Expanded Biblical Comments / Ebc42 - Luke
(Use your Browser's "Find" or "Search" option to search within this page)
Luke General Luke, the physician, was not one of the apostles, and his records are not therefore of apostolic authority. Such authority or plenary inspiration was not necessary, however, in the recording of plain, simple facts such as the Gospel of Luke and the books of Acts present. It is reasonable to assume that since the Lord used Luke's abilities in connection with the work of recording the facts of that time he was guided of the holy Spirit in the ascertainment of the facts, which his education and natural talents eminently qualified him to state succinctly. Luke was guided of the holy Spirit, in the same sense that all of the Lord's consecrated people are guided by his Spirit, which is to a different degree from the plenary inspiration granted to the twelve apostles. R2924:1 See also "THE FOUR GOSPELS--GENERAL" Luke 1 Luke 1:1 Forasmuch -- It would have been easy for dishonest men to have omitted these introductory words and have given the gospel the name of James, Paul, Andrew, Peter, or Nathaniel. R2816:4 Believed among us -- Among us primitive Christians. R2816:3 Luke 1:2 Even as they -- The apostles. R2816:3 Luke 1:3 To me -- Luke, a physician. R2924:1 To write -- The transition from oral to written teaching was gradual. R434:5* Most excellent Theophilus -- A friend, supposed to have been a person of considerable dignity and influence. R2924:1 Comparing this with Acts 1:1, we see that Luke is the author of that book as well. R5829:1 Luke 1:4 That thou mightest know -- The oral word being committed to writing by apostles and evangelists, and accredited publicly by the churches in the lifetime of the writers. R434:5* The certainty -- The unerring certainty. R434:5* Luke 1:6 Both righteous -- John was given them in answer to prayer. R1671:6 The preparation for John's ministry began before he was born, in the hearts of his parents. R1915:3 The "chosen vessel" is always a prepared vessel and this preparation from God begins long before the chosen one knows of it. R1915:6 Luke 1:13 John -- The Redeemer's forerunner and herald. R4940:4, 4939:2; B253; CR400:2 Luke 1:15 Shall be great -- Because of favorable prenatal conditions. R1671:3, 1916:1 Most highly honored of all the prophets in that he was chosen to introduce the Son of God to Israel and the world. R1916:4 He was a great man, preacher and prophet; great in the sense that he that ruleth his own spirit, according to divine principles, is greater than he that taketh a city. (Prov. 16:32) R1916:1 At maturity he was ready for the work of introducing to Israel the long-promised Messiah. R1916:1 "He that is greatest among you, let him be as ...he that doth serve." ( Luke 22:26) R1916:5 Patiently submit to the humbling now, and joyfully wait for the glory by and by. R1916:5 Sight of the Lord -- Because meek and lowly of heart. R1916:2 But not in the eyes of man; never a guest in the palace of Herod, but a prisoner; no orator, but a "voice crying in the wilderness" (Isa. 40:3); not arrayed in purples, but in camels' hair. R1916:1 The great ones of earth have passed away; they have all come to naught, and in the Millennial judgment they will come forth to shame and confusion of face. R1916:4 Wine -- From Greek, oinos, grape wine, which always intoxicates when used to excess. R509:4 Filled with the Holy Ghost -- God's power began to operate upon him at his birth, and even before. CR400:2 After the same manner that the other prophets throughout the Jewish age had been under that holy Spirit. R2562:3 We must not understand this to mean that he was begotten of the holy Spirit, in the sense that Christians are begotten of it. R2562:3 From his mother's womb -- The Scriptures make plain the fact that children may and should be consecrated to the Lord by their parents before their birth, or even their begetting; so that the little one may ratify the covenant of consecration at a tender age. R1671:3 His prenatal influences were such that, from his birth, his heart was inclined toward God and holiness. R1916:1 Luke 1:16 Shall he turn -- Restore harmony between Israel and "the fathers", the patriarchs, etc. R557:4 Representing that the world shall come into a condition of harmony and peace with God. R557:4 Luke 1:17 Shall go before him -- Jesus. R556:6 In the spirit -- John the Baptist was not actually Elijah returned to earth, neither is the Church. B253 We know positively that John was not Elijah for we have his own testimony on the subject. "And they asked him, Art thou Elijah? And he said, I am not." (John 1:21) Q772:4, 817:2 And power of Elias -- An uncompromising and fearless spirit, backed by the power of divine truth. R1379:2 Doing an Elijah work for fleshly Israel, introducing Christ in the flesh. B253 All who have this spirit and the power of present truth concerning the Kingdom and Christ's presence, constitute the Elias. R1379:2 As the man Christ Jesus was introduced by the man John doing an Elijah work, so the glorious Christ must be preceded by a great Elijah, making ready for the second advent. R2839:1 The Elijah class will now call attention to the present Christ. R557:2 Elijah and John represented the true and faithful witnesses of this Gospel age. R557:2 John the Baptist stood for, or represented, a multitudinous Elijah, as Jesus stood for, or represented, a multitudinous Christ. R557:1 "If ye will receive it, this is the Elias." (Matt. 11:14) R1379:1 To turn the hearts -- To prepare the way of Messiah by performing a reformation work in preaching repentance and baptism for the remission of sins and declaring the Kingdom of heaven at hand. Q772:4 John's work as Elijah did not fail because of his own lack of faith, but because of the Jews' unreadiness of heart to be influenced by him. R2838:6 To the wisdom -- In a word, to restore harmony between Israel and the "fathers," the patriarchs, and, in a fuller sense, the world whom Israel typified shall come into a condition of harmony with God, similar to that of the "fathers." R557:4 As a forerunner or introducer. R2838:6 Make ready a people -- Preparing the way for the reign of the glorified Church and its glorious head, by making ready a people prepared, the Little Flock. R557:2 Luke 1:19 Gabriel -- One of the most honored angels, but inferior to Michael. R490:5 Luke 1:20 Thou shalt be dumb -- If Zacharias' faith was tested, it was found strong, and was assisted by his nine-month experience of dumbness. R4940:4 Luke 1:24 Elizabeth conceived -- As, in the cases of Sarah (Gen. 18:9-14), Hannah (1 Sam. 1:5-27) and the Shunamite (2 Kings 4:14-17), the miraculous interposition of divine power quickened the natural forces where they had been dormant, inoperative or entirely suspended. R560:6* Luke 1:26 In the sixth month -- Probably on Christmas day of the year 3 BC. B62 Gabriel was sent -- The chiefest messenger remaining in the courts of glory. R490:5 Luke 1:27 Virgin -- This child was specially begotten by divine power though Mary was still a virgin when she brought forth the child. R4964:1 Luke 1:28 The angel came in -- Christmas day is more properly the annunciation day, or the date of his human begetting. R3468:2, 3114:3, 2558:4; B61 Blessed art thou -- The fact that Mary was honored by the Lord above all other women, in that she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus according to the flesh, would prove her nobility of character and purity of heart. R2558:3 Luke 1:30 Fear not -- Not fearing reproach from Joseph or the world. E102 Found favor -- Mary was full of faith and the joy of the Lord, to be an instrument in his plan. E102 Luke 1:31 Jesus -- Signifies Savior, or Liberator--"For he shall save his people from their sins." (Matt. 1:21) R1006:1, 270:2, 134:2 Luke 1:32 He shall be great -- Naturally sustaining the misconception of the character of the first advent. This was the Messiah they were looking for, not "a man of sorrows." (Isa. 53:3) Yet he taught, by precept and example: "He that would be great, let him be the servant of all." (Mark 10:43,44) HG72:1 Son of the Highest -- Fulfilling the predictions respecting the Messiah; the long-promised seed of Abraham. R5157:2, 5300:5 The title of the Son of God officially applied to the man Christ Jesus before his birth, and this title he constantly approved. NS256:6 And the Lord God -- The whole gospel dispensation comes between the beginning and ending of this text. HG52:5 Throne of his father -- Christ Jesus is the promised scion of David's house, the heir of his throne, referring to the dignity, power and authority of office which David exercised. C257 Not needful that he should have a human father of the Davidic line. The principle of inherited royalty through a mother is illustrated in the current (1883) heir apparent to the throne of Great Britain, the Prince of Wales, not through his father, but through his mother, the queen. R453:1 In Jewish genealogies it was customary to reckon lineage through either parent. R453:1 The throne of David is the emblem, or symbol, of David's reign, or kingdom; and David's reign, or kingdom, is a type, or figure, or shadow, of the reign, or Kingdom, of David's Son and Lord. R1283:1* David -- The throne of David is the symbol of David's reign; a type of the Kingdom of David's Son and Lord. R1283:1, 1063:1 The long-promised King of David's line, the Messiah. PD65/77; SM210:2; C257; E130, 133 Also called the "seed of Abraham" (Gal. 3:16; Rom. 4:13) and the "seed of the woman [Eve]." (Gen. 3:15) R1063:1* Luke 1:35 The Holy Ghost -- Jesus was begotten, not by Joseph, but by the holy Spirit. R3291:2, 4964:1, 432:4, 84:3 Come upon thee -- The narrative of Jesus' miraculous conception has the very best and oldest Greek MSS. to support it--the Sinaitic, Vatican and Alexandrian in Luke; though the account is missing in Matthew--not omitted. R434:4 The life principle by which Jesus was conceived came directly from the Heavenly Father. R5064:3, 1031:1*, 432:4 That holy thing -- "Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." (Heb. 7:26) E95; R5748:2, 3710:3, 3291:6, 776:1, 453:1, 432:4 Holy, because his life did not come from Adam, the contaminated fountain. E103; R777:1,5, 432:4 He knew no sin, while all other men are sinners by nature. (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 5:18; 1 Pet. 2:22) R776:2 He partook of the human nature without its condemnation. R1247:5 He did not partake of the condemned or forfeited life of Adam through Joseph, but of a life as directly from God as was the first Adam's; an unforfeited life which he could give for the life of Adam and all who died in him. R432:4*, 316:1* His life came directly from heaven (Heb. 1:5) and he was therefore, though human, yet free, both from Adamic sin and its penalty, death. R1031:1*, 997:6 The only obstacle to the generation of a perfect man is the lack of a perfect father to give a perfect life-germ. In the case of Jesus a perfect life-germ was transferred by divine power from a pre-existent condition to the embryo human condition. R777:1; E103 If we can have a perfect life germ we can have a perfect child from an imperfect mother. If a breeder of stock wishes to raise the standard of his stock, he selects a fine bull, and thus improves his entire herd. And so, if we had perfect fathers, we would soon have a perfect race. R4964:1 What was needed was not merely a sacrifice for sins, but a sinless sacrifice, which would thus pay the sinner's penalty. E96 Our Lord was unlike sinners in respect to sin, imperfection; but like them in the sense of having their same nature or flesh--he, in its perfection; they, in various degrees of imperfection through sin. R997:6 Born of thee -- Though retaining perfection, he partook of the nature of his mother. R777:5, 1247:5 He was the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), and not the seed of man. His very nature was perfectly holy, unlike our nature. R84:3* Though life or being comes from the father, form and nature come from the mother. E103 Illustrated by the improper union between the "daughters of men" (Gen. 6:2) and those angels which kept not their proper estate or condition. The wonderful offspring were born of imperfect, dying mothers, but begotten by vigorous, unimpaired fathers. E103 The Son of God -- He became man, and was a Son of God; as Adam was a son of God. R316:1* Luke 1:36 The sixth month -- John the Baptist was six months older than our Lord and began to preach six months before our Lord became of age and began his ministry. B58 Luke 1:39 A city of Judah -- Ain-Karim, marked by tradition as the birthplace of John the Baptist. R1381:6 Luke 1:42 Blessed art thou -- The hope to be the mother of the long promised "seed of the woman" (Gen. 3:15) seems to have filled the heart of Eve's daughters through the line of the family of godly Seth, all the way down to and including Mary. R1175:3 Luke 1:44 The babe leaped -- "Filled with the holy Spirit even from his mother's womb." ( Luke 1:15) R1671:6 Luke 1:46 And Mary said -- Compare the language and sentiment of her poetic-prayer-prophecy with that of Hannah in 1 Sam. 2:1-10. R1813:2 My soul -- Being; life and body combined. R205:1 Magnify the Lord -- Not fearing the reproaches of Joseph or others. E103 The mind of Jesus' mother, instead of being antagonistic to his perfect development, cooperated to that result. E103 Luke 1:52 Put down the mighty -- Solomon's line; from being Messiah's ancestors. E133 Exalted -- The crown and diadem were removed from Zedekiah, and from the line of Solomon, to be given to him whose right it is--the Righteous Branch of the Davidic root. E133 Them of low degree -- Nathan's line. E133 Luke 1:53 Filled the hungry -- Referring to the restitution blessings to be granted to all the meek of the earth through the Millennial reign of Christ. R1754:6 Luke 1:54 His servant Israel -- The whole twelve tribes. C293; R1341:1 Luke 1:63 John -- Signifying, "the favor of God." R4940:2 Luke 1:64 His tongue loosed -- His faith had been helped. He had triumphed over all doubts and manifested this by giving him the name mentioned by Gabriel. R4940:2 Luke 1:68 Blessed be the Lord -- Praise to God, the Fountain of every good and perfect gift, comes first. R4940:3 In verses 68 to 70, of this prophecy praise to God comes first. R4940:3 God of Israel -- The whole twelve tribes. C293; R1341:1 He hath visited -- After the usual manner of prophecies, the thing about to be accomplished is spoken of as though it had been done. R4940:3 In fulfillment of his gracious promises of old. R4940:3 Redeemed his people -- Greek, poieolutrosin, to make a loosing, i.e., to set at liberty, to deliver, occurring only once. Literally, wrought redemption for his people. E433 This word should not have been translated redeemed but rather delivered, as a guard against confusion of thought by the English readers. E433 Things not completed are here mentioned as though they had been accomplished: the first step toward Israel's deliverance had been taken, and it was spoken of joyously as though the entire matter were already accomplished. E433 Applies not only to the redeeming work accomplished by Jesus at baptism, but is comprehensive enough to take in the entire work of reclaiming humanity. R4940:5 Luke 1:69 Raised up an horn -- Symbol of power. T42 The begetting of Jesus had already taken place. The holy Spirit spoke of the things begun, but not yet accomplished, as though finished. R4940:5 Luke 1:71 We should be saved -- Verses 71 to 75, relate to the deliverance of God's people from the power of their enemies. R4940:5 None but God's people will ever be delivered from the enemies here referred to. R4940:5 From our enemies -- Enemies through wicked works, blinded by the god of this world. R4940:6 Satan is an enemy. Sin is an enemy. And "the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." (1 Cor. 15:26) R4940:6 Luke 1:73 The oath -- The church are the children of the oath, the Abrahamic Covenant. R5300:5 Luke 1:76 And thou -- Verses 76 to 79 tells of a work to be accomplished before the destruction of all enemies and the lifting up of those worthy to be sons of God. R4941:1 Shalt go before -- Be the forerunner of Jesus. R4941:1 Luke 1:77 To give knowledge -- To show them the "high calling" of this present age. R4941:4 Luke 1:78 The dayspring -- The "Morning Star" or "Day Star," before the Sun of Righteousness arises to scatter the darkness of mankind during Messiah's reign. R4941:4 This "Day Star" guides the feet of the saints, even while still in the time of trouble, before the new dispensation is ushered in. R4941:4 Luke 1:79 To give light -- Truth. A20, 25 Shining into the hearts of believers with sanctifying power and setting them afire with zeal for the truth. R4941:4 All shall have at least 100 years of opportunity under the clear light of "the Sun of Righteousness." (Mal. 4:2) R1772:5 Sit in darkness -- Ignorance. A18, 25; B163 Luke 1:80 The child grew -- Probably as a forester. R2562:5 Strong in spirit -- Greek, pneuma--mind, character. E318 In the deserts -- Not in the sandy deserts, but more properly in the wilds, the uncultivated regions, perhaps in the "hill country" where his parents resided. R2562:5 Possibly the Lord's providences ordered the affairs of his parents so that they were forced to reside in such a wilderness where they would have comparatively little intercourse with others. R2562:5 Till the day -- The period, not the 24-hour day. R2836:1 When he was 30 years of age. R2563:1 Unto Israel -- No longer regarded by our Lord and the apostles as the "ten tribes" merely, but, as it is expressed, "All Israel." R1341:1; C293 Luke 2 Luke 2:1 It came to pass -- In a seemingly accidental manner the prophecy was fulfilled which foretold that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. (Mic. 5:2) R3700:5 In those days -- Especially auspicious because: (1) the spirit of world-conquering had brought the nations into close contact, broadening their ideas; (2) the transplanting of peoples to other lands made them more cosmopolitan; (3) Israel had been largely scattered, bearing influence and witness amongst other nations; (4) the Greek language had reached its zenith and was the literary language of the civilized world; (5) Roman conquest assured universal peace and hence a more favorable time for the announcement of the Gospel and the safety of its representatives; and (6) Israel was at its highest development, intellectually, morally and religiously. R2555:6, 1673:6 Also, the Old Testament had been translated into the Greek language three centuries before Christ. This version is called the Septuagint. R1674:1 Went out a decree -- Thus, in a providential manner over which they had no control whatever, Joseph and Mary were brought to the very city in which most appropriately the great heir of David should be born, as foretold by Micah (Mic. 5:2). R2556:2 Caesar Augustus -- The Roman Emperor. R2556:1, 3700:5 Representing Rome, the fourth universal empire. A253 Noted for his systematic collection of large taxes from all tributary nations. C29 That all the world -- The Roman empire at that time bore rule over the whole world, the civilized world of that day. R3700:5, 3702:4; A253 Should be taxed -- A poll or census of the whole world for the purpose of taxation. R3700:5, 2556:1 Corresponding faithfully to the prophetic description of Caesar Augustus in Dan. 11:20. C29 Luke 2:3 Went to be taxed -- Every male citizen had to report to his native city. R2556:1 For tax registration. R4941:3 Luke 2:4 The city of Nazareth -- In olden times there were honorable cities and mean cities. Nazareth was generally recognized as one of the latter, while Bethlehem was distinctly one of the former--the City of David, Israel's beloved king. R3700:3 Bethlehem -- The chief city of their province. R1401:3 Lineage of David -- Both Joseph and Mary, though through different lines. R3700:5, 3702:4, 2556:2 Luke 2:5 Mary -- Luke shows the genealogy of Mary, by which our Lord was related to the family of David through the line of Nathan. R2555:6 Luke 2:7 She brought forth -- It matters not that December 25 is not the anniversary of our Lord's birth, that really he was born about September 25. One day, as well as another, will serve us to commemorate our Savior's birth in the flesh. R4298:3, 3700:2, 3114:3, 2558:4, 2407:2; NS750:2 Though we reverence his flesh, and are deeply interested in all that pertains thereto, nevertheless, our still greater interest is in our risen Lord. R2556:4 Luke 2:7 Her first-born son -- In a most humble manner. R3702:5 A gift of love divine. R5135:2 Implying that she brought forth other sons afterward. R560:2* About October 1st, 2 BC; 33-1/2 years prior to April 3rd, 33 AD; 29-1/2 years prior to the beginning of John's ministry in the 15th year of Tiberius Caesar. B60, 61 Manger -- Became his most convenient cradle. R2556:3, 3700:6, 1247:3 No room for them -- The experiences of Joseph and Mary were by no means exceptional. R2556:3, 3702:4 The same decree brought many others of the numerous family of David, and as the inns were comparatively limited and small, it is not surprising that the inn proper was full of guests. R2556:3 Neither Joseph, nor Mary, nor Jesus, nor the disciples, nor the Evangelist who recorded the incident, offers the slightest complaint or suggestion of dissatisfaction with the arrangement provided by divine providence. R2556:5 Had the people recognized who he was, how gladly they would have welcomed him into their inn. Similarly, wherever the Lord's people are, many would make them welcome, did they but recognize them as messengers of Jesus and the Heavenly Father. R2556:4 Luke 2:8 Shepherds -- The vicinity of Bethlehem is a pastoral country and is today covered with flocks. R2556:5 The grand truth of the Savior's birth was sent through humble, trustworthy, human agents. R1674:1 The announcement was not made to an assembled world, nor even an assembled Israel, nor yet to all who, like Simeon and Anna, had long been looking for the hope of Israel, but to only a few devout shepherds. R1674:1 We may take for granted that the humble shepherds to whom the message of the Lord's advent first came were men who thus hoped in the promise of God; for to such, and such only, the Lord discloses his purposes. R1478:2 As a class, not particularly well educated as respects schools; yet many of them were thoughtful, and secured by reflection and conversation considerable knowledge. They might be termed an intellectual and thinking class of people. R2556:5 Keeping watch -- As a guard against thieves, as well as against wild beasts. R2556:5 This account does not comport with a mid-winter birth for Christ. R562:4 Would that the shepherds of the Lord's flock were now watching: they would now be advised of the second coming of the Lord's Anointed. R1401:5 Luke 2:9 Were sore afraid -- Fear is one of the dominating impulses of the human mind, especially in connection with any revelation from the Lord. Men realize they are imperfect and instinctively fear further curse and condemnation. R3700:6, 3115:2, 2556:6; NS750:3 All mankind more or less feels instinctively a fear of the