My sister asked me this question recently after stumbling upon this familiar verse as something our dad used to cite back when we were both in high school. It comes from this verse here:

Luke 12:48–“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.”

The meaning seemed fairly obvious to anyone who read it. If you’ve been given many gifts, you should share what you’ve gotten with those less fortunate. If you’ve been given a higher degree of intelligence, you may be expected to take on a leadership role in civic, business and spiritual matters. Generally, not every person is born with the same skill, talents or abilities, so we are expected to take whatever we’re “given” and develop those traits as well as we can and become the best persons, citizens and members of a faith as humanly possible. On the surface, it doesn’t seem fair that certain people would be blessed with abilities that others would not have, but who are we to judge the wisdom of Yahweh? Isn’t that the standard explanation you’ve heard all your life?

Mainstream religions cite this verse as a way to intimidate wealthy members of their congregation to give more money because they’ve been blessed with greater income than others. Certainly THAT must be part of what Luke was talking about. I’ve even heard ministers refer to this passage by saying “Give until it hurts…and then give some more.” “You cannot out-give God. He sees your generosity and will bless you tenfold down the road, even though that future blessing may be in His kingdom in heaven.” Is that what Luke meant? Is it even close?

Not all people get identical treatment, whether it be in the form of blessings, gifts or talents. Some people also get an uneven distribution of trials and curses. Could this verse mean that those who have been greatly blessed will have to demonstrate their love for Yahweh who is the source of all our blessings? Is that the “requirement” Luke was referring to? I thought of the story of Job in the Old Testament where Satan had a conversation with Yahweh. Job was blessed with riches and prosperity beyond anyone else in the region and he gave thanks daily to Yahweh for all of his blessings. Satan insisted that if Job faced enough adversity that he would eventually curse Yahweh. Yahweh agreed to allow Satan to tempt Job only on one condition–he may not cause any personal harm or injury to Job himself. Other than that, Satan had free reign to introduce whatever punishments he wished to be heaped upon Job.

But no matter how catastrophic the punishments were, Job never once wavered in his expression of faith in Yahweh, and thus Satan failed in his effort to get Job to curse Yahweh. To the contrary–Job cursed himself, believing that these curses must be a result of something that he personally did to bring them about. Rather than blame Yahweh, he took full responsibility. That was the last thing Satan expected. As a result, after Satan ended his assault on Job, he was then blessed with even greater riches than before.

But conventional wisdom preaches that this passage in Luke is about money. The clergy cites this and other verses like it as a way to inspire? guilt? extract? additional donations from their congregations. And since virtually all church members rely upon their pastors to tell them the truth of what the Bible says, they accept this explanation as fact and reach deep into their pockets to give as much as possible. After all, they’re told, Yahweh can see into their hearts and knows whether they are supporting their church to the best of their ability or are they just making an offering for show, knowing that they could have given more; MUCH more because “they’ve been given much”. Could Luke be describing a person’s entire life? In addition to giving money, ought that same person give of his time to offer comfort to those who need support? If someone had leadership skills, is he/she to exhibit those skills in providing direction and become a more active member of the congregation? Is Luke’s description on more of a “global” scale, rather than just a cautionary warning about being stingy? Does the Bible itself offer the answer?

Once again, yes it does and none of the above narrative come anywhere close to the actual intent of Luke’s words. In fact, the “thing” that Luke was identifying was KNOWLEDGE. And while this flies in the face of conventional wisdom, if you haven’t figured it out by now, that’s pretty much the entire theme of this blog–to cast a true, Biblical light on bedrock beliefs, using just the Bible as my source of information. To understand the meaning of what he wrote, we must juxtapose Luke 12 with Matthew 25.

Matthew 25, a companion chapter to Matthew 24, provides great details about the signs to look for prior to Yahshua’s second arrival on earth. In it, he began by saying we should be aware of false teachings:

Matt. 24:3–“And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? ⁴ And Yahshua answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. ⁵ For many shall come [in] my name, saying, I am the Anointed; and shall deceive many.” It’s important to note that Yahshua did not say that people shall come “in” his name as rendered in virtually all modern translations, a.k.a.: “I am Jesus. No, I am JESUS!”, and none are the actual Messiah. In this instance the word in the Greek language is επί, “on”, or “upon”, meaning that people shortly before his second arrival will come upon–or discover–the name of Yahshua and it is THAT truth which they’ll use to deceive many.

Yahshua goes on to identify other signs of his return and he describes wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes in diverse places, false prophets who shall arise and shall deceive many, and much more. After this vivid description of what to watch for just prior to his arrival, the following chapter cites the parable about the 10 virgins in which 5 were prepared and 5 were not. Thus, only the 5 who were prepared joined in the wedding while the other 5 were forbidden entry. And while most people believe that this admonishment is about all people who must keep their eyes open as they look for these signs, the truth is, none of the 10 were aware of his pending arrival until someone woke them up and told them he’s coming. It was THIS person who had important knowledge that the others didn’t have. When he woke up all 10 of them, 5 had sufficient oil in their lamps while the other 5 did not, causing them to miss the wedding, which is a description of Yahshua’s return with ourselves being the brides.

