Gary Eugene Howell: Recent Episodes
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In our modern American culture, there are many people who question the merits of God’s Word. They might say this or that is not a sin and there’s nothing wrong with it. They appeal to cultural norms, attempt to reinterpret the plain language of the Bible or come up with exceptions. They point to long-held Christian traditions as outdated and antiquated all in an effort to dismiss God’s word.
But just for a moment, let’s remove all presuppositions and create a fictitious, hypothetical example that can cut through all the internal biases we may have. Let’s suppose, for the sake of illustration, that God said you cannot drink lemonade through a straw.
All the critics would ask, “What’s wrong with drinking lemonade through a straw? It doesn’t hurt anybody! Why is that a sin?” But all such questions are completely irrelevant. The real question is simply this: Is Jesus Christ your King or not?
If God said not to do something, and you decide that you’re going to do it anyway, then you are a traitor to the King. Your actions are not calling into question the validity of drinking lemonade through a straw; rather, they are calling into question the King’s authority over your life.
By choosing to ignore the king’s edict, you are:
•Rebelling against His authority
•Openly mocking His will for your life
•Declaring that you know better than God; that you are smarter than He is.
These are what make sin, sin. In our fictional example, whether drinking lemonade through a straw is good or bad is completely irrelevant. Sin boils down to the simple fact that God gave you a command, and you chose to ignore it. By your actions, you are giving God a middle finger. It is a deliberate expression of contempt toward God’s authority over your life.
Faith is being able to trust God. He does not leave us without direction, nor does He rule from a place of harshness or cruelty. His commands are given in righteousness, and His authority is always exercised in perfect wisdom and perfect love. To submit to Him is not a loss of your freedom, rather it is the beginning of being able to walk in faith under the care of a good King.
Gary Eugene Howell uses the Berean Standard Bible. The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee. The Text of the Berean Standard Bible was dedicated to the public domain as of April 30, 2023.
Verses 1-13
At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take along any extra oil. But the wise ones took oil in flasks along with their lamps. When the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
‘No,’ said the wise ones, ‘or there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy it, the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut.
Later the other virgins arrived and said, ‘Lord, lord, open the door for us!’
But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.
Commentary
Continuing from Chapter 24, the focus of this parable is on those who are ready for Christ’s return and those who are not. In this parable, the oil represents the Holy Spirit. The ten women represent ten Christians: half of them had the Holy Spirit, and half did not. This means that half had put their faith in Jesus Christ and, in doing so, were filled with the Holy Spirit. The other five had not put their faith in Christ, were not filled with the Holy Spirit, but were merely participating in Christian activities.
When Christ arrives, those without the Holy Spirit suddenly realize they have a problem. Meanwhile, the other five enter with Jesus because they are ready. The doors are shut, and when the others finally arrive, it is too late.
Notice that Jesus says to those who arrived late, “I do not know you.” This is the same thing Jesus said earlier in Matthew 7:
Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)
The will of the Father is that we walk in faith with Jesus Christ. In doing so, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. It is through faith that we have a relationship with Jesus, and thus He knows us.
If you’re not sure whether you have been filled with the Holy Spirit, ask the Lord in prayer, “Jesus, can I please have the Holy Spirit?”
Verses 14-15
For it is just like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted them with his possessions. To one he gave five talents, to another two talents, and to another one talent—each according to his own ability. And he went on his journey.
Commentary
The man going on a journey represents Christ ascending to heaven after His resurrection. The servants represent Christians. Christ entrusts each of us with work according to our abilities. One person may be called to be a missionary, another a pastor, and yet another may be called to perform simple tasks. Whatever the case, each role is important in the work of spreading the gospel and bringing others to saving faith.
Verses 16-23
The servant who had received the five talents went at once and put them to work and gained five more. Likewise, the one with the two talents gained two more. But the servant who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money.
After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. The servant who had received the five talents came and presented five more. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.’
His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’
The servant who had received the two talents also came and said, ‘Master, you entrusted me with two talents. See, I have gained two more.’
His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’
Commentary
Of the three servants, two used their master’s money to earn even more. In the spiritual context, these two servants represent Christ-followers. They relied upon the Spirit and went out into the world to bring more people to Christ.
When Christ returned, He said to these two servants, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’
This commentary writer believes that “being put in charge of many things” refers to the Millennial Reign (see 2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 2:26–27; Revelation 5:9–10; Revelation 20:4–6).
For a period of 1,000 years, Christ will rule on earth as King. Both mortal people and resurrected believers will enter this Millennial Reign. Mortal people will repopulate the earth and establish communities, towns, and cities. However, if these communities were governed by these mortal people, whose flesh remains subject to sin, they would be vulnerable to corruption, just as we see today.
Therefore, this commentary writer concludes that those who are resurrected and reign with Christ will be appointed by Jesus to authoritative positions over the communities, towns, and cities populated by mortal people.
The first servant came forward and said, ‘Master, your mina has produced ten more minas.’
His master replied, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very small matter, you shall have authority over ten cities.’
The second servant came and said, ‘Master, your mina has made five minas.’
And to this one he said, ‘You shall have authority over five cities.’ (Luke 19:16-19)
The author of this commentary holds the belief that, during the 1,000-year Millennial Reign, every position of authority on earth, whether president of a nation or president of a local school board, will be filled by resurrected Christians appointed to those roles by Jesus.
When Jesus says, “Enter into the joy of your master,” He is referring to eternal life.
Verses 24-30
Finally, the servant who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what belongs to you.’
‘You wicked, lazy servant!’ replied his master. ‘You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. Then you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received it back with interest.
Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. And throw that worthless servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Commentary
The first thing we need to notice is that whenever Jesus mentions outer darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth, He is referring to hell. Therefore, we understand from this text that the third servant went to hell.
Knowing that, we can draw out the interpretation. We already know that those who go to hell are the ones who did not put their faith in Jesus Christ. Thus, when we read that this third servant went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master’s money, it represents his rejection of faith and trust in his master.
When explaining to Jesus what he had done, he said, “Master, I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground.”
What this shows is that this individual did not know who Jesus actually is. This servant was completely wrong about Jesus’s methods, morals, values and intentions. This represents the person who misjudges the character of Jesus, claiming to understand Him while in reality they have no idea who He is.
Consider statements such as Richard Dawkins saying, “Jesus is a moral monster,” or Sam Harris saying, “Jesus believes in eternal torture, which makes Him morally problematic,” or Christopher Hitchens saying, “If you accept what Jesus said about hell, He was incredibly cruel.” These are individuals who have no true understanding of who Jesus is, yet each esteems himself as wise. To such as these, Jesus replies, “You wicked, lazy servant!”
If this third servant had shown faith in Jesus Christ (remember that a major part of faith is trust), he could have at the very least deposited the money with the bankers, where it would have earned interest.
Not everyone is called to be a missionary traveling to foreign and sometimes dangerous countries to share the gospel. Sometimes the best thing we can do is support those who are called to go. Many missionaries leave the field because they run out of financial support. In this parable, the bankers represent those who are actively advancing the gospel. Jesus is saying that this third servant could have at least supported them in their work, even if he was unwilling to do the work himself.
There are many ways in which a person can support the gospel: tithing to a church, supporting a ministry, giving to missionaries, or offering one’s time to assist those who are spreading the gospel. All of these are legitimate.
Jesus continues His reprimand by saying, “Therefore take the talent from him and give it to the one who has ten talents. For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. But the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. And throw that worthless servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
Without the Holy Spirit, spiritual tasks are impossible. Those who have no faith do not rely upon the Holy Spirit and therefore cannot succeed in performing spiritual work. Thus, the one who calls himself a Christian and participates in Christian activity, but has no faith, will eventually be removed by God, that is, God takes away what little he had.
We see this often in people who once attended church and fellowshipped with believers, but have since walked away. We see this in the person who claims to have been hurt by a church and now uses that as an excuse to avoid church altogether. We see it in the pastor who led a large congregation but was later fired from his job after an extra-marital affair came to light. God took away what he had. We see it in the musically gifted worship leader who once led others in praise but now performs only secular music and no longer even believes in God. God took away what little he had given them.
Verses 31-33
When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.
Commentary
“He will sit on His glorious throne,” meaning that Jesus Christ is the authority of all authorities. He is the King of kings. Notice also that He is no longer presented as a suffering servant; instead, He is the reigning King who judges the nations.
“All the nations will be gathered before Him.” This shows that no individual or group can avoid or escape His judgment. This is proof that every person will stand before Christ to be judged.
“He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” God has the ability to know what is in our hearts; He knows our inner motivations. A sheep is easily distinguishable from a goat. In the same way, Jesus can easily distinguish between those who walk by faith and those who, on the inside, are devoid of faith and the Holy Spirit.
The act of separation also shows that proximity to the flock is not the same as being part of it. The sheep and goats may have appeared together during life, and at the time you and I may not have been able to tell the difference. Yet at the moment of judgment, Jesus immediately separates them. This shows the danger of merely associating with Christianity without having genuine faith. External participation cannot substitute for an authentic relationship with Christ.
“He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.” His right side is the position of favor and blessing, while His left represents disfavor and judgment. This is also why the Bible states that Jesus stands at the right hand of God (see Acts 7:55–56).
Verses 34-40
Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’
Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’
And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’
Commentary
“Then the King…” Jesus Christ is King. A question for the reader: Do you allow Jesus to be King of your life?
“Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Thousands of years before you were born, God prepared a kingdom for you to inherit. This means that God desires for you to be saved and to have an eternal relationship with Him.
Then Jesus lists a series of actions taken by those on His right: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming strangers, clothing the needy, caring for the sick, and visiting prisoners. These are examples of a larger principle that Jesus stated earlier: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39b)
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:3-4)
However, I want to remind the reader that we do not earn salvation by doing good works. That is not what these verses are stating. For example, a person does not begin driving on public roads in order to earn a driver’s license. They must first obtain their license, and only afterward are they permitted to drive. In the same way, it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to do good works.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.” We are all made in the image of God. When a person shows kindness to another, they are showing kindness to the image of God.
Verses 41-46
Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me.’
And they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’
Then the King will answer, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.’
And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Commentary
God made hell for the devil and his demons. As an all-loving God, He sent His own Son to rescue people from the fate of ending up in hell. Unfortunately, most people reject God’s Son and, in doing so, become cursed. The result is a path that leads directly into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.” These are the people who neither love their neighbors nor love God.
Again, we are all made in the image of God. When a person shows contempt or disdain toward another, they are showing contempt toward the image of God.
“And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” When we love God, we learn, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, to love others. Thus, our external actions are a reflection of our internal beliefs. It is our love for God, shown through faith, that allows us to inherit eternal life.
Gary Eugene Howell uses the Berean Standard Bible. The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee. The Text of the Berean Standard Bible was dedicated to the public domain as of April 30, 2023.
Verses 1-2
As Jesus left the temple and was walking away, His disciples came up to Him to point out its buildings.
“Do you see all these things?” He replied. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
Commentary
For the remainder of this chapter and throughout the next, Jesus speaks to the disciples about the future, covering events from 70 AD all the way to His second coming more than two thousand years later. He begins with the First Jewish–Roman War, which was only a few decades away. Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed. This was God’s judgment against Israel for killing the prophets and for crucifying Jesus (see Matthew 23:29–36).
Verse 3
While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”
Commentary
Moments earlier, Jesus told the disciples that not one stone of the temple would remain upon another. It now appears that the disciples assumed such a catastrophic event could only occur at the end of the age.
Jesus does not directly correct their assumption. He doesn’t tell them of the rapidly approaching Jewish–Roman War, which was only a few years away. Instead, He begins to give the disciples, and us as readers of Scripture, instruction and guidance concerning His second coming, which we are still waiting for today.
Verses 4-5
Jesus answered, “See to it that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
Commentary
This verse is self-explanatory. Jesus warns His followers that spiritual deception will be a constant danger. False messiahs and false teachers will arise, claiming spiritual authority in order to mislead people. The responsibility is placed on believers to remain alert and discerning, testing every claim against the truth of Scripture.
Popularity, charisma, or a large number of subscribers, is not proof that a person speaks for God. Because many will be deceived, the only safeguard is a growing knowledge of Christ and a commitment to His Word so that we are not led astray.
[And by the way, the best method for growing in your knowledge of Christ is to regularly associate with Christians who are more knowledgeable than yourself.]
Verses 6-7
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Commentary
Jesus is subtly telling the disciples that it’s going to be a long time from then, but they didn’t understand. How many wars have there been since Jesus walked the earth? The number is probably in the tens of thousands. In my lifetime alone, the United States has been involved in more than 14 military conflicts that most Americans would describe as “wars.” Notice, however, that Jesus says, “but the end is still to come.” Again, He is hinting that it may be a very long time.
“There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” I remember when I was in elementary school, there was a severe famine in Ethiopia. Television broadcasts showed children so emaciated they appeared almost like skin and bones. In the United States, parents would tell picky children to eat their dinner because there were “starving kids in Africa.” The phrase was meant to help children appreciate the food they had, since elsewhere in the world, many children had none at all.
In 1984, about 50 of the world’s most famous rock and pop stars came together to record a song about the Ethiopian famine. The song was titled ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ and still to this day it’s played on the radio every Christmas season.
As for earthquakes, according to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, approximately 55 occur every day around the world.
Verse 8
All these are the beginning of birth pains.
Commentary
“The beginning of birth pains” is an indication that the tribulation will be worse than all the wars, famines, and earthquakes that have ever taken place. Jesus is saying that all the wars and famines throughout history were only the beginning of birth pains.
In the Bible, creation is often portrayed as a living, sentient entity capable of responding to God’s purpose. For example, Paul writes:
The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time. (Romans 8:19-22)
In speaking of creation, Paul is referring to all the animals, insects, birds, and fish, which are subjected to futility in that they kill and are killed by one another. I interpret creation’s bondage to decay as a reference to the second law of thermodynamics, which states that everything moves from order to disorder; everything deteriorates.
When Jesus speaks of wars, earthquakes, and famines as the beginning of birth pains, the birth he is referring to is his second coming and his 1,000-year Millennial Reign, during which time:
The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and young lion and fatling will be together, and a little child will lead them. The cow will graze with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play by the cobra’s den, and the toddler will reach into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is full of water. (Isaiah 11:6-9)
For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Then He will judge between many peoples and arbitrate for strong nations far and wide. Then they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor will they train anymore for war. And each man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, with no one to frighten him. (Micah 4:2b-4)
No longer will a nursing infant live but a few days, or an old man fail to live out his years. For the youth will die at a hundred years, and he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses for others to inhabit, nor plant for others to eat. For as is the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, and My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain or bear children doomed to disaster; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD—they and their descendants with them. Even before they call, I will answer, and while they are still speaking, I will hear. (Isaiah 65:20-24)
The 1,000-year Millennial Reign is a sabbath rest for the earth and creation.
Verse 9
Then they will deliver you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.
Commentary
Don’t be confused. We just read several verses about the Millennial reign of Christ, but now we return to Jesus’s description of what will happen before that. He is speaking of Christians being persecuted and killed, and of all nations hating Christians because of Him.
One thing that has always puzzled me is why people hate Jesus. From the time I was seven years old, I have always seen Him as the one seeking to save me; the one who is rescuing me from death.
In works of fiction and in cinema, when someone comes to the rescue of others, that person is portrayed as the hero. Yet when Jesus gave his own life to save everyone from death, most of the world rejects him. Why? It makes no sense.
Imagine if a firefighter saved a family from a burning house, but afterward the news portrayed him as a terrible person. Or if a lifeguard rescued a man from drowning, only to be fired from his job.
That is exactly what the world has done to Jesus. He didn’t rescue hundreds or thousands; Jesus made a way for billions of people, throughout all of history, to be saved from death. Yet the world hates him.
And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. (John 3:19-20)
Verse 10
At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another,
Commentary
“Many will fall away.” A question often asked after reading this verse is, “Does this mean a person can lose their salvation?”
Let’s review the Parable of the Sower.
And He told them many things in parables, saying, “A farmer went out to sow his seed. And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings. Still other seed fell on good soil and produced a crop—a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold. (Matthew 13:3-8)
Later in that same chapter, Jesus explains its meaning:
Consider, then, the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the message of the kingdom but does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.
The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
But the seed sown on good soil is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and produces a crop—a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.” (Matthew 13:18-23)
Does the phrase, “many will fall away,” mean that we can lose our salvation? No. Instead, take notice of what is being discussed in Matthew 24; “Then they will deliver you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.”
Those who fall away are the seed sown on rocky ground. They have no root, which means they were never filled with the Holy Spirit.
These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. (Matthew 15:8)
I firmly believe that within Christianity, some are filled with the Holy Spirit, while others have yet to be filled. Some people participate in Christianity for years before truly being saved through faith.
God has a person’s entire lifetime to work out their salvation, and for some, it takes that long to reach the point of putting their faith in Christ.
But there are still others who put on a good show, making everyone think they’re a devoted Christian, while in reality, they never actually place their faith in Jesus. These, I believe, are the ones we see fall away. They have no root.
A core component of faith is trust. Those who place their trust in Jesus Christ and in God’s Word will not be shaken when hardship comes or when tragedy strikes. But those who have never truly trusted Christ have no foundation to stand on. When persecution comes, because they don’t have faith (they don’t truly value Christ), they see no reason to stay, so they fall away.
You and I might do the same with lesser things we aren’t fully committed to. When I was trying to learn how to surf, I made the mistake of buying too short a board. I struggled and struggled to stand. Every time I fell, I got pounded by the waves. Salt water would fill my sinuses, and it quickly became something that wasn’t fun. Rather than persevering through the hardship and spending hundreds of dollars on a longer board, I chose to quit.
For Christians who are not filled with the Holy Spirit, the choice to quit during persecution becomes a simple issue of comfort. They never truly trusted Christ enough to endure suffering for Him. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us the strength to endure. But without the Holy Spirit, persecution causes them to decide it isn’t worth it, and so they fall away.
Verse 11
and many false prophets will arise and deceive many.
Practical Application: Recognizing False Teachers Today in the Internet Age
Because of the internet, it’s very easy today to peek inside other churches. Before the internet, a person might have had no clue what went on in any church besides their own congregation. Today, however, nearly every church live streams its services. Recently, while planning a weekend trip to another city, I searched online for a church to attend on Sunday, the last day of our trip. After identifying a few possible options, the first thing I did was watch videos of their recent sermons. The first one I clicked on, however, turned out to be a pastor twisting Scripture to make it not about following Christ but about following him as the pastor. He reinterpreted Scripture in a way that made it sound as though the church needed to be faithful to him personally, and that his congregation should never question him because he, quote-unquote, “spoke for God”.
We don’t worship, idolize, or exalt our pastors. This was someone who had pushed Jesus aside and placed himself on the throne; a false teacher deceiving those still in his congregation.
Many false teachers have arisen today, and because of the internet, they have a much greater reach and influence than they did in the past. Some even use religion in combination with their online platforms as a path to stardom. The more clicks and subscribers they gain, the more money they make and the more famous they become.
This is why I often say that you should be ever seeing and ever perceiving (i.e. be on your guard against false teachers). Read your Bible. Know it well. When you hear false doctrine, be able to say to yourself, “Wait a minute; that’s not what the Bible says.”
The Danger of Swinging Too Far
Nearly everything in life can be illustrated with a bell curve. A bell curve shows the majority in the middle, with opposite extremes at each end.
If we created a bell curve to represent our ability to identify false teachers, one end would include those who believe every preacher, priest, and Bible teacher is sent from God above; and how dare anyone question what they’re preaching. These are the people who walk into a church with rose-colored glasses. A few friendly greetings from church members are all it takes to convince them it’s a great place to worship. Such individuals are easily led astray because they don’t know what’s in the Bible. They’ve never read it and certainly do not study it. They have no way of recognizing when they’re being spiritually lied to.
At the other extreme of our bell curve are those who accuse nearly every pastor of being a false teacher. These individuals point to almost anyone who interprets a passage differently than they do and declares them to be destined for hell. Pastors who have been faithfully preaching and teaching the Bible for 50 years may be resoundingly condemned by someone who hasn’t even been a Christian for 5 years. Such people have spent very little time studying the Word of God.
Some people, out of pride, enjoy trying to show others how smart they are. One simple way to exalt themselves is by putting other people down. By declaring everyone else a false teacher, they subtly position themselves as wiser than all those they condemn.
Also, keep in mind that on internet platforms such as YouTube, the driving force of content creation is often that of making money. One of the ways to attract large audiences is to be scandalous, shocking, and controversial. So whenever you see one Christian online pointing out the wrongdoing of another Christian, it is often the content creator’s intention to provoke outrage in order to gain more views and generate income. Of course, this is not always the case. Sometimes legitimate Christ-following teachers will point out those who are genuinely false teachers. But be wary of click-bait titles and images designed to look scandalous; they are meant to get you to click so the creator can make more money.
In the middle of the bell curve are those who do not major in the minors. These are believers who focus on the essentials of the faith rather than getting caught up in trivial or secondary matters. They understand that not every difference in practice or interpretation is a threat to their walk with Christ. For example, an individual who regularly attends a traditional evangelical Christian church may have a friend who is a Messianic Jew. He can join his friend on a Friday evening to celebrate Shabbat even though he doesn’t believe Saturday is inherently a sacred day. He participates in the fellowship and respects his friend’s traditions, while remaining firm in his own understanding of Scripture. This approach reflects spiritual maturity: it shows discernment without harsh judgment, flexibility without compromise, and the ability to maintain unity and love among believers who may have different practices but share the same faith in Christ.
Verse 12
Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.
Commentary
In Matthew chapter twenty-two, Jesus declared, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37:40)
Because sin has multiplied in the world, people increasingly hate God and hate one another. We can already see this beginning to unfold today. A man was shot and killed simply for expressing his views about Jesus, and many people publicly celebrated his death. Another man, the CEO of an insurance company, was murdered in broad daylight, and afterwards thousands of people publicly elevated the murderer to hero status.
As believers, we have to be careful that our love does not also grow cold. It can be easy for us to feel bitterness and contempt toward those who commit such evil acts. But remember that Jesus loved those who killed Him, showing us the standard we are called to follow, even toward those who hate us.
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34a)
Verse 13
But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.
Commentary
In verse ten, I concluded that those who fall away are those who had yet to place their faith in Christ (they are not filled with the Holy Spirit). When trials and tribulations come, they fall away. In verse thirteen, Jesus says that those who persevere to the end will be saved. I take this to mean that those who do place their faith in Christ will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be able to persevere; not by their own strength, but by Christ’s. By fully trusting in him, we learn to rely on him rather than on ourselves.
Verse 14
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Commentary
This is already happening. I cannot think of a single country on the map in which the gospel has not already reached and been preached. However, there are many people groups within the geographic borders of various countries who have yet to hear the gospel. A people group is a distinct culture, language, or ethnic group. Most of these unreached people groups are in North Africa, the middle east, and Asia. Today, however, if you walk into nearly any church in America and look at the missionaries they support, you will very likely find that some of them are serving in these parts of the world.
What does this tell us about how soon the end will come? A little later in this passage, Jesus says that He is right at the door. In my mind, I picture Him as already having His hand on this metaphorical doorknob and just beginning to turn it.
Verse 15
So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand),
Commentary
In order to understand this verse, Jesus is directing us to the book of Daniel. So let’s go there and see what Jesus is referring to.
Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city to stop their transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
Know and understand this: From the issuance of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of distress.
Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing.
Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed. And he will confirm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of the temple will come the abomination that causes desolation, until the decreed destruction is poured out upon him.” (Daniel 9:24-27)
Daniel 9:24 Commentary
When the angel Gabriel says to Daniel, “Seventy weeks,” he is using a “week” to represent a period of seven years. Seventy weeks, then, is (7 X 70 years) = 490 years.
Daniel 9:25 Commentary
Here Gabriel tells Daniel when the Messiah will come; centuries before Jesus walked the earth. Sixty-nine “weeks” (7 + 62), or sixty-nine sets of seven years, would pass. Exactly as Gabriel foretold, Jesus the Messiah arrived and fulfilled every prophecy concerning Himself.
But the prophecy speaks of seventy weeks. What about the seventieth? Most pastors, theologians, and scholars, as well as this commentary author, conclude that the prophetic clock was paused after the sixty-ninth week to allow the gospel to go to the Gentiles (non-Jewish people). This interval is commonly called the Church Age.
Within the context of what we are reading here in Matthew 24, Jesus just said, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”. (Matthew 24:14)
I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. (Romans 11:25)
Daniel 9:26-27 Commentary
When the pause for the Gentiles ends, the final seven-year “week” described by the angel Gabriel will occur. This period is known as the Tribulation. During these seven years, the Jewish people will accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. However, bringing them to that point will require an unprecedented period of suffering and upheaval. The Antichrist will show up, and at first the Jewish people will believe he is the Messiah. Then he will commit an act in the temple (the holy place) so offensive (the abomination), that it will expose him as a fraud. Realizing he is not the Messiah, the Jewish people will flee (the desolation).
To read about these end times prophecies in greater detail, I encourage you to read, with prayer, the entire book of Daniel. [link Daniel chapter one]
(now let’s return to Matthew chapter 24)
Verses 16-21
then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop come down to retrieve anything from his house. And let no one in the field return for his cloak.
How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not occur in the winter or on the Sabbath. For at that time there will be great tribulation, unseen from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again.
Commentary
Remember that Jesus is speaking to the disciples about events that, from their point in history, haven’t happened yet. Therefore, some of what Jesus describes refers to 70 AD, while other parts refer to His second coming. Some of His descriptions have a dual application. This passage is an example of that. Jesus is warning both those who would experience the war in 70 AD and those who will experience the tribulation that the events will be so severe that people should flee Judea immediately, without even going back for their personal possessions. This point of dual application to different periods of time will become clearer when we read the parallel accounts of this discourse in the Gospels of Mark and Luke.
During the Tribulation, conditions will become so bad so quickly that Jesus warns people not to even go back inside their homes to retrieve anything. Just run.
Imagine a pregnant woman trying to flee for her life. Picture a mother carrying a newborn baby, struggling to escape. Jesus adds that it will be even more brutal if this happens in winter when it’s cold outside. The urgency will be so extreme that no one should stop to grab a coat. Imagine people fleeing into winter weather without a coat!
Jesus concludes by saying that the Tribulation will be a time of distress and suffering unlike anything that has ever happened before or will ever happen again.
Verse 22
If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.
Commentary
The NLT says it this way: In fact, unless that time of calamity is shortened, not a single person will survive. But it will be shortened for the sake of God’s chosen ones. (Matthew 24:22 NLT)
And the NIV puts it this way: “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” (Matthew 24:22 NIV)
To emphasize just how bad the tribulation will be, if God doesn’t cut it short, the entire human race would go extinct.
Verses 23-25
At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There He is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. See, I have told you in advance.
Commentary
This verse has the same meaning as verse 11.
and many false prophets will arise and deceive many. (Matthew 24:11)
This is a warning not to believe anyone who claims to be the 2nd coming of the Messiah. They will even perform “great signs and wonders”. Notice, however, that Jesus didn’t say they will perform miracles. We don’t put our faith and hope into sleight of hand, political backroom deals, or agenda-driven journalism. Don’t be deceived by such things. Instead, we place our faith, hope, and trust in Jesus alone.
The real 2nd coming of Christ will be unmistakable, (as we will read about in the next verses).
Are we meant to know and understand future Prophecies?
I have met people who believe it’s not for us to understand end-times prophecies. For example, some people claim “We are not meant to understand the book of Revelation”. To this I strongly disagree. Jesus says right here in this verse, “See, I have told you in advance.” In other words, one purpose of prophecy is that we can know beforehand what is going to happen.
Having said that, however, the farther back in history we look, the less people of those eras could have understood certain future prophecies. For example, before the invention of global communications, television, smartphones, and video, no one could have imagined how all peoples and tribes and tongues and nations could see two dead bodies lying in Jerusalem (Revelation 11). In 1800’s America, it took months for a simple letter to travel from California to New York. People back then could not have conceived how anyone in North America, South America, or any other part of the world could instantly see what was happening in Jerusalem. Today, however, we can watch news events live, even when they are occurring on the other side of the world.
The closer we get to Jesus’s return, the easier it becomes to understand end-times prophecy. This is true not only because of our technological understanding of how such events are possible, but also because, as time passes, more and more prophesy becomes fulfilled. Hindsight makes fulfilled prophecy much easier to understand, and the number of remaining, unfulfilled prophecies are fewer in number. A jigsaw puzzle becomes progressively easier as the number of pieces left to find decreases.
Verses 26-28
So if they tell you, ‘There He is, in the wilderness,’ do not go out, or, ‘Here He is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
Commentary
These verses are crucial. If Jesus hadn’t said this, anyone could claim to be His second coming, and we would all be left shrugging our shoulders and asking one another whether it were true.
But Jesus is telling us here that there’s no way anyone will mistake His second coming. It will be such a massive event that everyone on earth will know, without a doubt, that it’s happening.
“For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
I enjoy watching lightning. Some people are scared of it, but whenever I see a storm approaching, I like to sit on the patio and watch the incredible display. A bolt of lightning, even miles away, can, for an instant, turn night into day. There’s no way anyone in my neighborhood wouldn’t know the storm is approaching. The same is true for Jesus’s second coming; everyone will know it’s happening. So don’t be deceived by anyone who claims to be Christ.
“Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”
Here’s a similar example: whenever we look into the sky and see a dozen vultures circling, we know there’s a carcass directly beneath them. When people look up and see Jesus coming on the clouds, they’ll know it’s the 2nd coming.
Verse 29a
Immediately after the tribulation of those days:
Commentary
Jesus says, “Immediately after the tribulation.” This tells us that His second coming follows directly after the end of the tribulation. However, in just a few verses, Jesus is going to tell his disciples that no one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven. What, then, should we conclude? (Remember, there are no contradictions in the Bible. When something appears to be a contradiction, the problem lies in our own lack of understanding).
If the tribulation lasts seven years, and Jesus’s second coming occurs immediately after it, how can it also be true that no one knows the day or the hour? In that case, anyone could simply reason, “The tribulation began on this date, so Jesus’s second coming will occur seven years later on that date.” The angels especially could determine this easily, since they are the ones responsible for announcing the beginning of the tribulation.
One possibility is that the event of which no one knows the day or the hour is not Jesus descending on the clouds. Rather, it could refer to something else that occurs prior to the tribulation.
Let’s keep going and see what that event might be.
Verse 29b
‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Commentary
Could the sun being darkened and the moon not giving light be something as simple as dark clouds? Could it be an eclipse? Or is this something more miraculous? I tend to dismiss the idea of dark clouds because everyone sees storm clouds on a nearly regular basis. No one would give this even a second thought. Eclipses, though very dramatic, are also something modern-day people would not consider inexplicable.
Therefore, I tend to interpret this verse as describing the actual sun growing dim, or something greater than the moon blocking the sun’s light. This would also cause the moon to grow dark, because moonlight is merely reflected sunlight. This would obviously be something that’s never happened before and would instantly get the entire world’s attention (Remember, Jesus said there’s no reason to believe anyone who claims to be the second coming Messiah, because His actual second coming will be unmistakable).
There are other places in the Bible where this description of the sun going dark, the moon not giving light, and the stars falling is used. However, I believe those instances are foreshadowing this end-times event now being discussed (see Isaiah 13 and Ezekiel 32).
“Stars falling from the sky” could be a substantial meteor shower or miraculous forces pulling all man-made satellites out of their orbits, which from the ground would appear like shooting stars as they burn up in the atmosphere.
“Powers of the heavens will be shaken.” In the Bible, the word “heavens” has been used to describe the sky (where the clouds are), outer space (where the stars are), and also heaven itself (where the angels are). Paul, in 2 Corinthians 12, describes himself as having been taken up to the third heaven, meaning not the atmosphere or outer space, but the place where God abides. The heavens being shaken could refer to any of these three, or perhaps even all of them. This could refer to something such as massive lightning storms all over the planet, or some sort of interruption to our lunar tidal cycle, causing massively high and low tides, or it could be that heaven itself is somehow shaken.
Verse 30
At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Commentary
In Acts chapter one we read the following:
After He had said this, they watched as He was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11)
“He will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.” The sign of the Son of Man appearing in the heavens will be Jesus coming on the clouds. He will descend with the clouds and land on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, exactly as He departed.
“and all the tribes on earth will mourn”
There is an often-quoted phrase used by atheists that goes something like, “I’ll believe it when I see it. If God would just rip open the heavens and step down from the sky, I would immediately believe.” However, this verse proves the opposite. God will literally flash from the heavens like lightning, visible as far as the east is from the west. Then He will descend from the sky, standing atop the clouds; and what does it say? All the tribes of the earth will mourn! The atheists, upon seeing Jesus descending, won’t suddenly believe and be baptized. No! They will mourn. The very sight of Jesus’s return will be so dreadful to them that it will provoke grief, not faith.
Always remember: we do not worship God by proof; we worship Him by faith. Jesus is patient and gracious. Doubting Thomas asked for proof, and as far as I know, he is the only person in history who was accommodated when he said he would not believe until it was shown to him. For the rest of us today, asking for proof before believing is completely contrary to faith.
Seeking proof before belief essentially makes a person God’s judge. They want to examine the evidence and decide whether it is valid. they want to judge God. Faith, on the other hand, centers on the heart. A person who truly wants to believe will do so, even without proof.
I would rather associate with people who genuinely want to be my friend than with those who feel obligated to act like my friend. Jesus feels the same way. He is looking for people whose hearts genuinely love Him, not those who are compelled by proof to acknowledge Him.
Verse 31
And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
Commentary
When Christ returns, the human race will enter what is called the Millennial Reign of Christ. It is a period of 1,000 years during which Jesus will rule over all the governments of the world. He will be King. During that time there will be peace on earth, diseases will be cured, and people will live much longer than they do today.
However, only believers will be allowed to enter this Millennial Reign. Unbelievers will not be permitted to enter. This is another reason why Jesus, only moments earlier, mentioned that wherever the vultures gather, there is a carcass.
Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out in a loud voice to all the birds flying overhead, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and commanders and mighty men, of horses and riders, of everyone slave and free, small and great.”
Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies assembled to wage war against the One seated on the horse, and against His army. But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. And the rest were killed with the sword that proceeded from the mouth of the One seated on the horse.
And all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh. (Revelation 19:17-21)
This is also why Jesus said, ‘If those days had not been cut short, nobody would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short.’
During the persecution carried out by the Antichrist, nearly all believers will be killed. Then, when He returns, Christ will kill all the unbelievers.
“I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir.” (Isaiah 13:12)
When the Millennial Reign begins, there will be very few people left on the earth. To illustrate, imagine a scenario in which only five people remain alive in the entire state of Texas. Texas is 268,000 square miles in size. A person who survives the tribulation and enters the Millennial Reign might find that they are the only person alive in an entire city. Places filled with skyscrapers will be like ghost towns.
Jesus will send out His angels to gather the elect from the most distant places on earth and will probably bring them to Jerusalem.
Furthermore, the verse says that the elect will not only be gathered from every part of the earth, but also from one end of the heavens to the other.
In the gospel of Mark it’s recorded this way: And He will send out the angels to gather His elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. (Mark 13:27)
The angels will also gather the elect from heaven. Every believer from all of history who went to heaven will be given a resurrected body and brought back to earth for this thousand-year reign. So start making your plans, because whatever you didn’t get to see or do in this life, you will have 1,000 more years to see it and do it. In this life, did you not get to visit the Grand Canyon, see the pyramids in Egypt, or the giant redwood trees in California, or walk along the great wall of China? During the Millennial Reign of Christ, you’ll have 1,000 years to visit those places and everywhere else on earth. Since there will be peace on earth and goodwill toward all people, there will be nowhere you could visit that would pose any danger. You could spend 1,000 years visiting every continent, country, city, state, town, and village on earth, and you will be warmly welcomed everywhere you go.
Verses 32-33
Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its branches become tender and sprout leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you will know that He is near, right at the door.
Commentary
Jesus is instructing us on how to recognize when He is about to return. He begins by saying, ‘Learn this lesson…’ In other words, He wants us to understand the signs of His imminent return.
All deciduous trees, including fig trees, lose their leaves in the fall and grow new leaves in the spring. I have two pear trees in my yard, and every spring I start watching their buds. When the buds turn from brown to green and begin to swell, I know summer is near. Within a week or two, the buds will open, the trees will put out new leaves, and then the flowers will appear, eventually producing delicious pears.
Jesus is saying that when you see all the events He has just described happening, you will know that His return is near.
Verse 34
Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened.
Commentary
The word “this” in verse 34 has been hotly debated for a very long time. Shouldn’t it read “that generation”? If Jesus were referring to end-times prophecy; to events that were two thousand years in the future, wouldn’t He have said “that generation” instead? Why did He say “this generation,” which sounds as though He was referring to the people living in His own time?
This is often the passage that Preterists point to when claiming that Jesus has already returned. But I find that position ridiculous, because the conditions described after Jesus’s second coming are nothing like anything the earth has ever experienced. Furthermore, when we read 2 Thessalonians, it says:
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to be easily disconcerted or alarmed by any spirit or message or letter seeming to be from us, alleging that the Day of the Lord has already come. Let no one deceive you in any way, for it will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness—the son of destruction—is revealed. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3)
So then, what is Jesus referring to when He says that this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened?
One possibility is that Jesus’s use of the phrase “these things” may refer back to the disciples’ original question in verse 3, when they asked about the destruction of the temple and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen?” If so, Jesus may be narrowing the scope of His discourse and bringing it back to their original question about the temple’s destruction. In that case, the generation living at the time of Jesus would indeed be the ones who would see the destruction of the temple.
For much of my Christian walk, I leaned toward interpreting this verse as referring to the generation alive at the time of the tribulation. But again, why didn’t He say ‘that generation’? The word ‘this’ normally refers to something nearby. Furthermore, Jesus used the phrase ‘this generation’ elsewhere to refer specifically to the people who were alive at that time, (see Matthew 11:16–17 and Matthew 23:36).
Today, my inclination is to interpret this verse as Jesus referring to the Jewish people as a whole. The Amalekites, Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Moabites, and Edomites no longer exist. It is truly miraculous that the Jewish people have survived to this day. So it may be that when Jesus says ‘this generation,’ He is referring to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Jewish people will never be wiped out; they will never pass away.
Verse 35
Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
Commentary
Jesus is telling the disciples that everything He has just described is absolutely going to happen. It is more likely that heaven and earth will cease to exist than for these end-times prophecies not to happen.
Verse 36-41
No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. And they were oblivious until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.
Commentary
Now hold on just a minute! Only a moment ago, Jesus was telling us to learn a lesson from the fig tree. He said that when we see all these things happening, we will know that His second coming is near. Now He’s telling us that no one knows when it will take place. What’s going on here?
There are two ways to view this verse. The first is to take it at literal face value and conclude that He is saying no one knows the exact day and hour of His second coming; as in a precise moment, such as a hypothetical ‘Tuesday at 11:36 a.m. Eastern Time.’
Some people might conclude that since He had just told us to know summer is near when the fig tree’s buds begin to open, perhaps we can know the season of Christ’s return, but not the exact day or hour.
However, I don’t tend to hold this view because the next verses describe how, just like before the flood, people will be eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage. In other words, people will be completely oblivious to what is about to happen to them. If, like the example of the fig tree, everyone could look around and say to themselves, ‘Well, we can’t say for sure the exact day or hour, but it’s obvious that Jesus will return within the next three months,’ they would not be planning weddings.
Furthermore, consider what will be taking place in the world: wars, famines, earthquakes, nation rising against nation, Christians being killed around the world, the multiplication of wickedness, the abomination of desolation, the sun darkened, the moon failing, and the stars falling. Does that sound like a time when someone would be planning a wedding? No! They would say “You know, honey, there’s a lot going on right now. Maybe we should postpone the wedding.”
Here’s what I’ve concluded. The day and hour that no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father, is the pre-tribulation rapture. Just as in the days of Noah, life will be proceeding as normal for everyone on earth. People will be eating and drinking. They will wake up in the morning and have breakfast before heading off to work. They’ll put on their best clothes and go to a wedding. They will be working in the fields or laboring at the mill. They will be completely oblivious to what is about to happen that very day.
The church (i.e. Christ followers) will be removed. This is the rapture. Then God’s wrath will be poured out upon the earth (the tribulation), and after the tribulation Jesus will return to be King in Jerusalem (the Second Coming and Millennial Reign). At that time, Christ followers will be given glorified bodies and will return to the earth to live here for another 1,000 years. After this, the earth will be destroyed by fire, and God will create a new earth like the Garden of Eden, where we will live for eternity.
And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5a)
Verses 42-44
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day on which your Lord will come. But understand this: If the homeowner had known in which watch of the night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect.
Commentary
Jesus is again stating that the rapture will occur on a day no one expects. Then He gives the example of a house being robbed. If you knew at what time of the night the thief was coming, you would have been ready. Jesus is telling us to be ready for the rapture. Although we don’t know the day He is coming, we do know that it will happen, so we should be ready.
I’ve heard pastors offer interpretations of this verse suggesting that Christians might not be ready or are failing to keep watch. For example, one pastor interpreted the verse to mean that Christians might be going about their daily activities while losing focus on spiritual priorities. While that may be good advice, I disagree that the interpretation applies to this verse, because the remainder of this chapter, and the entire next chapter, focuses on what becomes of those who do not keep watch and are not ready; and it is not Spirit-filled believers that Jesus is referring to. So, let’s dig in.
Verses 45-47
Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the others their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
Commentary
The faithful and wise servants whom Jesus has put in charge are His followers (i.e. Christians). “To give the others their food at the proper time” refers to sharing the gospel.
Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4b)
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:18b-20a)
Blessed is the servant whom Jesus finds doing His will when He returns. In the Millennial Reign, that person will be put in charge of many things.
Verses 48-51
But suppose that servant is wicked and says in his heart, ‘My master will be away a long time.’ And he begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate. Then he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Commentary
Okay, here is our first glimpse into the identity of those who are not keeping watch and are not ready when Jesus returns. Jesus says, “suppose that servant is wicked.” No Holy Spirit-filled believer who puts their faith in Jesus Christ is ever labeled as “wicked.”
For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. (Ephesians 1:4a)
In this parable, Jesus tells the story of a Christian who assumes the Messiah isn’t coming back anytime soon and begins to mistreat his fellow Christians. This is someone who isn’t really interested in the will of God, but instead is interested in his own selfish gain. This could be the pastor who’s on a power trip (think of Tony Alamo, Jim Jones, and David Koresh).
Jesus continues by saying that the servant who isn’t ready may be eating, drinking, and getting drunk. In other words, he’s pursuing worldly pleasures.
One evening a man sat down on his couch and turned on his television to watch the local news. But what he saw immediately shocked him. The news story being broadcast showed a mug shot of the man he knew as the assistant pastor at his church. The news report said, “Local pastor arrested for drunk driving.”
A young woman searching for Christian fellowship with people her age decided to attend a church’s young-adult barbecue social event. Upon arriving, however, she noticed that the young-adult-ministry pastor was openly drinking a beer in front of all the late teens and early twenties Christians from the ministry he was leading. She left and never went back to that church again.
“The master of that servant will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not anticipate.”
It’s true that the Christian church has been waiting two thousand years for Christ to return. In that time, perhaps 100 generations have come and gone without seeing the Lord return. However, whether a person witnesses the return of Christ or dies and then stands before Him to be judged, the outcome is the same.
Those who do not put their faith in Jesus Christ, even though they call themselves Christians, will be assigned a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Any time we see the phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth,” it is referring to hell. Therefore, throughout Matthew 24 and 25, we can conclude that when Jesus is talking about those who are not ready and not keeping watch, He is referring to Christians who are not saved. He is speaking of those who call themselves Christians but have not been filled with the Holy Spirit, because they have not put their faith in Him.
These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men. (Matthew 15:8-9)
One of the objections often put forth by non-believers is that Christians are hypocrites. While this is often used merely as an excuse to reject Christ, what they are actually noticing are the very people Jesus describes here: “But suppose that servant is wicked and says in his heart, “My master will be away a long time.”
In other words, the hypocrisy that unbelievers point to is evidence that Jesus’s warning is true. Among those who call themselves His servants are some who are not truly His. These are the ones who neither keep watch nor are they ready.
Again, I want to point to a song written by Curtis Mayfield titled “People Get Ready”. In it he sings,
“People Get Ready
There’s A Train A Comin’
You Don’t Need No Baggage
You Just Get On Board
All you need is faith
To Hear The Diesels Hummin’
You Don’t Need No Ticket
You Just Thank The lord”
Notice that he sings “People get ready”…..“all you need is faith”. The people who are ready are those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. If you have not yet done so yourself, ask the Lord in prayer to help you to have faith in Him.
“I do believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24b)
Photo credit: flickr Creative Commons, Vultures by Mike Prince
A Christian is someone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ. Faith, then, is having complete trust in someone or something. As Christians, we believe in the existence of God and in the historical accounts of Jesus Christ. This level of belief might be described as head knowledge. “…anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists…” (Hebrews 11:6b)
Faith, however, is not merely a mental acknowledgment of God’s existence. Faith is believing that what God has said is true, and allowing those beliefs to guide our actions.
For example, imagine two people who want to walk on a frozen lake. Both are told that the ice is six inches thick and will easily support their weight. One person believes what he has been told and trusts the one who told him, so he walks confidently out onto the ice. The other, however, does not fully believe what he has been told, nor does he trust the one who assured him the ice would hold. He remains hesitant, stepping slowly and cautiously onto the ice and remains close to the shore.
When it comes to faith, the question is this: Do you believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and do you trust that what God said in the Bible is true?
Here is an example. Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4)
If you believe that what God has said is true, you will strive to read from your Bible daily. If, however, you do not trust what God has said and do not believe it to be true, then you are more likely to be the type of person who says you don’t have time to read the Bible.
Ask the Lord Jesus Christ to help you have more faith.
Do you serve in church? Statistics suggest that about 80% of Christians who read this will likely answer, “No.”
Some pastors have noticed that roughly 20% of their church’s congregation performs about 80% of the workload. Some congregations even find themselves pleading for volunteers to step in and help.
Serving at church is an important part of growing in our relationship with Jesus. When we offer our time and talents, we help the church function more smoothly and effectively. As a result, more people can be reached with the gospel through a congregation that is well organized and presents Christ in a faithful and excellent manner.
Serving also allows us to meet the practical needs of those within the congregation, including caring for the elderly, single parents, and others who may need help and support.
The first step in finding a place to serve at church is prayer. Ask the Lord to give you direction on where to serve.
Next, consider what you enjoy doing and what you’re talented at. What are you already doing well? For example, if you play the guitar proficiently, that may be the first area to explore. Does your church need a guitarist?
However, don’t limit yourself only to the obvious roles. There is always a need for the less visible but equally important areas of service. For example, if you’re good with computers, remember that most churches have no IT department, let alone anyone who can even diagnose a basic computer problem. Most pastors are not well-versed in web design, so even someone with basic WordPress or HTML knowledge can make a significant contribution.