supernatural, a trepidation at the very thought of being in the presence of the holy angels. R2556:6 Man's acquaintance with those in influence and power lead him to dread the still greater authority and power of the Almighty, lest it should be injurious to him. R3115:3 All humanity realize that they are sinners and naturally have forebodings. They find it difficult to believe that God is really gracious and loving. R4941:5 Satan has used this tendency of fear as a lash, wherewith to drive man away from God, and from the Bible, his revelation. NS750:4 Luke 2:10 The angel said -- If we could only get all true Christians to study this verse and to see the depths of its significance, it would quickly revolutionize the teachings of Christendom. R2557:2 Fear not -- The angel understood that through sin man becomes fearful in the presence of spirit beings. R3115:2, 3700:6, 2556:6 Only the true Christian has that perfect love which casts out fear. (1 John 4:18) R3115:3 It is for the true children of God today, as it was for the angels at that time, to assure the world that God is better than all their fears. R3700:6 So in approaching mankind with God's message, it is appropriate that we begin by saying, Fear not! The God we preach is not a demon, but a God of wisdom, justice and love, with all power to carry his program to a successful conclusion. NS750:3 As God's children realize that his work is surely going forward to success, doubts and fears give way, rejoicing takes the place of despondency. R632:5* "Their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men." (Isa. 29:13) The Lord would have his people free from this fear, though not free from a proper reverence toward him. R3115:3 I bring you -- Reiterating the Abrahamic promise, "In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." (Gen. 12:3) NS554:6, 800:1 Glad would we be if we had a thousand tongues to sing our great Redeemer's praise, and a thousand hands and feet to use in the promulgation of this blessed message. R4103:5 Good tidings -- The Gospel. R5126:1, 3701:1, 2596:1, 2557:1; HG615:2, 655:3 A good message, a glorious message, assuring the deliverance and blessing of all the world. R5717:1 A prophecy of good things to be accomplished for the Church and the world during the Millennium. R3701:4 When Messiah's Kingdom shall be established. R4848:2, 5370:3 When all the deaf ears shall be unstopped, and blind eyes shall be opened. (Isa. 35:5) R5370:3, 4523:1 Transcending anything and everything else in the world; all other philosophies are foolishness. R5126:1 The Gospel contains no reference to the damnation and eternal misery of any. R2596:1 That good message of God's love began to be lost sight of in the second century. R5970:6 Thus far it has been good tidings only to the Church. R5370:3 The meat in due season--the harvest message. R4105:3 We are to tell out these tidings by personal contact, by handing out literature, by preaching. R5893:4 The blessedness of these tidings is cumulative: first, "good tidings"; then "great joy"; and then the crowning feature of it is that it is "to all people." The sacrificial feature of the Lord's ministry was made less prominent than his power and majesty and glory, because the sacrifice related specially to God. R4098:2 Of great joy -- Not great misery. R3701:1, 4523:1, 5893:4 Should be to all Christians a gladsome message; but rejected by nominal Christendom. R2708:6 As there was joy at the return of the prodigal. ( Luke 15:11-24) R3361:5 Of privilege, love, hope. R3115:4 Of remission of sins through Christ's blood, of reconciliation with the Father. R2564:5 "Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound." (Psa. 89:15) R2568:3 Man's joys will increase with every step taken on the return journey back from sin and death to perfection of life. NS614:6 Prefigured in the name Isaac, which signifies "laughter." R3952:6 To all people -- In due time. (1 Tim. 2:4-6) R1908:2 God, who had a "due time" for calling natural Israel and who had a "due time" for calling spiritual Israel, has a "due time" for making known the riches of his grace to the non-elect world of mankind. NS767:4 As every member of Adam's race shared in his fall and the curse of death, as a result, so every member of the race was included in the great redemptive sacrifice which our Lord Jesus offered. R3701:1 "All the deaf ears shall be unstopped." (Isa. 35:5) SM174:2 Including those now in death. R1478:3, 659:1*, 9:6* Not only to those who, since his birth, have died in ignorance of the only name whereby we must be saved, but also to the billions who had died before God's salvation was brought to light in the Gospel. HG306:5 If only a few have yet heard the "good tidings" in any sense, must there not be a restitution to life as well as a future proclamation of the only name given? R412:6, 447:1* How prone the Lord's people seem to be to suppose, first of all, that he was to be a Savior merely for the Jews; or secondly, merely for a special elect class; or thirdly, for those who under present darkness manifest a special life for righteousness. R3115:3 The angels did not declare that our Lord came to bring universal and everlasting salvation to all people. R3115:4 Through natural Israel, to all the families of the earth. R4848:2, 447:4 Not merely to the Little Flock. A104 In great mercy, God has provided our ransom price. R1127:5 Redemption, restitution and everlasting life will be offered to all. R1674:4 Every member of our fallen race shall be blessed with a clear understanding of his imperfections and of the redemption provided. R3115:3 All who have lived and died, both before and after Jesus' birth. OV170:T; CR228:1 Only a small portion of the race has heard the "tidings" in this life. R556:4* All those who come unto the Father through him, by faith and obedience. R2407:3 Luke 2:11 For -- Taking cognizance of the fact that it was to reasonable people, who would want to know why an unchangeable God, who had once pronounced a curse, should so alter matters to supplant the curse with a blessing, the messenger states the philosophy of the divine plan. R3701:2, 2557:3 Note the order of presentation: first a pronouncement of divine favor and blessing, that it is a cause for joy and shall extend to all people; second, the specific explanation of how it is to be accomplished--through a Savior. R2557:3 Unto you -- Mankind. PD55/67 Is born -- About October 1st, although generally celebrated on December 25th. R2407:2, 4298:3 He was transformed from the spiritual to the human nature, in order to give the exact equivalent for that which was lost. R1673:3 "For unto us a child is born." (Isa. 9:6) R2550:1 The promised seed of Abraham. R4963:2, 5300:5 A Saviour -- Our Lord's name, Jesus, signifies Saviour. R2557:4 It was prophetically that the babe of Bethlehem was called a Savior. He was to be a Savior, The Christ, the Lord. But as the babe he was none of these. R4715:2, 4298:4, 3701:2 Signifying life-giver. The Syriac version is the one in which Savior is translated life-giver; and Syriac was, likely, the language spoken by Jesus and others of Palestine at that time. R4941:6, 4715:5, 3702:2, 2407:3; HG244:2, 306:4; NS800:1 The antitypical Moses, the antitypical Aaron, the antitypical Melchizedek, the antitypical David. He was also the Son of the Highest. He was to be the Savior--the Deliverer--the Mediator of the New Covenant. R4941:6 If the Redeemer was not perfect, then he could not be the Saviour of the world. R4964:1 A life-giver is a father. Jesus is to be the "Everlasting Father" (Isa. 9:6) to the world. R2407:3 The Bride and the Bridegroom, unitedly, will be the world's Savior. R4715:5 Christ -- The Messiah, the long-promised seed of Abraham. R5300:5 The Greek word Christ signifies Anointed. R4715:2 He became the Christ before becoming the Savior and Lord. R4715:2 The angel first declared the divine favor and blessing, then how it should be accomplished; setting an example for us. R2557:3 Called Anointed Messiah because it was foreseen of God that he would be. R5891:1 Luke 2:12 A sign unto you -- To assure them that this was he. R1478:6 Lying in a manger -- As one of the humblest of earth. R1063:2 Necessary, not only to their identification of Jesus, but also to bring down their thoughts from the great and grand results to its humble beginnings, lest they should be misled in their expectations. R2557:4 Similarly we are not only to tell of the future glory, greatness and grandeur, but we are to tell also of the present humiliation. R2557:4 Luke 2:13 The heavenly host -- As the angels could sing and rejoice at the first budding of the divine plan of salvation, so also can all who have faith in the ultimate outcome rejoice with joy unspeakable and give praise to God in the highest and to his Son our Lord. R3701:3 Capable of appreciating what fallen man could not appreciate. R1674:4 This shows how the angels of God are interested in the affairs of men, and how they sympathize with us and rejoice over our prosperity. "There is joy in heaven among the angels over one sinner that repenteth." ( Luke 15:7) R1478:6 Praising God -- A kind of Hallelujah chorus, or angelic response to the message of the angel already given. R4942:4 It is not surprising that they did not weep for the sufferings and humiliation, but sang, grasping merely the culmination of the great divine plan which had its beginning in the birth of Jesus. R4098:2 Thankful for his mercy to the children of men. R3701:2 And saying -- The anointing which we receive of the Lord is that which leads us to declare the good tidings of this great salvation in all its lengths and breadths and heights and depths. NS207:2 Luke 2:14 Glory to God -- This was but a reiteration of the Gospel message already delivered. R2557:5 Properly the anthem begins with praise to him that sitteth upon the throne, to him who devised the great and wonderful plan of redemption and who sent his Son, our willing Redeemer. R3115:5 God will be glorified by all the angels, by his exalted Church, by restored humanity, by all the intelligent creatures on every plane, in every age! R5577:1 The proper glory to God is not yet rendered on earth as it is in heaven. R4942:4 If the jubilant songs of the angels hallowed the advent of the Lord into the world, can we imagine them to be silent when the Anointed Body is received into glory? R1821:3 As God's children come to a knowledge of God's glorious plan, rejoicing takes the place of despondency. R632:5* In the highest -- In the highest strain of heart and voice, with the fullest appreciation. R3115:5 It declared that the work which should be accomplished by the babe just born should redound to the highest glory and honor of Jehovah God, his Father. R2557:5 After the Millennial reign of Christ has accomplished its work. Not yet does God receive glory in the highest. R3702:1, 3701:6 Peace -- After praising God, come the consequences on earth; namely, peace, peace with God. a peace which comes from a restoration to the race of the divine good will. R3115:5 A prophecy of God's purpose to bring about through the newly born child the abrogation of the curse and the establishment of peace and sinlessness among mankind. R5576:2 It will be during the Millennial age that this prophecy of the angel will have its fulfillment. R3701:5; Q752:T Not yet fulfilled. The birth of the babe was one step toward it; the death on the cross another; the resurrection and ascension were other steps; the selection of the Church is another, nearly completed; the Messianic Kingdom will complete the prophecy. PD67/55 The Millennium will be introduced by force--"The Lord shall fight in that day." (Zech. 14:3) NS131:2 Peace established upon a firm foundation--the lifting of the curse. R3115:6 In a world-wide Eden. R5715:2 Not such a peace as men might patch up between themselves, but a peace with God. R3115:5 Good will toward men -- And not, "On earth peace amongst men, in whom he is well pleased." Even the Lord's people have no peace on earth. R3702:1 The expression "good will toward men" as rendered by a majority of translators is confirmed by the latest found manuscript, the Lewis manuscript of the Gospels, discovered in 1892 in the convent at Mt. Sinai. R1674:4 A declaration of what God purposes to do. He has not good will toward the present sinful, rebellious attitude of the race. He has never good will toward sin, God's curse indicated his ill-will toward man--in other words, his displeasure because of man's sin. R5576:2, 3701:6 Even when our Lord had died as man's ransom-price, God's favor did not come to the world. R5576:3 A prophecy of God's purpose to bring this about through the newly born child. R5576:1; PD55/67 In a sense, the grandeur and blessing of the new dispensation began at the birth of Jesus. C346 Steps toward this are the birth of Jesus, his death on the cross, his resurrection and ascension, and the selection of the Church. The Messianic Kingdom will complete the prophecy. PD55/67 Luke 2:15 Angels were gone -- The shepherds recognized the angels and their message as from the Lord. R1479:1 Let us now go -- So each one who has heard of the grace of God with an appreciative heart can do nothing less than seek the Lord. R2558:1 Luke 2:16 Mary and Joseph -- Were pious, reverent, and obedient to the Law. R3711:1, 2558:3 Luke 2:17 Made known abroad -- So we must reverence, and serve his cause by proclaiming his gracious message with which we have been favored. R2558:1 Luke 2:18 They that heard it -- The grand truth was one to be received by faith; and it was sent through humble, but trustworthy, human agents, who were the honored instruments in God's hand. Any who proudly despised the instruments were unworthy of the good tidings. R1674:1 Luke 2:19 But Mary kept -- Mother-like. R1479:4 She made no boasts, but waited for God's due time. R3702:5 Doubtless it was from her lips that Luke received the information contained in this chapter. R2559:5 And pondered them -- Wondering what would be the consummation--little dreaming, we may be sure, how great her son ultimately must be made, according to the divine arrangement. R3291:3 Luke 2:20 Shepherds returned -- Fully assured that the promised seed had really come. R1479:4 Luke 2:22 When the days -- When Jesus was forty days old. (Lev. 12:1-4) Q757:5; R4942:1 To present him -- Although the first-born had been exchanged for the tribe of Levi, nevertheless the first-born of each mother was to be devoted specially to God and his service. R4942:2 To the Lord -- All of the first-born are represented as belonging to the Lord, to be devoted to God and his service. Q757:5; R4942:2 Similarly the elect Church, the Church of the first-borns, are "a kind of first-fruits unto God of his creatures." (Jas. 1:18) R4942:2 It is the custom of some parents to make a formal consecration of their children to God in the presence of believers. The influence upon the children cannot be other than beneficial, though this does not take the place of the child's personal consecration when it reaches the age of discretion. R4942:2; Q758:T Luke 2:23 Called holy -- The Church being gathered during this Gospel Age is styled the Church of the first-born. (Heb. 12:23) R4942:2 "A kind of first-fruits unto God of his creatures." (Jas. 1:18) R4942:2 Luke 2:25 Just and devout -- One of the kind of characters to whom God reveals his truth. "Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart." (Psa. 97:11) R1674:2 Waiting -- The expectation of Messiah was general at that time. B21 One of a minority in heart-harmony with the Lord and his Promise; an Israelite indeed. OV71:T The consolation -- The fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise. R4942:5 Through the long-promised Messiah. R4098:3 Of Israel -- The whole twelve tribes. C293; R1341:1 Luke 2:26 Revealed unto him -- That the accomplishment of the promises made to Abraham was nigh. R4942:3 Not see death -- Until he had seen the Deliverance of Israel. R4942:3 Luke 2:27 Came by the Spirit -- This aged prophet recognized Jesus. R4942:3 Parents -- Considering the foster-father Joseph as father. R3291:2 Luke 2:29 Lord -- Greek, despotes, better translated Sovereign or Autocrat. E70 Luke 2:30 Thy salvation -- The way in which salvation shall come to Israel and all the families of the earth. R4942:3 Jesus' birth was the dawn of hope for our race. R1631:3 Luke 2:32 A light -- Not yet is the Sun of Righteousness enlightening all the Gentiles, not yet has Christ become the glory of his people Israel; he is, nevertheless, all through this Gospel age, a great light to all those whose eyes are opened that they may see it. R3031:6, 1674:2 "That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." (John 1:9) R1674:2, 3031:6 Let us walk as children of light. (Eph. 5:8) R3031:6 To lighten the Gentiles -- Salvation unto the ends of the earth. R3010:2 Nations; all mankind, regardless of faith. A107 The glory -- Not yet. R3031:6 Simeon is contrasting the two salvations. A107 Then believing Israel will glory in him. R1674:3 Thy people Israel -- The whole twelve tribes. C293; R1341:1 Such as shall become Israelites indeed. A107 Simeon declared this under divine inspiration. R1674:2 The good tidings will be to all people, but the special salvation will come only to his people. A107 Christ is the glory of the Church, the true Israel of God (Rom. 11:7); and he will be the glory of fleshly, or natural, Israel when their eyes are opened and they are received by him under the New Covenant. R2126:1 Luke 2:33 And Joseph -- Not called the father of Jesus. R4957:3, 2559:4 Luke 2:34 Simeon blessed them -- It is not probable, however, that Simeon, who spoke under divine inspiration, understood fully the import of his words. R1674:5 Set for the fall -- During the period of Israel's disfavor. B228 Israel stumbled over Jesus, except the few who became his disciples, probably ten or fifteen thousand. R4942:6 The world has witnessed the fall of Israel from divine favor and their sad conditions as outcasts for nearly two thousand years, because of their rejection of Christ. R1674:3 Reminding us of the words of Paul, that our Lord is a "stone of stumbling and rock of offence" to many in Israel. (Rom. 9:33) R4942:5; B228 "They shall fall backward and be snared and taken" (Isa. 8:15) R4942:6 And rising again -- Greek, anastasis, without the Greek article, hence showing no emphasis, indicating no special peculiarity. R1512:1 Paul, quoting Isa. 8:15, proceeds to show the recovery of Israel as soon as the elect class of this Gospel age has been completed. (Rom. 11:9-11) R4942:6 St. Paul also told of the rising again of many who stumbled. He declares: "They shall obtain mercy through your mercy." (Rom. 11:31) R4942:5 Now the time for their rising again has come (beginning AD 1878). R1674:5 Restoring all things after their "appointed time," their double is complete. B228 Raised up nationally. R1674:5 To divine favor. R4942:6 For a sign -- True all through the age, and the reproach of the cross has not yet ceased. R1674:5 A mark, or standard. R4942:3 Luke 2:35 A sword shall pierce -- Referring to Christ's tragic death, and the trial of faith thereby instituted. R1674:5 May be revealed -- Proving which are loyal and faithful to God as true soldiers of the cross, and which are not. R1674:5 Luke 2:36 Anna, a prophetess -- Devout, faithful; a saintly woman. R1674:5, 4942:5 God requires faithfulness on the part of female as well as male stewards in the use of all their talents. R1549:4 The Scriptures utter no voice and establish no precedent contrary to female activity in the various legitimate pursuits of life for which nature and education have fitted her. R1549:3 The tribe of Aser -- Another evidence that the entire house of Israel (twelve tribes) was represented at Jerusalem in our Lord's day, and not the tribes of Judah and Benjamin only. R1674:6; C295 Of great age -- Over a century old. R4942:5 Luke 2:38 Spake of him -- To the saintly ones, waiting for the fulfillment of the Abrahamic promise. R4942:5 For redemption -- Greek, lutrosis, deliverance. E433 Anna spoke to those who were looking for deliverance in Jerusalem, expecting freedom from the Roman yoke, but not necessarily understanding that the greater deliverance was to come by payment of a ransom price. E433 Luke 2:40 The child grew -- Prior to reaching his twelfth year. R3710:6 He was permitted to grow after the ordinary manner, gradually, getting stronger physically and mentally, being filled more and more with wisdom, and giving evidence that God's favor was upon him. R3291:1, 2558:3 He did not miraculously know all that was in the Law and the prophets. He acquired knowledge, but with that ease, rapidity and retentiveness with which only a perfect mind can grasp and hold it. R1916:3 His earlier years were evidently spent in studying prophetic utterances concerning God's Plan and his own share therein. SM643:2 Let us not forget the necessity for growth--adding to faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. (2 Pet. 1:5-8) R2560:1 There is heavenly wisdom in the limited description given us of the childhood and youth of our Savior. Let us not, then, attempt to imagine with particularity what the Lord has seen fit to cover and not reveal R3710:6, 2558:1 Our minds are more drawn to the important features of the Lord's work by reason of the brevity of the sketch given us of his earthly life and interests. R3290:6, 3291:6, 2558:1 From what we know of childhood, we recognize it as the period of development. R5064:3 In spirit -- In mind. E52 Siniatic and Vatican MSS omit these words. R1682:2 Filled with wisdom -- This wisdom was intimately interwoven with the Law and the prophets. R3711:2 Our Lord was not only born under favorable religious influences, but trained in that way. His mother and her husband were pious, reverent, and evidently disposed to be obedient to every feature of the Law to the extent of their ability. R3711:1 Few were able to read, but Jesus was amongst those few--not because of schooling privileges, but because of his brilliant mind which retained everything that came to it and to which, therefore, the Bible was continually an open book. R4957:2, 2558:3 Jewish boys had an advantage over those of other nations because the services in the synagogues consisted of readings from the Law and prophets by course. Thus all Jewish children had excellent facilities for hearing the Word of the Lord. R4957:2, 2559:1 The grace of God -- The blessing. C52 The word "grace" signifies that which gives pleasure, as loveliness of form or character, or the most admirable virtues. R3711:1 Luke 2:41 His parents -- Not implying that Saint Luke supposed Joseph to be the father of Jesus. He was the foster father, his foster parent, or step-father. R4957:3, 3291:2 Every year -- His "parents" were strict religionists and obeyed the Mosaic Law by attending regularly the feast of Passover at Jerusalem every year. R4957:3 This requirement of the Law was observed by the most devout Jews only. R2558:3 Feast of the passover -- A great religious gathering; continued seven days. SM563:1; R3711:1, 3291:2, 2558:5 Represented the blessings and favors of relationship to God, based upon the merit of the Passover