A moment later, Matthew tells us:

Matt. 25:13–“Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.“

What is key in this parable is the fact that one person knew who was coming and when while the others simply waited. I’ve written a very descriptive post about this moment in time which you can read in great detail here.

Luke 12 is a companion chapter to Matthew 25 and each author describes the same scenario, but in slightly less detail, as you can see here:

Luke 12:35–“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.”

Remember, in Matthew we were told that the foolish ran out of oil to keep their lamps lit. Luke’s gospel is written differently than the other three. He was a doctor by profession and he took that higher degree of education and attention to detail into his gospel. Whereas authors such as Matthew were perfectly content to repeat a spoken parable, Luke un-muddied any ambiguity and was more direct. In this instance he’s insisting that we take a proactive approach and do what is within our control to avoid missing out on this key moment.

All of chapter 12 and especially verses 34-40, show a consistent theme. We’re instructed to keep careful watch for His return.

verse 35–your lights burning

verse 36–men that wait for the master

verse 37–blessed are those…whom the master, when He comes, shall find watching

verse 38–…find them [watching], blessed are those servants

And the key verse, almost identical to Matt. 25:13:

Luke 12:40–Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an HOUR when ye think not.

This is interesting. Both Matthew and Luke tell us that we cannot know precisely when this event will occur but they use different language. Matthew says that we cannot know the either the day or the hour of His return. But Luke only says we cannot know the hour! And since Luke was a stickler for detail, this omission was not accidental. Immediately afterwards, Luke praises those who heeded his advice:

Luke 12:43–“Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”

Later in Matt. 25, he goes on to cite the parable of the talents (money): one person received 10, another received 5 and the final person only got 1. Each was told to invest those talents to the best of their abilities and allow them to grow. The man who had been given 10 doubled its value to 20. Likewise, the man who’d received just 5 also doubled their value to 10. But the man who had only gotten 1 was afraid to invest it for fear that if it lost its original value, he’d now have none so he buried it in the ground and proudly returned it to the master when he arrived. But since made no effort to allow it to grow, even at a modest interest rate, the 1 talent he’d been given was taken from him and given to the man who had 10/20. And if Matt. 25 is parallel with Luke 12, then certainly THIS parable ought to provide sufficient evidence that the description of what “we’ve been given” MUST mean wealth, right?

This pivotal chapter reaches its climax in verse 48, the entire topic of today’s post where we discover the answer:

Luke 12:45–But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants 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.“

You’ll immediately see the parallels with Matt. 25, but what specifically is the “requirement” Luke is describing? To understand, it takes no more than a search for the original Greek words rendered “much required” in their original language. There, these words are απαιτείται πολύ, literally meaning “shall-be-being-sought”. Is Luke telling us that just prior to the return of Yahshua Anointed that people will be looking for MONEY? Obviously, that would be absurd! No, Luke makes it perfectly clear that the “what” people will be seeking, or being-sought above, is INFORMATION or KNOWLEDGE that others possess that they do not.

Verse 48 clearly identifies two separate groups of people. The first group are rendered as “he that KNEW NOT” while the second group are identified as “unto whomsoever much is given”. That first group of persons has nothing to do with money at all. They simply “knew not”, thus the thought that immediately follows of those of which “much is given” are a clear description of contrasting these two different groups of people in their degrees of understanding. The second group could just as easily been identified as those who “knew much” which would have simplified their contrast with the first group. In neither case could money have been identified. Otherwise, Luke would have been implying that the first group who “knew not” somehow meant “knew not money”…and that would be illogical.

When the 10 virgins fell asleep the night before the groom arrived for the wedding, none of them would have been included in that ceremony if SOME PERSON HAD NOT WOKEN THEM ALL UP. Likewise in Luke, prior to the arrival of Yahshua in the not-too-distant future, people will crave information they’d never been taught…FROM SOMEBODY WHO KNOWS IT. That’s the full meaning as Luke completes his thought: “…of him they will ask the more”!

In other words, those few individuals who’ve been blessed with knowledge from the holy spirit and understand the timing of these upcoming events will have a responsibility to share that knowledge with the world, as that will be “required” of them. The requirement that Luke speaks about in verse 48 is for those who have identified the hidden truths in scripture have an obligation to share what they know with others. We do not have to brainstorm about what that “requirement” is. The Bible makes it perfectly clear.

And at some point in the future, the traffic on this blog and others like it will go through the roof. The moment Luke is describing is less than ten years from today. At some point closer to that moment in time, His arrival day will be revealed. As Luke admits–nobody will know the hour.

Only.