has been committed, they will ask of him all the more.

13. Longing to Be Released
through His Death

49. I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled!
50. But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am pressed until it is accomplished!
51. Do you think that I have come to give peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
52. For from now on there will be five in one house divided, three against two and two against three.
53. They will be divided: father against son and son against father; mother against her daughter and daughter against her mother; mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

14. Teaching concerning
the Discernment of Time

54. And He said also to the crowds, When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say that a shower is coming, and so it happens.
55. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say that there will be scorching heat, and it happens.
56. Hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the earth and of the sky. How is it then that you do not know how to discern this time?
57. And why do you not judge also of yourselves what is right?
58. For as you are going with your opponent at law to a magistrate, endeavor to be released from him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge; and the judge will deliver you up to the officer, and the officer will throw you into prison.
59. I tell you, You shall by no means come out from there until you have paid the very last lepton.