Responsibility to obey

“That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:47-48
Many people struggle with the question, ‘Is God going to judge people living in the jungle who have never heard of Him?’ It’s true: it’s hard to believe in something you haven’t heard of (Rom. 10:14). Today’s verse gives us an important understanding of how God treats us: those who have knowledge of Him, and those who don’t. If we know what God’s law says about what is right and wrong, then we have the responsibility to obey it. If we don’t know God or His law, the standards are lower – but there are still standards. Paul wrote to the Romans, “All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who heard the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them” (Rom. 2:12-15). What Paul is saying is that if someone doesn’t have the written law of God, they still have the law of God instilled into their conscience.
What does that mean for us, who not only have the Old Testament law, but the whole canon of Scripture? We have a greater responsibility to respond to the gospel. We know the will of God, and we know that Jesus is returning. What are we doing with this knowledge? Are we ready for our master to return? Are we doing what He wants?