Category Archives: Bible Study

LUKE’S GOSPEL…THE UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM – 12b

Bible Study, ,

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven… “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭37‬, ‭41‬-‭42‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus continues His theme of life under God’s rule. For example, as we have already considered, hatred and retaliation continues the flow of ruptured relationships. Kindness and mercy rapidly turn the tide of alienation towards reconciliation and harmony. 

In this section, Jesus’ words hit low and cut deep…into the belly and heart of the hypocrite! The underlying driving force in the lives of humans is to be better than everyone else. This trend is seen most clearly in our determination to criticise and judge others. We pass judgment on everyone and everything as we see them, using our own estimation of what is right and wrong in another according to the way we view ourselves. I am the measure and what I think of you depends on who and what I think I am. 

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus cancelled that standard of measurement as illegitimate. He calls us, not to judge by the standard we set up but by the measurements demanded by the truth of God Himself. Instead of placing ourselves above others by judging what we think is right or wrong, we recognise that we all stand on level ground before His scrutiny. 

“All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“…There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭3‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NIV‬‬

How then, dare I pass judgment on another, even if his sin seems worse than mine? His sin, as well as mine, springs from the same source…unbelief in the truth of who God is and what God has said. 

Judging others, then, is hypocrisy in its worst form because I am trying, with my own face smeared with dirt, to scrub the dirt off my brother’s face. Judging is a subtle way of saying,”I am God!”…pride that will land us in hell. 

With what, then, must we replace judgment? If I become aware of another’s failure, how must I deal with it? 

First, Jesus said, “Don’t  judge, forgive!” Forgiveness levels the playing field.  Forgiveness wipes away the reason for my judgment. Forgiveness humbly admits that my debt is as great as the one I am judging. 

Then, Paul gives us God’s solution. 

“Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭6‬:‭1‬-‭5‬ ‭NIV‬‬

First, love is the oil that keeps the gears of fellowship moving smoothly. Without the compassion that sees us both on the same side, even attempts to restore become a wall, not a  bridge. 

Paul warns against temptation. 

“But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.”

Tempted to do what? The temptation is subtle but real. When I pass judgment on another, I do what Jesus hated most in the Pharisees…I change my status from alongside to above another. In God’s kingdom, no one is higher than anyone else. Everyone is  there only through God’s mercy and grace. Merit accounts for nothing!

When a king addresses a beggar, in God’s eyes, they are equal. 

“For God does not show favoritism.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭2‬:‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So, the counsel of Scripture is clear. Be on guard! There is only one standard for all people. If I pick others out for wrongdoing, I judge myself as well because I add my sin to theirs through my hypocrisy. God’s standards are just…one size fits all!

To be continued…

LUKE’S GOSPEL…THE UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM – 12a

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“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that… Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭27‬-‭33‬, ‭36‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus was a true revolutionary! His yoke, His interpretation of Torah that led to the demonstration of a lifestyle of mercy and non-retaliation, was as revolutionary as, for example, a military operation that invades enemy territory to provide medical help to those injured through war. 

“Love your enemies…” is as unpalatable to the human mind as expecting a millionaire to give his Lamborghini to a homeless beggar. This would be unnatural behaviour at its worst for the one whose natural bent is towards “You hit me and I’ll hit you twice as hard…”  

Yet, Jesus gave this instruction as part of His yoke as though it were the way the rule of God works in His divine system. God’s boundaries, His laws, are an expression of His nature. They give us a peek into who He is and how He operates, even in the hostile world over which He rules. 

In the main, the citizens of God’s world are His enemies and utter rebels against everything that He is and wants from them. He owns the world and its people, yet those who live in it refuse to acknowledge His authority. Some deny His very existence, while others do whatever they can to defy Him. 

How does God treat those who hate Him? Does He relish His right to punish and destroy? The witness of Scripture, from cover to cover, is the story of a God who loves, blesses, and acts in mercy to the worst of rebels. 

“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭6‬:‭35‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God’s mercy peaked in Jesus when He gave His own Son as a sacrifice for sinners. 

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God’s kingdom is wide open for those who accept His sacrifice and, in response, pledge to live in His kingdom in keeping with the nature of His rule. There is no place in God’s realm for those who claim allegiance but demonstrate rebellion by rejecting His standards. 

Above all else, knowing that for the natural human to live by God’s standards is impossible, God has provided the way for ungodly rebels to be transformed into compliant sons and daughters. He gave us His own Spirit to live inside us, to transform rebels into saints by the power of His word. 

In Jesus, the Father has provided, by His grace, strength to overcome the ravages of our old nature and truth to renew our minds in the ways of righteousness, holiness and peace. 