Perhaps you’re good with tools and something of a handyman; there are likely elderly widows in the congregation who could use help at home with simple repairs. Maybe you enjoy photography and could capture special events for the church newsletter. Or maybe you’re great with kids and could assist in the Sunday school.
There are countless opportunities, both obvious and behind the scenes, where your talents, knowledge, and resources can be used to serve in the church. When you step into those roles, you help your church share the good news of the gospel with the community and support those who are less fortunate.
Debate
Today, in 2025, it seems very popular for Christians to participate in debates on the Internet about the Bible, the existence of God, the authority of Jesus Christ, and other matters of faith. But I propose that such debates can be contrary to biblical teaching. Jesus said, “Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine” (Matthew 7:6a).This is a clear warning from Jesus about giving sacred truths, like the gospel, to people who will despise or abuse them. We ought to have discernment about who is and who isn’t open to hearing the good news. Jesus also said “if anyone will not welcome you or heed your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town” (Matthew 10:14).
This instruction to the disciples emphasizes not lingering where the message is rejected, but moving on to those whose hearts may be ready to receive it. In my opinion, there is a significant opportunity cost associated with debating someone who has already made up their mind in opposition to God. Every minute spent arguing with a hardened atheist is a minute not spent sharing the gospel with someone genuinely searching for God.
Christians are called to steward their time wisely because “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest” (Matthew 9:37b-38). Time is finite; time spent debating someone intent on refuting the gospel is time that could have been invested in guiding those who are truly seeking answers.
Paul wrote to Timothy, “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels” (2 Timothy 2:23). While I recognize that some debates may serve an audience of onlookers, some of whom may be searching for truth, far more can be accomplished through one-on-one conversations giving those seeking a chance to ask sincere questions.
Some Christians may also fall into the trap of debating for the sake of being right or winning, or even for profit, as social media often rewards outrage with clicks and views rather than meaningful engagement.
In the end, my choice not to debate is not out of fear, but out of love for the people God is currently calling. I prefer to invest my time in teaching those who are ready to listen, trusting God to open hearts rather than attempting to force agreement in the heat of an argument. True ministry is about sowing seeds into the good soil where they can grow, not in mic-drop moments of trying to defeat the opposition.
Paul said, the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true (Acts 17:11). I feel confident in saying that the atheist who enters into a public debate with a Christian, does not later examine the Scriptures with eagerness to see if what the Christian said is true.
Did you know it’s very difficult to proofread your own writing? That’s because you already know what you meant to say, so your brain fills in the gaps automatically. As a result, it tends to overlook the actual words and letters written on the page.
Every writer has experienced the frustration of proofreading a piece multiple times, only for someone else to immediately spot a glaring mistake.
I once paid $80 for a box of business cards. I must have proofread the card a dozen times before sending them to print. When they arrived, I eagerly showed them to my wife. But as soon as I handed her the first card, she glanced at it and gasped; I had spelled the name of my business wrong. No matter how many times I checked, my mind kept seeing what it expected to see, completely missing that two letters in the first word had been reversed. In the end, that entire $80 box of business cards went straight into the garbage can.
I use Microsoft Word for my writing, and its spell-check and auto-correct features are invaluable. However, there are several critical editing tasks that Word cannot perform (at least not with the default installation I use). Its spell-check and auto-correct functions will not identify any of the following writing mistakes:
Run-on sentences, sentence fragments, comma splices, misplaced or dangling modifiers, subject–verb disagreements, shifts in tense, shifts in point of view, homophone confusion (e.g., right, rite, write, wright), incorrect prepositions, redundant pairs, wrong plural or possessive forms, using adjectives instead of adverbs, missing commas, improper paragraph breaks, and more.
Every good writer needs someone to proofread their work. However, giving your writing to a friend or family member offers no guarantee that they have the education or skills to spot these errors. Hiring a professional editor, meanwhile, can cost thousands of dollars and take weeks or even months.
An AI program, on the other hand, can identify every type of writing error; and do so in mere seconds.
But here’s the catch:
AI programs like ChatGPT will always take bright, impactful, and colorful writing and make it bland, boring and dull. For this reason, every writer who uses AI as an editing tool must also learn how to “edit the editor.”
The following is my personal list of how I use AI as an editing tool for my writing.
#1) Every sentence and every paragraph must be my own original thoughts.
When I was in high school, using a calculator on a math test was considered cheating. Any student caught doing so would receive a zero on the test and a call home to their parents. College, however, was very different. In my engineering classes, using a calculator during tests was required; but each student had to have memorized the formulas. Typing numbers into a calculator is meaningless without knowing which formulas are needed to solve the problem.
In high school, using a calculator was cheating because it allowed the student to sidestep the work and let the calculator do it for them. In college, however, the calculator became a tool to display the results of the student’s knowledge.
Likewise, if a person uses an AI language modeler like ChatGPT to bypass the work of putting their own thoughts on paper, they are cheating. They are being dishonest. But if a writer uses ChatGPT as a tool to make the words on the page more accurately reflect their own thoughts, that is professional and mirrors exactly what a human editor would do.
Actually, let me revise that last point. I once wrote for a magazine published by my church’s denomination, which was distributed nationally to all the churches in that denomination. I had a human editor, and I vividly remember the first article I submitted. My editor made so many changes and rewrote it so extensively that upon reading it in the published magazine, I felt guilty being listed as the author. I didn’t recognize a single paragraph. I felt like a fraud and thought it would have been more appropriate if the editor’s name had appeared as the author.
By using an AI editing program, a writer can ensure that the thoughts which originated from their own mind are preserved on the page. Writing errors can be corrected, and the arrangement of words can be refined so the original idea is expressed more clearly and precisely. In my opinion, using an AI editor can be even more effective than a human editor, because I, the writer, know exactly what I intended to say. I remember what I was thinking when I put the words on my computer screen, and I can guide the AI editing process to convey my thoughts accurately. A human editor, however skilled, cannot read minds and therefore cannot fully know what the writer’s original thoughts were.
I feel very fortunate that, in ninth grade, I was required to take a typing class. At the time, I didn’t like it, but as an adult with an interest in writing, being able to type with all ten fingers has been invaluable to me. I genuinely feel sorry for those I see typing using only their index fingers and thumbs, a method they likely learned from operating a video game controller. Can you imagine writing an entire book that way? At 10 or 12 words per minute, it would take years. For me, the best way to start a writing project is to sit down at my laptop and free-flow my thoughts onto the screen, typing as fast as I can think. Those thoughts then form the foundation for what is later edited.
#2) Emotion is what makes good writing
The word “poignant” means to evoke a keenly felt sense of emotion. If your writing contains any poignancy; which is what makes good writing; you can be certain that ChatGPT will try to generalize it to the point that your writing loses all of its emotion. While it may correct a run-on sentence, it can also make your writing dull in the process. As the writer, and the “editor of the editor”, you must restore your poignant expression while also recognizing the valid corrections it made.
I always place the edited output side by side with my original and compare them word for word to see exactly what was changed and why. I might make several changes to the output and then run it through the editor again, repeating the process until I have precisely conveyed my original thought.
#2) Never ask ChatGPT to edit more than one paragraph at a time.
If you write an article and then submit the entire text to ChatGPT for editing in a single copy-and-paste operation, it will likely end up destroying your piece.
Imagine hiring a handyman and telling him, “Here’s my house; fix what’s wrong.” You leave to go to work, and at the end of the day, you come home to find that he has converted your entire house into a duplex. Now your home has two front doors, and strangers are moving in.
Instead, you should have brought the handyman into your home and said, “The sliding door on this closet doesn’t shut properly. Please fix only this door.” A few minutes later, you would find that he fixed it, and that it works perfectly.
By giving ChatGPT only one paragraph at a time to edit, you greatly limit how much it has to work with. As a result, the extent of its alterations is also limited. It can correct your comma splices and adjective use, but it can’t change the overall direction and meaning of your writing. You simply haven’t provided it with enough content to do so.
#3) Don’t let ChatGPT make changes just for the sake of changing something.
ChatGPT will often change words simply for the sake of change, not because the revision improves the writing. That’s why you may often desire to put your words back into the text. The thoughts that originated in your mind are what you want your audience to read. When ChatGPT alters words unnecessarily, it strips the “you” from your writing. The goal of using ChatGPT as an editing tool is to ensure that your own thoughts are clearly and accurately conveyed to the reader. Correcting genuine writing mistakes is important, but making changes just for the sake of change is not.
#4) Remove the AI signatures.
I’m not sure why, but certain words, punctuation choices, sentence structures, and writing styles are so heavily favored by ChatGPT that they have become hallmarks of AI-generated text. The word gentle is one example: “Would you like me to gently recommend a pizza recipe?” “The gentle nature of her suggestion.” “God’s gentle love for His people.”
This really ties back to my previous rule. ChatGPT will edit your writing by inserting words, phrases, and punctuation that you, as the writer, would never use. All of that must be stripped out and restored to reflect the way you actually write.
For example, most people don’t know how to type an em dash (Alt + 0151). However, ChatGPT uses em dashes as liberally as I use salt on scrambled eggs, making them a signature of AI writing. When “editing the editor”, I always replace em dashes with my preferred punctuation; typically, a comma or a semicolon. Much to my consternation, however, I’ve noticed that the Berean Standard Bible, which is what I always use when quoting Scripture and which was published long before the first AI programs existed, frequently employs em dashes. I have to remain constantly vigilant to avoid accidentally “editing” Scripture while reviewing my own commentary writing after using an AI editor.
The obvious goal of writing is to convey one’s thoughts onto paper. Poor writing, however, can cause the reader to walk away with unintended messages. A humorous and often cited example is the phrase “Let’s eat Grandma.” Clearly, the author did not intend for his grandmother to be eaten. The correct sentence should have been “Let’s eat, Grandma,” or better still, “Grandma, let’s eat.”
Every writer needs an editor because it’s extremely difficult to proofread one’s own work. I once bought a book, brought it home, and began to read it. But somewhere in chapter five, I noticed that the author had used the word “containment” where the context clearly required the word “consignment.” I went to the author’s website and emailed him about the mistake. He replied with gratitude and admitted that four human editors had failed to catch it.
The incredible value of using an AI editor is that it’s virtually impossible for the machine to overlook such subtle errors. The machine doesn’t misspell words or make writing mistakes. ChatGPT was trained on about 570GB of text, roughly 300 billion words, or the equivalent of six million books. It is, for all practical purposes, impervious to grammatical errors. While it obviously lacks the human component that we, as writers, must restore to its editing outputs, ChatGPT is, in my opinion, the most effective editing tool available; provided you’re not lazy and are willing to first record your own thoughts and then afterward, take the time to edit the editor.
In this video, we explore Matthew 5, The Sermon on the Mount, The Beatitudes, Salt and Light, Did Jesus Abolish the Law?, Adultery, divorce and advice on marriage.
Jesus Rebukes the Pharisees
Before reading this commentary, I encourage you to first read the text of Matthew chapter twenty-three.
Background
In chapter 21 we read about the triumphant entry of Jesus, riding on the donkey into Jerusalem. He clears the temple, flipping over tables and driving out the money changers. He spends the night at the city of Bethany and the next day returns to Jerusalem where he walks into the temple courts and begins teaching.
The remainder of chapter 21, all of chapter 22, and continuing now in chapter 23 records what he was teaching the crowds inside the temple courts.
Verses 1-3
“The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’s seat. So practice and observe everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”
Why? Why should they practice and observe everything the scribes and Pharisees tell them if the scribes and Pharisees are hypocrites? Jesus just finished thoroughly rebuking the scribes and Pharisees throughout the last half of the previous chapter. It would make more sense if Jesus now instructed the crowds not to follow the scribes and Pharisees. After reading chapter 22, we might assume that Matthew 23:1 was going to say, “Don’t follow them”. Why then does Jesus tell the crowd to do everything the scribes and Pharisees say?
The Israelites depend upon the scribes and Pharisees to tell them what the law of Moses says. Therefore, any Israelite who wants to pursue God, has no choice but to receive his instruction from the scribes and Pharisees. This is the reason why they sit in Moses’s seat. God spoke to Moses and Moses told the Israelites what God had said. The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses’s seat. They study the scriptures and then inform Isreal what the Word of God says. Anyone who wanted to follow God and to obey the scriptures, had to rely upon the scribes and Pharisees to instruct them.
But Jesus warns the people “do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.” He then goes on to explain exactly what he’s referring to. Let’s look at the next few verses.
Verses 4-7
They tie up heavy, burdensome loads and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. All their deeds are done for men to see. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. They love the places of honor at banquets, the chief seats in the synagogues, the greetings in the marketplaces, and the title of ‘Rabbi’ by which they are addressed.
Everything Jesus is describing about the Pharisees, boils down to their pride. We, through the narrative of our Lord Jesus Christ, tend to view the Pharisees as being the villains of the New Testament. However, people today do the exact same things they did.
A police officer pulls over a city council member for speeding. The first thing out of the man’s mouth when confronted by the cop is, “Do you know who I am?!” That’s pride. Being a member of the city council does not give the man permission to speed. The question “do you know who I am” is evidence that he believes his position makes him someone special. Never mind the fact that the town has only 30,000 residents and he was the only one on the ballot running for the position. He’s not special at all. Besides that, in the grand scale of political positions, a city council member is literally a “nobody” compared to the governor of the state, or the congressman of that state. Mr. city council member would not even be allowed to walk freely into the state capital building. He would have to go through security like everyone else.
And the reverse of that scenario is also true. The janitor at a large church was quietly going through seminary training. While working as a janitor, few people at the church paid any attention to him. Some people even outright ignored him. But after years of quietly working on his seminary degree, he graduated. The church then promoted him from janitor, all the way up to assistant pastor in charge of everything at the church besides the Sunday morning service. Now all of a sudden, the people who had previously ignored him, were now coming up to him saying, “Good morning, how are you doing. It’s so nice to see you today. Can I get you a cup of coffee?” He, remaining humble, very politely declined.
In the first example, a man ascended to an important position and became prideful. In the second example, a humble man was ignored until he ascended to an important position. In these two examples, we see that the people of today are no different than the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’s time. Pride, appearances and selfish ambition are often people’s primary motivations.
“God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6b).
Humbleness is very often an intentional decision. There are times we may have to even plan ahead to remain humble. When one knows they are getting promoted, they might say to themselves, “I’m not going to let this go to my head.” Whereas pride can be a natural default that requires no intentional effort. When you are promoted, I encourage you to sit down and create a written statement to yourself which describes how you will remain humble. “My job is to lead these people in the performance of these particular tasks. Therefore, I’m always going to have the attitude of serving those I’m in charge of.” And, learn to rely daily upon Jesus Christ rather than yourself. Even when you’ve been doing something for years and you have become an expert in that field, continue to ask Jesus Christ to help you. The goal is humbleness.
Verse 8
In the previous verses Jesus said the Pharisees love the places of honor, the greetings, and the titles. Jesus continues, But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi… Jesus is not saying that the word Rabbi is somehow bad, rather he is making a direct comparison to the attitudes and behaviors of the Pharisees. To obey this teaching, we don’t shed our titles—how would we know who’s responsible for what, if no one has a title? Rather, Jesus is saying that the Pharisees love to be called Rabbi. They crave being given honor and special places to sit at banquets. You and I on the other hand, are not to let our titles inflate our egos. Don’t allow yourself to crave attention and glory. Don’t get to the point at which, after being pulled over for speeding, you say to the cop, “don’t you know who I am!?” The cop doesn’t know who you are and he doesn’t care. Your job is not to be self-important. Your job is to treat others as being more important than yourself.
in humility consider others more important than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3b)
Verse 9
Verse nine begins a sentence with the word “And”. Thus, we know it’s a continuation of the previous thought. Jesus was just telling the crowd not to become prideful within elevated positions. Now he is telling them not to put on a pedestal those in lofty positions. Consider this, if in your mind’s eye you view a person in a position of authority as infallible, you’ll be prone to accept everything they say without question. This is how people end up being led by a false teacher. They just assume he’s right and they never bother to examine what he’s actually saying.
Verse 10
Verse ten has the same message as verse eight. Do not exalt yourself because of your title. I once disagreed with someone over how a certain bible verse was being interpreted. When I expressed my disagreement, he immediately informed me of the position he held at his church and the length of time he’d been teaching the Bible. That’s pride. If I was wrong, he could have shown me the scripture that refuted my misunderstanding. But no, he just shoved his credentials at me.
If you interpret a bible passage incorrectly, and no one ever points out your error. You will likely continue to interpret it that way indefinitely. It doesn’t matter that you’ve been teaching Bible studies for ten years. You may have been teaching it wrong for ten years. Don’t get offended when someone corrects you. Not only that, but you should have begun your journey seeking the input of others wiser than yourself. Don’t ever think of yourself as a know-it-all just because you’re the one teaching the Bible study.
Verse 11
This is the application of Jesus’s teaching. “The greatest among you will be your servant”. In every position you hold (and in all responsibilities you’re given), think about who you are serving.
If you own a business, your job is to serve your customers. You also serve your employees in the sense that it’s your responsibility to teach them how to serve your customers. If you’re placed in charge of anything at church, your job is to serve the congregation in those tasks. If you’re elected to an office of government, your job is to serve your constituents. If you are writing a New Testament bible commentary, your job is to serve those who will read it.
But if in any pursuit, the work you’re doing is being done for the purpose of exalting yourself, enriching yourself, showing off or elevating your own pride, you’re doing it wrong.
Verse 12
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you. (1 Peter 5:5b-6)
Verse 13
The Scribes and Pharisees shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. The pursuit of God was their exclusive club which gave them their exalted positions within the community. They didn’t want the “riff raff” to join their ranks.
Jesus is telling them that they are not going to enter the kingdom of heaven and they try to block others from entering.
Verse 14
The oldest manuscripts do not contain verse 14, therefore I am not including it here. However, it was included in both Mark and Luke and I will comment on it there.
Verse 15
On the occasions when the Pharisees did try to convert someone, what they brought that person into was a religion of dead works.
Verse 16-29
Woe to you, blind guides! We are in the midst of Jesus listing seven woes against the Pharisees.
1.You will not let in those who are seeking the kingdom of heaven
2.Your converts become sons of hell
3.You’re blind and can’t see the errors of your own ways
4.You disregard the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness
5.Your righteousness is just for show. You don’t bother to clean up your heart
6.You are whitewashed tombs
7.You are the sons of those who murdered the prophets
This is quite a list of accusations. It’s no wonder they didn’t like Jesus. But all of these accusations were 100% true. Remember, these were the religious leaders of his time. The same is no different today. Watch out. Be ever watching and ever perceiving.
Verses 30-33
By saying “If we had lived in the days of our fathers” the Pharisees are admitting that they are the sons of those who murdered the prophets.
Jesus says “Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers.” The Pharisees are about to crucify the Messiah! Of all the prophets who were ever killed, these Pharisees talking to Jesus, are about to do worse than all of their ancestors combined.
Verse 34
Throughout the ages, God sent prophets and wise men and teachers, but like the Bible study teacher I mentioned earlier, pride blinded the religious leaders of Israel. The scribes and pharisees were unwilling to be corrected.
Verse 35
And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
When the Pharisees of Jesus’s time, died and later will be raised from the dead to stand before Him and be judged, they will be held accountable for every one who was murdered from Abel to Zechariah son of Berechiah. This may seem odd because Abel lived 4,000 years before the Pharisees Jesus is talking to were born. Likewise, Zechariah son of Berechiah lived 500 years before these Pharisees were born. How is it then that they are accountable for their murders?
Jesus is pointing out that every profit who ever lived was persecuted and many of them killed, by the Israelite religious leaders. Although the title Pharisee was not used until about 150 years before Jesus was born, none-the-less, they represent those who rejected the profits and even now the very son of God.
Verse 36
Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
It’s interesting to note the last words of Zechariah as he was being murdered.
Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest (Berechiah was likely his grandfather or great-grandfather), who stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has forsaken you.’”
But they conspired against Zechariah, and by order of the king, they stoned him in the courtyard of the house of the LORD. Thus King Joash failed to remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him. Instead, Joash killed Jehoiada’s son. As he lay dying, Zechariah said, “May the LORD see this and call you to account.” (2 Chronicles 24:20–22)
Some translations say “May the Lord see and avenge”. That is exactly what’s about to happen. Jesus said “All these things will come upon this generation”. Just 33 years after this moment, will mark the beginning of the first Jewish-Roman war.
Israel had been ruled by Rome in such a way that Israel was still able to retain much of its independence and way of life. However, within a few years of Jesus being crucified, and the events of the books of acts and of Paul the apostle, Israel came under the direct rule of the Roman Empire such that Israel was severely oppressed and their freedom of religion was taken away.
Governor Gessius Florus came to Jerusalem and looted the temple. Taking from it all of its valuable religious assets. Then he began massacring Jerusalem’s residents. This in turn caused a big rebellion and uprising which continued escalating until Jerusalem was completely overthrown by Rome, the temple was destroyed and many of Jerusalem’s remaining inhabitants were sold into slavery.
It’s ironic that the Jewish people thought their coming Messiah would free them from Rome. Instead, the Messiah had, all along, intended to use Rome for their destruction. This was a righteous judgement for all the murders they had committed against all the profits God had sent them over the course of hundreds and even thousands of years.
Verses 37-38
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling! Look, your house is left to you desolate.”
First, let’s take notice of Jesus saying “how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings”. Jesus is God. Long before Jesus was born via Mary into a physical body, he had, from heaven, longed to gather Israel’s children together.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 22:13)
Jesus is God.
Verse 39
For I tell you that you will not see Me again until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
This is an end-times prophecy. The next time Jesus sets foot in Jerusalem will be at his second coming. The battle of Armageddon will appear to be the end of the Jewish people. At that time Jesus will come to their rescue and they will say “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
The post Commentary Matthew 23 first appeared on Gary Eugene Howell.
The Wedding Banquet Guest
Before reading this commentary, I encourage you to first read the text of Matthew chapter twenty-two.
Verses 1-7
Once again, Jesus spoke to them in parables:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a king (God) who prepared a wedding banquet for his son (Jesus). He sent his servants (the profits) to call those he had invited (the Israelites) to the banquet, but they refused to come.
Again, he sent other servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle have been killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
But they paid no attention and went away, one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, (the profits) mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged, and he sent his troops to destroy those murderers and burn their city.
(2 Kings 24:2) – And the LORD sent Chaldean, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against Jehoiakim in order to destroy Judah, according to the word that the LORD had spoken through His servants the prophets.
(Jeremiah 25:8-9) – Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
Verses 8-10
Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the crossroads and invite to the banquet as many as you can find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered everyone they could find, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Make note of the fact that God instructed them to invite as many as they could find. The servants then gathered everyone they could find. The phrases “as many as you can find” and “gathered everyone they could find” shows us that God is calling everyone. God is telling his servants to invite everyone. Anyone they find, they should invite. Every human being today is invited.
But why does verse 10 say both evil and good? We are going to see in these next verses that there are some Christians who come to the banquet, but end up getting thrown out….Let’s take a look now.
Verses 11-12
But when the king came in to see the guests, he spotted a man who was not dressed in wedding clothes (He was not filled with the Holy Spirit). ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes (without the Holy Spirit)?’ But the man was speechless.
Salvation is by faith. Those who put their faith in Jesus are filled with the Holy Spirit (i.e. they are dressed in wedding clothes).