Lamb. SM563:1 He could not grasp the full import of the prophecies and his share in them until after he had been anointed with the holy Spirit. R1688:2 Luke 2:42 Twelve years old -- It was a custom that Jewish boys should make a consecration at the age which Jesus did. R5064:4 A child, reasonably well born, raised under the influences of a Christian home, would, we believe, very generally be ready at the age of twelve years to make a consecration of himself to the Lord. R3711:5 It is a serious mistake to conclude that a child of 12 has sufficient mind to grasp elementary principles of secular education, and be prepared for higher studies of a secular character, but unfit for higher religious studies. R2558:5 It was a Jewish custom that a Jewish boy should be considered "a son of the Law" when he attained his twelfth year. He thus became responsible under the Law and thenceforth was required to keep its festivals, etc. R4957:3, 3711:2, 2559:4 In his thirteenth year. R2558:4 To Jerusalem -- His first visit to the great city. R2559:1 Of the feast -- The Jewish children were accustomed to attending religious services. R5064:4 Luke 2:43 Fulfilled the days -- The Feast of Passover continued seven days, but it was the custom for many of the pilgrims from distant parts to remain over only two days, until after the principle ceremonies. R2558:5 The child Jesus -- He could not begin his ministry because he was bound by the restrictions of the Law. R3291:5 Neither Mary nor Joseph seemed to have appreciated the greatness of Jesus. R3291:3 Tarried behind -- So absorbed with the opportunities and studies. R3291:5 Not yet finished with his investigations as to when to begin his ministry. R4957:6 During the Passover Feast the great men were engaged in public functions. Hence his best opportunity for conference with them was at the close of the feast. R4957:5 He was apparently, for a child of his age, especially well able to take care of himself. R3711:3 Joseph -- Not called the father of Jesus. R4957:3, 2559:4 Luke 2:44 In the company -- The gathering of Jews from all parts of Palestine, yea, from the entire world, meant great crowds of people; on some occasions more than a million. R4957:3 They sought him -- It was customary for the women of a caravan to move on ahead, the men coming after, and a boy of Jesus' age might be with either of the parents and not be missed until nightfall. R2558:5 Their kinsfolk -- Naturally enough, close relatives traveled in each other's company. R3291:2 Luke 2:46 After three days -- One day homeward, one day returning, and on the third day they found him. R2558:5, 4957:6 During these feasts great hospitality was exercised, especially toward strangers from a distance. Jesus was probably entertained by one and another of these new-found friends. R2559:2 Midst of the doctors -- Not unusual. At that time information was gained less from books and more from oral teaching and the Doctors of the Law were supposed to be ready to instruct all who desired information, especially during the holy Passover week. R2558:6 The custom seems to have been for the Doctors to sit on a special semi-circle of seats, while before them were low benches for the older students: the younger boys sat on the ground, literally "at their feet." R2558:6 Similarly Paul, as a youth, "sat at the feet of Gamaliel," one of the chief Doctors of the Law in his day. (Acts 22:3) R2558:6 Both hearing them -- And not instructing the doctors. R2559:2 Asking them questions -- Not that the boy Jesus was bold, but recognized many questions upon which he would like to have further information, asking his questions honestly with a desire and hope of obtaining satisfactory answers. R2558:3 His superior ability did not puff him up nor cause him to forget the respect and deference due to the advanced years and position of the Doctors and teachers. R1916:2, 1682:2 Meekness is especially desirable as a sling for the truth. Let the truth be shot forth with all the force it can carry, but always with meekness; and the question form of suggesting truth will often be found the most forceful. R2559:3 Wondering if becoming a "son of the Law" implied that he, at that age, should become in some measure identified with the Law as a student, or in some other capacity. R3711:2 Inquiring of the Doctors of the Law what time would be appropriate for him to enter upon his ministry. R5128:2, 4957:6, 3711:3, 2559:1 Doubtless a part of his inquiry was whether or not the custom of considering a boy the "son of the Law" at twelve years of age was founded upon anything in the Law or was merely a human tradition. R3711:3 Fresh inquiries about other types and symbols and their proper meaning. R4957:6, 3291:3 Not satisfied with simply their opinion, he desired references to the Law and the prophets that he himself might judge, and not rely too implicitly upon the conclusions of others. R4957:5 The one who was asking the questions was the one who ultimately would give correct answers to those questions in his own experiences. R3291:3 Even a child can ask questions, and in asking the questions, may suggest wonderful and powerful answers. R3291:3 Manifesting his depth of mind, clearness of understanding and logical reasoning. R2559:3, 2558:6 A good method for those who, by reason of sex or insufficient years, are not permitted to teach. R3291:3 Some of the Lord's people greatly injure their influence in the Truth by the display of too large a degree of self-assurance in speaking of the Truth to others, especially to the learned. R2559:3 Luke 2:47 Were astonished -- Doubtless remarking that they had never had such pointed questions asked them respecting the Law and the prophets, even by wise men of their day and by each other. R3291:4 This little item gives us a suggestion respecting the ability of mind that would belong to a perfect boy, and what we may expect of the ancient worthies when they shall be resurrected to human perfection. R3291:4 His understanding -- Nevertheless we are to remember that our Lord Jesus himself could not have understood the full meaning of the Law, shadows, and the prophecies at that time--not until after his anointing with the holy spirit. (1Cor. 2:14) R3291:4 His memory extended back to his previous existence with the Father. We have no reason to doubt that he then knew what in after years he affirmed, saying: "Before Abraham was, I am." (John 8:58) R1916:5 And answers -- They, in turn, considered it not beneath themselves to ply the boy with questions. R3291:4 Luke 2:48 His mother said -- Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, said nothing. R4957:6 Probably nothing was said to Jesus publicly respecting their disappointment and their subsequent search for him. It seems to indicate an unusual occurrence, which in turn speaks of parental obedience on the part of Jesus. R2559:3 Son -- They did not know of his previous spiritual existence. R1682:5 Why hast thou -- We must suppose that he had been so absorbed with the opportunities and studies that the time had passed without his appreciating the trouble and inconvenience he was causing to others. R3291:5 Thy father -- Joseph, having accepted Mary, accepted also her son, Jesus, and became his foster-father. R2559:4 Luke 2:49 He said unto them -- In his childlike simplicity seeming to think his mother and Joseph would fully realize and approve his course. R1916:3 Wist ye not -- Having been told he was specially holy and miraculously born, he asked Mary, Did not you tell me of this thing? He was surprised that Mary and Joseph should not understand that this was the very thing for him to do. R5065:4 Must be about -- On the alert to fulfil his mission. He surmised that, since at 12, Jewish boys came under the requirements of the Law Covenant, that that was the time at which he should begin his ministry. R4957:5 My Father's business -- Evidence of zeal; the mind of Christ is the will to do the Father's will. R1916:3, 5228:4 Somewhere about his house, his courts. R3711:4, 1916:5 "Did you not know that I would be somewhere about my Father's house?" We prefer this free translation, in accord with the Revised Version, to the one given in our Common Version. R3711:4 "Did you not know that I had reached the age when I am a "son of the Law," and that therefore certain responsibilities have come upon me in respect to the Heavenly Father and his Word and his plan?" R2559:4 He would have in mind the Heavenly Father, just as any consecrated child of God might think of him. From the information which he had received from his mother, Mary, he would know of his miraculous birth and special mission in the world. R5065:4 Though he had not yet been impressed with his previous experiences with the Father and of the remote past. R5065:1 Jesus never acknowledged Joseph to be his father; nor did he ever acknowledge his earthly life to be the beginning of his existence. E89 Having learned that he could not yet attend to the Father's business, he remained quietly at home until thirty. R5847:1 Luke 2:51 Subject unto them -- As a youth he was loyal and faithful to his earthly parents. R1114:4, 4958:1, 4809:2 Having learned that he could not assume the priestly function as a boy. R5064:4, 5128:2 He did not humble himself before he became a man, but afterwards. R5128:2 Unto them -- All of this earthly authority was exercised by his personal inferiors, even though they were his legal superiors. R4809:2, 1114:4 In her heart -- It was doubtless from her own lips that Luke received his knowledge of these events. R2559:5 Luke 2:52 And Jesus -- This verse relates to his life from twelve years of age upward to the time of his presentation to Israel in his thirtieth year as the Lamb of God. R3711:6 Increased -- It was not a boy who was to be the Redeemer, even as it was not a boy who had sinned. R4958:4 He kept on growing and he kept on coming up to full manhood and he did not reach full manhood until thirty years of age. Q378:2; R5748:2 Happily for us, we are not born under the Law nor under the limitations which hinders us from receiving the call and responding to it before 30 years of age. R2559:6 It is quite probable that the 18 years from this time to the time of his baptism were spent in the performance of the ordinary duties of life. What a thought this gives us with respect to our Lord's development of patience. R2559:5 Similarly all who hear the good tidings now would best not begin to minister the truth to others by explaining it until first they have received of God the unction from on high. R3711:6 The perfect babe became the perfect boy; the perfect boy became the perfect youth; the perfect youth became the perfect man. R4958:4; Q377:2 In wisdom -- He did not miraculously know all that was in the Law and the prophets. He acquired knowledge, but with that ease, rapidity and retentiveness with which only a perfect mind can grasp and hold it. R1916:3 From the twelfth to the thirtieth year he kept growing in wisdom and grace of character. R4958:4, 3711:6 And stature -- Though the wisdom of twelve years surpassed that of the sages among men, neither his mind nor his body had yet reached full development. R1618:3 With God -- Not in the sense of becoming less sinful and more righteous, but in the sense of becoming more developed, reaching human perfection. R4958:4 The whole matter was pleasing to God, to whom Jesus became more and more pleasing as he neared maturity. R5157:2 And man -- Humanity perceived that he was different from others. R5157:2 He was of winsome manner. R3711:2 In his early life of preparation for his public ministry and great sacrifice, his virtues commanded the admiration of all who knew him. R1916:6 Luke 3 Luke 3:1 The fifteenth year -- This is a clearly fixed date of which there can be no reasonable doubt. Tiberius became emperor at the death of Augustus Caesar, in the year of Rome 767, which was the year AD 14. B58 An unequivocal date. Tiberius began to reign in AD 14. The fifteenth year of his reign would therefore be the year AD 29. B60 Those who claim that Jesus began his ministry AD 27, instead of AD 29, claim that John's ministry began in AD 26, and are obliged to count the reign of Tiberius Caesar two years before its admitted date. R2562:2 The only people to raise a question about it are those who, following the inaccurate records of Josephus, want to twist Luke's plain statement into harmony with a date two years earlier. B59; R2132:4, 1975:4 Of Tiberius Caesar -- Luke connected the beginning of John's preaching with the reign of Tiberius for the very purpose of locating or fixing the event chronologically. R2132:4 Luke 3:2 Annas -- Was subsequently dragged through the streets, scourged and murdered. R3369:3 The word of God came -- When John was thirty years of age. R2562:2 In the spring, about April first, just as soon as he was of age; for God's plans are always carried out on exact time. B60 The Lord made clear to John that the time had come for the beginning of his ministry, not merely by an impression or surmise, but with positiveness, as in the case of all the prophets. R2563:1 Exactly at the right time to introduce the Lord Jesus to the Jewish nation. R3292:3 John -- The last of the prophets, none of whom was his superior, "There hath not arisen a greater prophet than John the Baptist." (Matt. 11:11) R4958:2, 3292:1 Six months older than his second cousin, Jesus. B58; R2562:2 John's work at the first advent foreshadowed the closing work of the Church at the second advent. B253 In the wilderness -- Not in the sandy deserts, but more properly in the wilds, perhaps in the "hill country," where his parents resided at the time of his birth. R2562:5 The world is in a wilderness condition and needs the presence of the great King to bring order out of its confusion. R4113:5 Luke 3:3 About Jordan -- Thickly settled regions. R2563:1 John sought the pools, or deep places of the river, sufficiently deep for the purposes of immersion. R2563:1 The work of John the Baptist was merely to the Jew, and proportionately only was he the antitype of Elijah. Jesus in the flesh and all his faithful members in the flesh have constituted the larger antitype of John the Baptist. R4958:5, 2563:2 John was not preaching to Christians, he was not preaching the message that Jesus preached, he was preaching merely the demands of the Jewish Law. OV199:2 Baptism of repentance -- It is uncertain just when immersion was instituted as a symbol of repentance and reform. John the Baptist, it is claimed, followed a custom for some time in vogue among Jewish reformers. R1161:2 The remission of sins -- Those addressed were all Jews, already in covenant relationship with God. R1421:1 Not that repentance and baptism would work for them a remission of their sins. John preached a baptism signifying repentance unto, or preparation for, a remission of sins. R2563:1 If repentance and immersion in water would bring the forgiveness of sins, the "Savior and a great one" whom God had promised to Israel for so long would have been wholly unnecessary. R2563:2 Not original sin, which could be removed only by the blood of Christ--"without shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb. 9:22)--but sins against the Law Covenant. R2931:3 Luke 3:4 As it is written -- A prophecy not even yet fulfilled, but which includes the entire work of the Millennial age. R2563:2 The voice -- Not "The Word." (John 1:1) R2409:2 Crying in the wilderness -- The Church has cried in "the wilderness" in the sense that she has been alienated and separated from the world. R4958:6 We are not, as John, to dwell in the wilderness, to criticize and denounce everything. We are to copy our Lord, not John the Baptist. R4978:5 Prepare ye the way -- But John's mission was not successful to his nation, and profited only a few of the people. R2563:3 The mission of the Elijah class is to exhort to repentance and to prepare men for the glorious setting up of the Messianic Kingdom. R2563:4, 4958:6 A highway for the coming King. R4113:5 As John the Baptist was unsuccessful, the Church in the flesh has not succeeded in preparing men for a triumphal entry of God's Kingdom upon earth. R2563:5 His paths straight -- Those who hear should walk circumspectly--make a straight pathway in the desert, a highway for the coming King. R4113:5 "An highway shall be there." (Isa. 35:8) R2563:5 Luke 3:5 Valley shall be filled -- The lifting up of the poor. R4958:6 Signifying that the humble shall be lifted up out of degradation. R4113:5 Leveling up the deep crevices of character. R2563:5 Mountain and hill -- Kingdom and less autocratic government. R4990:2, 5575:4; A318; D551 Shall be brought low -- Those who have reached high positions of influence and affluence under the reign of sin shall be humbled under the reign of righteousness. R4113:5 Leveling down the hills of pride to the proper level of humility. R2563:5 The conditions of society will be leveled. R4990:2 Little by little coming down to the level of popular demand. D551 The city of Quito, Ecuador, the highest city in the world, has subsided 76 feet in the past 122 years, indicating that this prophecy may have a literal fulfillment also. R1215:3 Showing that society is to be reconstructed and equality of classes obtain. R332:4 The crooked -- The great things which belong to the present time of sin and imperfection will all be straightened out. R4113:5 The perverse. R332:3 The rough ways -- The incongruous things will all be smoothed over. R4113:5 Luke 3:6 All flesh -- The dead, as well as the living. R2402:4 All flesh indeed shall see the salvation of our God, and so many as will may share therein. R2563:6 The world in general. T83 The promised deliverer is to bless not only Israel, but through Israel "all the families of the earth." (Gen. 22:18) A58 Shall see -- Greek, optomai, recognize. R141:4 Appreciate, understand, experience. R4958:6 Recognize God's gracious love more and more. T83 Whose mission it is to seek to prepare all flesh to see the salvation of God. R2563:5 The salvation of God -- As a result of the work of the "times of restitution of all things." (Acts 3:23) R4113:5 Both John and the Church declare that this salvation is to be brought through Jesus and his glorified Bride in Kingdom power. R4958:6 Luke 3:7 To the multitude -- The prepared instruments of the Lord are powerful in his hand. The whole nation was aroused. R1916:3 Generation of vipers -- Greek, gennema, race or posterity. D603 Rejectors of the divine favor. R2301:4 Their religion was one of outward forms and ceremony merely, and not of the heart. R2236:3 Some seemed to John to be so vile that he could not properly accept them until they had given some proofs of reform. R2563:6 We are not to understand that such language is proper to be copied by the Lord's people of today. "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves." (2 Tim. 2:25) R2563:6 Similarly, today many have "a form of godliness" (2 Tim. 3:5), a devotion to Sectarianism. R2236:5 The wrath to come -- Not flames and torments after death, but divine judgments upon the Jewish nation for hypocrisy, formalism, and failure to live up to the light and privileges enjoyed. "There shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people" ( Luke 21:23). "Wrath to the uttermost" (1 Thess. 2:16), which came upon the Jewish nation in the end of the Jewish age. R2236:6, 3292:5, 2564:1 The trouble that was about to come upon that nation unless they would receive Messiah, who had not yet been offered to them. R2564:1 There is a proper presentation of the truth, and a proper fear of God and his retribution, which may be properly kept before the mind of the transgressors; but this is wholly different from the terrorizing fear of eternal torment. R2564:5 Let us present the wrath to come truthfully, not misrepresenting the character of our God; for assuredly God will not hold them guiltless who blaspheme his holy name. R2564:4 "Wrath to come upon them to the uttermost." (1 Thess. 