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

‭‭John‬ ‭1‬:‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

So, for Jesus to require that we love our enemies by treating them as the Father has treated us, though it contradicts our natural bent towards selfishness, is more than a pipe dream. It is the response of grateful people whose lives are being transformed by His grace. It is the expression of obedience of a son to a father, and a response of trust that what God wants He will also do in us by His grace. It is a witness to the world that it is Christ in us who guarantees that we will be like Him when we see Him. 

God treats people out of who He is, the God who is in His essence, love….and so must we, and we can because of Him!

To be continued…

LUKE’S GOSPEL…NEW WINE – 11b

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The application of Jesus’ parable about new wine in new wineskins is relevant for today. Paul stated bluntly that the outcome of trying to blend the Old Covenant with the New would be a fall from grace. 

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Paul’s warning to the Galatian church was that law and grace are incompatible since they function on two opposite and irreconcilable principles. Law’s obligation is “Do, and you will live!” Grace says, “You live because it has been done for you!”

The danger is that introducing legal obligations to gain acceptance with God automatically cancels grace. 

The New Covenant…the new wine…is a covenant of grace based on God’s “chesed”, God’s covenant love which has done everything for us through Jesus. God’s plan was to reconcile us to Himself, to restore us to fellowship with Him, and to set His plan back on track to have a human family in the likeness of His Son. 

Like new wine which is flexible and maturing, this covenant gives His people the freedom to live under the presence and power of His Spirit, set free from bondage to the old sin nature, and to laws that cannot make us righteous, and to grow in the likeness of Jesus. 

The old wineskin of the Old Covenant provided the boundaries within which the people had to live. There was no place for flexibility and growth. The system controlled only behaviour through rules and rituals but could not change the basic flaw in human nature, the sinful heart. 

The New Covenant with its Spirit-led freedom to mature in faith, obedience, and character, allows endless potential for transformation, through the power of grace, into the character of Jesus. 

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Old Covenant was glorious in its revelation of the holiness and character of God.  The New Covenant expanded that revelation to include His grace and mercy in Christ that transforms the believer from sinner to saint. 

“Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness! For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory. And if what was transitory came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬-‭11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The Old Covenant told God’s people what He expected them to do but gave them no power to do it. The New Covenant provides. through grace, not only a new nature but the power of the Holy Spirit to love and obey the Lord. 

Thus, for Jesus, to try to force the new life He came to bring through His life, death, and resurrection, into the old system of rules and rituals was as disastrous as trying to mature new wine in old wine skins. Both the wine and the skins would be lost. 

To be continued…

LUKE’S GOSPEL…NEW WINE – 11a

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“He told them this parable: “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’ ””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭36‬-‭39‬ ‭NIV‬‬

To whom was Jesus addressing His words?  The context does not tell us. 

“They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.” Jesus answered, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭33‬-‭35‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Does the “they” refer to the religious leaders to whom Jesus had been talking? Perhaps. Was this another criticism they levelled against Jesus? “His disciples must be an irreligious bunch of over- indulgers because they didn’t observe the rigours of their religion. Why didn’t they fast like John’s disciples did?”

Jesus’ response was not only for them but a timeless reminder that it is impossible to marry the two major covenants of Scripture without doing damage to both. 

The Pharisees accused Jesus’ disciples of profligate living when the law demanded adherence to strict rules of self-denial. The Pharisees lauded John’s disciples for fasting faithfully while Jesus’ disciples appeared to disregard such practices. 

Instead of agreeing with them and pulling His disciples in for self-indulgence, Jesus opened up the subject to a new perspective. What the Pharisees were criticising about the disciples was actually a window into a whole new life which Jesus was spearheading. 

Jesus used an everyday illustration to drive home His point. To restore a damaged garment, one does mend old worn out material with a patch of new cloth. They will pull apart with use and the result will be worse than the original tear. 

The same principle applies to the storage of wine. Old wineskins  become inflexible after time and the maturing of the wine. Fresh wine needs new wine skins which will expand as the wine matures. 

Google AI gives us a concise interpretation of Jesus’ illustration. 

“The phrase “new wine in old wineskins,” from Jesus’ teachings (Matthew 9, Mark 2, Luke 5), means the new life, grace, and freedom of the Gospel (the “new wine”) require a transformed, pliable heart and mindset (the “new wineskin”) to contain it, as rigid, old ways (old wineskins) would burst under the pressure of God’s new work, leading to spiritual breakage and loss. It’s a call to spiritual renewal, moving from legalistic traditions to a Spirit-led life, embracing God’s transformative power rather than trying to fit His fresh work into outdated spiritual frameworks or self-made rules. 

