Luke 12:45 (YLT)

Passage

`And if that servant may say in his heart, My lord doth delay to come, and may begin to beat the men-servants and the maid-servants, to eat also, and to drink, and to be drunken;

Nearby Context

Luke 12:43 Happy that servant, whom his lord, having come, shall find doing so;

Luke 12:44 truly I say to you, that over all his goods he will set him.

Luke 12:45 `And if that servant may say in his heart, My lord doth delay to come, and may begin to beat the men-servants and the maid-servants, to eat also, and to drink, and to be drunken;

Luke 12:46 the lord of that servant will come in a day in which he doth not look for <FI>him<Fi> , and in an hour that he doth not know, and will cut him off, and his portion with the unfaithful he will appoint.

Luke 12:47 `And that servant, who having known his lord's will, and not having prepared, nor having gone according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes,

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "servant", "heart", "lord", "doth", "delay", "come", "begin", and "beat". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "servant" and "heart", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 44's "truly I say to you that over..." into verse 46's "the lord of that servant will come...", so "servant" and "heart" belong inside that flow. In Luke context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "servant" and "heart" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.