A person can know about Jesus and yet make the mistake of trusting in themselves, incorrectly believing their salvation will come about because they were a good person. It’s entirely possible for a lay person, a church member, a deacon, an elder, or even a pastor or priest to be deeply involved in church activities, ministries, helping the poor, feeding the hungry, etc… and yet not have put their faith in Jesus Christ.
This is the individual who shows up to the wedding banquet without wedding clothes (i.e. The Holy Spirit). They are the person who claimed to be a Christian, yet never put their faith in Christ.
Think about it this way: My first job was mowing grass on a golf course. The employee handbook stated that employees can have one free round of golf per day. Every day I got up at 5:00am. By 6:00am I was on the mower, going from the number one green to the number two green and then onto the number three, etc…etc…. When I finished mowing all 18 greens, I then had to go back and move the holes on each green, I had to maintain the mowers, I had to work on the sprinklers. Our work was to keep the whole golf course running. At the end of the day, I was tired and wanted only to go home and sit down. As a result, I never once took advantage of the free round of golf.
Later, when I was about 40 years old and was reflecting on my life, it occurred to me just how big of an opportunity I had missed. The golf course had a pro-shop. In the pro-shop was a full-time golf instructor. The golf instructor was my coworker. He and I were both employees of the golf course. When I was young, it never once occurred to me that as an employee, he too got a free round of golf every day. I could have asked him to go golfing with me every day. And during such, I could have gotten free golfing lessons from him. I was in my late teens when I worked there.
Now consider this: A young man, 18 and 19 years old, playing 18 holes of golf every day for free and bringing with him a golf instructor. Who knows, perhaps I could have become a professional golfer. Perhaps I could have joined the PGA Tour. When I look back at my life in hindsight, I consider this to be a missed opportunity. I worked at the golf course, but I never played golf.
Likewise, there are many Christians who attend church, volunteer at church, or are even employed by the church, but have yet to put their faith in Christ. It doesn’t matter the denomination. Every Church in America has someone in the congregation or parish who hasn’t yet put their faith in Christ even though they appear, on the outside, to be such a devout Christian.
God judges the heart. We, however, are not able to see into people’s hearts. All that we can do to ascertain someone’s sincerity is examine their actions and speech. Each of us, on the day of judgement, will be shocked at some point, to see who is getting kicked out of the wedding banquet.
How do you know if you are such a person? Ask Jesus! One of the biggest aspects of putting our faith in Christ is that we rely upon Him rather than ourselves. So I am literally instructing you to right now, ask Jesus Christ to help you to put your faith in him and to fill you with the Holy Spirit.
Here is a prayer: “Lord Jesus, help me to put my faith in you. Please fill me with the Holy Spirit.”
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)
Verse 13
Then the king told the servants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
This, of course, is referring to hell. The individual who is not filled with the Holy Spirit upon their earthly death will be thrown into hell.
Verse 14
For many are called, but few are chosen.
God sent his servants to invite everyone they could find. “Many are called”. This is the great commission. God wants every Christian to go out into the world and share the gospel (to invite everyone), so that every person on earth might have the opportunity to hear what Jesus has done for them. All are invited; everyone.
The skeptic might ask, “What about those who never hear about Jesus?” To which I would answer, “Where no missionaries go, Jesus goes there himself.” This is the reason, I suspect, why so many Muslims have dreams about Jesus. There are many places in the Islamic middle east where missionaries do not venture. In those places, Jesus goes there himself.
“Few are chosen”. Those who are chosen are those who choose to put their faith in Christ. “to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12b)
Verses 15-16
Then the Pharisees went out and conspired to trap Jesus in His words. They sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and that You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth…
Ah Ha! So they admit that Jesus teaches the way of God and the truth! By making this admission they are declaring themselves guilty of conspiring against God! Woe to them on their day of judgment. As I have stated before, one of my prayers is that I might have the opportunity to be seated in the gallery of God’s court room. I have always found court room dramas fascinating. I’m very interested to hear what the Pharisees will have to say for themselves while standing before the glorified Jesus Christ to give an account for their deliberate rejection of him.
Verses 17-18
So tell us what You think: Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” But Jesus knew their evil intent and said, “You hypocrites, why are you testing Me?
These are supposed to be the spiritual leaders of Israel, yet here they are testing Jesus.
Do not test the LORD your God as you tested Him at Massah (Deuteronomy 6:16)
At Massah the Israelites quarreled with Moses, and they tested the LORD, saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” What a coincidence, here are the spiritual leaders of Israel asking the exact same thing again, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Their Messiah is standing right in front of them, yet all they want to do is argue with him.
Verses 19-22
Jesus then proceeds to completely side step the trap they had set for him, leaving them amazed.
Verses 23-29
The Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection…
Have you ever noticed that the Pharisees and Sadducees appear to be colleagues? Perhaps they are even friends, yet they have vastly different spiritual beliefs. Meanwhile, Jesus shows up, also with vastly different spiritual believes and both the Pharisees and Sadducees hate him, even to the point of wanting to kill him.
Today in America, people strive for equity, diversity, tolerance and inclusion when it comes to all other religions except Christianity. Christians are at times treated with disdain and intolerance. This phenomenon however, serves only to illustrate that of all world religions, Christianity stands apart. Many Christians point to this as evidence of the truth of God’s Word. The world hates God, therefore the world hates Christians.
The Sadducees, come to Jesus with a hypothetical scenario in order to question him about the resurrection, in which they don’t even believe anyway. Their question involves seven brothers and one wife. The question culminates with them asking whose wife she will be in the resurrection. But here is what I want you, the reader of this commentary, to focus on: Jesus responds “You are mistaken because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”
Every single error that you might have in your understanding of who God is, comes entirely from your lack of knowledge of scripture. Remember, when Jesus was in the desert being tempted by Satan, every single rebuttal that Jesus gave to Satan started with, “It is written”. The way in which we overcome demonic influence in our lives is by knowing well the Word of God. The only way we can know well the word of God is by faithfully and consistently reading it.
It has become very apparent to me in recent years that many Christians, perhaps most, do not read the Bible but instead form their religious beliefs based either on what someone else has told them, or by their own self-invented spirituality based upon personal experiences, inner feelings and selfish desires.
I have encountered Christians, both in person and via the internet, who, when asked about their spiritual beliefs, have stated opinions so far removed from Biblical truth that it causes me to be left in awe at how any person, claiming to be a Christian, could have possibly landed on such ridiculous conclusions.
27% of Americans do not read books. Another 20% read books reluctantly. The Bible has over 1,000 pages and is a serious undertaking to read especially for those who are not accustomed to reading books. We can all agree that it’s a big commitment to read the entire Bible, not to mention studying it in detail and reading it multiple times over the course of one’s life.
For comparison, here are a few famous novels that each contain over 1,000 pages:
•Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (~1,400 pages)
•War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (~1,200 pages)
•The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (~1,200 pages)
•The Lord of the Rings (as a single volume) by J.R.R. Tolkien (~1,100 pages)
•Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (~1,000 pages)
Consider this: All Quiet on the Western Front, a story of world war one by Erich Remarque, has just 240 pages. The book itself is only 6 inches tall by 4 inches wide and has merely 12 chapters, yet despite its small size, it took me six months to read. This wasn’t because I’m a slow reader, but because I would read a chapter and then put the book down for 2 or 3 weeks before picking it up again to read the next chapter.
If I have a choice between reading a book or casting my line into the surf, I’ll always prefer to go fishing. Or if given the choice between reading a novel or watching the movie adaptation, I’d prefer to watch the movie. Reading a book is to me like work, but I know that if I don’t read the Bible, how in the world am I possibly going to know what to believe about God?
Jesus said “a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)
There are tricksters, hucksters and scam artists out there who use the name of Christ in order to advance their own fame and fortune. There are churches with 15,000 people in the congregation following a pastor who used their money to buy for himself an 18,000 square foot home. The only possible way to know if what you are seeing and hearing from a pastor, priest or other bible teachers is true, is to read the Word of God yourself while simultaneously asking Jesus to give you an understanding of what it all means.
So how do you read a 1,000 page book when you’d prefer to do anything other than read a book? First, ask Jesus to give you a love for the Bible. Then, start with the New Testament. That is where the largest bulk of Christian theology is concentrated, and is also where we get to see the Old Testament in hindsight, making it much easier to understand when you begin reading the Old Testament.
Second; just read for five minutes a day. By no means am I suggesting you read one verse. That’s too little and leads to taking verses out of context. But you can find five minutes a day to read the Bible without experiencing any inconvenience. This is a good place to start building up your reading endurance. If you love the Lord, you will make the time.
I also encourage you to listen to the Bible. Not as an alternative to reading, but in addition to reading. By listening to a recording of someone reading the Bible, and by setting the playback speed to 1.5x, you can get through the entire New Testament in 90 days. As a matter of fact, there are 90-day New Testament reading plans which include audio formats.
Verses 30-33
Even though our bodies stop functioning and go into the grave, those who are saved, are not dead. Eternal life means being alive forever.
Verses 34-40
Take careful notice that loving God is the greatest commandment. It is of higher priority than loving your neighbor. There are many churches today who are so fixated on showing love to their neighbors, that they forsake the higher priority of loving God. Some pastors are ashamed of God and would rather give hugs to everyone than to inform anyone of their need to repent of their sins.
If my neighbor’s house were on fire, would it be loving of me to say and do nothing while watching them burn to death inside their home? No! The loving thing to do would be to run over there and pound on their front door screaming at them to get out of the house.
Any pastor who leaves a person in their sin, does not love them. The Christian who tells others that they are on a path to hell, is the one who loves them. Now having said that, there are within every culture, right and wrong ways to go about doing that. In America, its typically frowned upon to walk up to a stranger and scream at them. In America we have a saying “We don’t care how much you know until we know how much you care.” This typically begins by building a relationship.
Verses 41-46
“What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is He?”
The identity of Christ is an extremely important question. Again, “His worshipers must worship Him in truth” (John 4:24 paraphrased). Who exactly is Jesus?
The Pharisees answer correctly when they said that the Christ is descended from David. Thus, the Messiah (Jesus) is fully man. He is made of flesh and bone. He has a beating heart. He breathes air in and out of his lungs no different than you and I.
“How then”, Jesus asks, “does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord’?” The phrase “In the Spirit” simply means that when David was writing the Psalms, he was writing them through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But what I want to focus on now is that David calls Him Lord.
A person wouldn’t normally call a son Lord. But, in fact, David does call the Christ Lord. What this is showing us is that Jesus is both fully man (a descendant of David) and fully divine. Jesus Christ is God.
The post Commentary Matthew 22 first appeared on Gary Eugene Howell.
Jesus Withers the Fig Tree
Before reading this commentary, I encourage you to first read the text of Matthew chapter twenty-one.
Verses 1-2
The triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is recorded in Matthew 21:1–11, Mark 11:1–11, Luke 19:28–44 and John 12:12–19.
Once again, Jesus demonstrates his omniscients. Clearly, he is not an ordinary man. He can predict future events with 100% accuracy.
Is this theft? Is Jesus telling the disciples to steal the donkey? No. He is borrowing it. Mark chapter 11 states that the animal’s owner was told his donkey would be returned to him shortly.
I’ve been horseback riding on trails at which the horses were so familiar with the path, that no amount of pulling the reins would convince the horse to leave the trail. They knew exactly where they were going.
When Jesus is finished with the donkey, God has the ability to make the donkey find its own way back home.
Verse 3
“If anyone questions you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
This can be viewed in a couple of different ways. The first is that Jesus is calling himself Lord (i.e. Jesus is God). The second possible interpretation is that the Romans had the right to commandeer private property as they saw fit for carrying out their duties. When the disciples said “The Lord needs them” the owner may have thought the disciples had been sent by some Roman official.
Whichever interpretation you lean toward, just know that Jesus knew ahead of time that they would agree to the borrowing of their animals, thus showing that Jesus was not an ordinary man.
Verses 4-5
Jesus, a moment ago gave an accurate prediction when he told the disciples, “Go into town and you’ll find this donkey”. In like manner, 500 years earlier, God spoke through a prophet named Zechariah and said something very similar regarding this present donkey.
“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
Zechariah’s prediction, through the power of God, was 100% correct. But did you know that his same prediction also includes an end times prophecy about Jesus’s second coming?
“Then He will proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion will extend from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth.” This is speaking of Jesus’s millennial reign after the tribulation. This prediction is also 100% accurate. It’s going to happen. Faith is believing that what God has said is true.
Verses 6-11
The people may have been aware of the prophecy just mentioned and they may have understood that what they were seeing was exactly like the prophecy. The people were then very excited and shouting Hosanna, and were praising Jesus.
Verses 12-13
The turning over of the tables in the temple courts are the only moment in Jesus’s earthly ministry in which we see him get angry. But consider for a moment the Jesus who is coming back:
Our modern culture views Jesus Christ as someone who’s a weak pacifist. They view Jesus as being meek and soft. Jesus is the one to whom our modern culture can stomp on his toes, spit in his face and assume he’ll do nothing in response.
Today, the most depraved and immoral people will claim that Jesus accepts them just the way they are. Repentance is a vulgar word to them. I once even argued with a man who claimed that Jesus never said the word repent. When I showed him in scripture, that repentance was the very first thing Jesus preached in his ministry, this man then proceeded to argue that repentance didn’t mean repentance.
All such people view Jesus as the meek, mild and humble servant who came the first time. However, they totally fail to consider who Jesus will be when he comes the second time. Not only that, but we are now closer in time to his second coming than we are to his first. He is presently right at the door.
Then I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True. With righteousness He judges and wages war. He has eyes like blazing fire, and many royal crowns on His head. He has a name written on Him that only He Himself knows. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is The Word of God.
The armies of heaven, dressed in fine linen, white and pure, follow Him on white horses. And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. And He has a name written on His robe and on His thigh: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. (Revelation 19:11-16)
Also, while on the subject of anger, don’t let anyone tell you that being angry is itself a sin. Rather the Bible says, in your anger do not sin (Psalm 4:4). Meaning that while you are angry do not escalate it into sinful actions. Learn how to cool your heels. Pray to the Lord for patience. Become empathetic toward the people around you. If someone pulls out in front of you in traffic, learn how to step on your brake rather than your horn. People make mistakes all the time, and so do you. As a matter of fact, just yesterday I was driving home not paying attention to the road because I was thinking about this very commentary. I almost missed my turn and had to switch lanes quickly. The man behind me was very gracious and did not blast his horn but instead he let me come over. Be considerate of others needs and learn how to love your neighbor as yourself.
Verses 14-15
The blind and the lame came to Him at the temple and He healed them. But the chief priests and scribes were indignant when they saw the wonders He performed and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
There are some people who start with a belief, position or opinion and work backwards into the scriptures. The net result is they twist the Word of God to make it fit their opinions or they must outright reject God’s Word, labeling it false or a contradiction or a myth or fairytale. The priests and scribes in these verses started from the opinion that Jesus can not possibly be the Messiah. Even later when he tells them to their faces that he is the Messiah, they will proclaim it blasphemy. No matter what he does, they are going to remain indignant toward him.
Verse 16
“Do You hear what these children are saying?” they asked. “Yes,” Jesus answered. “Have you never read: ‘From the mouths of children and infants You have ordained praise’?”
It was only two chapters ago that Jesus said we all need to be like children (Matthew 19:13-15). Now the children are praising Jesus and shouting “Hosanna to the Son of David” while the scribes and Pharisees are grumbling and complaining.
Verse 17
Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where He spent the night.
Verses 18-19
In the morning, as Jesus was returning to the city, He was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, He went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. “May you never bear fruit again!” He said. And immediately the tree withered.
This event is also told in Mark chapter 11. There it is described as being the following day when the disciples see the fig tree withered. This, however, is not a contradiction because we can call a tree completely withering overnight as having been “immediately”. For example, when a pine tree gets struck by lightning, in most instances the tree is killed instantly from electrocution, but it will take one to two weeks for its needles to wither and turn brown. So, a tree withering overnight can readily be described as having been immediate.
But why did Jesus curse the tree?
Recall from the parable of the sower when Jesus describes the seed sown among thorns as being unfruitful because of the worries and the deceitfulness of wealth choking the word, and causing it to become unfruitful. And that then the seed sown on good soil are those who hear the word and understand it. They bear fruit and produce a crop—a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.” (Matthew 13:22-23)
And recall when Jesus compared false teachers to bad trees bearing bad fruit (Matthew 7:15-20)
And when John the Baptist warned the Pharisees “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:7-10)
In Luke thirteen we find the parable of the barren fig tree:
Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So he said to the keeper of the vineyard, ‘Look, for the past three years I have come to search for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Therefore cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone again this year, until I dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine. But if not, you can cut it down.’” (Luke 13:6-9)
Jesus is providing the disciples, as well as we, the Bible readers, a real-world example of what God’s judgement looks like. Those who bear no fruit (i.e. the fruit of faith), will be cut off and thrown into the fire.
Salvation is by faith. When we put our faith into Jesus Christ, we are then filled with the Holy Spirit. This, in turn, begins to transform our lives so that slowly, over time, we become more like Christ. Our desires turn away from worldliness toward God’s will for our individual life. All of which can be compared to bearing fruit.
The person who “claims” the name of Christ, and has only green leaves with no fruit is the person who is merely playing Christianity, but hasn’t put their faith in Christ. There is no fooling God. As easily as you and I could walk up to a fig tree and observe that it has no figs, God can just as easily look into our hearts and see whether or not we have faith.
What Jesus is showing us in this example of withering the fig tree, is that without the fruit of faith you have no value to God. The fact that he planted you is evidence that he loves you and the fact that you’re still alive is evidence that you are still under his grace and mercy. But if you don’t bear any fruit (i.e. if you have no faith), the love that he has for you is not going to prevent him from digging you up and throwing you away. He may love you, but do you love Him?
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23)
What is the will of the Father in heaven? That we put our faith in Jesus Christ. Why does Jesus say he never knew them? Because they never put their faith in Him. The fact that they say ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles’, shows that these people thought they were going to earn their salvation by means of good works.
…without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6a)
Verses 20-22
In Florida there is an invasive species of tree called the Brazilian Pepper. It is from Brazil and doesn’t belong in Florida. It’s rapid, wide spreading growth and dense canopy threatens native Florida species. When my wife and I bought our first home, there happened to be a Brazilian Pepper tree in the back yard. We were in the house for only a couple of days when I was at one point looking at the tree from our back window. My wife commented on how she hated Brazilian Pepper trees because of how they make life more difficult for endangered species in Florida.
While continuing to look at the tree from my window, I raised my hand, pointed at the tree and said, “I curse that tree in the name of Jesus”. My comment was intended to be humorous to my wife. Afterward, I thought nothing more of it. However, the next afternoon, when we returned home from the grocery store, I looked out the back window and to my shock, I saw that the tree was gone. Someone had cut it down and completely removed it. Apparently, my neighbor had taken it upon himself to put a chainsaw to it and cut it down. We had never talked to our neighbor about the tree, he just decided to do it.
I had prayed a curse onto that tree in the name of Jesus, and the very next day, the tree was gone. It never ceases to amaze me, the things that Jesus does and the ways in which he makes himself known to us through the mundane activities of our lives.
Does this mean I believe we can go around cursing every tree we don’t like? No. I don’t think what happened was about the tree, (and it certainly wasn’t about me). I believe what happened was about Jesus making himself known and receiving praise and glory.
When the disciples saw the fig tree, they marveled and asked, “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?”
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
Does this mean we can all pray for a million dollars and next week we’ll all win the lottery? No. Absolutely not. Notice that Jesus said “If you have faith”. Faith is believing that God exists, that Jesus Christ lived, died and rose from the dead, and that what we read in the Word of God is true and trustworthy. Always remember, the Word was with God and the Word was God (John 1:1).
Thus, if we have faith, we’re not praying to win the lottery because by the Word of God we believe and understand that such a prayer would be contrary to God’s will.
In order to receive whatever we ask for in prayer, we must believe that what the Word of God (the Bible) says is true. Thus, the prayers that we make are going to align with the Will of God. We’re not asking for a million dollars, nor are we asking for the vain things of this world. Lust, fame, fortune, pride, and other worldly desires are all things outside of God’s will and thus, if we have faith (we fully trust the Lord), we would not pray for such things.
Here’s an alternative: Every person you see, pray for their salvation. Every missionary you meet, pray for their provision to continue sharing the gospel with people around the world. Every widow you encounter, pray for her needs and pray that you might be able to be the one who supplies her needs. Pray for Godly wisdom. Pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Pray that you can understand God’s word more deeply. Pray that you can raise your children to know and trust Jesus. Anything you ask for will be given to you.
Verse 23
When Jesus returned to the temple courts and began to teach, the chief priests and elders of the people came up to Him. “By what authority are You doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave You this authority?”
Let’s be honest, this is one occasion in which we can have empathy for the chief priests and elders. Imagine that you’re a pastor, and one Sunday a random person who doesn’t attend your church, walks in. He walks up onto the stage, picks up a hot microphone and just starts preaching the Sunday sermon to your congregation. If you were the pastor, you would immediately be waving your arms at the sound booth and making gestures for them to cut off his microphone. You would have security lay hold of the man and escort him off the property. Later you would probably file a restraining order against him.
But Jesus rightly believes he has the authority to just stroll into the temple courts uninvited and begin teaching those who are there. What gives him this authority?
So behold, I plan to build a house for the Name of the LORD my God, according to what the LORD said to my father David: ‘I will put your son on your throne in your place, and he will build the house for My Name.’ (1 Kings 5:5)
Solomon built the temple to be God’s dwelling place. Herod made it even more grandiose than Solomon. When Jesus walks into the temple courts to begin teaching the people, He is walking into the house that was built for him. It is his house.
Verses 24-27
Jesus already knows that whatever answer he might give, regardless of its content, they are not going to accept anything he says. So instead of answering their question, he proceeds to set a trap for them which he knows will silence them. He’s doing to them exactly what they have tried numerous times to do to him which was to try to catch him in his own words.
Jesus asks, “What was the source of John’s baptism? Was it from heaven or from men?”
They deliberated among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will ask, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we are afraid of the people, for they all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered, “We do not know.” And Jesus replied, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.
The scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees have always been to me a mystery. Why did they make up their minds that no matter what evidence was presented to them, even when Jesus rose from the dead, they were not going to accept him as the Messiah.
The only exceptions which I can recall were Nicodemus, a Pharisee (Matthew 22) and the scribe who said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go” (Matthew 8:19).
Verses 28-32
Jesus then tells a story with the intent of illustrating his point about the disbelief of the scribes and Pharisees.
The first son who refused to work in the vineyard but later changed his mind represents every sinner ever, who lived in rebellion against God but later came to faith. Meanwhile the other son represents the pharisees and Sadducees and to a greater extent Israel as a whole. For they said after leaving Egypt that they would follow God, but then they didn’t.
Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. And all the people answered together, “We will do everything that the LORD has spoken.” (Exodus 19:7-8)
But they never did.
Verses 33-41
Listen to another parable: There was a landowner (God) who planted a vineyard (Israel). He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to some tenants (the Israelites) and went away on a journey.
When the harvest time drew near, he sent his servants (The profits) to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit. But the tenants seized his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.
Again, he sent other servants, more than the first group. But the tenants did the same to them. Finally, he sent his son (Jesus) to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard returns, what will he do to those tenants?” “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and will rent out the vineyard to other tenants (the gentiles) who will give him his share of the fruit at harvest time.”
This is all very reminiscent of the time in which the prophet Nathan told King David a story about a rich man who took a poor man’s only lamb. Nathan described how a rich man, instead of taking from his own flock, took and slaughtered the beloved lamb of a poor man to feed a traveler. David became outraged at the injustice until Nathan revealed that the story was about David himself. “You are the man!” declared Nathan (2 Samuel 12:1-7).