Key Meanings:

  • New Wine: Represents the new covenant, salvation, the Holy Spirit, joy, and the life-transforming message of Jesus.
  • Old Wineskins: Symbolize rigid traditions, old habits, legalistic thinking, self-righteousness, or the Old Testament system of law that can’t contain the new wine of grace.
  • The Principle: Fermenting new wine expands and needs flexible, fresh skins. Using old, hardened skins causes them to burst, spilling the wine. Similarly, trying to hold onto old religious practices or mindsets while embracing Christ’s new life leads to spiritual failure and missed blessings. 

Practical Application:

  • Personal Transformation: Believers must become “new creations” (2 Corinthians 5:17) through repentance and faith, allowing the Holy Spirit to soften and renew their hearts to receive God’s fullness.
  • Spiritual Flexibility: Embrace new ways of living in Christ, letting go of man-made restrictions and religious burdens that hinder grace.
  • Contextualizing Faith: Recognize that God’s work often brings fresh moves and insights that require updated approaches, not just patching old systems.”

There is still a tendency today to try to blend the Old and New Covenants with trends and practices which eventually destroy the significance and purpose of both…

This can never be because the Old Covenant calls for righteousness through obedience while the New  Covenant provides the gift of righteousness through faith. 

To be continued… 

LUKE’S GOSPEL…WHY THEM? – 10

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“After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭27‬-‭32‬ ‭NIV‬

Jesus’ deliberate choice of unsavoury characters to join His group of close followers seems to cut across the very nature of who He was. He was, in His earthly sojourn, the Son of God, adopting the role of subordinate to His Father in His humanity. He was sent by the Father to live in submission and obedience to His will, to reveal the true nature of the Father, to rescue mankind from the penalty and ravages of sin, and to restore the human race to God’s favour and intended plan for His human family. 

Psalm 2 is quite clear…

“I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭2‬:‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire— but my ears you have opened— burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, “Here I am, I have come— it is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.””

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭40‬:‭6‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Jesus’ first choice of disciples was from a group of fishermen. Why not students of the rabbis who were eligible for discipleship? These should have been His most obvious choice. His call to the fishermen, after the miraculous haul of fish, “Follow me!” received an instantaneous response. Why was it that these young recruits dropped everything  and followed Jesus?

To be a personal disciple of a rabbi recognised to have authority was a privilege of the highest order. This honour was reserved for those who were prepared by following their elementary education with a dedicated study of the Tanach, the Hebrew Scriptures, under the guidance of an authorised rabbi. Instead, Jesus chose relatively uneducated men. Why? 

Part of Jesus’ role in Israel was to reveal to His people the true nature of the Father. Imagine trying to undo the rigid ideas of the rabbis, taught to their students, and represented by the religious leaders of His day. How much easier it would be to mold young minds by His teaching and example if their understanding was not already hardened into rigid patterns by years of indoctrination. 

Another purpose, in Jesus’ choice of disciples, might have been in keeping with His mission. He expressed His purpose clearly to those who criticised Him for hob-nobbing  with ”sinners”.  

“Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭31‬-‭32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

When Jesus was in the company of the religious boffins, He was constantly under attack. Nothing He said or did passed their scrutiny. He was too “nice” for their liking. They preferred the God they had invented who was a rigid stickler for the law with all the petty details added over time by the ancient rabbis. 

By contrast, Jesus was comfortable in the company of the people the religious ones dismissed as “outcasts and sinners”, the lawless riff-raff of society who offended their “holiness”. These were the ones who were comfortable with Jesus too, despite His holiness. He neither judged nor condemned them. Instead, He stood for mercy and grace and they responded gratefully with faith and hope. 

So, His band of followers grew, hand-picked under the careful leadership of the Father through the Holy Spirit. They began as a mixed bunch of guys who made a living by various means, some by doing day’s hard work, others by extortion or political connections, but nevertheless a disjointed and disconnected group. It was up to Jesus to shape them into loyal followers who understood His mission, adopted His yoke without question, and through love and loyalty, would be ready to pick up the baton and run with it after He had returned to the Father. 

Would Jesus ever succeed in this mammoth and seemingly impossible task? From His own lips, we have the answer. 

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.”

‭‭John‬ ‭17‬:‭6‬-‭8‬ ‭NIV‬‬

All of them?

“While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.”

‭‭John‬ ‭17‬:‭12‬ ‭NIV‬‬

How did He do it? By the power of His word!

To be continued…