2:15,16) R2301:4 Picturing the wrath to come in the end of this age upon Christendom. R2564:5 Luke 3:8 Begin not to say -- Do not permit yourselves do be deceived into thinking that God is under compulsion to accept such as you, and that otherwise his word would become void. R2564:3 Within yourselves -- As nominal Christendom says to itself. R2564:2 Abraham to our father -- His hearers thought that they were God's specially chosen, "elect" people, whose glorification had been foretold in the prophets, and that since there were no better people in the world it was unreasonable to suppose that God would pass by the very best. R2564:1, 1457:3 The principle opposition to the teaching of holiness, entire consecration to the Lord, today throughout "Christendom," is the same error. R2564:2 Of these stones -- Out of some that you consider as far from the possibilities of being Abraham's children as though they were these stones at your feet. R2864:3 Children unto Abraham -- Who would have Abraham's loyalty of spirit. R2245:6 As a matter of fact we know, that after the "wheat" had been separated from the "chaff" of that nation, the Lord has been seeking from among the Gentiles others to complete the elect number of Israelites indeed, the true seed of Abraham. R2245:6 Luke 3:9 And now also -- Typifying the end of the Gospel Age. R2237:5 The axe -- Of divine judgment. R2237:1 The axe was about to be applied to that nation. Pruning would no longer do. R4958:6 Now the axe is laid to the root of the trees again, a test to every one in nominal Christendom. R2237:5 Unto the root -- Not, for the new creature, to lop off some of the unsightly branches of the fallen disposition, but the axe of truth is to cut down the whole tree, branches and all. R3986:4 Of the trees -- The three and a half years of our Lord's ministry to the Jewish nation, and their final rejection by him, are represented by the barren fig tree parable, in harmony with this statement of John ( Luke 13:6-9). R2564:4 Good fruit -- The fruitage of righteousness. R2237:1 Is hewn down -- Nominal fleshly Israel was thus cut off from divine favor. R3292:5 Cast into the fire-- The time of trouble in 69-70 AD. R2564:1, 4958:6, 3292:5, 2237:1 Picturing the great fire of trouble with which this Gospel age shall end. R2565:1 Luke 3:11 He answereth -- If any now inquire, we answer: Practice righteousness, truth, godliness, kindness, benevolence, justice, trust in the Lord, seek to walk in his ways. (Zeph. 2:3) R2564:5 Let him impart -- Thus would they show their repentance from the selfishness and hard-heartedness which evidenced them as sinful--thus would they show a condition of heart necessary to an acceptance of Jesus. R4959:1 Luke 3:12 Also publicans -- Being cast off from the sympathies and friendships of the Jews in general, they were naturally less influenced by their prejudices and hence more ready to receive the truth. R1783:3 Luke 3:13 Appointed you -- No more than that to which you are entitled by the Law. R4959:1 Luke 3:14 The soldiers likewise -- Just such advice would be applicable to a soldier today. OV199:2 Violence to no man -- Not that they were to prove unfaithful to their duties as soldiers, not that they should let a man to be arrested go free or that, if attempted to escape, he might not suffer violence at their hands; but the responsibility was with their superior. OV199:3 The difficulty is not that the Law requires the soldier to do violent things, but that they frequently take advantage of the situation and give greater violence than the Law permits or sanctions. OV199:4 Violate no man's rights or interests, nor even his feelings or his reputation. OV199:4 Thus will you show that you have repented and that you are seeking to do the divine will, for such a course will be very different from the one to which you have been accustomed. R4959:1 Do not violate the laws of your government. F607 Accuse any falsely -- Neither exact anything wrongfully. R4959:1 Either spite, revenge, malice or affronted dignity might lead some police officer to exaggerate some fault and thus to falsely accuse--to accuse more than would be proper, or to make an accusation out of whole cloth. OV199:5 Be content -- Notwithstanding John's preaching of contentment he was apprehended as a disturber of the peace and beheaded. R4959:1 "Godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Tim. 6:6). Only the unintelligent could be content without godliness. OV200:3 In addition to example, the counsel of the saints to those about them should be in harmony with their faith. It should be of the nature of ointment and healing balm, pointing the world to the good time coming. A341 With your wages -- Not that those who love righteousness must take whatever wages are offered to them, and be content. But, having contracted for a certain period of time, being content, because it is what they had bargained for. OV200:2 Infidelity assails such scriptures as this as being opposed to progress and advancement, but, as in other matters: Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan God's work in vain, God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain. NS63:1 Luke 3:15 The people -- Even the Gentile world, as is manifest from the visit of the wise men from the east, possibly Persia. R1674:3; B21 In expectation -- Thirty years before his anointing as Messiah at the beginning of his ministry. There was a corresponding expectation on the part of many, culminating in the year AD 1844, just thirty years before AD 1874, when Christ actually came. B240; C85 Even if they were not all able to receive him in the way he came. B66 Yet, when he offered himself, they were ashamed of him and of his peculiar following of fishermen, publicans, etc. NS630:3 They were expecting a great general, king and lawgiver combined--full of dignity, hauteur, ambition, pride, self-will; haughty and domineering in word and in act--their ideal of the King who would conquer the world and make Israel the leading nation. E157 But his presentation was so different from all they had expected that their proud hearts were ashamed of him. E157 It was the hope of every Israelite that, as a people, God would exalt their nation under Messiah; and when the Lord came to them, it would be as their King, to establish the long promised Kingdom of God upon the earth. A273 The affairs of Israel were more prosperous than they had been for centuries, and they were hoping that this return of God's favor might culminate in the sending of the promised King for the exultation of their nation. R3292:3 Roman dominion had brought peace, and the fame of the Jewish prophets had gone into all the world. The sudden announcement of his birth attracted wide attention, as it would not have done in less peaceful times. R1673:6 Now, in the end of the Gospel age, all men realize that we are in a transition period, and the horoscope of the 20th century is full of terrors and premonitions of great revolutionary changes. D167 Probably because of Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks. (Dan. 9:24) B66 Because God had promised centuries before that a holy child would be born. R4963:2 Even the Gentile world was in expectation of the coming Messiah. R1674:3, 4714:6 And all men mused -- Just as all men are now considering whether the nominal church has fulfilled its mission. D167 John -- Different from that of Jesus, John's mission was pre-eminently that of a reprover and reformer. R4978:5 He were the Christ -- The establishment of the Kingdom of God was the hope of every Israelite. A273 Had he made the claim, how readily would the people have accepted it. R1916:4 So powerful was John's presentation of the truth. R2564:5 Luke 3:16 Baptize you with water -- Not with the holy Spirit. R1916:6 One mightier than I -- Assuring them he was so inferior to the Messiah. R2564:5, 4113:6 I am not worthy -- It was this complete self-abnegation and singleness of purpose to accomplish the will of God that constituted John's moral greatness. R1916:2 We who antitype him may also feel very humble in respect to all of our privileges in connection with the announcement of the glorious Kingdom. Any other attitude would be unworthy of us as his representatives and ambassadors. R4113:6 He shall baptize you -- Some of them (the few) with holy Spirit, the remainder (the mass) with the fire of judgment. R2564:6 With the Holy Ghost -- The "Israelites indeed" were gathered into the garner of the Christian Church, and baptized with the holy Spirit at Pentecost. B233; E290, 314; R5443:2, 4959:4, 2927:2 And with fire -- The remainder of the Jewish nation, who "knew not the time of their visitation" (Matt. 19:44), were burned as "chaff" ( Luke 3:17) in a great time of trouble which overthrew their nation. R5443:2, 2090:5, 1916:6 After the holy Spirit had searched, sifted and winnowed out of the Jewish dispensation all of the true wheat, gathering it into the garner of the Gospel (spirit) dispensation, then the fire came upon the chaff. R2927:2 The fire of God's anger, wrath to the uttermost. (1 Thess. 2:16) R4959:4; F445 The fire of trouble on all others during the 36-1/2 years following their rejection. R2564:6, 5443:2, 4959:4, 2927:2; B233 Culminating in the destruction of the Jewish polity in the year 70 AD. E290; R4959:4, 1916:6 There will come a great time of trouble, symbolically a time of fire, upon the world, and especially upon rejected Babylon, even as similar fiery vengeance came upon Israel after the flesh. R2746:6 Luke 3:17 Fan is in his hand -- Messiah was about to make a separation between the true wheat and the chaff class. R4594:3, 4113:1 Thoroughly purge -- The great separating work of the Jewish harvest. R1917:1, 2564:6; B260 Gather the wheat -- Only the true Israelites. C149; B233; R5443:2, 4594:3, 2245:6, 273:6 By begetting them of the holy Spirit at Pentecost. R4959:4 All the true wheat, we may be sure; not a solitary grain was lost. R2564:6 The first members of the Gospel Church. R2564:6 A small proportion of the whole. B205; R1916:6 A larger fulfillment--world-wide. In the end of this age all the wheat class are to be gathered into the heavenly garner by the change of the first resurrection. R4959:4 Into his garner -- A place of safety, a higher dispensation. R2564:6 The Christian Church. B233; C149; R5443:2 Of the Gospel age. R2927:2, 2090:4, 1917:1 The chaff -- The refuse part of that church and nation. R273:6 Devoid of the real wheat principle within. C150 The balance of the nation, the refuse. B233; C149; R4594:3, 273:6 He will burn -- As the chaff class of the Jewish nation was consumed in the close of that harvest, so the tare class will be consumed in this harvest. The chaff ceased from all pretension to divine favor as the triumphant Kingdom of God. C148 Not physically destroy (though of course many lives were lost in their trouble), but were cut off from all Kingdom favors in which previously they trusted and boasted; and so also in the parallel or counterpart. C149 In the time of trouble coming all others than the true Church will be cut off from association with the Church and from all opportunity of membership in it. As tares they will be burned, reduced to the level of the rest of humanity. R4959:4 Fire unquenchable -- The great fire of religious and political contention which destroyed the Jewish nation. B233; C148; R5443:2, 5363:3, 4594:3, 2564:6 A time of trouble which nothing could stop or hinder. Even the Roman Emperor was desirous of preserving the nation and establishing order there. The Roman army went, not to destroy them, but to establish peace in their midst. But the Lord declared that it should do its work to the full; and it did. R2564:6, 273:6; A229 Represented by figure f on the Chart of the Ages. A229; R273:6F196 Likewise the great fire of trouble with which this Gospel age shall end will completely consume earthly governments and Churchianity in a fire of anarchy. Nothing shall quench that fire, or hinder that utter destruction of present systems. R2565:1 Luke 3:19 But Herod -- Was living in adultery. R2621:4; 557:6 Representing the kings of the earth. B261 Reproved by him -- Perhaps John acted imprudently and exceeded his duty. R3326:2 We should expect that, as John's reproving of Herod for having an unlawful wife led to his imprisonment, so here, the reproving of the church and the world for their unlawful union, provokes the displeasure of both and leads to the ostracizing (beheading) of the faithful reprovers. R557:6; 2621:4 For Herodias -- Representing the unfaithful nominal church. B261 For all the evils -- As a result of this typical union of church and State, contrary to Scripture. B261 Luke 3:20 Shut up John -- Representing the Church in this harvest time. B261 Which surprised and stunned the people. R4138:6 After he had preached about a year. R3325:2 In prison -- Typifying the coming restraint of the Church's liberties because of faithfulness in opposing and condemning error. B261 Where he remained about a year before execution. R3325:2 Luke 3:21 That Jesus also -- Having reached 30 years of age, manhood according to the Law, and therefore the right time to consecrate himself as a man. A179 With the baptism of Christ the ordinance received a new signification of entire consecration to God. In this new view, some of the Jewish converts were baptized again. R1917:4, 1161:2 Being baptized -- The Royal Priesthood began with the anointing of Jesus, the High Priest, at baptism. T27 This is the Spirit dispensation; hence, it is proper to say that the Gospel age began with the anointing of Jesus at the time of his baptism. A224 Not because he or any other Jew was commanded to do so, but as a fitting symbol of his consecration even unto death, and his faith in Jehovah's power to raise him out of death. R1161:2; A179 He sacrificed all the blessings and favors which were his under the Law Covenant. R5090:1 And praying -- We should pray before believers and unbelievers. R2251:6, 3698:5, 2252:1 Literally, rent asunder. R4970:1 He began to understand the higher, spiritual things. R5080:6, 5157:5, 5128:5 His brain was impressed with the recollections of his pre-human condition. R5157:5, 2565:5 Luke 3:22 The Holy Ghost descended -- He received the divine adoption and the spirit without measure. (John 3:34) R182:3 Thus beginning the Gospel age or Spirit dispensation. A224; R273:1 In a bodily shape -- A manifestation representing the invisible. E212 Like a dove -- Emblematic of peace and purity, representing the fullness of Jehovah's spirit of love in Jesus. E212 Not violently like lightning, but gently like a dove. R3296:6 Upon him -- Jesus made the covenant to lay down his humanity as our ransom. R182:3 Giving him the "earnest of his inheritance" (Eph. 1:14), of the divine nature. A179 Anointing him. Jesus was not the Messiah, the Christ, until this anointing took place. B66; T27, 37 Thou art my beloved -- The witness of his relationship came at once. R182:3 Luke 3:23 Began to be -- Note his promptness to engage in his Heavenly Father's business at the very earliest moment. R3291:5, 4427:2 About thirty -- No Levite was permitted to engage in the work of the tabernacle under thirty. (See Num. 4:3.) So Christ did not begin the work of the antitypical tabernacle (the work of atonement) until he was thirty. R1161:2; B58 It was necessary that Jesus conform to the Law of Moses, given by God to the Jews; for Jesus as a man was a Jew, born under the Law and subject, therefore, to its every feature. R5536:2 The fact that our Lord Jesus waited until he was thirty years of age before making his special consecration and receiving his ordination and commission to preach does not mean that his followers should wait until they are thirty before they begin to preach. R5536:3 Happily for us we are not bound under the Law nor under the limitations which hinder us from receiving the call and responding to it before thirty years of age. R2559:6, 3291:5 Manhood according to the Law; in condition to be the sin-offering. R444:6, 5064:2, 4535:6, 4427:2 Able to begin the work of atonement of the antitypical tabernacle. R1161:2 When he emerged from obscurity and began to declare his mission. R1247:3 We may be sure he presented himself in sacrifice to the Lord at the very earliest possible moment. R4427:2, 3291:5 As was supposed -- Some suppose the same thing now, reminding us of those Pharisees who sarcastically said, "We have not been born of fornication; we have one Father, God." (John 8:41) R443:3* The son of Joseph -- Luke shows the genealogy of Mary, by which our Lord was actually related, according to the flesh, to our race and to the royal family of David, through the line of Nathan. R2555:6; E129; Q791:2 A good illustration of the principle of inherited royalty through a mother is furnished in the heir-apparent to the throne of Great Britain--the Prince of Wales; not through his father, but through his mother, the present queen. R453:1 Legal father of Jesus, from Solomon's line. R2060:4 The son of Heli -- The son of Eli, Mary's father, by marriage, or legally; or, as we would say, on-in-law of Eli. By birth, Joseph was the son of Jacob, as stated in Matt. 1:16. E129; Q791:2 A custom of that day was to reckon the genealogy through the wife's ancestry and treat her husband as in her stead, the son of her father. We would call such a son-in-law. Here Joseph is called the son of Heli, Mary's father, who was the son of Nathan the son of David. R453:2; E129 The necessity of thoroughly establishing the pedigree was the more important, since of this tribe (Gen. 49:10) was to come the ruling King of Israel, as well as the promised Messiah, hence the minutiae of detail not given in other instances. (Gen. 39) A42; HG532:4 Luke 3:24 The son of Matthat -- Luke gives 42 generations, while Matthew gives 27. The difference need not be considered as remarkable. It would be remarkable had they been the same. Q791:2 Luke 3:31 Of Nathan -- Mary's ancestor. Only the legal heirship came through Solomon, through his descendant Joseph, the legal father of Jesus. R2060:4 While Joseph came of the royal line, as Matthew testifies, Mary came of the obscure one, beginning with Nathan. R468:4* Luke 3:38 Son of Adam -- In the male of the human species has resided the power to communicate the spark of life, or living seed, to progeny. E99 The son of God -- Adam's form or organism was of and from earth (which therefore served as his mother); but his spark of life, which constituted him a man, came from God (who thus was his Father or life-giver). E99, 110; R776:5 Before Adam fell he was a son of God. He had the Spirit of God, in the sense of having the right spirit, disposition, will, intention. (Eph. 2:3) R5582:3, 1717:2, 219:4; A225; E108; F40; T84 He was very good--morally, intellectually and physically--a likeness which God was not ashamed to own and to call his son. R1609:5, 1264:3, 1266:2; E407 From the moment of sin onward, Adam was not recognized as a son of God. R1005:2, 866:1; E108; SM615:1 The same Creator who, before his creation, called Adam his son, declares that Adam and we, his children, became "children of wrath" and passed under condemnation because of sin. F40 As God's creation. God was his Life-giver, Creator, Producer, or Father. R1005:2 God made a copy, an image of himself, a manifestation of himself in flesh. R1266:2 He was God's son, as well as his image. R1264:3 "If a son, then an heir" (Rom. 8:17), of the vast domain of earth, which he was to subdue and take possession of as his posterity would increase and require it. R1266:2 Every member of the human family is a human brother to every other human being. All are children of the one father, Adam, a son of God. D310 While Adam's transgression was a wilful one, it did not mean that Adam preferred to be "a child of the devil." R2707:1 From the time that sin entered the world through Adam's disobedience, God recognized none of the human family as his sons until Jesus came and died. R5859:1, 2843:5, 1005:1; CR498:6 Adam, before he sinned, "was very good." (Gen. 1:31) R1609:3, 1717:2, 816:3, 382:1, 364:1, 273:2 A "sheep" that wandered from the fold. R2707:1 God's energy operating on spirit substances produced angels; on earthly substances, man. E105 All Adam's children are equally God's beneficiaries and are entitled to sympathy and aid in proportion to the degree of their impairment. D311 By our adoption into the divine family, God becomes our Father. R182:3 "As many as received him, to them gave he power [liberty] to become the sons of God" (John 1:12). "Beloved, now are we the sons of God" (1 John 3:2). R1005:5 Only those who have the right spirit, disposition, will or intention, can keep the divine law, and only those who are in perfect harmony with God will he recognize as sons. R5582:3 All who, at the end of the Kingdom, will have been restored to perfection will be recognized as sons of God, in the same sense that Adam was a son of God--human sons. R2607:2, 655:4, 382:1, 376:4 All who accept of Christ as their Redeemer are reckonedly on the plane of human perfection (N on the Chart of the Ages). All on this plane God calls sons--human sons, reckoned as restored to primitive purity. In consequence they have fellowship or communion with God. A225 The Church can now, being "justified from all things" (Acts 13:39), call God Father, as Adam did before sin, and be recognized by him as human sons. R364:1, 209:4 The Church is invited to be sons of God on a higher plane of sonship; higher than the angelic sons, as heirs of God, joint-heirs with the Logos, partakers with him of the divine nature. R2409:4 The father does not determine the nature. Jehovah, of the divine nature, has begotten sons of the same, as well as other natures--angelic (Job 2:1); human ( Luke 3:38), and "new creatures," who shall be of his own divine nature. (2 Pet. 1:4) E104; R777:4, 354:5 God is a Father of his creatures on different planes. But there is no mother on either plane. As the Creator of angels and men, he is their Father, and they his sons, though on different planes. R315:3, 777:4, 376:4, 354:5 Freedom from death and trouble is the glorious liberty common to sons of God on whatever plane of being they may be, whether sons of the human nature, the angelic nature (Job 38:7), or sons of the divine nature (1 John 3:2; 2 Pet. 1:4). R816:3; T84 Luke 4 Luke 4:1 And Jesus -- Not God, for "God tempteth not, neither is tempted of any." (James 1:13) R370:2 Being full -- "God gave not the spirit by measure unto him." (John 3:34) T37; R72:5 Of the holy Ghost -- The holy Spirit, from his baptism, but not before. A224 The zeal to accomplish his appointed mission. R1688:1 This new power is what Satan wanted him to use for the flesh, but it was not given for that purpose. R681:3 Returned from Jordan -- Notice that special trials immediately followed consecration. R3296:2 Led by the Spirit -- The Gospel age is the Spirit dispensation; hence it is proper to say that it began with the anointing of Jesus, "by the Holy Ghost, and with power." (Acts 10:38) A224; R273:1 His earnest desire to know fully and completely the will of the Father. R4641:5, 4970:2; CR95:6 We should never voluntarily go into temptation, but knowing our own imperfection, seek to avoid it. R3715:6 His own spirit, his new mind. Thus it is our new minds, the result of our full consecration, that lead us into temptations, trials and difficulties. R3716:1, 4970:2, 4641:5; CR95:6 Into the wilderness -- For study and meditation relative to the great work to which he had just consecrated himself, represented in his baptism. R680:1 Away from every distracting person or thing, that he might study the Word treasured in his perfect memory, now fully intelligible by the power of the Spirit. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit." (1 Cor. 2:14) R3297:3, 3716:4, 1688:2, 680:1 Luke 4:2 Being forty days -- Doubtless the entire period was spent in prayer and contemplation of the prophecies, including those which showed that he would be lifted up as the serpent in the wilderness (Num. 21:8, 9); be despised and rejected of men, and led as a lamb to the slaughter (Isa. 53:3, 7). He found it necessary, before attempting to serve God, to Study to show himself approved. (2 Tim. 2:15) R3716:5, 3717:1 While carefully studying the Law, he endured a most subtle and severe conflict with the powers of darkness. R1917:2 Tempted -- Along the lines of selfishness. R3715:3 He was not tempted like the world--to godlessness, vice and criminality. R1689:4, 4970:3 Of the devil -- Greek, diabolus. The word always appears in the singular and evidently refers to Satan. R3716:1 Whose very existence is now denied by many. F609 Afterward hungered -- When he was weak from fasting and was overwhelmed with the importance and cost of the covenant he had made, the Adversary appeared--as a tempter. R4970:2 Up to this time his perfect mind was so absorbed in his great theme that he probably neither ate nor slept. R3716:6, 1689:2 Shipwrecked sailors have been exonerated for cannibalism when they have been without food much less than 40 days. In the siege of Jerusalem mothers ate their own children. R2243:4 The sin is not in being tempted, but in yielding to temptation. R1689:5 Luke 4:3 And the devil -- Choosing the time when his overtaxed human powers sought refreshment and recuperation. R3717:2 Appearing not as an enemy and a fiend, but as a friend. R4970:3 Said unto him -- Probably not personally, but by suggestion; representing himself as an "angel of light." (2 Cor. 11:14) R3717:3, 1688:1 Be made bread -- Use your consecrated talents and powers, and your office as God's children and representatives, in such a manner as to further your "bread and butter" interests. R681:3, 4970:6, 3717:6; E111, 123 For a man to use any or all of his powers to satisfy hunger would certainly, under normal circumstances, be no sin. But the circumstances were peculiar--Jesus had just consecrated himself as a man, and had received special powers in connection with the holy Spirit. R681:3 Illustrating our temptations to preach for worldly applause, wealth and social position, and to seek the healing of our bodies, which we have consecrated to death in God's service. R3717:6, 4970:6, 1689:2 Luke 4:4 Jesus answered -- Ignoring all suggestions contrary to God's plan. R1125:5 It is written -- Though tempted in all points like as we are, he ignored his own will and all suggestions from others contrary to God's plan, and obeyed God implicitly. Therein lay the secret of his success. HG292:6 Our Lord's success was by being rightly exercised by his knowledge of God; as it is written: "By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many," while bearing their iniquities. (Isa. 53:11) R1125:5 Our Lord's reply to temptation; the sure defense of the true child of God. F200; R1688:4 Live by bread alone -- Refusing to use divine power for his personal comfort. F636, 650 My eternal life is not dependent upon the maintenance of this physical body. R4970:4 Our meat and drink should be to do the will of God. (John 4:34) R1689:3 I am not afraid of starving, God has more ways and means of sustaining my life than food. R681:4 Another thought, especially for the sisters: In your daily life remember that "man shall not live by bread alone," and, therefore, that all your energies should not be spent in merely gratifying the palate. ( Luke 10:40-42) R681:4 Word of God -- The Scriptures do claim to be the Word of God, though their authority by no means depends upon the finding of that expression in the Scriptures. R1584:3 My hope is in God and in his promise. R4970:4 Not merely the milk of the Word. R3622:2 Every admonition, encouragement and promise is necessary for those now called. R3060:4 Luke 4:5 The devil -- Satan, "the prince of this world" (John 14:30), came to our Lord just as he comes to his followers--as an angel of light, and with his real character and purposes cloaked. R1688:1 Again posing as a friend. R3719:3 Taking him up -- Mentally, not physically. R3719:2, 3299:1 From no mountain on earth could all the kingdoms of the world be seen. R4970:5, 3719:2, 3299:1 An high mountain -- Kingdom; Satan's own dominion over the world. R1688:6, 4970:5, 3719:2 All the kingdoms -- Christ clearly understood that at some time he was to have authority over these kingdoms, but probably he did not yet see how or when, hence the peculiar force of this temptation. R3299:1-3 Luke 4:6 The devil -- He is the instigator; the natural and often legitimate desires of the flesh are the mediums through which his temptations are presented. R1689:5 Said -- Some erroneously regard this as a sham temptation; that he offered what he did not possess. R680:2 Will I give thee -- Satan's dominion has both an invisible spiritual and a visible human phase. A251 Saying, Let us unite to bring humanity out of sin and death. Thus you will attain your hopes without suffering. R4970:5 Satan says: "Serve God, bless mankind, and spread the Gospel; but do it my way." R681:5 Look well to it that no element of worldly ambition or worldly policy ensnare your feet and allure you from the narrow way. R2163:2 Delivered unto me -- You realize that I am the prince of this world. R4970:5 Your church must first of all recognize these governments of mine, and must call them Christian governments, no matter how un-Christlike may be their rulers and laws. R680:6 To whomsoever I will I give it -- Satan, faithful to his promise, exalted the nominal church. R680:6 Luke 4:7 Worship me -- The thought is not of adoration and prayer, but of service, to follow Satan's directions. R680:3 Cooperate with me for the world's uplift. E113; R680:4 As does the nominal church when it seeks to increase its membership by resorting to worldly forms, customs, fairs, games, entertainments, etc. R3719:5 When Papacy did this, Satan was true to his promise. B293 The Adversary tempts the Lord's followers to compromise with the spirit and methods of the world, by church federations, etc. R4970:6, 3719:5 This same temptation beset the infant Church during the first five centuries, and finally was successful. Satan, faithful to his promise, exalted the nominal church, resulting in the placing over the world the Church of Rome as the head of both civil and ecclesiastical government. R680:5 Satan presented the same temptation to the Reformers, and again with success. R680:6 To us the same temptation is one of the most difficult to withstand--associate yourselves with some large and influential organization. Thus your influence among men will be greater and more good will be accomplished. R681:1 Others are tempted to think that they can serve God's cause and truth best by spending their best energies and talents in acquiring wealth, to be spent in spreading the Gospel. R681:2 Luke 4:8 Behind me, Satan -- Adversary, opposing spirit. F611 I will not serve you nor cooperate with you in any sense of the word. R4970:6, 3299:4; E74 The loyalty of the Lord's heart was shown. Q184:T He did not say, Let us talk it over and discuss it a little. Q184:T It is written -- This was his reply to temptation. R1688:4 God, and him only -- As the great Supreme Ruler. E74 But reverence of others, if not rivals of Jehovah, is entirely proper. E73 Jesus could not accept any suggestion out of harmony with God's plan. R1689:1 All of Israel's difficulties and failures to attain the blessings that were before them were because they did not sufficiently sanctify the Lord God in their hearts and let him be their only fear and only dread. R3468:1 Similarly, nominal spiritual Israel has neglected putting the Lord first and has been disposed to forget the Lord and to affiliate with the world, to seek worldly favor and cooperation. R3468:4 Shalt thou serve -- Jesus escaped this temptation, not by arguing the reasonableness of God's plan, but by simply relying on the fact that under all circumstances it was right to obey God, and wrong to disobey. R680:5 He ignored his own will, and all suggestions from others contrary to God's plan, and obeyed God implicitly. R1125:5 Luke 4:9 To Jerusalem -- Mentally, not physically. R3718:2, 4970:4 On a pinnacle -- The roof of the southern wing. R3718:2 Probably the central part of the royal portico, which was very high and overlooked a deep ravine. Josephus says 100 cubits high over a 400 cubit valley. R681:4 Overlooking the valley of Gehenna. R3718:2, 3298:2 About 600 feet above the bottom of the valley. R3298:2, 681:4 And said unto him -- Still posing as a friend, an angel of light. R3718:3 Cast thyself down -- Recklessly expose yourself in proof of mission, thus drawing the immediate attention of all Israel to the fact that you are the Messiah. E111; R4970:4 This would have been reckless presumption and daring, and not the proper faith in God. R681:5 The Adversary tempts the Lord's followers by suggesting some wild, foolish way of capturing the world for God. R4970:6 "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign" (Matt. 16:4), such as the laying on of hands, the gift of tongues, physical healing, peculiar dress, robes, mitres, relics of saints, etc. R3718:5 Illustrating additionally our temptations to go into debt without knowing how the debt can be paid, or to recklessly expose ourselves to any danger, moral, financial, physical or spiritual, expecting miraculous deliverance. R2244:3,2 We not only need the Bible, but we also need the guidance of the holy Spirit to apply the Word. R3719:1, 3298:3, 681:5 It is this temptation which sometimes leads men to call upon God loudly, to come down in power and convert fifty sinners here this evening. R681:5 Luke 4:10 It is written -- The Adversary can use Scripture, and does use it often in the presentation of error. R681:5, 3718:6, 288:1 Luke 4:11 Bear thee up -- Quotation from Psa. 91:12. R4970:4 Foot -- Feet or last part of the Body of Christ. R288:1, 3719:1, 3298:4, 757:6, 681:5 This prophecy refers to the Christ as a whole; its personal application was rejected by Jesus; but when we apply the reference "foot" to the feet, or last part of the body of Christ, all is harmonious. R757:6, 681:6, 288:1 "The feet of him" have been privileged to say "unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." (Isa. 52:7) R288:5, 757:3 Possibly our Lord himself did not at this time know the correction of this Scripture; that the "feet" refer to the last members of the Body of Christ, and that he himself was to be the "stone" of stumbling and rock of offence to both the houses of Israel. (Isa. 8:14) R3298:3,4 Against a stone -- The stone referred to, we understand, is the same as that of Isa. 8:14--that Jesus is the stone of stumbling. R757:6, 681:6 Luke 4:12 Jesus answering -- Seemingly conflicting Scriptures could be harmonized by examining underlying principles. R3298:3 Ignoring all suggestions contrary to God's plan. R1125:5, 3718:4 It is said -- Its personal application by Satan was rejected by Jesus as a misapplication of Scripture. R288:1, 757:6 Not tempt the Lord -- Try the Lord. R681:4 By doing things which are directly contrary to the laws of nature, which would require miraculous intervention to save you. R3718:4, 4970:5, 1688:4 The Church is tempted as Jesus was: to a deceitful handling of the Word of God, to ambitious efforts to gain present power and advantage, to take the sacrifice off the altar. R1689:4 Luke 4:13 Departed from him -- The sword of the Spirit did its work; Satan left in disgust. R1689:5; CR95:6 "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7) R1689:5 Luke 4:14 Jesus returned -- Remembering the proverb, "A prophet has no honor in his own country," our Lord did not begin his ministry in Nazareth, but in Judea. The people of Nazareth heard of his works and words. This would tend to prepare them to receive Messiah and his message, offsetting the familiarity which so frequently breeds contempt. R2579:1 Our Lord began his ministry in Judea, and is supposed to have spent a year there before going to Galilee. R3300:1 Power of the spirit -- The people "were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with power." ( Luke 4:32) R1917:2, 1921:1 "God gave not the spirit by measure unto him." (John 3:34) R1917:1 The secret of all power in the work of the Lord. Learning, worldly wisdom or fluency of speech are no substitutes. No preaching, no teaching is of value, except it be in the power of the holy Spirit. R1917:1 Jesus obtained this power in the same way his followers may obtain it; viz., by entire consecration to God, faithfulness to that consecration, and by communion with him in prayer, and meditation upon his Word. R1917:2 The preacher or teacher acceptable to God must, like his Lord, be first sincerely and fully consecrated to God. Then, when tried and tempted, he must prove his faithfulness to that consecration. R1917:3 Fame of him -- Because of his miracles and teaching. R1735:3 As Messiah, with power and authority. R1743:1 Tending to his immediate advancement to the kingly office. R1754:3 Attracting one class and repelling another. R3153:2, 356:5 As his fame increased, the opposition became more and more pronounced, especially from the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees, as they were brought into competition and unfavorable comparison with him as public teachers. R1735:3 Luke 4:15 Taught in their synagogues -- The Lord and the apostles could go into the synagogues and teach the people for a time, but they were soon hindered. R986:5 Today the clergy keep out all who would feed the sheep "meat in due season" (Matt. 24:45); hence the sheep are called out of Babylon. R986:6 Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue in Capernaum, our Lord's home city, sometimes called upon him to read the Sabbath lesson. R4588:3 Glorified of all -- Honored. R1069:3 So great was the attention which his teaching and works attracted that Pharisees and doctors of the Law came out of every town of Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem to hear and to see. R1921:2 On more than one occasion it appeared as though the people would take him by force to make him a king; but our Lord avoided the matter and withdrew himself and discouraged the efforts. NS629:3 As you enter a field mixed with tares, being filled with the Spirit, you may be received and welcomed, as was Jesus before the truth began to cut. R356:4 Luke 4:16 He came to Nazareth -- Even when he did go to his home province he chose to go to Capernaum before going to his native city, Nazareth. R3300:2 The beginning of the second year of his ministry. R3300:1 A prophet is generally less esteemed at home than abroad. R3300:2 The people of Nazareth were proud of Jesus as the representative of their city, and hoped that he would perform great miracles there. R3301:6 Had been brought up -- From about three years of age to 30. R3300:2 As his custom was -- Not only to attend the synagogue meetings every Sabbath, but to be the reader for the congregation. R3300:3 Implying an education far beyond that of the majority of his day. R2579:1 "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves." (Heb. 10:25) R2579:2 Into the synagogue -- Our Lord's example in seeking to associate as far as possible with the most religious people of his day, and his willingness to take part in the public services, are a lesson to his people everywhere. R2579:2 The synagogue more nearly resembled present-day Bible classes, where the Scriptures are read and freely discussed, a method still appropriate to the Lord's people and still beneficial for the elucidation of truth. R3300:3 A certain amount of pride in their fellow-townsman had been awakened, and we may be sure that there was a large attendance on the first Sabbath day after our Lord's arrival in Nazareth. R3300:2 For to read -- Quite probably the passage was the stated Scripture lesson for that day. R2579:2 Luke 4:17 Delivered unto him -- He had been recognized as one of the few able to read, and had done the congregational reading of the Holy Scriptures. R5068:1 The prophet Esaias -- The Jews had a certain order in which the Scriptures were read in the synagogue, and apparently the book of Isaiah was the appropriate one for this occasion. R3300:3 Where it was written -- A Greek translation of Isaiah 61. R2579:2 Luke 4:18 Spirit of the Lord -- Not the "ghost" nor a person in any sense. E169 There is no ground for thinking of the holy Spirit as another God. Quite to the contrary, it was the Father's Spirit that was communicated to our Lord Jesus. E169 Is upon me -- Since the time of my baptism. A224; R273:1 Because -- The anointing is for the very purpose of fitting those so anointed, whether male or female, to preach the good tidings. Therefore all the anointed, male or female, Jew or Greek, bond or free, are anointed to preach. R1549:1 He hath anointed -- At 30 years of age. R240:1 The holy Spirit had come upon the Lord Jesus about a year before, after his consecration at Jordan. It constituted his anointing. R3300:5 The value of the anointing was that by it the Father gave witness that the sacrifice was accepted; it was the seal or evidence to him that the Father would give him the promised divine nature when he had actually given his life. R240:4 Our Lord told how he was ordained to be a preacher; and the Scriptures tell us we are to walk in his steps. All who have received the ordination of God have the authority to preach according to their opportunities and abilities. R5807:3 From the time of Jesus' baptism God dwelt in him in a peculiar manner; as the Apostle John says of the Church, "God dwelleth in us and we in God." (1 John 4:16) R5291:6 The holy anointing oil was poured upon the head of Aaron, but ran down even unto the skirts of his garments, thus anointing in the figure, each member of his body. R3301:2, 72:3; F132; T37 As this ordination came upon Jesus, it later came upon the disciples at Pentecost; and all down the Gospel age it has come upon the followers of Christ, anointing them to preach the Gospel. Q514:3 Although this anointing did not come directly upon them until Pentecost, they had previously had a foretaste of it in that the Lord conferred upon them a share of his holy Spirit, power, when he sent them out to preach. F212 See what was the purpose of his anointing, and learn therefrom the purpose of your own anointing under him. R942:4 None but the anointed body of Christ are commissioned to preach the good tidings, and every member of that body is so commissioned, irrespective of human distinctions of "clergy" and "laity"; and whosoever does not fulfill this mission is unfaithful to his commission. R2580:5 All of those called of God to preach have the anointing of the holy Spirit of God as their necessary preparation for this service. Without this anointing they are as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, having no commission from God to declare his truth. R2057:3, 241:2 They could teach the people in the synagogue, for a time, but as they shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God, they soon found little, and finally, no opportunity to teach the people in the synagogue. R986:5 The commission of the apostles was, in the main, the same as the commission of the Lord and of the whole Church. R1521:5 This commission, through the Prophet Isaiah, is the only divinely authorized commission that was ever given to any man to preach the Gospel. No man should be regarded by the saints as a minister of the Gospel, or received or heard as such, who cannot claim this commission. R1715:2 The Apostle John says that "the anointing which we have received of him abideth in us." (1 John 2:27) R5536:6, 241:2 The anointing of the Church is for a work yet future. R5537:1, 3301:2 Speaking of the ultimate result of his work. As we gladly accept the divine arrangement, so we must also accept the divine times and seasons, and realize that they are wisely ordained. R2098:5 With God, human ordination counts for nothing. In human ordination, each denomination qualifies its own ministers. But the ordained ministers of God are servants of God and not of error. R5537:2 Our Lord's authority to preach did not come from the Jewish ecclesiastics. "The anointing which ye have received abideth in you." (1 John 2:27) R1917:5 Every member of the anointed Body of Christ will be a preacher of the Gospel. R942:4 Me -- To all appearance the prophet Isaiah was the person meant, yet when Jesus here points out its fulfillment in himself, we see that in him its conditions were fully met. R436:2, 240:1 While this prophecy was primarily fulfilled in Jesus and applied especially to him, we understand also that it applies to the members of Christ. R5536:5 Intimating that nobody is to speak in God's name except those who have been divinely commissioned to do so. R5537:2 As the unleavened wafers of fine floor were anointed with oil in Lev. 2:1. R84:3 To preach -- The commission was one of service--they were to serve one another, to serve the Lord, and to lay down their lives for the brethren. These services were to be rendered especially in connection with the promulgation of the Gospel. F212 We are to distinguish between the preaching of the Gospel and the good tidings promised, which are to come to pass in due time. R2579:6 After this preaching of the Gospel shall have been given and shall have accomplished its purpose and intention, then will follow the glorious actualities referred to in it. R2580:1 Every member of the Body, however humble or obscure, being "anointed to preach," is failing in his mission if he does not preach. R1917:5 Preaching is not always public declaration. Every influence that we can send out is preaching the Gospel. R1917:5 Tract distribution, personal visits, personal letters and personal conversation (wise, discreet and backed by noble and consistent Christian character) are effective means. In these various ways all can preach the Gospel. R1891:2, 241:3 Some can do several of these things, some can do all of them, and all can and should preach by their life and customs the power of the good news to transform, for we are all living epistles, known and read of all men. (2 Cor. 3:2) R241:4 Preaching a good message rather than raising a great army. R3300:6 The gospel -- Jesus preached the "good news" in two parts: first, to the world, a restitution of all things, illustrated by his miracles; second, the great prize obtainable by those who will now walk in the "narrow way," illustrated in his own person. R241:2 The news was so new to them and so good that the Pharisees and religious leaders could not believe it to be true. R241:3 To the poor -- Not the literally poor any more than the literally broken-hearted, but the "poor in spirit," the humble minded, who are also the sympathetic, the tender, the heart-broken, as in contrast with the hard-hearted. R2580:1 To all who were meek enough to receive it by faith from the humble and unpretentious Nazarene. R1714:3 The meek of the earth, who gladly receive the truth and constitute the Church of God. R931:6 To the meek, not to the rebellious or indifferent; these are to be dealt with by and by. R5537:2 Not wasting time and effort upon those whom they find to be mentally "rich and increased in goods, and feeling that they have need of nothing." (Rev. 3:17) R2580:2 Rather than rallying round himself the rich, wise and proud. R3300:6 "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me." (John 17:9) R798:6 The meek, not the proud, hard-hearted, profane. E488; R3300:6, 2821:4, 2310:5, 798:6 The meek alone can or shall see Present Truth. E90 "The poor have the gospel preached to them." (Matt. 11:5) R5145:1 He hath sent me -- Jesus merely proclaimed these things, with a few examples of healing, etc.; the actual blessings belong to the Messianic Kingdom time. R5068:5 To heal -- Greek, iaomai, meaning to heal; also has the significance of saved, as in Matt. 13:15. R4099:3 As in "Pray for one another that ye may be healed." (James 5:16) R4099:3 The broken-hearted -- Broken by the trials, difficulties, perplexities and adversities of the present life. R2580:2 The anointed ones are not to spend their time endeavoring to break the hard hearts of the worldly, for this is not part of their commission. R2580:2, 3436:1, 3301:2, 2965:6, 2821:4 They had expected their deliverer would be the one who would cause the loss of many lives and the breaking of many hearts with sorrow and trouble. R3300:6 How his words ought to have appealed to all that were broken-hearted! The difficulty probably was that they were hard-hearted. R5608:4 To tell those in trouble that by and by the Kingdom would bring order, peace and joy out of present confusion and trouble. R1714:3 Pouring in the oil and the wine of the divine promise to cheer, comfort, bless and prepare for joint-heirship in the Kingdom. R2580:3 Help to allay the sufferings of others, especially of the Lord's household, though they are to assist any as they have suitable opportunity. But their special work in blessing and comforting the world will be in the Kingdom. R5537:1 To point them to the ransom, the resurrection, and to tell them that "joy cometh in the morning." (Psa. 30:5) R3436:1 To preach -- "The hour is coming, in which all that are in their graves shall hear his [Jesus'] voice and shall come forth." (John 5:28) R240:6, 1903:3, 1714:6; NS119:1, 209:4 Deliverance -- The gospel of the resurrection. E378 Signifying the liberation of Satan's captives from the bondage of sin, and ultimately the release from death and its bondage. R3300:6 By his death he secured the key. (Rev. 1:18) HG497:4; NS139:3, 209:3 To the captives -- Surely our Lord opened no earthly prison doors