Jesus is telling this parable to the crowd of people at the temple courts which include the chief priests and Pharisees. When asked what the owner of the vineyard should do, the crowd declares that those wretches should be brought to a wretched end.
However, most of them fail to realize that Jesus is talking about them. The chief priests and Pharisees understand who Jesus is talking about. They know he is talking about them.
But as for the rest of the crowd, what this demonstrates is that while people are fully aware of right and wrong, they often fail to see it when it is themselves who are committing the sin. Seldom do we consider ourselves to be the villain of the story. We make excuse after excuse to justify our behavior. But if presented with a story of someone else doing the same thing, we would readily recognize his sin and would declare him a wretched person. Yet we fail to see it in ourselves.
So how do we overcome this tendency? Let’s look at Jesus’s response:
Verse 42
Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
Jesus said, “Have you never read in the Scriptures?” Reading from your Bible on a daily basis should be to you the most important thing you do each day. Familiarity with the Word of God is literally the means you have with which to avoid getting entangled in sin and the terrible consequences that arise as a result of sin.
Imagine this scenario: You are drafted into a war. At some point, you are faced with walking across a mine field. You’ve already seen some of your friends walk into the field, step on mines and get blown up. Now it’s your turn. But suddenly someone finds a map which shows the location of all the mines. The map is handed to you. What would you do at that point? You would study the map carefully. This is exactly the same scenario that’s happening with your Bible study. Satan is seeking to kill you. The Bible tells you exactly how to avoid Satan’s schemes. The fact that you don’t read from the Bible daily, demonstrates that you’re being an idiot.
Clarification: (The Bible is not a self-help book for successful living. Rather it is a book about Jesus Christ. It also happens to contain all the information we need to live right and have eternal life. We don’t read the Bible daily for the purpose of gaining health, wealth and successful living. We read the Bible daily to have a relationship with the God we love (i.e. Jesus Christ).
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12-13)
Verses 43-46
Jesus is telling them that the Kingdom of God is going to be taken away from the Israelites and given instead to the gentiles (gentile meaning everyone who is not of Israelite ancestry). Jesus is the stone the Israelites rejected. He has become the cornerstone.
The post Commentary Matthew 21 first appeared on Gary Eugene Howell.
The Parable of the Workers
Before reading this commentary, I encourage you to first read the text of Matthew chapter twenty.
Verses 1-2
“For”; anytime a verse begins with the word for, therefore, because, etc…, you know it’s a continuation of what was being spoken previously. In this case, verse 1 of chapter 20 is a continuation of the subject matter from the end of chapter 19.
At the end of Matthew 19 Jesus had been talking to the rich young ruler who asked what he must do to get into heaven. Jesus explained to him that it was impossible for him to get into heaven, but only through God is salvation possible. After which Peter came to him and said, “we have left everything to follow You. What then will there be for us?” To which Jesus gives an end times prophecy regarding the disciples. Then he adds the following statement,
“But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” (Matthew 19:30)
Do not view chapter 19 and chapter 20 as being separate. Their division was arbitrary. The last verse in chapter 19 could have just as easily been verse 1 in chapter 20.
In chapter 20 Jesus shares a parable, but when you read it, remember the conversation from the end of 19 was about salvation.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
The landowner = God
The day = a person’s entire life, thus the morning represents a person’s youth and the evening represents a person’s old age.
The vineyard = the world
The work = sharing the gospel and bringing people into the saving knowledge of faith in Jesus Christ.
Payment = salvation (but don’t get confused. While it may appear at this point that salvation is God’s obligation to those who worked, we’re going to see at the conclusion of this parable that it is entirely the opposite).
Verses 3-7
About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. ‘You also go into my vineyard,’ he said, ‘and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ he asked. ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. So he told them, ‘You also go into my vineyard.’
What’s happening here? Instead of viewing this parable as time passing on a clock, imagine that the first workers from the morning were young. God finds someone who is 15 or 20 years old and puts upon their heart a calling to put their faith in him and to follow God’s will for their life. They go out into the world and spread the gospel. Maybe they become full time missionaries, or perhaps they become a pastor and work their whole lives in the ministry.
The landowner then went back to the marketplace at the 3rd hour of the day. Let’s say hypothetically that these people are 30 or 40 years old. These people, like the first, put their faith in Jesus Christ and go out into the world to begin spreading the gospel.
At the 6th hour, let’s hypothetically say that these individuals are in their 60’s. Once again, they come to faith in Christ and go out into the world to share the gospel.
But then God goes out at the 11th hour. This represents somebody who might be 80 or 90 years old and literally on their death bed. They have spent their whole entire lives, not doing anything for the lord. Nothing. Perhaps they’ve even spent their life being vocally antagonistic toward God. But on their death bed, they come to faith in Christ.
Verse 8
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last ones hired and moving on to the first.’
The key to verse eight is that he instructed his foreman to have them line up with those hired last, at the front of the line and those hired first at the back of the line. Had this not been done, if those hired first received their pay and left, they would never have seen the fact that those hired after them received the same as they. (In other words, if those hired first had been paid first, they would have left assuming that they had earned what they had been given.)
The landowner, however, deliberately set up the situation so that those hired first would see that those hired last received exactly the same as they. Thus, the landowner sought deliberately to force their awareness to the fact that what they were receiving was his generosity rather than something they earned through their hard work. God’s rewards are based on His grace, not human effort.
Verses 9-10
The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. So when the original workers came, they assumed they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarius.
Here is where we begin to see that salvation is not about work. All the workers received the same thing (salvation), regardless of how much or how little work they had done.
When I was young, I remember my father telling someone that when he died, he wanted it to be quick, such as by an instant heart attack, because he didn’t want to suffer. But even in my youth, I knew that was a bad idea. When a person who is not yet saved, dies suddenly of a heart attack, they go to hell for eternity. However, if it takes a person days or weeks to die, even though they suffer, they have plenty of time to consider their eternal destination and perhaps for the first time in their life, ask the lord Jesus to save them.
When my father was 76 years old he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He went to numerous doctors and none could do anything. They told him, this is the end of your life. My dad knew he was going to die. He spent the last week of his life lying in a hospital bed. We visited him every day, but we went home each night to go to bed. Every night, he remained at the hospital, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, by himself. My dad had spent his whole life claiming to be a Christian, but having never put his faith in Christ. He never read the Bible, he didn’t go to church and he never prayed, (an outward demonstration of his inner apathy). He devoted his retirement years to the hobby of bonsai, having at one point over 200 bonsai trees. He attended monthly bonsai club meetings and traveled throughout the state to attend bonsai conventions, bonsai auctions and other big bonsai events. Some of his bonsai trees were even displayed at Disney World’s Epcot Center. Two of his trees are still on display to this day at the Brevard Zoo.
During his life he cared nothing for the things of God, for although he knew God, he neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him (Romans 1:21a). It had been the prayer from my youth that his desire to someday die of an instant heart attack would not come to pass, but that he would instead have plenty of time to contemplate his eternity. And God answered my prayer. He laid in that hospital bed for a week before he died. During that time, my wife and I, once again, shared the gospel with him. It’s my continued hope and prayer that in that 11th hour, he asked the Lord for salvation.
But I also knew a man who was about the same age as my father. This man had come to faith when he was just 7 years old. He had spent his whole life in ministry. He was a pastor and built a large church. He led ministries and supported missionaries around the world. He preached in numerous places across the globe, including some that were dangerous. This man, after spending his entire life in service to the Lord, died about 4 years after my father died.
Let’s assume for a moment that my father did ask Jesus to save him prior to his passing. That being the case, the 11th hour workers in this parable represent my father, but the early morning workers represent the pastor I just described. Both, however, received the exact same thing; salvation. One didn’t earn more than the other due to his hard work. Salvation is a gift.
Don’t ever think that by going to church and reading your Bible, you are earning God’s favor. Salvation is a gift given to those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. Remember the thief on the cross. Did he do anything to earn salvation?
Verses 11-16
On receiving their pay, they began to grumble against the landowner. ‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.’
But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Did you not agree with me on one denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you. Do I not have the right to do as I please with what is mine? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Again, let me emphasize that the point of the story is not payment for services rendered. Instead, the parable is showing that God gave to each the same thing, not because they earned it but because He was generous.
Verses 17-19
Think for a moment about what Jesus is accurately predicting:
1.He will be delivered to the chief priest
2.They will condemn him to death
3.They will deliver Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked, flogged and crucified
4.On the third day, He will be raised to life.
That was four things he predicted with 100% accuracy. There are so many people today who think and claim that Jesus was just an ordinary man. But the reality is that Jesus is obviously not an average person. We’ve seen him heal the sick, give sight to the blind and raise the dead. We’ve seen him transfigured on the mountain. Where Jesus goes the voice of God follows (Matthew 3:17 & Matthew 17:5 & John 12:28). And here we see that Jesus is omniscient, (a quality of God).
For you and I, we can make plans and set appointments. I can put on my calendar that I will arrive at church at 9:00am, but can I accurately predict who’s going to be in the church foyer when I walk through the door? Can I accurately predict exactly what they’re going to say to me when they see me? Absolutely not. Mockers and scoffers will claim that Jesus never said he was God, (which in and of itself is false, because he did claim that), but Jesus’s actions demonstrate that he is God. When was the last time you saw an ordinary man transfigured on a mountain top to where his face glowed and his clothes turned into light? So just accept that Jesus is God, and let’s move on.
Verses 20-28
Here comes John and James’s mommy to straighten out the teacher and make sure her little boys are put into the right classroom. Men; it’s time to grow up. I know of men who are 30 years old but their mother still actively orchestrates their life. I applaud you if you have a good relationship with your mother. If your mother is wise, it’s good to take advice from her, but your no longer 12 years old. You’re no longer her responsibility. You are your own responsibility.
Besides all of that, where has this woman been this whole time? Here we are in Matthew chapter 20 and this is the first time she makes an appearance. Has she even been a follower of Jesus? Does she even know or understand who Jesus is? It appears that she is likely assuming Jesus is going to become king of Israel and she’s asking him to put her sons into important cabinet positions within the government. What she is actually doing, however, is making public fools of her sons and causing division among the disciples.
Jesus responds, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” Jesus is referring to his crucifixion. He is referring to being beaten, tortured and murdered. And they, still not understanding him, respond by saying “Yes”.
Then Jesus says something very ominous which goes over their heads, the same as everything else so far has gone over their heads. Jesus says, “You will indeed drink My cup”. Jesus is telling John and James that by following him, they’re going to be beaten, tortured and murdered.
If their mother had understood what Jesus was saying, she would probably have told her sons to leave Jesus and come back home immediately.
Recall from earlier that Jesus accurately predicted his own death, now he is accurately predicting the deaths of these two men. This again demonstrates that Jesus is not an ordinary man. He is omniscient.
Then Jesus goes on to say, ““But to sit at My right or left is not Mine to grant. These seats belong to those for whom My Father has prepared them.”
When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers (James and John’s mother caused division in the church). I have heard stories of people who, like James and John’s mother, seek to make demands of their pastor and elders. Some people view their church membership as being like that of a perks membership program at a hotel, and their tithes as being like payment for services. Let me give you this advice, God likes humbleness. God hates pride. I encourage you, that when you go to church, you sit down, shut up, and listen. If the pastor says they’re looking for volunteers to help with this or that project, if you volunteer, just do what you’re told. Don’t approach a volunteer project thinking you’re going to be the boss when clearly someone else has been put in charge of organizing the project. Be humble! Listen more than you talk. Put your own ambitions aside.
Jesus called them aside and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them. It shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Verses 29-34
This event is told here in Matthew 20, Mark 10 and Luke 18. Mark and Luke’s telling of the event mentions only one blind man while Matthew mentions two. This however is not a contradiction because 1 is a subset of 2. For example, I walk out of a store and see a quarter and a penny lying on the ground. I bend over, pick them both up and put them in my pocket. I then turn to my wife and say, “I just found a quarter”. Was my statement true? Did I find a quarter? Yes I did. I also found a penny but didn’t feel it was worth mentioning. That is exactly what is happening here. Mark even gives us the name of one of the blind men, (Bartimaeus). Therefore, it must be that Bartimaeus was someone worth mentioning, perhaps Bartimaeus was well known in the community, while the other fella was not.
Jesus heals them and they follow him.
The post Commentary Matthew 20 first appeared on Gary Eugene Howell.
Jesus speaking with the rich young ruler
Before reading this commentary, I encourage you to first read the text of Matthew chapter nineteen.
Verses 1-2
When Jesus had finished saying these things, (i.e. the end of chapter 18), He left Galilee and went into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.
Verse 3
The Pharisees continue to search for any opportunity to accuse Jesus of something. They search and search, as though their greatest desire is to validate their rejection of the one person who is most obviously the Messiah.
Today is no different, there are individuals who will search the Bible in order to find something (anything), with which they can accuse God, Jesus, Christians, of wrong doing. When you approach the Bible, it should always be from a position of humility, prayer, and a desire to know God better. That’s when God will give to you an understanding of scripture. Otherwise, God has the ability to keep the bible’s secrets hidden from you, even if you read it.
So the Pharisees ask, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?” Again, they’re not asking because they want to know the answer. They’re asking because they are seeking a reason to accuse Jesus of something. This is why the verse says they came to test him.
Verse 4
Jesus answered, “Have you not read….” Recall that when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert, on every occasion that Jesus presented a counter argument to Satan, Jesus used the Word of God to rebuttal and rebuke Satan. He is doing the same thing here while speaking to the Pharisees. “Have you not read” is Jesus’s reprimand to the Pharisees for not knowing the Word of God. The Pharisees are supposed to be experts in the law, yet they come to Jesus and ask questions they should already know the answer to.
We too should know the Word of God well enough to be able to rebuttal any, and rebuke any deceit or demonic influence. Furthermore, knowing well the word of God is ultra-valuable because it contains most of the answers people are looking for.
By the way, when you ask God a question in prayer and you hear only silence, (i.e., when you ask God something and He doesn’t answer), many times it is because the answer is in the Bible. Here’s what you should do when you ask God something in prayer but hear only silence. First, refer to James 1:5 which says,
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. (James 1:5)
Regardless of what the subject matter is, if you are asking any question of God, you are asking for wisdom. Recite this verse in your prayer. Then, if you hear only silence, sit down with your Bible and ask the Lord where He wants you to read. (I’m not suggesting you flop open the Bible to a random page and there expect to find your answer. Doing that can often lead to the Bible being taken out of context). Rather I am saying, when you present your Bible reading to the Lord through prayer, there may be occasions in which you feel strongly compelled to turn to a particular book, chapter and verse.
Verses 5-6
In addressing the Pharisees, Jesus answered, “from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife”.
There is a reason why many teenagers do not get along with their parents. They are being prepared to leave their father and mother and be united to a spouse. God has put into our DNA the desire to leave our parents. That code in our DNA begins to express itself when we’re teenagers. Much like baby sea turtles running across the sand in order to get into the ocean. Why don’t the baby turtles just hang out on the beach all night? There is something within their DNA that says “get to the water!” and they are compelled to do so. In the same way, when a young person is approaching that time in life where they ought to go out into the world and find a spouse, something happens within them that causes them to begin to dislike living with their parents. Mind you, I am not suggesting a 13-year-old should leave their parents, rather I am suggesting this instinct begins preparing them to eventually do so.
My opinion: If you are 20 years old or more, and you’re still living with your parents, you should begin organizing your finances, polishing your resume, researching places to live, and set a goal to move out. That being said, there’s obviously exceptions. A single parent, a person with a disability, or someone who encountered financial devastation might need to remain longer with their parents.
The reverse is also true, once you leave your parents home, it should be your goal to have a wonderful relationship with them. And to all adults who do have a good relationship with their parents, give praise to the Lord. However, if you have a parent who feels it’s their place to meddle in your marriage, (and this is more often someone’s mother, rather than their father) I would encourage you to consider putting some distance between you and they.
My mother always felt it was her place to insert herself into my marriage. Long after I had left home, gotten married, bought a house and a dog, my mother continued to treat me as if I were 12 years old. Sometimes she would arrive at our house unannounced and would come in and begin scolding me in front of my wife for some perceived offense I had unknowingly done to her. I was envious of my two sisters because when they left home, one moved 1,900 miles away and the other moved 899 miles away. Because of my job, however, I remained in the same town as my parents. I found no relief from my mother until we finally boxed everything up and moved to Ohio (and I having had to quit a good job to do so).
“The two will become one flesh, so they are no longer two, but one flesh.”
This verse is perplexing. What does it mean, “The two become one flesh”? Some people, when asked what this verse is referring to, respond by saying “sex; it’s referring to sex.” But the verse says “what God has joined together, let man not separate.” Obviously, it’s not suggesting that married couples should never cease having sex. That would be weird.
Furthermore, we know that Paul wrote the following:
It is good to abstain from sexual relations. But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.
The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife.
Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. (1 Corinthians 7:1-7)
However, Paul also wrote:
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:15-17)
This indicates that two becoming one flesh is in fact about sex, but perhaps there is more to it than just that.
Let’s take a look at exactly where the phrase originates:
So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the area with flesh. And from the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man, He made a woman and brought her to him. And the man said:
“This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.”
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (Genesis 2:21-24)
So in this context, Eve was literally made from Adam’s bone. When Adam received Eve, he was receiving his own flesh back to himself, (i.e. he was receiving back his own rib).
If a person donates bone marrow or a kidney, do they and the recipient become one flesh? I don’t think so, because the verse appears to be specifically about marriage.
Coming back to the context in Matthew, marriage today does not consist of creating a man’s wife from one of his ribs. Two relatively unrelated people meet, fall in love, and get married. Why are they then considered one flesh?
Some have suggested that being of one flesh is merely referring to a partnership or to a mutual commitment. But that can not be the case because two individuals who start a business together make commitments to one another and are in a partnership but they do not become one flesh.
Some have said the verse would make more sense if it said married couples are united in spirit. However, having one spirit would make little sense in the context of what happens when those two people go to heaven? They would obviously not be one soul in heaven. And what if one went to heaven and the other went to hell, how would that work out if they were one spirit?
Furthermore, Jesus said, “in the resurrection, people will neither marry nor be given in marriage. Instead, they will be like the angels in heaven” (Matthew 22:30)
Marriage only lasts while we are alive on this earth and our flesh only lasts while we are alive on this earth. But our soul / spirit, goes to heaven where it lasts forever and there we are married to Christ.
Marriage between a man and a woman represents the marriage between Christ and the church. See the following verses: Ephesians 5:25-27, Revelation 19:7-9, Revelation 21:2, Revelation 21:9, 2 Corinthians 11:2, Matthew 9:15, Matthew 22:1-14, Matthew 25:1-13, Hosea 2:19-20, Isaiah 62:5
Therefore, anyone who cheats on their spouse represents the church cheating on Christ. That’s not a good look, to say the least.
This comparison of a marriage as being like that of the relationship between Christ and the church is continued by Paul in the book of Ephesians. Paul writes:
Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.
In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church. For we are members of His body.
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (Ephesians 5:15-33)
In these verses we see that the church submits to Jesus Christ and that Christ loves the church. Christ loved the church so much that he was willing to die in their place. By dying on the cross, Jesus sanctified the church so that we (the church) could be presented to Him without blemish.
All of this is represented by marriage. From the first human beings, God meant for marriage to represent what he was going to do for the church, (for those who put their faith in Him).
But verses 31 & 32 contain the essence of what we are looking for here at this moment.
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, but I am speaking about Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:31-32)
Recall from my commentary on Matthew chapter 13, where I wrote a great deal about the kingdom of heaven having many mysteries. Paul is telling us that this verse, “The two becoming one flesh” is itself one of these mysteries. However, he immediately explains it to us, “I am speaking about Christ and the church”.
When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to abide within us. Thus, we (the church) are one with Christ in that the Holy Spirit is living within us. Marriage represents this relationship between Christ and the church. Thus, the two becoming one flesh, represents the marriage between Christ and church, the two becoming one (Christ dying for us to make us pure, and we being filled with the Holy Spirit, to become one with Christ).
Therefore, any deviation from what God intended marriage to be, represents a deviation from, (a rejection of), what Christ has done for the church. Thus, sex before marriage, cohabitation without marriage, casual hookups, wedding ceremonies that exclude God, viewing marriage as merely a legal contract, adultery, pornography, open marriages, gay marriages, gender fluidity and non-binary marriage, divorce, and the no-fault divorce culture, all represent a deviation from what God intended marriage to represent and thus, represents a rejection of what Christ did to redeem us.
This is why marriage should be taken very seriously. As Jesus stated, what God has joined together, let man not separate.”
Verses 7-9
“Why then,” the Pharisees asked, “did Moses order a man to give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hardness of heart. But it was not this way from the beginning. Now I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
If your spouse cheats on you (sexual immorality), you may divorce. Otherwise it is better to work out your problems.
There are some people, however, who, because of this verse, believe that if their spouse divorces them, they must spend the rest of their life alone and lonely. But let’s look at what it says in 1st Corinthians,
if the unbeliever leaves, let him go. The believing brother or sister is not bound in such cases. (1 Corinthians 7:15)
Verses 10-11
His disciples said to Him, “If this is the case between a man and his wife, it is better not to marry.” “Not everyone can accept this word,” He replied, “but only those to whom it has been given.
Notice that Jesus is agreeing with them. Yes, it is better that a person not marry, however, Jesus says that this only applies to those it has been given not to marry. If you have any desire whatsoever to fall in love, to be in a romantic relationship, to date, to find a boyfriend or girlfriend, or to someday get married, you are not one of these people to whom life long singleness has been given.
Verse 12
Describes the type of people to whom lifelong singleness has been given.
Verses 13-15
The disciples viewed their activities with Jesus as adult stuff, and wanted to send away the children. Jesus, however, takes the opportunity to tell those around him that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who, like little children, are completely humble.
Verses 16-24
Just then a man came up to Jesus and inquired, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to obtain eternal life?” This man’s question demonstrates he is starting off this conversation with an incorrect assumption. “What must I DO to go to heaven?”
He is assuming that something he does will earn him his entrance into heaven. This is an error. And 2,000 years later, not much has changed. Most people, when asked how a person gets into heaven, they will respond with “by being a good person”. However, that is not correct.
We’re about to see that Jesus is setting up this conversation with the rich young man to reveal the man’s shortcoming and to give him the true answer he’s looking for regarding the true paths to eternal life.
“Why do you ask Me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good…”
Jesus is giving this man a big hint. By saying, “There is only One who is good”, Jesus is hinting at the fact that this rich young man is not the one who is good. Jesus is hinting at the fact that the rich young man doesn’t have within himself, what it takes to obtain eternal life.
Then Jesus sets up the conversation to reveal the man’s shortcoming. Jesus says, “If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” (Jesus knows, and we, the readers, know that this is not the correct answer), but watch what happens next.
“Which ones?” the man asked. He is still thinking that he is the one who’s going to become so holy that he will be capable of walking himself into the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus proceeds to rattle off a few of the ten commandments. “All these I have kept,” said the young man. “What do I still lack?” (Oh, here we go. Set up complete. Now for the slam dunk).
Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”
Now let’s examine carefully what Jesus just said. “If you want to be perfect, sell your possessions and follow me.” What makes us perfect in God’s eyes? Jesus!
Notice that the selling of possessions doesn’t earn the man salvation, it only gives him treasures in heaven. Following Jesus is the key to our entrance into heaven. However, Jesus knows that this rich young man puts his trust in his money rather than in God. That’s why Jesus is challenging him to sell it all and give it to the poor.
