Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 21-22.

Usually I have an idea about what I am going to write on when I start writing my blog, but not today.  So, I will start at the beginning of the passage, which is the account of the widow’s mites.  Jesus told us that He values the gifts of those who have little, but give more of what they have than He does the gifts of those who give a lot out of even more.  To put that another way, sometimes when we have little to offer we feel like it is not worth our bother, our gift won’t make a difference.  There are two answers to this.  First, the answer which Jesus gives here, even if all we have will barely make a dent in the need, God values our willingness to give it.  Second, the willingness of those who can barely make ends meet, if that, to give inspires those who receive their aid to make the most of it.  So, don’t ever be reluctant to give because you think the amount which you can give doesn’t matter, won’t make a difference.

Jesus follows that up by predicting the destruction of the temple and the coming of the kingdom of God.  Matthew’s account of this prediction includes a prophecy of the end times with Jesus’ prophecy of the destruction of the temple.  Luke, on the other hand, appears to only include the prophecy of the destruction of the temple.  However, elements of what Jesus says here apply to other times in history as well, including a reference to His return.  Throughout most of history, those who follow Jesus have experienced betrayal by those closest to them, as Jesus predicts here.  One of the things which Jesus says here is something I think all of us should take to heart.  He says, “make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.”  We should not worry about how we will defend our beliefs when people attack them, or attack us for them.  We should just focus on being good witnesses for Christ and God will provide us with the words that defend against the attack.  That does not mean that we don’t need to study the Scripture, or fully understand what we believe.  We should not worry about knowing the right thing to say in any situation.  We can trust God to provide us with the answer.  However, I will repeat, this does not mean that we can leave off on studying God’s word.  In fact, Peter tells us, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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