at his first advent. HG497:4; NS118:6 John the Baptist was in Herod's prison at that very time, and the Lord never mentioned his deliverance, nor attempted it. NS209:3 The dead race, still lying in the prison-house of death, the grave. R1715:6 All in that prison-house shall be delivered, not one shall be left. NS209:4 Captives of sin, and receiving daily its wages--dying by inches and entering the great prison-house, the tomb. R1086:1 "Sold under sin." (Rom. 7:14) R2580:4, 2310:3; C315; E122; SM611:3 All are mentioned as "prisoners," some in the prison, and some prisoners in bondage, "captives" not yet barred in. R838:6 Sin is represented as the great oppressive Monarch, from whose power we have been delivered by Christ. Regaining our liberty, we have become associated with the Redeemer of all the slaves of sin and death. R930:6 "Prisoners of hope." (Zech. 9:12) R2601:1 The grave is really a symbol of hope; for we would not speak of it as a prison house were it not for our hopes of resurrection. R894:1 Were they not captives, bound by the fetters of sin, bound also by the chains and fetters of heredity, sickness, imperfection and death? R5068:5 Their thoughts may have gone out to John the Baptist, who at this time was in prison, and they may have wondered whether Jesus would take any steps for his release. R3300:6 We have no hope for the opening of the blind eyes in the present age--only the few now get the eyesalve. It is better that the majority should be permitted to remain blinded, that when the eyes of their understanding have been opened, and their responsibilities proportionately increased, it may be under circumstances more favorable to them. R2580:5 Under "the bondage of corruption" (Rom. 8:21), decay and death. R838:6, 2310:4; SM611:3 To the blind -- Mentally, morally and physically. HG293:3 The blindness which sin has brought upon the hearts of men, perverting their mental vision, hindering them from seeing the divine being and his divine attributes in their true light. R2580:5 Whose minds the god of this world hath blinded. (2 Cor. 4:4) R2310:5 Were not some of them actually blind also, as respected the eyes of their understanding? R5068:5 To set at liberty -- Freedom from the domination of Satan and sin. R3301:3 To become members of the house of sons. R3302:4 They have no liberty so long as they are under the bondage of corruption (decay and death), hence the deliverance of the prisoners in the tomb, and the captives not entombed, to perfect life, are equally the work of the Restorer. R838:6 Them that are bruised -- Were they not all bruised by the fall, imperfect, blemished, wounded, sore--mentally, morally and physically. R5068:5 This figure fitly represents the bondage of corruption, infirmity, etc., which are concomitants to the death penalty. R2580:6 How comparatively valueless would all the other features of blessings be if sickness, pain and imperfection continued. R2580:6 Luke 4:19 The acceptable year -- Time, period. R3301:1, 2581:1 The Gospel age is the only opportunity to attain unto the divine nature, immortality--we see no "second chance" for that. R527:3* The time in which God will accept your sacrifices, because he accepts you as "members" of the Body of the Christ, the great High Priest, the great Mediator of the New Covenant. R4535:3, 3301:1, 2581:1, 241:6 The entire Gospel age, the "acceptable time" in the sense that, during this period, God is willing, through the merit of Christ's sacrifice, to accept from amongst the sinners a Little Flock of joint-sacrificers to share with their Redeemer the Kingdom. R5068:5 The Gospel age antitypes Israel's Day of Atonement, and the sacrifices of our Lord and his Church, his Body, are the "better sacrifices," foreshadowed by the bullock and goat offered typically by the Jews. SM48:2 The acceptance of the world, after their restoration by Christ, is very different from the acceptance of the Church in this present time. R3301:1 Luke 4:20 He closed the book -- Our Lord read discriminatingly, "rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. 2:15). He read the part appropriate to the time, but did not read about the day of vengeance. R3300:3, 59:3*; A218 Similarly our Lord referred to two of the "three ways" in Matt. 7:13,14, because the third was not yet due to be opened up. A218 His teaching was to test the people: if his message were received, no day of vengeance would be necessary; if not received, the day of vengeance would follow, as it did follow upon that nation after it had rejected him. R3300:3 Omitting "and the day of vengeance of our God." That part of the prophecy was not due to be proclaimed. Today the passage is due to be given as a whole. R5537:5, 1917:6, 241:6 It was not yet time to proclaim "the day of vengeance of our God," nor to comfort all that mourn--the whole "groaning creation," nor to grant unto the mourners in Zion beauty for ashes, etc. R1715:1 And sat down -- It is better that we should read one verse understandingly and appreciatingly than that we should merely read chapter after chapter of the Lord's Word in a formal manner. R3300:3 Fastened on him -- The audience had a mixed sentiment respecting him--the natural feeling of irreverence for those with whom we are intimately acquainted, and another feeling of pride in a fellow-citizen who had attained such renown. R2579:2 Luke 4:21 Began to say -- The Lord's discourse is not given, but unquestionably it was a grand one, based upon so grand a text. R3301:6, 2579:2 This day -- Why did he not read the entire commission? The answer is obvious: it was because the remainder was not fulfilled in that day. R1714:3 Now, in the harvest of their age, for the first time it could be said that it was fulfilled. R3300:5 Fulfilled -- He did not, in any coarse or rude manner, say: "I am the Messiah, I am the anointed of Jehovah." He did it in a quiet, unassuming manner, by calling attention to the prophecy and declaring that its fulfillment had now taken place. R3300:5 Primarily fulfilled in Jesus, but applies also to the members of Christ. R5536:5, 1714:3 Luke 4:22 And all -- Lengthy quotes praising Jesus from Rousseau and Napoleon Bonaparte. E154, 155 Bare him witness -- His superiority as a reader and exponent was recognized, and the service was usually turned over to him. R4957:3 Yet faithfulness to the truth quickly aroused hatred and opposition. Very soon the great ones in the church began to oppose him bitterly; but still many of the common people heard him gladly. R1069:3 The people of Nazareth would of course feel a certain sense of pride in their fellow-citizen, whose fame was spreading throughout all Galilee and Judea. R5067:3 Wondered at -- Recognizing him as far beyond the ordinary. "Never man spake like this man." (John 7:46) E154 They had never before seen one in whom was Life. R4107:4 Filled with admiration. R2579:3 The explanation of the matter is that Jesus was perfect, while all about him were imperfect. R4957:3, 4107:4 Not merely because he was a perfect man, but also because his words were indited of the indwelling Spirit of the Father. R240:4 Receiving his testimony, but later deserting him, walking no more with him as he continued to enforce the lessons of divine truth. (See verse 28) R5507:6 Gracious words -- Words of favor, of blessing, of comfort. R3301:3 Words of love, and promises of release from death. R241:3 "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46); "Beautiful words, wonderful words of life." SM263:1 "He taught as one having authority [as one who understood his subject thoroughly] and not as the scribes [not doubtfully]." (Matt. 7:29) R3803:2 "Grace is poured into thy lips" (Psa. 45:2); "Let your speech be always with grace [with manifest love and kindness], seasoned with salt [a purifying and preservative influence]." (Col. 4:6) R1937:2 No threats of eternal torment to nine-tenths of the human family. R2569:6, 1502:4 Yet faithfulness to the truth quickly aroused hatred and opposition. R1069:3, 5068:2 The grace of our Lord's lips is manifest to us in the message which he left. SM55:1 Even at the age of twelve, he was intellectually superior to the mature and learned doctors. R1682:2 Out of his mouth -- "Grace is poured into thy lips" (Psa. 45:2). "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grass." (Deut. 32:2) R1937:2 Is not this Joseph's son? -- It was just as some remarked on other occasions: "Whence hath this man this wisdom?" (Matt. 13:54) Ah, it was by reason of the anointing. R1715:5 One of their humblest citizens. R1715:5 Luke 4:23 Do also here -- Our Lord does not say that he was not permitted of the Father to do miracles at Nazareth, although this is implied in the fact that he did none, and in the examples and illustrations which he gave. R2579:3 He might not use his power selfishly in his own interest. We may likewise suppose that he would not be at liberty to use it simply as a gratification to curiosity, but that it could be used only in response to proper faith. R2579:4 We may surmise the reason the Lord did not perform any miracles at Nazareth was because the people, being in a right condition of mind, should have been ready to accept the good tidings without any attestation of miracles. R3494:2 Luke 4:24 Verily I say -- Words of reproof to a heedless and merely curiosity-seeking people. R1715:5 Human nature esteems grander that which is distant. R3494:2 Luke 4:25 The days of Elias -- Our Lord's reference to this incident confirms this entire piece of history respecting Elijah, the three and a half years of famine and his visit to Sarepta. R2326:4 Three years and six months -- Foretelling the flight of the true Church into the wilderness from the face of the false church during 1260 years, while the harlot reigned as a queen. (Rev. 12:6) R389:3* Illustrating the period of Papacy's reign "as a queen." (See 1 Kings 17:1,7) B256; R389:3* Great famine -- Israel may already have had six months' drought when Elijah announced that no rain was to be expected until he would announce it. (See 1 Kings 18:1) R4740:1 As copious rains followed, so at the end of the 1260 years, AD 1799, the power of the truth and its witnesses was manifested. B256 Luke 4:26 Save unto Sarepta -- In Zidon, implying that she, a Gentile, was more worthy of the blessings than were any of the widows of Israel. (See 1Kings 17:9) R5741:3, 2326:4 A woman -- A Gentile, but more worthy of the blessings Elijah accorded than were any of the widows of the land of Israel. R5741:3 There was faith found in the widow. R2348:1 Luke 4:27 Many lepers -- Had not thought it worth while to seek Elijah for help. R2348:1 Saving Naaman -- There was faith found in Naaman. The "many lepers" of Israel had heard of this prophet, no doubt; but Naaman had faith in God to come seeking Elisha. R2348:1 Luke 4:28 In the synagogue -- They could teach the people in the synagogue, for a time, but as they shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God, they soon found little, and finally, no opportunity to teach the people in the synagogue. R986:5 When they heard -- The apt illustrations were unkindly received by his hearers because, drawing the parallel, it likened them to starving, poor and diseased lepers, and implied our Lord's comparative greatness and superiority to them as a dispenser of divine bounty. R2579:5 Filled with wrath -- What a picture of the natural man in his fallen position! At one moment rejoicing in the Master's gracious words, at another desiring to destroy him because of the failure of their selfish hopes and ambitions. R3302:1 Those who followed the Lord for only a little season and then forsook him ceased then to be his disciples, and were no longer so recognized. R3153:2 What made the change? The plain declaration that, because they did not believe in him fully, therefore it would not be God's will that he should perform any miracles for them. R5068:2 The miracles were practical, and they could appreciate them; but his teaching that he was the Messiah seemed far-fetched, when they had known him for so long as the son of Joseph, the carpenter. R2579:3 Their pride and patriotism made them wild. R5068:2 What consternation would follow in the churches of today if the whole "counsel of God" (Acts 20:27) were declared! R5507:6 Luke 4:29 Thrust him out -- It seems that persecution from his earthly kindred was not lacking, and that he was unwelcome in the home of his childhood. R1069:3 If you are faithful in proclaiming the truth, which is sharper than any two-edged sword, it will not be long before they will do with you as they did with Jesus. R356:5 And led him -- Not daring to lay hands on him, but merely as a mob gnashing upon him and pushing onward in a direction in which they desired. R5068:2 Brow of the hill -- A precipitous hill about forty or fifty feet high. R3302:1 Luke 4:30 Passing through the midst -- Not a disappearance in the sense of becoming invisible to the people. It was merely an adroit, prompt movement, by which he eluded the murderous designs of his enemies. B126 Apparently our Lord permitted the matter to go far enough to show the real spirit of his opposers. R3302:1 By the exercise of some power, possibly a power natural to a perfect human being, our Lord mastered them with his mind, and passed from their midst. R2579:6 Overawing them by the dignity of his presence. R5068:2 Went his way -- His hour had not yet come and therefore he seems to have exerted that power which belonged to him as a perfect man over the weaker, imperfect men--the power of his mind alone, we believe. R1715:6 The same power was exercised on similar occasions. (See John 7:30,43-46.) But when his hour was come he opened not his mouth nor resisted in any degree the throngs that sought his life. R1715:6 As the Father had a due time for the Son in which to accomplish his work, so, doubtless, divine providence is overruling and guiding the affairs of each member of the Body of Christ so that not even a hair of their heads could fall without divine notice. R3302:1 Went his way -- Unmolested; his hour had not yet come. R3302:1, 1715:6 Luke 4:31 Taught them -- The Lord has not seen fit to provide us with even a condensed statement of his discourse, but the clear inference of the following story is that he was speaking against sin, and incidentally mentioned demoniacal possession. R2581:3 The sabbath days -- Type of the seventh thousand-year day. B40 Luke 4:32 They were astonished -- Truth is stranger than fiction. The fallen condition seems to lead us to accept as more reasonable its own imaginings or those of others, rather than the direct, clear statement of the divine Word. R3861:1 Many, as they hear of the glorious plan of the ages, make the remark that they are astonished at the teaching, its beauty, its power, its reasonableness, and the way it glorifies God. R3861:4 Never imagine you can overturn an old lie without causing terrible confusion and alarm among the children of this world living under it, as illustrated by what transpires when your turn over a big, flat stone which for years has remained surrounded by grass. R3860:3 With power -- Of the holy Spirit. R1917:1 He was the greatest teacher that ever lived. R1917:1 As one who knew the truth by an implicit faith in God which admitted of no doubt, and by the practical demonstration of its power upon his own heart. R1917:2 Our Lord had a clear understanding of the subjects he handled, and his presentations were not vague, but clear-cut and distinct; and well-proven by the testimony of the Law and the Prophets. R2581:3 Luke 4:33 In the synagogue -- The devil went to church then as he not infrequently does now, and he was as opposed to having the truth preached then as he is now. R3309:2 There was a man -- Similar to perhaps half of the insane of the present day. R3310:4 Which had a spirit -- Apparently the human will must consent before these evil spirits have power to take possession. But when they do take possession apparently the willpower is so broken down that the individual is almost helpless to resist their presence and further encroachment, even though he so desires. R2173:3 Of an unclean devil -- One of the fallen angels from the time of the flood mentioned in Jude 6, 7 and 2 Pet. 2:4. R3309:3 This tendency to congregate in one person indicates the desire they have still to exercise the power originally given them; namely, the power to materialize as men. R2173:3 And cried out -- Believing that the Lord's teachings were condemnatory of himself and associates using the mouth of the possessed man. R3309:3 Luke 4:34 Let us alone -- Jesus had evidently made some reference in his sermon to the subject of demoniacal obsession. R2581:5 There are many amongst men who have similarly perverted notions of their vested rights to defraud, mislead, pillage and injure others. R3772:2 Wherever the true Gospel goes, its effect is to cause uproar and confusion in the kingdom of the prince of darkness. R1633:3 To do with thee -- In common with thee. R3772:2 To destroy us -- Not only not attempting to deny their own identity, but admitting his lordship and power over them, and their expectation of some future termination of their present restraint or imprisonment--a culmination or judgment in their case. F626 Apparently this demon recognized that the time was still distant when the power of Satan and all the fallen angels is doomed to be overthrown. R3309:4, 2581:6, 254:5 It is expressly stated that those angels which sinned are to have a future trial. (2 Pet. 2:4) R697:1 These imprisoned spirits had in mind destruction as their final doom, but it does not prove that their suppositions were correct. R697:1; HG729:6 The faith of devils can only inspire trembling, dread and fear. (James 2:19) R606:5 I know thee -- As Satan recognized Jesus in the temptation, so all of the fallen angels knew that the Holy One of God had become a man for the purpose of redeeming, reclaiming and restoring humanity. R3309:3 The Holy One of God -- The testimony of the demon seemed to be reverential, and might by some have been construed in the Lord's favor. Jesus, however, was not willing to accept such a testimony from such a source. R3309:4, 3122:3 By contrast, the Pharisees said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph?" (John 6:42) R1680:1 Luke 4:35 Rebuked him -- Our Lord did not deign to hold conversation with these spirit beings, a lesson to every one of his followers. R2581:6 The divine method seems to be to make a clear separation between the servants of God and the servants of evil. The privilege of testifying for God, being Ambassadors for the truth, is a favor reserved for the Lord's own people. R3309:4 Being unwilling to accept testimony from such a source. The Lord's people should resent the service of any who do not give evidence of heart-union with the Lord. R3309:5 Come out of him -- Give up his hold upon the man's mind and body. R3727:2 Evil spirits can do nothing except as God permits them. R1722:1 When the devil -- Today Satan, acting more skillfully than in the past, is leading on as a scientist and is pooh-poohing suggestions that there are evil spirits or a Beelzebub or prince of demons. R3310:5, 3122:5 Had thrown him -- Tearing him, that is to say, causing a convulsion, a fit. R3310:3 Our Lord could have forbidden such manifestations of the demon spirit, but preferred to allow it to be so, that thus might be manifested the malignant disposition of the evil spirits. R2582:1, 3727:3 The demon was powerless to resist the authority of Jesus, but he caused the man considerable torture in going from him. R3727:2 There are no such obsessions or possessions by holy Spirits. R3727:3 In the midst -- On the floor of the synagogue, in the midst of the people. R3310:4 He came out -- Undoubtedly there are cases of demon possession today--obsession. The customs of our day removes these to asylums, where they are called insane. R3310:4 Hurt him not -- Not having power to do him injury, under the Lord's command. R3310:4 Luke 4:36 What a word is this! -- Inquiring, What new teaching is this which has authority to cast out the evil demons? R3310:4 He commandeth -- Exercising in their very presence a superhuman power--controlling spirit beings. R2582:2 Luke 4:37 The fame of him -- There was a reason why miracles were necessary at the beginning of this dispensation. Had our Lord Jesus performed no miracles, how could we today feel the confidence, the assurance, that we do feel respecting him? R3310:1 Today we have no necessity for such manifestations of miraculous power. R3310:1 As Messiah, with power and authority. R1743:1 Tending to his immediate advancement of the kingly office. R1754:3 Luke 4:38 Out of the synagogue -- It was the Sabbath day, and the Jews, however irreligious and even devilish some of them were, were all strict Sabbatarians. R3311:1 A great fever -- How many today are being consumed by a fever of ambition, pride or discontent? R2582:6 They besought him -- The casting out of the demon suggested to them our Lord's power to heal diseases. R3727:4 How can we, who have devoted or consecrated our earthly advantages for the heavenly ones, ask to have again the earthly advantages? R3310:3 Luke 4:39 Stood over her -- Took her by the hand and helped her up. R2582:2, 3727:5 It left her -- Jesus is unquestionably able to heal the sickness of our bodies today, but should we expect such healings? R3311:4, 3301:6 Immediately she arose -- Instead of being weak and enervated, as is usually the case after a severe fever. R3310:6, 2582:2 Ministered unto them -- Probably in the setting forth of refreshments and other household matters. R3311:1 An operation of the mind could not have restored at once the strength lost by the fever. R3311:1 Luke 4:40 When the sun was setting -- The cooler time of the day, in which the diseased could come in a warm country such as Palestine. R3311:1, 2582:2 Divers diseases -- The lamenesses and impotencies of the past find analogies in the present: dead hands, worse than dead, used actively in the service of evil, have been recovered for activity in the service of the Lord; men and women, dead in trespasses and sins, awakened to newness of life in the service of the truth. R2582:6 Healed them -- As Jesus preached freedom from evil maladies and death, he exemplified the power and authority of his preaching by "healing all manner of diseases." (Matt. 4:23) R241:1 Why such miracles? Why not more of them? Why not rebuke all the fevers? The miracles were merely a prophecy of the healing blessing which is to be fulfilled in due time in his Kingdom. R2582:3 Luke 4:41 And devils also -- Persons; not human propensities. R2171:6 Out of many -- Apparently there were great numbers thus possessed throughout Israel. R2173:2 Thou art Christ -- Spiritualists talk much as we do; but every counterfeit is a proof of a genuine; second, only valuable things are counterfeited; and a counterfeit must resemble the genuine very closely, or it would not deceive. R267:4 Rebuking them -- Praise and commendation from an evil source are never to be desired. R2582:2 Suffered them -- Notice the personality and intelligence attributed to these demons. R2171:6; HG725:5 Not to speak -- Further. R2171:6 