In the United States most people rely upon their money rather than Jesus. Here’s an example, you have $1,000 in your bank account. You’re driving in your car and you find yourself getting hungry. You know that at the next intersection is your favorite take out restaurant. What do you do? Without giving any thought to the Lord’s provision, you pull into the restaurant, walk in, place your order, pick up your food, walk out and continue on your journey home. Never once having even given a thought to how God provides for you. That is an example of relying upon your money, rather than God. Oh, and by the way, if you have a job in the United States, I can almost guarantee you that you have more money than the rich young ruler from these Bible verses we’re examining now.
Do you need to sell all your possessions? I would encourage you to have a minimalist attitude toward material possessions, but the point is not that you own something or do not own something (that again, would be trying to earn salvation), rather, the point is your attitude toward your money and possessions. Get rid of the things in your life that prevent you from following Jesus. Get rid of the things in your life that distract you from Jesus.
When the young man heard Jesus’s instruction (to sell his possessions and come follow him), he went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.
Every sermon I’ve ever heard about this rich young man, concluded that by going away in sorrow, he chose not to do what Jesus said. I totally disagree. Every time I have heard a sermon in which the pastor concluded that the rich young man rejected Jesus in favor of his wealth, I’ve had to shake my head. Here’s why:
Noticed that he didn’t go away indignant. He didn’t go away in protest. He didn’t go away mad. He went away in sorrow. What is it that made him sorrowful? He was picturing in his mind how uncomfortable and how difficult it was going to be to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. He was aware of the fact That what he needed to do was going to be for him a very big sacrifice.
Isn’t this the case with us today as well? Not everything that Jesus tells us to do is going to be convenient and comfortable. God’s will for our lives is not always going to cause us great joy in which we are celebrating, jumping up and down shouting hallelujah. Sometimes the things that Jesus asks us to do are going to make us sad, discouraged, at times perhaps even fearful.
Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25)
There will be times in your Christian walk in which following Jesus is going to be uncomfortable, painful, and in some cases dangerous, but even in our sadness, discouragement, or fear, we’re going to walk in faith and go do it anyway. This is what I believe the rich young ruler did. The fact that he was sorrowful about getting rid of his possessions shows me that he understood the sacrifice he would have to make in order to follow Jesus. I believe he went away and did what Jesus said.
After the man departed in sorrow Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
When Jesus said it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to get into heaven, he is not suggesting that the balance of your checking account prevents you from getting into heaven. He’s not saying $1,000 will condemn you but $999 is OK. What Jesus is saying is that rich people rely upon their money rather than relying upon God. It is that lack of faith which causes the rich to not be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
This verse is also not about a small gate that a camel has to get down on his knees to go through. I believe that interpretation is complete baloney. Rather, the verse is about how a person is saved. A person is only saved through faith in Jesus Christ. You cannot put reliance (trust…i.e. faith) upon your money.
And let me also say that if you make $38,000 a year or more, you are one of the richest people in the whole world. There are 8 billion people in the world, but most Americans define wealth as being in the millions of dollars. When people in America talk about wealth, they often think of individuals such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos who each have billions of dollars at their disposal. But the type of “rich” that Jesus is talking about is one in which we Americans need to compare ourselves to the other 8 billion people in the world. If you are reading this commentary on a smart phone, you are among the richest people in the world.
When you and I have plenty of money in the bank, it’s very easy to spend less time thinking about God. This is because we rely on our money rather than God. Make a habit of giving thanks for everything you purchase.
In a previous commentary I told the story of nearly running out of gas on a 14-mile stretch of highway. When I realized the needle was below the “E” on the gauge, I prayed the whole way that God would prevent me from running out of Gas. But on all other occasions when I’ve driven the same stretch of road with plenty of gas in the tank, I didn’t even give one single thought to God’s provision. This is an example of relying upon money.
Make the habit of relying solely upon Jesus and not upon your money. When you have financial abundance and all your bills are paid, give thanks to God.
Verses 25-26
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
This verse is pivotal to the entirety of the Christian faith. For man (in other words, for people), it is absolutely impossible for you to save yourself. There is no amount of good deeds which can be done to save yourself. With man, it is impossible. Note the word being used here is “impossible”. I want to emphasize that again in all capital letters IMPOSSIBLE. There is no possible way that you can enter into the kingdom of heaven by being a good person. We do not earn salvation by doing good deeds. We do not earn favor with God by reading our Bible or going to church or attending prayer meetings.
There are many Christians who think that when they go to church every week and participate in a Bible study, that they are somehow earning God‘s favor. That they are somehow making themselves right with God. Jesus is telling us it’s impossible.
There are some people who think that if they volunteer and help the needy, and feed the poor, and take care of widows and the elderly, that they are earning God‘s favor. But Jesus is telling you that it is impossible.
Let me give the reader this advice. If you’re gonna go to hell, I would rather you spend your life being wild and having fun because this life is the only opportunity in all of eternity that you will have to experience joy. So, if you think that living some sort of obedient, sacrificial lifestyle is going to make you more holy or more righteous or more favored by God, you are wasting your time because that is impossible. You might as well eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you’re gonna die (Isaiah 22:12-13).
I live in a part of the country where there are many Amish people and I associate with them on a somewhat regular basis. When I first came to this area, I assumed that because the Amish made such enormous sacrifices against their lifestyles for the sake of religion, that they would also be studious Bible scholars. However, it has never surprised me more to find out that despite all the tremendous sacrifices they make against their own lives, most of the Amish remain totally ignorant of God’s word.
The Amish people choose to live like as if it’s still the 1800’s. They don’t own cars. They ride in buggies pulled by horses. And they make many other sacrifices against modern amenities. So when I told a certain Amish man that I would meet him at a location that was approximately 10 miles from his home he said it was too far for his horse and asked me if I would come and pick him up in my car. I did and as we drove to our destination, we had a conversation about life and God and other miscellaneous topics. What surprised me was that he was barely familiar with the bible verses he struggled to quote during our conversation. He could scarcely remember even the simplest of scripture.
How do we get into the kingdom of heaven? Only with God is it possible. Only God can open the pathway that lets you get into heaven. And that pathway that he opened was through his son Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the remission of your sins. That is what you must put your faith in.
Everything else that you do as a Christian is out of love for Jesus Christ and because you want to follow Jesus.
When I first began writing this commentary, I wrote approximately the first 15 or 16 chapters in which I repeatedly said that if a person wants to grow in their relationship with God, they ought to read their Bible, go to church, pray, fellowship with Christians, etc… Recently, however, I attended a Bible study in which one individual gave a testimony stating that he had previously thought that performing such actions (going to church, reading his Bible, praying) made him more favorable to God. He wrongly assumed that growing in one’s relationship with God meant that we had to do things that earned love.
The moment he said that, it occurred to me that some people might read what I wrote in these commentaries and conclude that growing closer to God means the same thing as finding favor with God. Despite the number of times I have already edited these commentaries, I seriously considered going back and searching through every commentary I had already written and editing them once again in order to clarify that pursuing Jesus and growing closer to God does not in any way earn you good standing with God.
Growing closer to God is not the same thing as having God love you more or having God consider you worthy. Instead, we put our faith in God. We then go to church, read the bible, pray, attend bible studies and the like because we want to gain a greater understanding of God’s will for our lives.
Remember what I said in a previous chapter that faith is not only believing that God exists, and that Jesus died on the cross, and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, but faith also means that you believe that what Jesus said is true. Faith means you trust that what Jesus said is correct. Thus, if you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you will desire to do the things he said. That is faith.
Now, having said that, when we grow closer to God, it does not mean we are finding greater favor with God, rather it means we are learning more about what God‘s will is for our life and we are embracing that will by choosing to do the things God has said do. By growing closer to God, we grow in wisdom and understanding. But at no time does the pursuit of Jesus, regardless of what those activities are, make you more righteous in God‘s eyes. Rather it is the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for you that causes you to be righteous. It is when you put your faith in the sacrifices that Jesus made for you, that you are viewed as righteous.
If you’re a Christian, do not think to yourself that by reading your Bible, by going to church, by associating with other Christians, by spending time in prayer, that you are causing God to approve of you. That is not the case. That’s not how this whole thing works.
Okay, so some will say, “well great! I don’t need to go to church, and I don’t need to read the Bible, and I don’t need to fellowship with other Christians.” That, however, would be an ignorant conclusion.
If you love the Lord Jesus Christ, you will pursue him because you want to know him more. Not because you want him to love you more. Pursuing God through Bible study, prayer, church, and fellowship is an act of gaining a greater understanding of God’s will for your life rather than trying to make God see you as being better than the guy standing next to you.
Verses 27-30
“Look,” Peter replied, “we have left everything to follow You. What then will there be for us?”
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
This is an end times prophecy. At that time these disciples: Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot will sit as judges over the twelve tribes of Israel.
Everyone who made sacrifices to be able to follow Jesus will get back a hundredfold what they gave up, not to mention eternal life.
The post Commentary Matthew 19 first appeared on Gary Eugene Howell.
co laborers for Christ
Before reading this commentary, I encourage you to first read the text of 3 john.
Verse 1
The salutation. Notice that John, once again, begins to focus this correspondence on truth.
Verses 2-3
Gaius’s soul prospers. John is praying that his physical health may also prosper, just as his soul does. That’s an eye-opening prayer. Many times, have we gone to prayer meetings, small groups and Bible studies and prayed for someone’s health, but how often do we pray that someone’s soul would prosper? But what does that mean exactly? Verse three tells us; Gaius’s devotion to the truth in which he walks.
In modern American culture truth is largely considered subjective. Subjective means to be based on personal feelings, or opinions. However, let’s recall that after Jesus was risen from the grave, he went to his disciples and made the following statement:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.” (Matthew 28:18a)
Why was all authority given to Jesus? Because he conquered death and did so on your behalf.
This same person who now has all authority, also said: A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)
Put simply, we can not worship God by means of falsehoods. There are truths in this world that are absolute and unchanging. God and his word are an unchanging truth. Someday the planet earth will come to its end, but the truth of God’s word will continue to remain. This means that there is no foundation stronger than God’s word. Bricks seem like a very strong foundation. There is a street in our town paved with bricks, it’s been there for more than 100 years and is still in use. Yet, just like the earth, every brick ever made will someday come to its end, yet the word of God will remain.
If you chose to accept that the word of God is the foundational truth upon which you will base your life, your soul will prosper forever and ever. You will never die. You will have relationship with Jesus Christ forever in joy, peace, contentment and fulfillment.
Anyone who claims that word of God is outdated, speaks from ignorance. Anyone who criticizes the word of God lacks wisdom.
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James 1:5-8)
Verse 4
John mentions his children. This is not referring to his offspring, rather it’s referring to those that he brought into the faith. Those that were born-again as a direct result of him sharing the gospel. John is referring to them as his “children”.
Verses 5-8
Background: Some missionaries went out, perhaps from John’s location, and went to where Gaius is located. He received them with love and he helped them. Verse eight says specifically that we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
There are two ways to spread the gospel. The first is to go yourself and either be a missionary, or go around your own town, praying for opportunities, and finding them, to speak with people about their need for Jesus.
The second way in which you can spread the gospel is to support those who go out and share the gospel with others face to face. Did you know that in war, for each soldier on the front lines fighting, there are 10 people in supportive roles helping him. These include logistical, administrative, and many other supportive roles.
Most Christians never share their faith with anyone. This is probably because of a fear of rejection or out of concern they don’t have enough knowledge and won’t be able to answer tough questions. Whichever the case, it’s not a reason to simply abandon the great commission.
If you feel that you’re not good at sharing your faith with others face to face, then pray for, and seek out, opportunities to be in supportive roles where you can help those who are able and willing to go out into the world and share the good news of Jesus with others face to face.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)
This could mean giving money to a missionary. The church you attend already has several missionaries they support; you can add to that support. Did you know that most missionaries have to leave the mission field because they run out of money? It’s true.
This could also mean supporting or volunteering at a ministry. There are many Christian organizations that perform various tasks related to spreading the gospel. Here are some examples:
Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) – A ministry dedicated to serving persecuted Christians worldwide by providing practical aid, Bibles, and advocacy for those suffering for their faith.
Samaritan’s Purse – Is a humanitarian aid organization provides disaster relief, medical care, and evangelistic outreach globally. They also run Operation Christmas Child, which distributes shoebox gifts to children in need.
Wycliffe Bible Translators – Focuses on translating the Bible into languages that do not yet have Scripture, helping people access God’s Word in their native tongue.
Compassion International – A child sponsorship ministry that helps release children from poverty through education, healthcare, and spiritual development in the name of Jesus.
One for Israel – A ministry dedicated to sharing the Gospel with Jewish people in Israel and around the world. They focus on evangelism, discipleship, and Bible teaching, using digital media, apologetics, and theological education to reach both Jews and Arabs with the message of Jesus (Yeshua) as the Messiah.
Again, as stated previously, there are perhaps 10 supporting roles for every front-line soldier. Can you imagine, volunteering your time to support a ministry by doing important work to help spread the gospel around the world, yet never leaving the comfort of your home office?
This of course should be done through diligent prayer. And don’t discount sharing the gospel face to face. Even if you did volunteer your time in a supportive role, don’t be shy towards the person who asks you what you do for living. Tell him what your job is but then quickly add that you also volunteer for a Christian organization that works to spread the gospel. That in turn will probably lead to a conversation.
Whether you yourself are sharing the gospel or are helping others to share the gospel, you are being faithful to the great commission.
Here in 3 John, Gaius was being faithful in that he was helping missionaries. He may have been giving them room and board, a meal to eat, or financial support. John says that by supporting missionaries and those who are actively spreading the gospel, we are coworkers with them.
Verses 9-11
John then offers a counter-example in the form of a person named Diotrephes. This individual would not welcome the missionaries and he forbid anyone else from welcoming them, even going so far as to kick some people out of the church for wanting simply to support the missionaries. John labels this man as evil. Someone who thinks only of himself.
Verse 12
Demetrius, however, received a good testimony. He, like Gaius, was working to support the truth of God’s word and of the spreading of the gospel.
Verses 13-14
John concludes his letter with a farewell and tells the recipients that he hopes to speak with them face to face.
The post Commentary 3 John first appeared on Gary Eugene Howell.
Parable of the Lost Sheep
Before reading this commentary, I encourage you to first read the text of Matthew chapter eighteen.
Verses 1-4
Matthew presents the disciples’ question of who is the greatest as a zinger coming out of nowhere. If you haven’t already read the books of Mark and Luke, you might wonder why they’re asking such a strange question.
But let’s take a look at what led up to them asking “Who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
Then they came to Capernaum. While Jesus was in the house, He asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:33-35) (A similar telling is presented in Luke chapter nine).
I am reminded of a science fiction show in which a crew wakes up on a space ship with amnesia and immediately proceeds to argue and quarrel about which one of them should be the captain.
I previously attended a very large church. It had seating for 3,000 people and had three services each weekend. There were a few occasions in which people would inquire about auditioning for the worship band, but would instead be offered a volunteer position backstage, behind the curtain. Some of those individuals would decline the offer. If they weren’t able to be on stage, standing in the spot light, like some sort of rock star, they weren’t interested in helping.
Jesus, however, offers some different advice in these verses we’re examining.
Jesus invited a little child to stand among them. “Truly I tell you,” He said, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in My name welcomes Me. (Matthew 18:2-5)
Unless you change to become like little children? What does that mean? I believe the key to understanding this verse comes immediately after the word “Therefore”. The word therefore means that what comes next is the conclusion drawn from what was previously said. Jesus says, “Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
Humbleness is a common theme in the Bible. Pride, however, is what got Satan kicked out of heaven. At the heart of pride is the notion that a person doesn’t need God. That he knows better than God. He doesn’t require God’s input, help or guidance because he considers himself smarter than God. A prideful person may not speak these phrases explicitly, but their attitude conveys these ideas.
When atheists claim there are contradictions in the Bible, they are implying that there’s no possible way that they themselves might have a lack of understanding. It doesn’t even occur to them that the problem could be with themselves.
When an atheist argues that God is immoral due to instances of God pouring out wrath, that person is claiming to know better than God.
When skeptics and scoffers demand that we prove to them the existence of God, what they are desiring is to be the judge of God. They want to elevate themselves above God and force God to submit himself to their examination.
All of these things come from pride. A pride which says, “I am better than God”, “I know more than God” and “I don’t need God”.
So when the disciples are arguing about which one of them will be the greatest, they are arguing over their own merits, rather than the merits of God. He alone is the one who makes their entry into heaven even possible.
Little children, however, do not have such haughty thoughts about themselves. A little child can not do anything for themselves without the assistance of his or her parents. A one-year-old can not dress themselves. They can’t feed themselves. They can’t travel anywhere on their own. They can’t communicate with the outside world. They can’t survive without help from their parents.
This is how we ought to view our relationship with God. We are the one-year-old and God is the parent. Even though, as grown adults, we can simply put on our shoes, grab the car keys and go, we ought to humble ourselves and have an attitude of reliance upon God. This begins with faith, prayer, and a desire to seek after God.
Verse 5
And whoever welcomes a little child like this in My name welcomes Me.
In this statement, Jesus is no longer referring to people who are infants and toddlers, but is referring to God’s children. The phrase “a child like this” is referring to his previous description of humility “whoever humbles himself like this little child”. He is describing those who put their faith in Him. If someone welcomes a Christ follower, they are welcoming Christ.
Verses 6-7
But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Again, “One of these little ones” is not referring to infants and toddlers. Jesus is talking about people who put their faith in Christ. Paraphrased, we can re-read it this way: “If anyone causes someone who believes in me to stumble into sin…” it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
God said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.” (Deuteronomy 32:35)
For God to be all-loving he must be a God of Justice. For example, in our criminal justice system, if there was a judge who let every murderer, rapist and child molester go free without punishment, that would not be an act of love. The injustice of setting such people free would be an act of having no compassion for those who were wronged. It would be the antithesis of love.
Thus, an all-loving God must therefore also be a God of justice and wrath toward those who cause his followers to stumble into sin.
Jesus is saying that for such people, they would have been better off drowning in the sea than to stand before God on their day of judgement. Can you imagine, the one with the power to create every galaxy in the universe, focusing his wrath onto a single person?
If you repent, however, your sins will be forgiven. Put your faith in Jesus Christ.
Verses 8-9
Jesus then proceeds to make some seemingly strange comments. If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. Is this a literal instruction? No. Jesus is using hyperbole. If it were literal, the whole world would have neither hands nor feet, nor any other parts of their body. Furthermore, we already know that sin comes from the heart, not the hands, feet or eyes.
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. (Matthew 15:19)
So then what is Jesus telling us? We should be willing to take drastic measures to get sin out of our lives. However, here’s the irony of it, we can not overcome sin through our own strength and self-discipline. If we could, anyone could become sinless and could teach others to do the same. But sin is bound in our flesh! So what then should we do?
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh craves what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16-18)
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:7-8)
God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6b). Remember, salvation is not earned. It is by faith. However, those with faith, who then proceed to earnestly seek God, will be rewarded. With what? With holy living, spiritual wisdom, peace, joy, fulfillment and contentment.
Verse 10
See that you do not look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of My Father in heaven.
Many scholars have interpreted this verse in many different ways. I have no doubt that most of those scholars were far more educated and intelligent than I, but I will offer an opinion nonetheless.
I believe based on the context of the previous verses that the phrase “little ones” is referring to anyone who puts their faith in Jesus Christ, regardless of their age.
The verse says their angels. Specifically, “THEIR” as opposed to “THERE”, suggesting that perhaps certain angels belong to, or are assigned to, a specific Christian believer. Could this be some type of guardian angel? I tend not to think so, because I can not recall anywhere else in the Bible in which a guardian angel is described. However, there are instances in the Bible in which God sends an angel or an army of angels to defend or protect a person or group of people. I have also heard stories of missionaries being physically guarded by visible angels when someone sought to harm them.
This verse however, describes the angels as being in heaven rather than on the earth; and that they are continually seeing the face of God.
Jesus says do not look down on someone who puts their faith in Christ. And this he is saying to the disciples! Bear in mind that the disciples were, only a few minutes earlier, arguing with one another as to which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Undoubtedly, such an argument might lead a person to look down on (or to despise) another when being told they’re not going to amount to much compared to their coworker who, it is claimed, will be much greater than they.
Therefore, I am opting to interpret this verse as meaning that we should not despise other Christians if one seems to have a greater calling or another seems to have less spiritual giftings. The pastor who has 1,000 members in his congregation should not look down upon the pastor who has 20 people in his congregation. The Christian who failed the music audition at church should not despise those who perform music on stage every Sunday. Those whose responsibility it is to organize and manage a large ministry at church should not look down upon the Christian whose job it is to clean the toilets. One is not greater than another. That’s what the disciples were arguing about.
Later, Paul is going to describe this using an analogy to body parts.
The body is a unit, though it is composed of many parts. And although its parts are many, they all form one body. So it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given one Spirit to drink.
For the body does not consist of one part, but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
But in fact, God has arranged the members of the body, every one of them, according to His design. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you.” Nor can the head say to the feet, “I do not need you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts we consider less honorable, we treat with greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are treated with special modesty, whereas our presentable parts have no such need.
But God has composed the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its members should have mutual concern for one another. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (1 Corinthians 12:12-26)
Verse 11
If you are reading from any of the following Bible translations, you will notice that your bible does not contain verse 11 in Matthew chapter eighteen.
•Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
•English Standard Version (ESV)
•New International Version (NIV)
•New Living Translation (NLT)
•Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
•New American Standard Bible (NASB) – 2020 Edition
Many people point to such missing verses as “Proof” that these Bible translations are corrupted. But the reality is quite different. Verse 11 does not appear at all in the oldest and most reliable copies of the Bible that exist. Rather, it was added at some point later. All of the above Bible translations were derived from the oldest and most reliable manuscripts and therefore, do not include verse 11. Each of these Bible translations had 100 or more Bible scholars work on translating them, therefore, I’m confident in their findings and conclusion that verse 11 does not belong, therefore, I am choosing to skip it in this commentary.
Verses 12-13
After instructing his disciples not to look down on another believer, Jesus gives an analogy as to the value God gives to every believer. He compares it to a sheep that wanders from the flock. The shepherd is willing to go search for it. Jesus is saying that every Christ follower is extremely valuable to Him.
First, I want to pause and make a broader comment about this passage. Consider the possibility that God’s word has so much depth and wisdom, that the exact same parable, appearing twice in different locations, can have different meanings based upon the context at each location.
The parable of the lost sheep, here in Matthew chapter 18 has, based on the surrounding context, a different meaning than it does when it appears in Luke chapter 15’s surrounding context.
Here in Matthew, for the past ten verses Jesus has repeatedly been talking about “One of these little ones that believe in me.” Now he’s saying if one of them goes astray….
When he uses the phrase “goes astray” I am reminded of the verse in Isaiah which says;
We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)
Also;
For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:25)
I am interpreting this as specifically referring to backsliders, and not to those who are not at all saved. In Luke’s account I will offer a different interpretation based upon its surrounding context. (Amazing to me is the word of God, that the same parable can have many meanings). But here in Matthew I’ve concluded Jesus is talking about a Christian believer who backslides.
“If a man has a hundred sheep”, so we see that the sheep was part of the flock. “and one of them goes astray”, someone who was part of the flock is now wandering away (i.e. backsliding).
