45. “But suppose that these servants should say to themselves, My master is taking his time about coming. And suppose they began to beat the servants, both men and women, and to eat, drink, and get drunk.
46. The master of those servants would come on a day when they weren’t expecting him, at a time they couldn’t predict. The master will cut them into pieces and assign them a place with the unfaithful.
47. That servant who knew his master’s will but didn’t prepare for it or act on it will be beaten severely.
48. The one who didn’t know the master’s will but who did things deserving punishment will be beaten only a little. Much will be demanded from everyone who has been given much, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.
49. "I came to cast fire upon the earth. How I wish that it was already ablaze!
50. I have a baptism I must experience. How I am distressed until it’s completed!
51. Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, I have come instead to bring division.
52. From now on, a household of five will be divided—three against two and two against three.
53. Father will square off against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."
54. Jesus also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud forming in the west, you immediately say, ‘It’s going to rain.’ And indeed it does.
55. And when a south wind blows, you say, ‘A heat wave is coming.’ And it does.
56. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret conditions on earth and in the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret the present time?