The Lord does not desire the testimony of devils respecting himself or his plan. "Unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes?" (Psa. 50:16) R3727:6 Luke 4:42 A desert place -- A wilderness, a place deserted. R114:1 Luke 4:43 Preach the kingdom -- Not only was the Kingdom the topic with which the Lord began his public ministry, but it was really the main topic of all his preaching, other subjects being mentioned merely in connection with or in explanation of this one subject. A273 Luke 4:44 Synagogues -- The Lord could go into the synagogues and teach for a time; but soon found little, and finally no, opportunity to teach there. R986:5 Today the "clergy" keep out all who would feed the sheep "meat in due season" (Matt. 24:45); hence the sheep are called out of Babylon. R986:6 Luke 5 Luke 5:1 It came to pass -- A period of about a year elapsed between the temptation in the wilderness and this scene on the Lake of Galilee. R3720:1 The people pressed -- Hungry for the word of life. R3720:2 A different reception from his rejection in Nazareth. R3307:2 Luke 5:2 Two ships -- Peter and his brother Andrew were managing one of the boats, and James and his brother John another of the same partnership. R3720:2 Washing their nets -- These fishermen, and perhaps others in the same vicinity, proceeded with their work while the Lord was preaching, no doubt giving earnest attention to his words at the same time. R3720:2 Preparing for the next night's fishing. R3720:2 Christ did not call idlers but workers into his ministry. R2246:1 Lake of Gennesaret -- Sea of Galilee. R3307:2, 5554:3, 3720:2 Luke 5:3 Thrust out a little -- From which position he could the more easily address the large crowds on the shelving beach. R3720:2 Out of the ship -- The voice carries remarkably well at this spot. R2627:2 Luke 5:4 Had left speaking -- We wonder that more of our Lord's discourses have not been preserved for us. It is because that without the spirit of adoption, they could not understand spiritual things. R3307:2,3 Luke 5:5 Have taken nothing -- For some reason the fish were not in that quarter of the lake at that time. R3307:6 The net -- The Gospel call of the Gospel age. (Matt. 13:47) R3308:5 Luke 5:6 Multitude of fishes -- Symbol of men of all classes, suitable and unsuitable for the Kingdom. C214; R3308:5 Luke 5:6 A great multitude -- A miracle was performed however we may view it: the creation of fish on the spot, the Lord bringing a great school of fish to the vicinity, or the knowledge of the Lord that such a school of fish was in the vicinity. R3720:3 Teaching that the success or failure of their efforts, in any direction, he can control if he please. B118 Here also was a prophecy of their success as fishers of men. They were to catch multitudes. R1716:1 This furnished the precedent for them to recognize him when he appeared in another form to them after his resurrection, but performed a similar miracle. (John 21:6) B118; R941:4 The thickness of the schools of fish in the lake of Gennesaret is almost incredible. They often cover an area of more than an acre, packed closely together. R3720:3 And their net -- Representing the nominal Christian church. C214; R1716:1 Luke 5:8 When -- Peter's impulsiveness, by itself, is an attractive trait. R3308:1 Simon Peter -- It was probably at an earlier interview that our Lord gave Simon this surname of Peter. R3307:6 Fell down -- Recognizing that no ordinary human being could have produced such results under such circumstances. R3308:1 Depart from me -- Peter's real sentiment was probably the reverse: "O Lord, although I am a sinful man, permit me to be near thee, that I may be blessed by contact with thee." R3308:1 He realized that he was in the presence of one possessed of more than human wisdom and power, and correspondingly he felt afraid. R3720:3 A sinful man -- I recognize the great difference between us. R3308:1 A prayer which Jesus answered in making him one of the twelve. R3308:1 Luke 5:9 He was astonished -- This miracle was performed for the purpose of finally convincing Peter, Andrew, James and John respecting the Lord's relationship to the Father, and his power of control in respect to things temporal as well as things spiritual. R3720:3 Luke 5:10 James...John...Simon -- Men from the humbler walks of life. R1521:2,3 The three who seemed to have the zeal, energy and vim which the Lord appreciates. R3308:1 And Jesus -- Who had doubtless performed the miracle for the purpose of fully convincing them of his control of things temporal as well as spiritual. R3720:3 Henceforth thou -- Only four of all the multitude were specially chosen and called. R3720:5 They were already his disciples in a general sense of the word, followers, believers, but now the time had come for the Lord's selection of the twelve apostles who should be with him continually. R3307:6; F210 Catch men -- For the Lord and his service; not for our personal profit or gain, not for sectarian upbuilding. R3308:4 The Lord does not invite at first to a full consecration, but rather gives instruction along the lines of justification, and after they have grown to some degree, the privilege of forsaking all to be his special disciples. R3720:5 Gathering them into the Gospel net, with a view to their ultimate glorification as new creatures in Christ. R3721:1 Not trying to get disciples into some sectarian bondage, but to catch men with the glorious hopes of the Gospel, to bring them into such relationship with the Lord that they would fully and gladly surrender their all to him. R3308:4 Fishing requires energy, tact, proper bait, and that the fishermen keep himself out of sight. These four things are requisites in the spiritual fishing in which the Lord privileges us to engage. R3308:3, 5555:3 The skillful fisherman catches the fish individually. Likewise, very much of the work of this age has been an individual work, accomplished by talking to people. R5555:1 Fishermen usually hide themselves, so that the fish will not see them, but the bait. So in drawing men to the truth, we should hide ourselves, and throw out as bait those features of God's Word which would apply to the one with whom we might be dealing. R5555:3 Fish are easily alarmed when they find out anyone wishes to take them, so humanity is shy of being captured by anything--especially if they suspect they may lose their liberties; and thus consecration appears to the world. R3308:4 However, the fishing business does not fully illustrate the matter, because all who are of the Lord's catch must be willingly his, else they will not remain caught, but be cast forth. R3308:4 The fishing of the next age will be different and on a much larger scale. R3308:5 They were to catch multitudes. R1716:1 The work of the Gospel age. R5555:1 All the fish have not yet been caught. R5555:3 Luke 5:11 To land -- Represents the harvest time of this age. R3308:5 They forsook all -- They had been with the Lord for more or less about a year, yet had not until now reached the place where they were ready to forsake all. R3720:5 Mark 1:20 informs us that the boats were left in the care of Zebedee. Nor need we suppose that these four started away that same day. It may have taken time to make proper arrangements for the fish and the business interests of the partnership. R3720:6 Not all are called to a ministry requiring all their time; the majority the Lord evidently intends to instruct while they are about their ordinary business. These also, however, must forsake their boats and fishing tackle in the heart from the moment that a full consecration is made to the Lord. R3721:2, 3308:2 Similarly, we have duties and responsibilities in life which would be wrong to abruptly cast aside and ignore. R3721:1 Evidently retaining some sort of interest, however, as they had no difficulty in regaining possession of the boats when they re-embarked in the fishing business after our Lord's death. R3308:2 If we would be his disciples we must forsake all ambitions and hopes for wealth, name or fame, and not look back. R3721:4 Followed him -- The opposite course from what Peter had suggested--that the Lord depart from them because he was perfect while they were poor, weak and imperfect through the fall. R3720:4 Luke 5:14 Tell no man -- The testimony of his Messiahship was to be hidden from the common people until the rulers of the Jewish church had been given a full opportunity to decide for or against Christ. C168 Luke 5:15 Fame abroad of him -- Because of his miracles and teaching. R1735:3 As Messiah, with power and authority. R1743:1 Tending to his immediate advancement to the kingly office. R1754:3 As the fame of Jesus increased, the opposition to him became more and more pronounced, especially from the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees as they were brought into competition and unfavorable comparison with him as public teachers. R1735:3 To be healed -- Healings today, when the agencies employed are not in opposition to the Lord, may be slight intimations to men that the times of restitution are at hand. Other manifestations of healing through agencies in subtle opposition to the Lord we can only regard as the efforts of Satan to offset the power of God. R1921:6 Luke 5:16 And prayed -- Our Lord frequently spent whole nights in earnest prayer. R1865:5 Let no child of God hesitate to come to him often or to tarry long. R1865:3 Luke 5:17 Pharisees -- When they found that he received sinners and ate with them, they hated him. R1460:1 Doctors of the law -- Rabbis, scribes. R2583:2 Luke 5:18 Men brought -- It might be questioned whether the faith was that of the palsied man, or that of his friends. We think the circumstances warrant the latter thought, that the sick man exercised faith and prompted his friends to help. R2583:5 In the present time some, like this paralytic, are not past feeling and yet are so helpless as to need the assistance of friends to bring them to the Lord. R2584:4 The chief business of every member of Christ, besides his own development, is to help others to the Redeemer. R3315:5 With a palsy -- Representing a condition of sin in which the individual loses his power; in combination with this may come an insensibility of conscience, a deadness to all principles of righteousness, "past feeling." (Eph. 4:19) R2584:4 Luke 5:19 Upon the housetop -- By the outside stairway customary in that country, the buildings being usually but one story in height. R2583:3 Let him down -- We should not be readily stopped by impediments and obstacles but, like these, be ready and willing to take advantage of every proper circumstance and condition to place our friends near to the Lord and his power. R2584:4 Through the tiling -- The extemporaneous device of plain peasants accustomed to opening their roofs and letting down grain, straw and other articles. R2583:3 Demonstrating a persevering, trusting faith in Christ. R1921:2 Luke 5:20 And when he -- Jesus, acting as the special agent and representative of the Father. R3729:2 Saw their faith -- The faith of the sick man and those interested in him. R1921:2 So far from feeling offended at the intrusion, he overlooked these because of the quality he so much admires--faith. We also should overlook rudeness, especially where there is evidence of sincerity of heart. R2583:4 Thy sins are forgiven -- Evidently an unlooked-for answer. R1921:2 Forgiveness of sins is the first essential step toward acceptable Christianity. Some are inclined to put doctrine instead of faith and repentance, but this will not do. R2584:5 "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world," said John. (John 1:29) R1921:5 While the forgiveness of sins is an assurance that the healing, or removal of the penalty of sin, will surely follow, it does not signify that the recovery from the penalty will immediately follow. R1921:5 Similar forgiveness of sins may be declared by members of the Body of Christ to all who come unto God in his appointed way. R3315:2 The Gospel Church receives forgiveness of sins in this age, and will be "delivered from the bondage of corruption" (Rom. 8:21) at the dawn of the Millennium. R1921:5 Luke 5:21 Who is this -- The question was a very proper one, and they are not to be blamed for making the enquiry. R2583:6 Who can forgive sins -- Our Lord's authority to pronounce the forgiveness of sins was in virtue of his having sacrificed his humanity; while he, as a new creature, was a priest of the new order, fully empowered to forgive sins. R2584:2 God never gave power to bishops, priests or ministers of any denomination to forgive sins. Nor did Jesus give authority to the apostles to forgive sins. They might preach forgiveness, but only in his name. HG737:5 But God alone -- The divinely appointed way for the cancellation of sins was by means of the ransom as the legal settlement of the penalty, and faith in Christ the Redeemer. R1921:3 Though the ransom price had not yet been actually given, the Lamb for sacrifice had already been presented by our Lord at his baptism, and had been accepted of God and was on the altar of sacrifice. R1921:3 Luke 5:22 Perceived their thoughts -- Even though their murmuring words did not reach his ears. R1921:2 He answering -- Not wishing that the miracle would detract from the preaching which it interrupted, but, on the contrary, should impress it as well as illustrate it. R2583:5 Luke 5:23 Whether is easier -- Equally easy, for both the authority and the power are committed unto Jehovah's Anointed. R1921:5 The same divine authority that was necessary to the forgiveness of sins was also necessary to the healing. If the forgiveness of sins was blasphemy, so also was the healing. R1921:3 Thy sins be forgiven -- In every instance the healing of the soul from the sickness and condemnation of sin should be placed first, as the highest and most important thing, far outranking physical conditions and blessings. R2584:1 There was a provision in the Jewish law for the forgiveness of sins, through the offering of special sin offerings. The paralytic evidently brought to the Lord the sacrifice appropriate to the new dispensation, "a broken and a contrite heart." (Psa. 51:17) R2584:2 Luke 5:24 Unto the sick -- Healing did not follow as a result of the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins was one thing and the healing was another. R1921:3 Arise -- Thus our Lord called attention to his miracles of healing as the divine testimonials of his claims to be the Son of God, the long-looked-for Messiah of Israel. R1921:5 All our Lord's healings were both instantaneous and complete, showing the fullness of his authority and power. R1921:6 Luke 5:25 He arose -- A proof, not only of our Lord's healing power, but also of his power to forgive sins. R2583:6 Luke 5:26 Filled with fear -- Reverence, a fear in the sense of respect for the God whose love, sympathy and compassion had been so wonderfully manifested. R2583:6 Luke 5:27 Saw a publican -- Probably Matthew had not only knowledge of our Lord, but also faith in him, as the Messiah. Not until now, however, had Jesus invited him to become one of his immediate disciples; not until now, therefore, could Matthew essay to become such. R2591:1, 2260:1 Named Levi -- As Simon's name was changed by the Lord to Peter, so Levi's name was changed to Matthew, which signifies "the gift of God." R2591:1, 2260:3 The receipt of custom -- A revenue collector. R2590:6, 2260:2 Receipt of custom -- An occupation despised by the average Jew as being unpatriotic. R2591:1 Follow me -- Our Lord's choice of a publican to be one of the favored apostles indicates the impartiality of his selections; and implies that Matthew could not have been one of the dishonest publicans. It also showed that he passed by no Israelite indeed merely because there was prejudice amongst the people against him or his class. R2260:2 The influence of the fact that our Lord would accept a publican to be his disciple was far-reaching, and no doubt inspired an interest in our Lord amongst the degraded and outcast classes. R2260:3 While the Lord called each apostle individually, there was also a special occasion upon which he dedicated them to their office as apostles. R1521:2 Luke 5:28 He left all -- Not that he left his money-drawer open and his accounts with the Roman government unsettled, to immediately follow the Master. It may have taken days or weeks to straighten his affairs and enable him to respond to the Lord's call. R2591:1 Luke 5:29 A great feast -- Probably several weeks after Matthew's call. R2591:5 As a man of influence he responded to the Lord's call by consecrating himself and his all, and set about to use these to draw others to the Savior by announcing his devotion under such favorable circumstances as might possibly win some. R2591:2 Each should seek to exert his influence where it is greatest, amongst those with whom he is acquainted and who are acquainted with him. R2591:3 From the connection of the narrative it is supposed that it was on one of the regular fast days of the Pharisees. R2591:5 In his own house -- Hospitality should be used as a channel for the advancement of the truth. The homes of those who have consecrated themselves to the Lord should be consecrated homes, in which the first consideration should be the service of the Master. R2591:3 Of publicans -- Publicans were counted unpatriotic, disloyal to their own nation, in that they accepted the service of an alien government, and made use of their knowledge of their country and people in assisting to collect revenues deemed unjust. R2591:1 Of others -- Publicans, ostracized not because they were wicked, but because their business was disesteemed, were forced to have most of their social intercourse with the non-religious, called "sinners". R2591:2 Being cast off from the sympathies and friendship of the Jews in general, they were naturally less influenced by their prejudices and hence more ready to receive the truth. R1783:3 Luke 5:30 Why do you eat -- The objection was not that our Lord should not teach the publicans and sinners, but that he should not eat with them, which implied a social equality. R2591:5 Our Lord's strict observance of the Law no doubt made him at first a favorite with the Pharisees. But when they found that he received sinners, they began to realize that his righteousness was of a different sort from theirs and, as darkness is opposed to light, they hated him. R1459:6 They should have had the yearning compassion which would have delighted to lift them out of sin and brought them nearer to the Lord and nearer to righteous influences. R2592:1 With publicans -- They were classed with sinners and harlots in New Testament usage. The Hebrew Talmud classes them with murderers and thieves, and regards their repentance as impossible. R2260:2 Sinners -- Not necessarily vile persons and evil-doers, but rather persons who did not profess nor attempt the holiness claimed by the Pharisees, persons who did not claim to be absolute keepers of the divine law. R2591:2 One class of Jews at that time was designated the holy people, Pharisees, and another class was designated as not professing absolute holiness, sinners. R2591:3 Luke 5:31 They that are whole -- Not that the Pharisees were not sick, and that they did not need our Lord's ministry. The fact was, that not admitting they were sin-sick, they were not disposed to receive his good medicine of doctrine. R2591:6 A physician -- The physician had a right to go and mingle with those whom he sought to relieve, and might mingle with them in whatever manner he saw to be expedient for their cure. R2591:6 Luke 5:32 The righteous -- Anyone who considered himself to be righteous would be beyond the call of repentance. R2591:6 But sinners -- His call to the Kingdom was not a call of the righteous, but of those who realized themselves to be imperfect. R2260:4 In God's sight the publicans had the better standing, because of his acknowledgment of imperfections and his petition for mercy. R2591:6 Humility and the realization of the need of a Savior are essential to all who would come to the Father through Christ and his atonement. R2260:5 Luke 5:34 Fast -- Fasting is a concomitant of mourning and sorrow. R2260:5 A very plain diet for a season, if not total abstinence. R2260:6 The bridegroom -- Jesus, personally, is the Bridegroom, and not Jesus and the overcomers. R398:4 Is with them -- Cheering their hearts, refreshing and strengthening them, opening the eyes of their understanding, and giving them hearing ears to appreciate the divine favor that was coming unto them. R2592:1 Now, in the Lord's second Presence, we might say that the feast has begun again. R2592:2 Luke 5:35 Then shall they fast -- Throughout the Gospel age the Lord's people have frequently felt called upon, in time of darkness and adversity, to seek a very close approach to the Lord by humbling of the flesh, and have found fasting a valuable means to this end. R2592:2 Fasting has a typical significance. It means self-denial. When the Master was with his people it required little self-denial to be his follower. But later on, when he got into the toils of his enemies, it required self-denial to confess and follow him. R2592:2 Throughout the Gospel age none could be a follower of the Lamb without self-denial, fasting, refusing the desires and appetites of the flesh--sacrificing some and mortifying others in the interest of spiritual development. R2592:2 Fasting is proper enough when intelligently done and from a right motive, specially commendable to the Lord's people at times when they find themselves lacking in spirituality and exposed to severe temptations. By impoverishing the physical force and vitality, to may assist the full-blooded and impulsive to self-control in every direction. R2260:5 Discipline the body by abstaining from delicacies and relishes. R3659:5 Very plain diet or total abstinence from food is occasionally desirable to many of the Lord's people. R2260:5 Fasting is worse than useless when done as a formality or ceremony. R2260:5 Luke 5:36 A parable -- Given to emphasize that before the blessing could come to natural Israel, spiritual Israel must be selected. R4987:5 No man putteth -- Combining Christianity with Judaism would have been disastrous to both for they are opposites--the one demanding absolute righteousness, impossible for sinners; the other demanding that the impossibility of personal righteousness be acknowledged and that faith be the only condition of forgiveness and mercy. R2592:4 Perhaps the first intimation our Lord had given of the fact that Israel as a nation would not be found worthy of the Kingdom and would be rejected. R2260:6 A new garment -- The fuller light of truth due at the first and second advents of the Lord. C160 An imputed righteousness according to faith, based upon the merits of his own sacrifice for sins. R2592:4 Upon an old -- An old sect or organization; Judaism. C160; R4987:5 The impossible righteousness required by the law. R2592:4 Maketh a rent -- Would only make the weakness more noticeable. C160; R4987:5 Luke 5:37 And no man -- Similarly now, we perceive the impossibility of putting the new wine which the Master is now providing