Many years ago, a friend of mine was greatly concerned about the behavior of his 20-year-old daughter. She had begun getting herself into many things no Christian parent would approve of. Living with a boyfriend, getting drunk on weekends, etc…. My friend and his wife prayed diligently for her every day and asked others to do the same. One day I inquired about her and my friend said something that I had never before in my entire life ever considered. I asked how she was doing, and he said, “She is forming her testimony.”
He was viewing the situation as his daughter being a believer who, when young, was kept fenced in by her parents, but upon leaving the shadow of her parents, backslid into a wild life. Her father was believing that the Lord would eventually go and get her just like the sheep that went astray. And that then she would have the ability to see and understand on a personal level, what the Lord has done for her. Not merely what her parents told her about God, but what she has seen with her own eyes and experienced for herself.
Ten years later, that same girl is now fully following Jesus Christ as lord and savior and she’s able to tell people what the Lord has done for her.
Verse 14
A moment ago I stated that the parable of the lost sheep has different meanings in each of its appearances. We are going to compare the last sentence of the parable in Matthew 18 to the parable’s corresponding last sentence in Luke 15. Here they are:
In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish. (Matthew 18:14)
I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent. (Luke 15:7)
Again, “little ones” is referring to God’s children (those who put their faith in Jesus Christ). Matthew’s rendering of the parable is talking about believers who backslide and then return, while Luke’s rendering is talking about lost people repenting and coming to faith for the first time.
Verses 15-17
Maintaining the theme of backsliding believers, Jesus now says, “If your brother sins against you…” A brother, is not necessarily referring to one’s sibling, but to a fellow believer, and more specifically, a believer that you’re acquainted with, (brother being a male and sister being a female). In our modern times this might refer to someone that attends the same church you attend.
“If your brother sins against you, go and confront him privately.” A moment ago, Jesus was telling us not to look down on or despise a fellow Christian. Now He is telling us what to do if such a thing happens to us.
Step one is to go to him privately. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, regard him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
When Jesus says regard him as a pagan, I believe he is advising us to disassociate with the person.
Verse 18
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
This verse is repeated in Matthew chapter 16. There, however, the context was building the church. Here in chapter eighteen the context is church discipline. So again, we see that the word of God has so much depth and breadth that the same phrases, sayings or parables can have slightly different meanings based on the context.
In Matthew 16, I interpreted the verse as meaning that God is building his church by means of one person sharing the gospel with another. And this binding on earth and heaven is meaning that if any random Christian shares his faith with any random person and said person then puts his faith in Jesus Christ, heaven acknowledges that confession of faith as legitimate.
Imagine if any random Christian shared his faith with some random person who accepted Christ but heaven interrupted and said, “No, you are not authorized to do that.”
What you bind on earth is bound in heaven. Any believer can share their faith with any person, anywhere and if that person accepts Christ, they are saved.
In the context of church discipline, if you go privately to confront a brother and he asks you for forgiveness, heaven acknowledges the forgiveness. Likewise, if he refuses to listen and is eventually expelled from the church, heaven acknowledges this. What you loose on earth is loosed in heaven, meaning heaven has your back.
At a previous job, there was an important and expensive tool that went missing. My co-worker stated that he had laid it on a particular table, but sometime afterwards it was gone. One of the managers came to me privately and asked if I trusted my co-worker. My response was, “If he said he laid it on the table, he laid it on the table. I trust him.”
What you bind on earth is bound in heaven and what you loose on earth is loosed in heaven is similar in that a person, filled with the Holy Spirit, is someone with whom heaven can trust.
Verses 19-20
Remember when reading the Bible, we can never take any single verse as a stand-alone statement. This is why I despise the often touted “verse of the day”. If we were to read Matthew 18:19 as a stand-alone statement, we would conclude that if two or three Christians gather together and pray about receiving something, God will give it to them.
If that were true, I would immediately gather two other Christians and together we would each pray for a million dollars, a Ferrari, and a new fishing boat. No one can pray for something outside of God’s will and expect to receive it. Remember, God answers every prayer with either yes, no, or not yet. What God does not do is give you anything and everything you ask for merely because two or three of you are asking. God is not a vending machine.
I wonder how many Christians have been carried into false doctrine because they devoted themselves every morning to reading the “verse of the day”. Oh, and ask yourself this question: who decides which verse will be that day’s “verse of the day”? Notice how they only select verses that sound uplifting. You will never see, as the “verse of the day” something such as; Today will be a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of destruction and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. (Zephaniah 1:15).
Okay then, what is the context of Matthew 18:19 and what does the verse mean?
Recall just a moment ago that Jesus was saying that if your brother will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
Now, in this verse he’s saying that where those same two or three people are gathered (i.e. during the confrontation of the brother who will not listen), Jesus will be there also.
Verses 21-22
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!
This is self-explanatory. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are to forgive those who sin against us. Every single time someone sins against you, you are called to forgive them. This does not mean, however, that you allow people to abuse you or take advantage of you. I have known people who have equated forgiveness as meaning permission. The two, however, are not the same.
A friend of mine was saving up money to go on a mission trip. He had about $1,000 in a tin can. One day he invited a guest over for dinner. The next day when my friend looked in his tin can, the money was gone. At some point during the previous evening’s dinner (probably while he was working in the kitchen, preparing the food) his guest had stolen the money. My friend was able to eventually forgive him, but he never invited that person into his home ever again. This is an example of being able to forgive someone but not allowing them to do it again. “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”.
Verses 23-35
Everyone, whom I’ve ever heard speak about this parable, interprets it as being a lesson in how Christians should forgive. I strongly disagree.
First, let’s examine the verbiage used in this parable and let’s ask ourselves if this is referring to those who are saved. Jesus describes the servant as being wicked. He is then turned over to the jailers to be tortured.
Within the New Testament, who does Jesus describe as wicked? The saved or the unsaved?
Jesus replied, “A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. (Matthew 12:39)
So will it be at the end of the age: The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 13:49-50)
In the spiritual world, which people are tortured, the saved or the unsaved? This parable, of the unforgiving servant, is not about those who are saved. It’s not a lesson in how Christian believers should act and the punishment they’ll receive if they don’t. I strongly believe it is describing the unsaved.
Those who are saved have all their sins forgiven. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103:12) Those who put their faith in Jesus Christ are not turned over to the jailers to be tortured. Christ took that punishment for us.
Within this parable lies the answer to the question, “Why would an all-loving God send anyone to hell?” It is because those God sends to hell are themselves the wicked servant in this story. They never put their faith in Christ and it is they who demonstrate their lack of faith by being unwilling to forgive those who sin against them. Think about it like this for a moment: if God is all loving and sent his own son to die on the cross for the forgiveness of everyone’s sins, but later he sees someone grabbing a man and choking him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ And then throws him into prison, having no mercy, no patience, no forgiveness.
That same all-loving God, seeing what was done to someone he loves, is going to get very mad. Then, at the end of this wicked servant’s life, God is going to summon him to stand before Him and he’s going to say, “You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’ In anger the Lord will turn him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should repay all that he owed. Which, by the way, he’ll never be able to repay that debt.
But now let’s talk about the saved. If Jesus was not referring to those who are saved, the implication is that those who put their faith in Jesus Christ will through the infilling of the Holy Spirit, have an inherent willingness to forgive those who sin against them. Remember that faith equals complete trust. Faith is not only believing that God exists, but faith also trusts that what Jesus said is true. So those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, will do the things that Jesus Christ said to do which include forgiving others who sin against us.
But even if a follower of Jesus Christ should harbor some little grudge or have some sort of distain for someone who wronged them, that sin will be forgiven because Christ died for the forgiveness of our sins.
Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven (Matthew 12:31)
Notice the verse says every sin will be forgiven (except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which means going to one’s grave having never been filled by faith with the Holy Spirit). Holding a grudge is a sin which falls into the category of “every sin”. Therefore, the parable about being tortured for the act of not forgiving someone can not possibly be referring to those who are saved. The parable is a warning to those who are not saved.
The post Commentary Matthew 18 first appeared on Gary Eugene Howell.
False doctrines
Before reading this commentary, I encourage you to first read the text of 2 John.
Verse 1
The salutation
Verse 2
— because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:
Reading the above verse, I am immediately reminded of the verse which says, God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)
Worship him in spirit is referring to the infilling of the Holy Spirit. But I would like, for a moment, to focus on worshiping God in truth. What exactly does that mean?
There is a common phrase in Christianity, “majoring on the minors”. I have seen Christian content creators on the internet unilaterally declare someone a false teacher and a liar for simply offering an interpretation of a bible verse that was different from that of the content creator’s.
The height of that content creator’s arrogance to suggest that anyone with an opinion that differs from his own is a liar and a false teacher.
That being said, however, in order to worship God in truth, which as we just read, is God’s will, we must be in agreement on the majors (i.e. “majoring on the majors”).
God requires that we worship him in truth. For example, mother nature is not God, all roads do not lead to heaven, other religions do not share the same God, Jesus is not the brother of Satan, hell is a real place, and we don’t go into heaven by being a good person, etc, etc…. We can not worship God according to falsehoods. We must worship God in truth.
I recall in high-school, when going to my next class, I was walking down the steps, and seeing Christy walking up the steps, I called out, “Hi Sandy”. She immediately stopped in her tracks and yelled “Sandy?!?!”. I had to correct myself and said, “Sorry Christy, I’m supposed to meet Sandy for our science lab project and I must have had her name on my mind.”
Christy was not going to continue a conversation with me calling her by the wrong name. She immediately took issue with my error. In like manner, God is not going to be in relationship with us when we are calling him by the wrong name. Christy and Sandy were not the same person. Likewise, all other gods and Jesus Christ are not the same person.
Verse 3
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, will be with us in truth and love.
Verse 4
I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father has commanded us.
Again, let me emphasize that God has commanded us to walk in truth. We can not worship him through falsehoods.
Verses 5-6
And now I urge you, dear lady—not as a new commandment to you, but one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love.
John is urging the lady with whom he is corresponding that she must walk in love and that she must “love one another”.
Jesus declared, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Verses 7
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, refusing to confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
This is not referring to the antichrist depicted in Revelation, rather, anyone who denies that Jesus is the Messiah is himself acting as an antichrist. Watch out for such people.
Verses 8-11
Watch yourselves, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but that you may be fully rewarded. Anyone who runs ahead without remaining in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever remains in His teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you but does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your home or even greet him. Whoever greets such a person shares in his evil deeds.
We’ve been focusing herein on truth and love. In verse 11 John is advising that we shouldn’t even greet a person who brings a teaching contrary to the truth.
That might not seem very loving and today much of our modern American culture has fully embraced the notion that in order to show love, we must accept everyone and be tolerant of everything.
But Jesus said above, that the greatest commandment is to Love God. That is number one. The second priority is to love one another. This list is in order of priority. Therefore, to receive a person who brings a false teaching is an act of no longer loving God. You may think you are being accepting and tolerant of the person who is bringing the false doctrine, but what you are actually doing is ceasing to show your love for God by allowing someone who openly rejects the truth of God to teach and lead others astray.
To show your love for God would be to reject that false teacher. To not invite him to teach in your church or in your home and to not even greet him when he knocks on your door. It seems counter intuitive, but remember love for one another is the second commandment. The first commandment, (the higher priority), is to Love God.
John is telling us that we demonstrate our love for God by worshiping him in truth. Furthermore, Jesus said that God commands us to worship him in truth. So, if you allow someone to come into your church or small group and teach falsehoods, you are not loving God.
There was a church whose pastor retired. The four church elders began a search for a new pastor. Eventually they found a young man who had become a Christian only 6 years earlier. He didn’t have any formal seminary training but was very excited about Jesus. They hired him to be the new pastor. His style was to teach topically, rather than verse by verse. Every Sunday he preached uplifting and encouraging sermons about God’s love. But after about a year of preaching, one of the church members approached him privately and asked, “Why do you never preach about sin, or hell or about God’s wrath?” The pastor replied, “Oh, I don’t believe in that.”
There are some pastors who need to be in the pews listening and learning, rather than in the pulpit teaching.
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly (James 3:1). We must worship God in Truth and in Spirit.
I would like, at this point, to circle back to verse 8 in which John says “so that you do not lose what we have worked for…” notice that the very next words are, “but that you may be fully rewarded.” This verse is not about losing one’s salvation, but is about being rewarded in heaven.
Verse 12
John concludes his letter by saying that he would prefer to explain the truths of God’s word to her face to face rather than by letter.
Verse 13
And lastly either this woman’s nieces and nephews send her greetings, or she has a friend who herself is saved (thus John is referring to her as a sister) and that woman’s children send greetings.
The post Commentary 2 John first appeared on Gary Eugene Howell.
Jesus & John the Baptist
Contents:
•The two cousins. John the Baptist and Jesus Christ.
•Jesus being mightier than John.
•John ate grasshoppers.
•Repentance
•Jesus’s baptism – Is baptism required for salvation?Before reading this commentary, I encourage you to first read the text of Matthew chapter three.
Jesus Christ and John the Baptist are cousins because Mary and Elizabeth were related. But even before he was born, john the Baptist knew that Jesus was the messiah. The bible says in Luke chapter 1,
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:41)
Mary, at that time was pregnant with Jesus.
Verses 1-2
At the beginning of chapter 3, Jesus and John are now adults and in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.
But what a coincidence, that’s the exact same thing that Jesus is going say. As a matter of fact, the very first words that Jesus preaches at the start of his ministry, after he returns from fasting in the desert, are “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
So what do we make of that? When both the greatest profit who has ever lived and Jesus the Messiah are both saying repent, it’s probably pretty important, So let’s examine this and understand what they’re talking about.
But before we do, let me give you a reminder; how do we get into the kingdom of heaven? Is it by being a good person? No; because we can not earn salvation. If salvation could be earned, people would have something to brag about. They would be inclined to stand before God and say, “Look at how great I was”.
But Ephesians 2:8-9 states;
For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
So we can not earn our salvation by being good or by doing good works. Salvation is by faith. Then what is the purpose of repentance? Why are both Jesus and John, these two cousins, telling everyone to repent?
First of all, what does repent even mean?
I don’t like arguing with strangers on the internet, but sometimes I find myself doing so over the doctrines of Christianity. It was just recently that a Christian made a post stating that Jesus never said “Repent”. I entered into the conversation with my disagreement and the discourse quickly devolved into this stranger arguing with me over the meaning of the word repentance.
This commentary is very intentionally, not meant to be scholarly in nature. Its purpose is to be read by the ordinary Joe and the average Sue. It was not my intent to dive head first into Greek words, root words and forms of verbs that often make bible commentaries a burden to read. However, on this occasion I think it’s necessary if we want to understand what Jesus and John are proclaiming.
And to the ordinary Joe and average Sue, despite what I just said, if you have any interest in Bible study, I would encourage you to consider acquiring a Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Anytime you read something in the Bible, and wonder what it means, a concordance can be a valuable tool to help you understand the passage.
Just be aware that Strong’s was written exclusively for the King James. If you read a different version of the Bible, there will be occasions that you’ll need to convert the passage in your bible, into the King James translation in order to look up in the Strong’s concordance, the exact word that was used in the bible. That in turn will allow you to identity the original Greek or Hebrew words.
The conversion is a simple process, just type your scripture reference into the internet followed by the letters KJV and you’ll instantly receive the way the verse was written in the King James. Then you’ll be able to know what word to look up in your Strong’s concordance. They do make concordances for some of the other bible translations; However, the Strong’s concordance is the most common and easiest to find. I got this one at a thrift store and probably paid a couple of dollars for it. You can probably do the same.
So, when we look up the word Repent, we find this Greek word μετανοέω, which means To think differently. To reconsider. To morally feel guilt after doing something bad. As we proceed further into the book of Matthew, we’re going to see that Jesus wants us to love God and to love other people. In John 14 Jesus it says;
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him (The Holy Spirit), because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. (John 14:15-17a)
If Jesus Christ, asks you to do something, you can not just give him the big middle finger. You can’t reject Christ, and love Christ at the same time. Now we all stumble into sin, we all make mistakes and errors, but to look to Jesus and say, “I’m not going to do what you say!” is a rejection of Jesus.
Again, if Jesus asks you to do something and you refuse, that is an act of rejecting Christ. We can not reject Christ and enter into the kingdom heaven. Fortunately, however, as long as you are alive, Jesus’s instruction, and John’s instruction, are still relevant. repent. In other words, as long as you are still living, you are still under God’s grace and there is still time available to you, to accept Christ and to put your faith and trust in Jesus. But the moment you depart from your body, that’s the cut off. Time’s up.
What Jesus wants us to do is to turn from, that is, to think differently about our sins. He wants us instead to follow him and put our trust and reliance upon him. That is, in and of itself, the very definition of faith. You are putting your trust in Jesus Christ, Thus, when Jesus Christ says, “don’t do that, instead do this”, you are able to trust him and are willing to do what he has asked of you.
If Jesus asks you to do something, and you don’t do it, you are rejecting what he asked you to do. You are rejecting Christ.
Again, I want to emphasize, that I’m not referring to the stumbling into sin. We live in a dark and fallen world, and stumbles, trips and falls are unavoidable. But I’m talking about the very deliberate and intentional rejection of Christ’s commands and teachings. That, in and of itself, is a rejection of Christ.
Verses 3-6
John ate grasshoppers. To me, that’s disgusting. Why does the bible mention this? I think it may be to show John’s humbleness and to compare him to Elijah. John doesn’t wear fancy clothes and eat fine foods. He’s like a homeless person. He’s out in the wilderness, rather than in the city. He wears camel hair clothing and eats insects. I suspect that if you and I encountered john the Baptist today, we might be inclined to avoid him, a man at the river wearing rags and eating bugs. But many people in Israel heard about what he was doing, and went out there to see him and be baptized by him.
Verses 7-10
But when John saw the Pharisees showing up at his location, he scolded them and ridiculed them by asking, “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”
Coming Wrath? What’s he talking about? Our culture today would proclaim that Jesus loves everyone. That he’s an all loving God, and doesn’t send anyone to hell. There’s even an American pastor who wrote a book claiming hell is empty. So what is this talk about God’s coming wrath?
Many people today, both Christians and non-Christian alike, view Jesus as only the meek, mild, loving, compassionate person that came 2,000 years ago. But they never consider the Jesus that is coming back.
Our all loving Jesus is a God of Justice. And when He comes back, that period of Grace will be over. That’s when he will pour out justice and wrath.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. (Romans 1:18)
Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and slipped away. When the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the weeds also appeared.
The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. So the servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
‘No,’ he said, ‘if you pull the weeds now, you might uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’ (Matthew 13:24-30)
And when Jesus explained this parable to his disciples he said;
“The One who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed represents the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
As the weeds are collected and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom every cause of sin and all who practice lawlessness. And they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. (Matthew 13:37-43)
Verse 11
John says that the one who is coming is more powerful than he is. John is referring to Jesus, the Messiah. John has been described in the bible (Luke 7:24-35), as the greatest of all prophets, but John says he’s not worthy to even untie the sandals of Jesus. This tells us that Jesus is more than a profit, he’s more than a good teacher, and as we continue into this New Testament Commentary, we’re going to see that Jesus is not only a mighty man, but that he is God himself.
Verse 12
Jesus’s winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
This is exactly what was just discussed a moment ago from the parable of the weeds and the wheat. But first notice that John says the winnowing fork is already in his hand. That was spoken 2,000 years ago. How much closer are we today to that moment when Jesus clears the threshing floor?
Verse 13
Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. Jesus said regarding baptism, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness”
Is baptism required for salvation?
The Christian walk takes an entire lifetime. It’s not necessary for us to know every answer before we can follow Jesus Christ in Faith. I myself, am 53 years old and have been following Jesus since my twenties. And I don’t yet have all the answers.
Here’s what I know. Salvation is by faith. The thief on the cross was not baptized. However, Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Again I say! It’s not necessary for you to be a theologian in order to follow Jesus! Just go get baptized, follow Jesus and then don’t worry about it. I’m not going to have consternation over a theological debate. Just get baptized, and afterwards give praise to Jesus. It’s not necessary to fully understand every theological discussion before you can have faith.
So then what’s the answer? Is baptism required for salvation? The answer is, “I don’t know”. But I’m not going to worry about it because I’ve been baptized and I’ve put my faith in Jesus. You should do the same.
Verse 16
As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. Suddenly the heavens were opened, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and resting on Him.
What is that about? That’s the Holy Spirit. As we proceed through the gospels and The New Testament as a whole, we’re going to see the value and importance of having the Holy Spirit in you. So if you have never received the Holy Spirit before, know this:
Matthew 7:7-8 says;
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
So if you ask for the Holy Spirit, if you seek the Holy Spirit, If you knock he will answer. Because what did it say there in verse 8? “For everyone who asks receives”.
What then does that look like? How does one ask? Very Simple….”Lord, may I have the Holy Spirit.”
Ask that, and keep asking it until you receive the Holy Spirit. Remember that verse said Seek after it, and The Holy Spirit will be given to you.
The post Commentary Matthew 3 first appeared on Gary Eugene Howell.
Contents
•The Magi follow a star
•The Magi make King Herod aware of King Jesus
•King Herod’s jealousy and rage
•Satan tries to thwart God’s plans.
•Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt
Before reading this commentary, I encourage you to first read the text of Matthew chapter two.
Verses 1-12 and 16-18
I find the story of the Magi from the east following a star until it stood over the place where Jesus had been born to be fascinating. Were they the only ones who could see this star? One would think that such a sight would bring out all of Jerusalem if everyone was able to see this traveling star. And the fact that the star “stood” over the place where Jesus was, causes me to suspect that this star was something far greater than a distant twinkling object in outer space. I suspect that this star was actually an angel which they described as being like a star in the night sky, but not a distant object high in the sky, but actually leading them and finally standing directly on top of the location where Jesus was.
The king James, the ESV and the NLT versions of the Bible describe these as Wise Men, However, it seems, at least from our position of hindsight, that they may have been displaying a bit of naivete in the fact that the first person they go to see upon arriving in Jerusalem in order to inquire about the new King, is the current King. Did they not consider that he might be unwilling to give up his power, and might be inclined to do harm to a political rival? The wise men came to King Herod wrongly assuming that he would be as equally excited as they about finding a new King.
On the other hand, we know from history that King Herod was around 73 years old when Jesus was born. Herod is obviously approaching the end of his life and Jesus is a new born baby, just beginning his life. It should have been obvious to King Herod that there wasn’t going to be any overlap between their two kingships. And maybe that’s what the Magi were thinking when they sought out King Herod. But as it turns out, King Herod was so fearful of losing his power that he was willing to send orders that every boy under the age of two in Bethlehem be killed. What also perplexes me about this story is that the soldiers under King Herod’s command were willing to obey the king’s orders to go and kill every boy under the age of two in Bethlehem. What sort of cowardice, barbaric, heathen would obey such an order? But yet they did.
But this is a familiar story. Remember what happened in Exodus Chapter 1?
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile…(Exodus 1:22a)
Pharaoh ordered that all baby boys be thrown into the Nile river where they were presumably eaten by crocodiles.
Remember, Moses was the one who, through God’s intervention, lead the Israelites out of the bondage of slavery. Moses represents Jesus bringing us out of the bondage of sin.
So when Moses was born, Satan persuaded the government (meaning pharaoh), to kill babies. This was Satan, trying in vain to thwart God’s plans. Then when the Messiah was coming into the world, Satan again persuaded the government, (this time King Herod), to kill the babies in Bethlehem.
Where do we see today, a government passing laws to kill babies? Why is that happening? Satan is trying, still to this day, to thwart God’s plans. In the United States of America today, one million babies a year die in abortion. Why? What’s going on?
