seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Luke 17:1 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. 2 It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. 3 So watch yourselves.
“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!”
6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
7 “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? 8 Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? 9 Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? 10 So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”
I think this is for those who think religion gives them a ticket to a perfect life. There is no such thing on earth... as far as I've seen in 73 years. There is a hitch in every single day, even if it's just a hitch in your gitalong.... there will be a hitch in every single day. We are going to be judged on how we get through the hitches.The second part of verse 3 is interesting. These are brothers and sisters in Christ.... not necessarily the siblings born to your parents. These are other "Christians" Jesus is talking about. Jesus said we have to forgive them, if they repent! We don't have to forgive everyone for everything.... that's not what this says. It's contingent on their being Christians and they repent. Christians do things that are wrong.... we're human... but when it's pointed out to us.... we repent. We figure out a way to get through life without doing that again.
Now, look at verses 5 and 6. The apostles said, "Increase our faith!". That reminds me of the old woman in church who would mutter, "Lord give me strength", when she sees a couple of little kids running down the hall in church. Know what I mean? We are doing God's work. If He wants us to move that tree from the land to the sea, He'll give us the talent to do it.
We have to believe. I'm sure the first person who fired a bullet out of a gun uttered "Lord, give me strength" before he pulled the trigger. No one knew what would really happen. The gunmaker had to believe in his work. Right? So, we're supposed to believe in God's work. If God wants us to do it, He chose us for a reason, we have some talent that makes us perfect for the job.
I think the last couple verses are about those who expect a perfect life because they are a "good" Christian. We expect people to praise us for having faith. We expect people to hold us higher because we are Christian. We expect God to take all the hitches out of our days. We expect our perfect God to give us our perfect life right here on earth, and if He doesn't, we'll just stop being a Christian! That's how we are today, isn't it?
Jesus told His Apostles not to expect some kind of special treatment.
Humans are going to make mistakes.... after all, "to err is human".
Christians repent because after all, "to forgive is Divine".
This section is titled "Sin, Faith, and Duty" in my online Bible.
