https://esv.literalword.com/?q=luke+13
Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Thursday, 7 March 2024:
Luke 13:8, 9 – And he answered him, “Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.”
God patiently waits for people to repent and accept Jesus, but there is a limit to His patience.
Luke 13:14-16 – But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”
Many people use religion as an excuse to act unloving and to treat others poorly. Truth approached in a self-centered, selfish perspective becomes untrue in that person’s application.
Without love, God’s word and commands will be misapplied. When Jesus fulfilled the will of the Father, religious people, using God’s word, called Him a sinner. Jesus called people who claimed to know Him but lacked love hypocrites (stage actors), people pridefully pretending to be something they weren’t for personal recognition and other self-serving, unloving reasons. The Pharisees diligently studied the Scriptures, but they didn’t know God and the power of His love – “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” (2 Timothy 3:5) “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)
Bible study is essential. You can’t love the God you don’t really know, and He reveals Himself to us through His word. The more you know God through prayerful, spirit-led study of His word, the better you can love Him and subsequently love others. The Bible says, “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) So, if your Bible study isn’t leading you to ever-increasing love, it isn’t leading you closer to Him. Don’t be one of those who read and acquire rules without relationship, who seek principles rather than the Person of Jesus Christ, who learn but never learn how to love, and who practice externalism – cleaning the outside of the dish. Diligently study God’s word, but study it to know God rather than simply know about God, and apply God’s word in love, guided by the Holy Spirit.
- Proverbs 26:9 -- Like a thorn that goes up into the hand of a drunkard is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
- 1 John 4:8 -- Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
- Matthew 7:15-20 -- “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
- 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 — If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
- Matthew 12:36 — I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak….
Luke 13:18-21 — What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.
The kingdom appears insignificant but grows into something miraculous. God uses your seemingly insignificant deeds to do amazing things, you need only be faithful in the little things.
Luke 13:22-30 – Then you will begin to say, “We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.” But he will say, “I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!”
Knowing about Jesus, knowing His teachings, and being around Him won’t save you. You must truly ‘know’ Him in genuine relationship, having been saved by faith in Him, putting all your trust and hope in Him, and seeking to obey Him.
Luke 13:24, 25 — Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, “Lord, open to us,” then he will answer you, “I do not know where you come from.”
Some people approach God half-heartedly and selfishly – that won’t work. It is all or nothing, and it’s all for Him. God knows the heart.
How different is Jesus’ message than the popular, worldly message of universalism being taught by so many today (often in the name of Jesus). Consider some of Jesus’ other less quoted statements that we have read from the Book of Luke so far:
- Luke 8:12 -- The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
- Luke 8:20-21 -- And he was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see you.” But he answered them, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”
- Luke 9:26 -- For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
- Luke 10:13-16 -- Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.
- Luke 11:23 -- Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
- Luke 11:27, 28 -- As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”
- Luke 12:8 -- The one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
- Luke 12:51-53 -- Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.
- Luke 13:5 -- No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Luke 13:29 – And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.
God’s plan includes people from throughout the world.
Luke 13:31-33 – At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’
Jesus wasn’t driven by fear of man but rather accomplishment of the purpose and mission the Father had given Him. When God is for you, who can stand against you? Don’t live in fear; live in confidence that your perfectly loving sovereign Father is in complete control of all things and has promised to work all things out together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose for them. (Romans 8:28)
Luke 13:34 – O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!
We tend to interpret much of the Bible verses dealing with judgment as applying to unbelievers, but most of those verses are spoken to God’s people, the church. Judgment comes with the salt loses its saltiness, and the light loses its brightness. As goes the church, so goes the nation.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 7 March 2024: Endeavor to show radical hospitality and charity today, holding nothing back from those you can help in love. Use the opportunity to proclaim the love of Jesus. (Luke 13:15, 16)
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 