Acts 2:17 says:
In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. (Acts 2:17)
Did you see that? Sons and daughters will prophesy and young men will see visions when God pours out his spirit in the last days. These are the last days; and so we see Satan doing the same thing again. When God wants to do a work through someone who was prophesied about in scripture, Satan comes along and tries to kill them when they’re a baby.
Verses 13-15 and 19-23
Joseph was warned in dream to flee. “Get out of here”. And Joseph got up in the middle of the night, gathered Mary and Jesus and left Bethlehem traveling all the way to Egypt in order to hide from King Herod. Sometime later, after Herod dies, they returned to Israel and again, being warned in a dream, Jesus’s parents settled in Nazareth, which fulfilled the prophecy that said “He will be called a Nazarene.”
And later when Jesus is grown and begins his ministry, Nathanael, one of the twelve disciples is going to ask, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” which further reveals to us Jesus’s humble origins.
The post Commentary Matthew 2 first appeared on Gary Eugene Howell.
Abraham, King David and Jesus
Contents:
•Why no Messiah could possibly come today.
•Why does it appear there are contradictions between Matthew’s account and Luke’s account of Jesus’s Genealogy?
•Does God speak to you in your dreams?
•How Jesus saves his people from their sins.Before reading this commentary, I encourage you to first read the text of Matthew chapter one
Verse one states that Jesus Christ is the son of David, and the son of Abraham. This, of course, fulfilled prophecy that the Messiah would be from the line of David. And this is also the reason why it is not possible for “the messiah” to come today. Many of the Jewish people are still looking for the coming messiah. However, because the Jewish people were scattered across the globe for more than a thousand years up until the 20th century and then nearly 40% of the world’s Jewish population was wiped out in the Holocaust, the Jewish people today have lost the ability to trace their ancestry back to the original 12 tribes of Israel. This means that no person claiming to be the messiah today could fulfill the prophecy of being from the line of David because no Jewish person today knows their ancestry that far back. Jesus Christ is the only person in human history who fulfills all the prophecies about a coming Messiah.
Verses two through sixteen identify the names of each person in Jesus’s genealogy from Abraham all the way to Joseph and Mary. I believe it would be a fascinating topical Bible study to specifically seek out where each of these people appear in the Bible and to read their stories one right after another, having at the forefront of our mind that this is Jesus’s “great, great, great, great grandfather”, or “great, great, grandmother”. These thoughts really draw to mind the fact that Jesus was fully man, and yet simultaneously fully God.
Verse seventeen summaries the genealogy emphasizing that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and David.
When I read the genealogy of Jesus, I’m reminded that the accounts in Matthew and Luke differ. One might be inclined to conclude there is some sort of error, however, we must recall what is written in 2 Timothy chapter 3 in which it states, All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
If we are to operate our lives in faith, we can not go around nit-picking the Word of God claiming this or that is wrong. The moment you conclude that something in the Bible is an error, then any time you come across something you don’t like, you’ll be inclined to label it an error.
Some people have referred to the differences in these two accounts of Jesus’s genealogy as being a contradiction. However, anytime we see something in scripture that appears to be a contradiction we must conclude that the error must be our own and not that of God’s. We can also be rest assured that over the past few hundred years, scholars, more brilliant than ourselves have already examined and addressed these concerns. Therefore, anytime we see what appears to be a contradiction in the Bible, all we need to do is a brief online search to read about how others have already addressed, researched and resolved the issue. But even if one can not find a reasonable explanation online, one can still maintain that the error is in their own lack of understanding. They can then move on from it, knowing they’ll come back to it at some future time. Not having an immediate answer should not hinder one’s faith. The Christian walk covers an entire lifetime. You don’t need to have all the answers today.
Verses eighteen through twenty-five discuss the pregnancy of Mary, and Joseph’s reaction. In verse twenty an angel of the lord appears to Joseph in his dream. It should be noted that throughout the text of the Bible, God spoke to 14 different people through their dreams. It’s a valid form of communication for God and we would do well to recognize the possibility that God could speak to us through our dreams as well.
Today, it’s estimated that 1 out every 10 Muslims has had a dream about Jesus. Why? I suspect that in locations where few missionaries travel, Jesus goes there himself. I knew a Muslim who told me that he had a dream in which he was walking through a middle eastern city and came to a mosque. There were dozens of people outside, all of them on their knees with their faces to the ground. But none of them were facing east, as their religious tradition insists. Instead they were all facing toward a man standing in the doorway of the mosque. He was dressed in a robe that was whiter than snow. When the man having the dream, approached the man in the doorway and asked “who are you”, the man answered, “I am Jesus”. Then the man dreaming woke up. He fully understood what the dream meant. He knew that Jesus was God. That very day he gave his life to Christ.
In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. (Acts 2:17)
If you have an extremely vivid dream that is filled with memorable details, the first thing to do after you wake up is to write it down and then pray to the lord Jesus, asking if perhaps the dream was from Him, and if so, what it meant. However, one should be cautious and recognize that our minds are constantly stirred up throughout the night with images from our previous day’s events as well as our worries and concerns. Not every dream is from the Lord. Most probably are not.
In verse 20 the angel is instructing Joseph that he is to give the child the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Sin is what separates us from God. So how do we become reunited with God unto salvation; allowing us to enter into the Kingdom of heaven? It is through Jesus Christ. As we continue this commentary through the book of Matthew and the New Testament, we’re going to see exactly how it is that Jesus saves us, and how we are able to go to heaven.
The post Commentary Matthew 1 first appeared on Gary Eugene Howell.
The post Some Professional Background on Bible Translations first appeared on Aploús Biblia.
The Bible stands as one of the most influential and widely read texts in human history, cherished by millions around the world as the inspired word of God. Yet, the interpretation of its verses often leads to diverse understandings and even controversies. In the midst of this complexity, one fundamental principle emerges: the significance of reading Bible verses within their contextual framework.
Context provides the backdrop against which individual verses gain depth, clarity, and accuracy in meaning. The Bible encompasses various genres, including historical narratives, poetry, prophecy, parables, and epistles, each with its unique style and purpose. Consequently, extracting isolated verses from their surrounding passages risks distortion and misinterpretation.
First and foremost, historical context illuminates the circumstances and cultural milieu in which biblical events unfolded. Understanding the historical background helps decipher the intended message and relevance of a particular verse.
Moreover, literary context encompasses the immediate verses, chapters, and the overarching narrative of each biblical book. Just as a sentence gains meaning within a paragraph, and a paragraph within a chapter, Bible verses derive their significance within the broader textual framework. Ignoring this context can lead to selective reading, misrepresentation, and doctrinal misunderstandings.
Furthermore, linguistic context delves into the original languages, idioms, and cultural nuances embedded in the Bible. Translating ancient texts into modern languages inevitably entails nuances and challenges. Exploring the original languages, such as Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, deepens our understanding of biblical concepts and enhances the accuracy of interpretation.
Additionally, theological context ensures coherence with the broader themes and teachings of Scripture. The Bible constitutes a cohesive narrative of God’s redemptive plan for humanity, culminating in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Viewing individual verses through the lens of the Bible’s overarching message safeguards against misinterpretation and doctrinal error.
In practice, applying these principles requires patience, humility, and diligence. Consulting reputable commentaries, studying historical resources, and engaging in prayerful reflection can facilitate a better understanding of Scripture. By delving into the richness of context, readers uncover profound insights, discover timeless truths, and encounter the living Word of God.
In conclusion, the importance of reading Bible verses in context cannot be overstated. Context serves as the compass guiding our interpretation, safeguarding against misinterpretation and distortion. Embracing the fullness of context enables us to discern the deeper meanings, relevance, and transformative power of Scripture in our lives. As we embark on this journey of exploration, may we approach the Word of God with reverence, discernment, and an unwavering commitment to truth.
The post Understanding the Importance of Context: Why Scripture in Context Matters first appeared on Aploús Biblia.
No, you don’t. The Bible is a profound and extensive collection of Jewish and Christian texts, but it doesn’t demand a linear reading approach.
You’ll eventually want to read the entire Bible. However, if you’re just starting out, and have never read from the Bible before, it’s probably not a good idea to start at the beginning. As a new Christian, the Old Testament can get you mired down with its odd names, lengthy genealogies and monologs about unfamiliar weights and measurements.
The entire Old Testament is a foreshadowing of the coming of Jesus Christ. So, it’s much better for a new Christian to start by reading Jesus’s arrival. Begin by reading the New Testament first.
Further still, it’s not even necessary to read the New Testament in order. You should, however, start with either Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.
The New Testament serves as a foundational guide for Christians, offering insight into the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. after acquainting yourself with the Gospels. The important aspect is not the sequence but the commitment to engage with the scripture regularly and prayerfully.
The Bible is not merely a historical document or a literary work; it’s considered the inspired word of God. Therefore, approaching its texts with prayer and seeking divine guidance can provide understanding and spiritual growth.
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. (Luke 24:45)
As you embark on your journey through the Bible, remember to seek spiritual guidance and approach the text with reverence and humility, allowing its wisdom to transform your life.
The post Do You Have to Read the Bible in Order? first appeared on Aploús Biblia.
Matthew 4:4 NLT, “But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
1 Peter 2:2 NLT, Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment,
we’re reminded that life isn’t sustained solely by physical nourishment but also by the words from God’s mouth. Similarly, 1 Peter 2:2 compares our need for spiritual nourishment to that of a newborn craving milk.
Do not overlook the importance of feeding our souls through daily Bible reading.
Consider the analogy of going without food for a day, a week, or even a month. The consequences are dire; our physical health suffers, and prolonged starvation could lead to death. Similarly, depriving our souls of spiritual sustenance by neglecting the Bible can lead to spiritual malnourishment.
Just as our bodies need food every day, our souls require daily sustenance from the Word of God. Reading the Bible daily, including Sundays, offers profound benefits. Regular engagement with scripture fosters spiritual growth and deepens our relationship with God. It shapes our perspectives, strengthens our faith, and equips us to live lives reflective of His love and truth.
In a fast-paced world filled with distractions, it’s easy to overlook the significance of daily Bible reading. Yet, by prioritizing this practice, we invite God’s transformative power into our lives. Let’s commit to feeding our souls with the life-giving words of Scripture each day, knowing that in doing so, we nurture our spiritual well-being and draw closer to the heart of God.
The post Nourishing Your Soul: The Value of Daily Bible Reading first appeared on Aploús Biblia.
Ghosting on Bible pages
Expensive Bibles often use thin, delicate pages that are susceptible to a phenomenon known as ‘ghosting.’ Ghosting occurs when the text from the previous page subtly shows through onto the current page. For instance, while reading page 3, one might discern the faint impressions of text from page 2 through the translucent paper.
This effect, although an inherent characteristic of the paper’s thinness, can prove highly distracting for some readers, impeding their ability to concentrate on the current page’s content. In contrast, cheaper Bibles, particularly those with paperback covers, typically utilize thicker, more opaque paper that effectively eliminates the issue of ghosting altogether.While paperback Bibles offer convenience and affordability, their durability may sometimes fall short of expectations. The lightweight construction of paperback covers and bindings renders them susceptible to wear and tear, especially with frequent handling and transportation. Over time, the covers of paperback books may become creased, torn, or otherwise damaged, compromising their aesthetic appeal and structural integrity. The adhesive used in binding paperback books may weaken, leading to pages loosening or even detaching from the spine, resulting in them getting lost.
Paperback Bibles are designed to be inexpensive and thus may not withstand heavy use or rough treatment as effectively as their more expensive counterparts. However, if the ghosting effect often seen in more expensive bibles featuring thin sheets of paper, is a distraction to you, try a simple paperback Bible. Most paperback Bibles cost less than $10 and many even less than $5 new. But be aware that it may not last a long time before you have to buy another.
The post Ghosting vs No-Ghosting first appeared on Aploús Biblia.
The King James Version (KJV) of the Bible holds a revered status among many Christians worldwide. Its historical significance and poetic language have made it a cornerstone of English literature. However, despite its popularity, I must admit that I harbor a certain degree of disdain for the King James Version, primarily due to its archaic and outdated language.
One of the fundamental reasons behind my dislike for the KJV Bible is its language. The English used in the KJV, while beautiful and rich in its time, has become increasingly difficult for modern readers to grasp. The thou’s, thee’s, and ye’s, along with other antiquated expressions, create unnecessary barriers to understanding the message of the Scriptures.
As a believer, I acknowledge the importance of engaging with the Bible regularly to deepen my faith and understanding. However, I find it counterproductive to wrestle with language that no longer resonates with contemporary speakers. Christianity faces numerous challenges in today’s world, and deciphering Elizabethan English should not be one of them.
Despite my reservations about the KJV, however, I recognize its value as a reference tool for comparing different Bible translations. For that reason I own more than one King James Version Bible. Its influence on subsequent translations and its role in shaping Christian theology cannot be overlooked. The KJV has left an indelible mark on the history of Christianity, and its legacy continues to endure.
However, I firmly believe that Christians should have access to Bible translations that resonate with their contemporary language. The message of the Bible is timeless and transcendent, but its delivery should be accessible and understandable to all. In a world where communication evolves rapidly, it is imperative that the Scriptures remain relevant and relatable to people from diverse backgrounds and linguistic abilities.
In conclusion, while I acknowledge the historical significance of the King James Version Bible, I cannot overlook its shortcomings in terms of accessibility and understandability. As Christians, we should strive to make the Word of God accessible to all, free from unnecessary linguistic barriers. By embracing modern translations that convey the scriptures in contemporary language, we can ensure that the Bible continues to resonate with believers across generations.
If you are trying to decide which translation of the Bible you should read, start by asking Jesus. James 1:5 says, If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.
Then while you’re waiting on the Lord, visit a thrift store or a flea market where Bibles usually cost a dollar or less. Buy for yourself two or three different translations and try each of them. See which one you are drawn to most.
Photo credit: flickr Creative Commons, The Holy Bible – 1611 King James Version by Robert
The post Why You Might Dislike the King James Bible first appeared on Aploús Biblia.
In the past I despised reading. It was a loathsome task to me.
I recall between 2008 and 2012 it took me four years to read the entire Bible. Not because I was reading slowly and carefully and studying the scriptures diligently, but because I would read for a half hour a day for two or three days and then not pick up the Bible again for three weeks.
But beginning around 2022, I began seeing the need for the implementation of personal self-discipline and had begun reading the Bible with consistency and regularity even when I didn’t feel like it.
But even just a week ago I asked my wife if there was any value in reading other Christian books. I said “Why bother when you could just read the Bible.”
And for certain, a man is a fool if he forsakes the word of God while embracing the words of man.
But Last night I purchased for 99cents, a used copy of Francis Chan’s Crazy Love. I’m only on page 29 and already while reading it I feel an inward excitement and enthusiasm toward God that in the past I have only ever experienced while personally associating with a person who had deep spiritual wisdom and enjoyed sharing that wisdom with me.
Thus, it occurred to me that the value in reading Christian books is to receive that inward sense of being spurred on toward love and good deeds and to experience anew that excitement and enthusiasm for following Jesus Christ.
Therefore, I’m feeling now that I want to include in my daily activities, the regular reading of Christian books in addition to the Bible.
I’m going to create, here on this blog post, a list of the Christian books I’ve read that encouraged and motivated me.
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
Tortured for His Faith by Haralan Popov
Photo credit: flickr Creative Commons, Books read in 2021 by Brett Jordan
The post The Value of Reading Christian Books first appeared on Aploús Biblia.
My evolving Bible collecting goals
The Christian Bible with its Old and New Testaments is the most valuable thing that exists on planet earth. The good news it contains is worth more than all the money in the world because the Bible reveals to us the key to eternal life through Jesus Christ.
But as a physical product, Bibles are merely paper and ink. Inexpensive paperbacks, printed on cheap paper can be purchased new at a store like Walmart for less than five dollars.
You may recall back in 2021 that several Dr. Seuss books fell victim to cancel culture. Someone, or some group, decided they were offended by Dr. Seuss, the author of several children’s books. They announced they wanted to cancel said books. And to my great dismay, the copyright holder of Dr. Seuss’s books agreed and said they would no longer print those particular titles by Dr. Seuss.
What bothered me most was the nagging feeling of what’s next. Could we, in our lifetimes, see the Bible get canceled? The more I thought about the Dr. Seuss books; that it wasn’t just protesters announcing they wouldn’t buy Dr. Seuss; it was the actual publisher who bent their knee to social pressure and said they would no longer print the books.
There are only a handful of Bible publishers in the US. These companies publish loads of Christian material in addition to printing Bibles, so it’s not farfetched to suggest that, like Dr. Seuss, if these publishers ever bowed to future social pressure, they might agree to stop printing the Bible.
We’ve already seen that Canada recently passed a bill unanimously, to outlaw the telling of transgender people that they have a need for repentance. It’s just one small step short of banning the bible in Canada.
One of the things that happened immediately after the announcement that Dr. Seuss’s publishers would cease publishing the titles in question was that people rushed to the internet, to their local bookstores, to thrift stores and used book shops trying to find copies of Dr. Seuss. They were buying up Dr. Seuss books anywhere they could find them. People understood that they weren’t going to be available in the future.
I thought “If Bible publishers ever announced they weren’t going to publish Bibles anymore, there would quickly come a time when a person wouldn’t be able to even find a used Bible. A Bible for sale would be a rarity at best.
I once met a missionary who served in Shanghai China, a city with a population of 24 million people. He told me that in a city of 24 million, there was only one bookstore in the entire city that sold Bibles, and they never carried more than one or two copies. The store couldn’t advertise their Bibles so for the millions of people that lived in that city, it was basically impossible to find and purchase a Bible.
With all of these thoughts swirling in my head, I began thinking about my children. I have a 5-year-old and a 3-month-old. What would happen, when they’re 50 years old and the Bible is no longer available? What would happen if they couldn’t go to a store and buy one?
This began my desire to start collecting Bibles. Not for myself, I already have a few Bibles I read. But to start this collection as a future inheritance for my children and maybe even my grandchildren. If in their time, Bibles are hard to find, I will leave them with 50, or 75 or even 100 Bibles. I’ll leave them with different versions, with study Bibles, reference Bibles, teen Bibles, parallel Bibles, hard cover, paper back, etc.…. I want my children and grandchildren to have the word of God in abundance. I want them to be able to mark and highlight one bible and then start another. I want to leave an inheritance to my children and their children that leads to eternal life.
I went to a hardware store and bought two 27-gallon storage totes with the goal of filling them both with Bibles.
However, I didn’t want to bankrupt myself. I wanted to find used Bibles being sold for very little money. In my town there is a Goodwill outlet store, which I call the Goodwill bin store. It’s where the items that did not sell in Goodwill retail stores are sent and then sold by the pound at this outlet store. The store is more like a warehouse with huge bins each the size of a twin bed filled with clothes or shoes or toys or DVDs or books, etc…
They will frequently have four to five of these bins filled with books that nobody bought at their retail stores and now are just tossed in these bins for customers to rummage through. The books at this particular location sell for 80 cents each regardless of title, format or condition. Furthermore, the bin store represents the last and final stop for these books. If no one buys them here, Goodwill will send them to a paper recycler where they’ll be shredded and turned into cardboard.
My first time going to the Goodwill bin store to search for Bibles, I found a few, but they were in bad shape. Their bindings were broken and pages were falling out, they were scribbled and highlighted in, but none the less, I was excited that I had found them and could pay just 80 cents each for the invaluable word of God. I purchased all that I had found.
But shortly after that first outing, I was once again at the bin store and was talking to an employee who told me to my shock that every bin in the store, including the book bins, are switched out twice a day. Remember, these bins are nearly the size of a twin bed and are on wheels.
I was aware that this store dealt with large volumes of books, but I had no idea they were swapping out the bins twice a day!
That was when I realized I was going about this thing all wrong. I had previously been coming to the store once every two weeks and buying Bibles that were falling apart.
I immediately switched mental gears and decided to radically increase my standards and strategy.
No longer was I going to acquire Bibles that were damaged, torn, scribbled in or falling apart. All the broken, worn out Bibles I had previously purchased, I donated back to Goodwill.
From then on, I was only going to purchase Bibles in like-new or perfect condition. I wasn’t going to go there twice a month; I was going to walk into that store 3 and 4 times per week.
I was only going to buy the NKJV, NIV, ESV, NLT, HSC and NAS. No longer was I going to buy New Testament only Bibles. I was going to leave for my children and grandchildren the complete Word of God. And no longer was I going to purchase Bibles with tiny, tiny fonts. I want readily legible Bibles.
So, I started going to the Goodwill bin store multiple times per week, and I found that about every other trip I could buy a Bible in decent or really good condition. I was forgoing the Bible translations I didn’t like and those with small fonts and was picking only the really good ones. I was finding study bibles and reference bibles and I was paying only 80 cents each for them.
After a few months of shopping at the Goodwill bin store I had filled one of my two 27-gallon storage totes, but I began to notice that fewer and fewer Bibles were showing up at the store. What was going on? Why were Bibles becoming harder to find?
I began brainstorming and wondering if I could find other venues at which to purchase used Bibles. The first one that I thought of was garage sales, but because it was the middle of winter, no one was going to be hosting a weekend garage sale any time soon.
I turned to Facebook and found a group called Buy, Sell, Trade Everything Bibles. I joined the group but was quickly dismayed at the fact that the Bibles people were listing for sale on this site had price tags in the hundreds of dollars. I was seeing Bibles with asking prices of $200 and $300. I didn’t even know such expensive Bibles existed.
After scrolling through this Facebook group for a few days, looking at these ultra-high quality $200-$300 Bibles I began to think I had set my criteria at the bin store way too low. I had previously said that if a Bible wasn’t falling apart, I would buy it. But now I was seeing the Rolls Royce’s of Bibles. These high-end expensive Bibles were amazing. If I could find Bibles like that and acquire them for substantially less than they’re worth, wouldn’t it be amazing to fill my storage bins with those.
I wondered how people went about finding such nice Bibles. Like any good internet sleuth, I went to YouTube and searched for videos about how to find good quality used Bibles and that’s when I was confronted with yet another aspect of God’s Word I had no idea even existed.
There is an entire genre of entrepreneurial individuals who flip used Bibles for profit. It is their business model. I started this article by saying that the Bible is the most valuable thing in the world, and apparently there are people who make a tidy profit peddling in used Bibles. Again, I had no idea that such a thing even existed. Furthermore, I have to admit that I was rather offended by the very notion of it. The fact that these people viewed the Word of God not as something valuable to read for themselves but they viewed God’s word as a means to make money. It didn’t sit well with me until I said, “wait a minute…. think about the buyer.” There is an entire market of people out there who are willing to purchase the Word of God.
I had been passing over bibles at the Goodwill bin store simply because the font was too small or it was a version I didn’t favor.
It suddenly occurred to me, that I ought not pass over any Bible. Not only could I find and acquire the Bibles I want to leave as an inheritance for my children and grandchildren, but I could also take the unwanted Bibles I find and flip them for profit and use said profit to save up for the super nice, high quality Bibles I had seen in the Facebook group.
So why were Bibles becoming scarcer at the bin store? My suspicion is that perhaps other people have caught on to the fact that there is profit to be made flipping Bibles.
And while I still say, people ought to value the Word of God for themselves rather than for profit, none-the-less it’s still a worthy endeavor when thinking about the buyer.
Somebody out there wants God’s Word but perhaps they don’t have a bin store or a used book store near them. Perhaps it’s the middle of winter and they can’t shop at local garage sales.
Whatever the case may be, I’ve decided I’m going to be very excited that there are people out there who long for the Word of God and are willing to pay for it. I’m going to help them get it and then I’ll save up the profit to acquire even more copies of God’s Word that I can pass on to my children and grandchildren.
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