Bible Strands
Luke 12:35
Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses his disciples in a teaching on watchfulness (Luke 12:32–46), sandwiched between a warning about misplaced treasure (v. 34) and the servant analogy that explains the image (v. 36).
The words — The Greek says the waist (ὀσφὺς, osphux) should be girded (περιεζωσμέναι, perizōsmenai), a specific physical act of tightening a belt for labor, not the BSB's generalized "dressed for service."
The thread — The girded waist recurs in 1 Peter 1:13 ("gird up the minds for action") and Ephesians 6:14 (belt of truth); the burning lamp appears in Matthew 25:4, where the wise virgins carry oil alongside their lamps.
Why it lands — The verse demands a body prepared for immediate action, not merely a mind that is alert; girding is what you do when work is about to begin, not when you are still deciding whether to stay.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;
Cross-references
- 1 Peter 1:13 Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
- Ephesians 6:14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed,
- Matthew 25:4 But the wise ones took oil in flasks along with their lamps.
- Isaiah 5:27 None of them grows weary or stumbles; no one slumbers or sleeps. No belt is loose and no sandal strap is broken.
- Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
- Matthew 25:1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
- Isaiah 11:5 Righteousness will be the belt around His hips, and faithfulness the sash around His waist.
- Philippians 2:15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world
- Proverbs 31:17 She girds herself with strength and shows that her arms are strong.
- 1 Kings 18:46 And the hand of the LORD came upon Elijah, and he tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.