into the old wine-skins of sectarianism. R2592:5 Putteth new wine -- Which has not finished its fermentation. R4987:5, 509:5 New doctrines. R2592:5 Into old bottles -- Wineskins, whose elasticity had been exhausted. C160; R4987:5, 509:5 Old systems; Judaism. C160; R2134:2 Burst the bottles -- New wine, put into such skins, in fermenting would stretch them to almost bursting point. Such skins could never be used again for new wine because, the elasticity having gone out of them, the new wine, in fermenting, would surely burst them. R2592:5 Showing that the wine in use at that time did ferment, and that therefore the wine used at the last supper was probably fermented. R509:5 By the fermentation process of trials, disciplines and testings. R4987:5 Rending them asunder by new truths which are out of harmony with sectarian pride, errors, traditions and superstitions of which these systems are built. C160 And be spilled -- Left stranded, hampered by all the old errors of the sect and held responsible for its past record by the world in general. C160 Not only the Jewish nation would have been convulsed and wrecked by the spirit of the new teachings, but also the doctrines themselves would have gone down with the wreck of the nation. R2592:5 Luke 5:38 Into new bottles -- New wineskins that will be able to stand the stress of the fermentation sure to come--trials, disciplines, testings. R4987:5 Our Lord's work was not like that of John the Baptist, not a work of reformation, patching up the Jewish system and arrangement. R2592:4 He was making an entirely new institution, gathering out a church, which would not be a Jewish church, nor a Reformed Jewish church, but a wholly different institution, a Christian church. R2592:4 God is now, as in the end of the Jewish age, calling out of the whole system such as are Israelites indeed, that they may receive at his hands the new wine, doctrine, of the new dispensation just at hand. R2592:6 Luke 6 Luke 6:1 That he went -- Probably on the way to the synagogue. R3316:6 Through the corn -- Through the wheat. R3754:1 Plucked the ears -- The Pharisees claimed that rubbing the grain in the hands and blowing away the chaff constituted winnowing and threshing, thus violating the Sabbath. R3754:2 And did eat -- The Pharisees had a rule that no food should be eaten until after worship in the synagogue. R3316:6 Luke 6:5 Is Lord also of -- The proper teacher to set forth the real significance to the Jew. R3754:4 Luke 6:6 On another Sabbath -- Type of the Millennial age. B40 Luke 6:9 To save life -- Greek, psuche; better translated "being" or "soul" to prevent confusion. E335 Luke 6:10 Whole -- Complete--not in the full sense of the word, but enough so to have a new start. R5167:4 Luke 6:11 Filled with madness -- Manifesting a rabid spirit of sectarianism and self-importance imitated by some in our day who lack the spirit of the truth. R3754:5 Luke 6:12 Continued all night -- Take time to pray. R5379:3* The Apostle urged the saints to "strive together (Greek, agonize) with me in prayers to God." (Rom. 15:30) R1865:5 Our Lord frequently spent whole nights in earnest prayer. R1865:5 To take counsel of God with reference to the interests of the prospective Church. F210; R1521:3 Luke 6:13 When it was day -- While the Lord called each individually, there was also a special occasion where he dedicated them to their office as apostles. R1521:2 His disciples -- Greek, mathetas, learners, or pupils. R1521:3 To the disciples belong the special teaching, training and discipline of the holy Spirit given unto them as the seal of divine sonship, and all the exceeding great and precious promises of the gospel. R2072:3 Of them -- From amongst invited followers, disciples. F210 Because of humility and strength of character. F211 He chose twelve -- Twelve alone were chosen, and not in succession, but at once. The last pages of inspiration show us that only the teachings of the twelve are foundations for the faith of the Church, the New Jerusalem. (Rev. 21:14) R1526:3 Only the males were chosen. F265 They were a distinct and separate class among the Lord's disciples, fully under the Lord's direction and careful students of his character, Gospel and methods. F210; R1521:3,5 The twelve wells at Elim remind us of the Apostles. R4011:2 Named apostles -- Greek, apostolos, ones sent forth. Thus the twelve were marked as a distinct and separate class among the Lord's disciples. R1521:3 Luke 6:14 Peter -- Bold and impulsive. R2261:1 Andrew -- Far-seeing, careful, cautious. R2261:1 James -- Elderly. R2261:1 John -- Youthful. R2261:1 Phillip -- Slow-witted. R2261:1 Bartholomew -- Nathaniel, the quick-witted. R2261:1 Luke 6:15 Matthew -- One of the heroes of faith. R2261:2 Thomas -- The doubting, skeptical intellect. R2261:2 James -- The advocate of works. R2261:2 Jude -- Thaddeus, Lebbeus, a man of doctrine. R2261:2 Luke 6:16 Simon -- The zealot, enthusiastic and independent. R2261:2 Judas Iscariot -- The conservative economist. R2261:2 Luke 6:17 And the company -- Making the distinction very clear between the twelve and the other disciples, not so chosen but also beloved of the Lord, and doubtless in full sympathy with the appointment of the twelve, recognizing it as in the interests of the work in general. R1521:3 Luke 6:18 They were healed -- It was by these healings that Israelites were to recognize him as Messiah, in fulfillment of the predictions of the prophets. R1314:5 Luke 6:19 Went virtue out -- Healing vigor. R2000:1 Strength, vitality, power. R574:4 Vitality. The Great Teacher's miracles were not performed without cost to himself. R4669:5, 4576:3 The healing of the sick, as performed by the Lord, was not by superhuman power, but, on the contrary, in healing the sick he expended upon them a part of his own vitality. Consequently, the greater number healed, the greater was our Lord's loss of vitality, strength. E124 "Being free from sin, he was free also from pain. Since he could not suffer pain and sickness because of sin, he was placed for a time among sinners, so their weaknesses and pains bore down upon him. R2000:1 Jesus experienced the woes and sufferings of humanity without sharing in the imperfections and sins. R454:3 Jesus took "the likeness of sinful flesh," but he took that likeness in its perfection. He did not partake of its sin or share its imperfection, except as he voluntarily shared the sorrows and pains of some during his ministry. A230 Every healing performed, to a proportionate extent, decreased the Lord's vitality. R4576:3 All of our Lord's miracles caused him a measure of self-sacrifice, loss of vitality. He thus daily, little by little, laid down his life. R4138:1 For three and a half years the Lord's ministry had been a constant drain upon his vital forces, not merely in connection with his public preaching, but specially in connection with the miracles which he wrought at the expense of his own vitality. R2787:2 The using of strength for the assisting of others continued to the end of his ministry, when through non-resistance, submission to the Father's will, he permitted himself to be crucified for sinners. R3727:5 A part of his dying, finally ending in death, even the literal death of the cross. SM645:1 Our Lord suffered pain from the infirmities of those whom he relieved because, being without sin, he was also without sickness and pain, except as he thus "took" and "bare" it from others that he might be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. R2028:6, 1359:3; F632 He, as the one who was giving his life as man's substitute and redeemer, violated no law that we understand or can appreciate, when he healed the multitudes by letting his vitality go out into them. R1314:5 It is the most refined and perfect organisms which can suffer most. R454:3 It is possible to share the troubles of a friend, and sympathetically to relieve in a measure the depressed one, and, to some extent, impart increased vitality and lightness of spirit. E125 The gift which costs nothing cannot be so highly esteemed as that gift which costs much. R4138:2 "Himself took our infirmities." (Matt. 8:17) A230; E125; F632; R3727:5, 574:5, 4576:3 He impoverished himself to bless others. R1735:4, 1359:3 "Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." (Isa. 53:4) R1359:3, 574:5 Healed them all -- In mind and body. SM645:1 He kept back nothing for the purpose of recuperating his vigor, but was daily yielding his life in obedience to what he understood to be the Father's will. R5085:3 Luke 6:20 Lifted up his eyes -- Tenderly and approvingly. R1735:2 On his disciples -- The twelve especially. R1735:2 Beginning St. Luke's account of the sermon on the Mount. It does not profess to be a regulation for the world, but merely applies to saints, to those who have consecrated their lives fully to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. R5005:1 Blessed -- Impressing on their minds a sense of blessedness of their privilege of service, and even of suffering. R1735:2 All of their experiences tend to develop faith, while those of the rich tend rather to develop self-reliance, self-assurance. The experiences of the poor and ignorant tend to develop meekness, teachableness, whereas the experiences of the learned tend naturally toward self-conceit. CR423:4 Relates to that permanent joy and comfort which are the result of the atunement of character to harmony with the divine. R3733:2 Be ye poor -- Not all the poor are to be blessed and to inherit the kingdom of God--but, to the disciples, he said "ye poor." R5004:2 Those who were poor, or became so, as his disciples; or, as Matthew records it, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." (Matt. 5:3) R1920:5; CR423:5 "In spirit" was Matthew's comment, and not our Lord's exact words. R1493:3 Some poor, instead of being drawn to God by their poverty, cultivate a spirit of anger, malice, hatred, strife, and are thus not only embittered in spirit, but have their faces turned in the opposite direction from the one in which God's blessings come. CR423:5 Poor in any sense of the word, whether financially, socially or otherwise, by sacrificing themselves. Blessed are all the sacrificers. R1493:5; CR423:5 Having nothing of their own, they can lose nothing. CR424:5 Who having nothing to call their own. R1735:2 Undoubtedly poverty is a greater aid to discipleship than wealth. The cost of discipleship is the surrender of every earthly ambition to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. The rich are disadvantaged because theirs would be the greater sacrifice. "How hardly shall a rich man enter into the kingdom of God." (Matt. 19:23) R5004:2 Not the rich, the learned, the rulers, the self-contented; but those lacking self-confidence and self-esteem, who appreciate their own littleness and imperfection. R3733:6; CR423:5 Not necessarily the poor in pocket. Some who are poor in pocket are very proud in spirit. R2585:5 Those who have sacrificed earthly blessings in order to become "heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ." (Rom. 8:17) CR423:5 Those who follow their Lord who, "Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." (2 Cor. 8:9) R1493:5 Yours is the kingdom -- As inheritors of that promise, they are rich with the wealth which moth and rust cannot corrupt, and which thieves cannot destroy or steal. CR424:5 Luke 6:21 That hunger now -- For righteousness and truth. R1735:2 Shall be filled -- Your hunger shall be satisfied. R1735:2 That weep now -- The sympathetic, who realize their own imperfections, and are touched with pity for the poor groaning creation, dying in sorrow, pain and disappointment. R3734:2,1, 1735:2 Ye shall laugh -- Your sorrow shall be turned into joy. R1735:2 Luke 6:22 Blessed are ye when -- As a result of making the Gospel the all-absorbing theme of life. A347 Men shall hate you -- "Ye shall be hated of all men for my sake." (Mark 13:13) E490 Separate you -- Those who use their liberty to preach the good tidings in the synagogues of today will succeed, either in converting whole congregations, or else in awakening a storm of opposition. C182 Shall reproach you -- "When he was reviled he reviled not again." (1 Pet. 2:23) R3736:3 Consecration of reputation. R465:4 Cast out your name -- Boycotted, socially or otherwise. HG694:1 When the blind man (John 9:34-39) was cast out for confessing Jesus, then it was that Jesus "found him" and graciously revealed himself more and more unto him. R805:3 As the Word of God becomes the all-absorbing theme of life, it will not only separate one from the world and from many nominal Christians, in spirit, but it will lead to separation from such entirely. A347 Son of man's sake -- Every ache, pain or wound of person or of feelings, and beheading socially or literally for the truth's sake becomes a witness of the spirit testifying to our faithfulness. R2007:5 By the favor of God, the endurance of the reproaches of Christ are not in vain. R785:4 "Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified." (Isa. 66:5) (We do this for the Lord's glory.) C182 Luke 6:23 Rejoice ye in that day -- "He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied." (Isa. 53:11) R785:4 In heaven -- In spiritual things, not temporal matters. R3223:2 The Kingdom of heaven is yours. R1735:2 Luke 6:24 Woe In "a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation." (Dan. 12:1) R1735:3 The woes of the Bible apply to the present life. CR423:1 Unto you -- You are less likely to gain this wonderful high calling of God than if you were in humbler circumstances. R4969:4 The rich, the learned, the favored, have trials and difficulties, perplexities, cares, doubts and fears, which the poor, the unlearned, know nothing about. CR423:3 As we see retribution coming upon the rich, proud, mighty and hypocritical, let us each endeavor that our own life be honest, humble and Christ-like that we may be spared in this day of exposure of sin. R2045:5 That are rich -- Not only those who are rich in a financial sense, wealthy; but he includes also those who are rich in the honors of men, rich in education, or in any particular sense of special privileges, advantages and opportunities. CR422:4 The intellectually, politically, socially and financially rich at that time were very self-satisfied, very prosperous, and looked for the Messianic Kingdom in an opposite direction from that which Jesus taught. So also today. CR423:2 The rich have more on which to set their hearts, more to occupy their time, more to cultivate self-will, more opportunity for self-gratification, more riches for which to be responsible, more education by which errors are more likely to influence, more to divert them and cultivate their pride. R423:3 Who revel in luxury and pleasure now, unmindful of the suffering, death and sorrow that reign abroad. R1735:3 God, himself very rich, is able to sympathize with both the poor and the rich; so is the Savior, who, being rich, for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich in the truest sense of that word. CR422:6 A great disadvantage, because it leads to pride and self-conceit. R5839:6, 4969:3 Our Master was actually betrayed and killed by the "money-lovers." R2045:5 Does not mean that the great, noble, wise and rich are condemned to eternal torment. R4969:4 Ye have received -- Not that, if they had riches of learning, they must ignore their knowledge and speak and act ignorantly. It means, however, that their learning is no longer theirs, but the Lord's. CR423:6 Luke 6:25 Woe unto you -- "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you." (Jas. 5:1) R4997:1; CR424:5 That are full -- Satisfied. D634 Who enjoy the favor of the world because they partake of its selfish spirit. R1735:3 Many who are now stewards of wealth, influence, position and honor of men, will be called to account and dispossessed of their stewardship. R4997:2 Ye shall hunger -- Be dissatisfied. Those previously accustomed to riches will find difficulties not experienced by those previously disciplined in the school of adversity. D634 Ye shall mourn -- St. Paul, living near the close of the Jewish age, when the woes were being poured out, declared: Wrath has come upon this people to the uttermost. (1 Thess. 2:16) CR423:1 In the "day of recompense" with the levelling of things that are high, proud, domineering, and the lifting up of the poor and humble; rewarding the well-doer in proportion to his zeal and self-sacrificing spirit, and the evil-doer according to his knowledge of better things and the selfishness to which he yielded. NS220:2 A time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, the iron rod of Christ's rule, must bring down every high thing, and subdue all things unto him. R1735:3 Their course in life will come under reprobation and stripes. R4997:1 Luke 6:26 Woe unto you -- Look well to it that no element of worldly ambition or worldly policy be in it to ensnare your feet and to allure you from the narrow way. R2163:2 Speak well of you -- Not that honor of men is to be disesteemed. It will always be true that "a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches." (Prov. 22:1) It means that worldly reputation will be held secondary to the Lord, the Truth and service for the Lord's cause. CR423:6 The popularity with the world for which the sects so much seek, and in a large measure have gained, is a bad and not a good omen to them, as well as to their prototype, the nominal Jewish church at our Lord's first advent. R730:3 Luke 6:27 But I say -- The two tables of the law given to Israel were requirements of justice, but Jesus and his followers take a still higher plane and, waiving their own rights, they become sacrificers of their own comforts, preferences and desires. R5005:3 Applies to the consecrated, but all mankind may be measurably enlightened by this lesson. R5005:1,3 Love your enemies -- The mark of perfect love. F189 Make due allowance for hereditary taint and weakness and temptation. R1735:5 The Law given Israel at Mt. Sinai expressed merely justice in its command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." (Lev. 19:18) PD84/97 Do not merely observe the Golden Rule toward your enemies, but love them. R5005:5 The standard for the Lord's people is still higher than that of gratitude, though it must include this. Our standard is benevolence, a forgiveness of those who transgress against us. R4200:5 How may we determine that it is the sin that we hate and not the sinner? R3849:6 Do good to them -- Seek to heal the wounds and bruises which have resulted to them from the fall, rather than to have revenge upon them. R1735:5 Not wish to do them harm, but on the contrary wish to open the eyes of their understanding and to do them good. R5260:4 Not only are we not to do unrighteousness, but if another proposes to do an evil in our interests, we would be so in sympathy with the law of brotherly love that we would oppose the act with all our energy. R4226:5 Which hate you -- The majority of those who perpetrate evil do so because they do not appreciate the principles involved in the matter. R5260:4 Luke 6:28 That curse you -- Greek, kataraomi, signifying the very opposite of blessing, a curse in the sense usually understood. Webster defines it thus: execrable, hateful, detestable, abominable. R701:5 Pray for them -- Pray for their deliverance from the snares and delusions of Satan and the blindness which hinders them from discerning the beauty of holiness. R1735:5 Despitefully use you -- Be willing to suffer violence and injustice, if need be. R606:2 Luke 6:29 That smiteth thee -- Cause you to suffer injustice. R5897:2 Also the other -- In the indirect sense of not opposing the law; or, if smitten illegally, as were Jesus and Paul, by kindly expostulating with the evil-doer for his own good. R2470:1, 3738:2 A figurative expression signifying the willingness to have both cheeks smitten rather than to do injury to another. OV357:3 We are not authorized to retaliate. R3738:3 Luke 6:29 Offer also the other -- Signifying simply, do not render evil for evil, even though he smite thee on the other cheek also. R5005:5 Simply teaching: Don't strike back or try to get even with them. Show them that you are willing to endure hardness, and even to suffer violence and injustice if needs be. R606:2 Our Lord himself, when smitten, did not invite the smiting of the other cheek, but rather he defended himself to the extent of criticizing the evil deed. R5005:5 The Apostle Paul defended himself, frequently, before priests and kings, explaining the justice of his cause. Nevertheless, whenever the laws did not support him, we find him bringing no railing accusation against the laws, nor against magistrates, but submitting himself. R2944:6 That taketh away -- That would sue thee at law to take away. R1735:6, 2945:1 Our Master was not addressing nations, but individuals, his disciples. SM451:2 Forbid not -- If no lawful redress can be obtained--lawfully, even though unjustly. (Matt. 5:39-42) R1735:5 Take thy coat -- Matthew adds, "at the law." The follower of Jesus may flee from an adversary, or he may resist him to the extent of proper expostulation, but he is to be thoroughly responsive to all government. R5005:5, 2518:2 Settle peaceably with him, even if it costs more than you would have lost by letting the case go into court. R3738:3 Unmurmuringly submit to what the court demands. R5005:5 Luke 6:30 Give to every man -- A spirit of generosity, which prefers to let some men take advantage in temporal things, rather than, by contention, to have their treasure on earth instead of in heaven. R1735:5 A spirit of liberality that will shame their meanness. R606:2 Not to be taken with absolute literalness, but to be generous, tender-hearted, to err on the side of too great generosity rather than to be hard-hearted and selfish. R5005:6 Love and justice would, if possible, feed and clothe your neighbor if he is unable by industry and economy to do it for himself. But neither love nor justice to him nor to yourself would encourage indolence, prodigality or meanness. R606:2 That asketh of thee -- That demands your valuables. R2518:3 To a certain extent we are to permit ourselves to be imposed upon. R5897:5 Ask them not again -- Don't be exacting with the debtor. R1735:6 Luke 6:31 As ye would -- Not as they would have you do to them, but, as you would have them do to you. R606:1 Do ye also -- Measure every act, word and thought of life by the Golden Rule. R2329:3 It does not say that we should do to our neighbor as he might wish us to do to him, because he might wish a very unreasonable thing. R2688:4 That men -- Chiefly the household of faith. R2690:5 Should do to you -- Putting off anger, malice, hatred, strife, envy, slanders, etc.; charging only a reasonable profit on goods sold and expecting to pay a reasonable profit to him who sells. R2688:6,5 Do ye also -- This is a positive rule to do good, not a negative rule to abstain from doing evil. R2329:2, 2688:2 To them likewise -- By acting kindly, speaking gently, being patient toward weaknesses, not expecting too much. F376; R2329:2 Be generous to others, but not granting requests which might harm them. R5005:6 Doing for them now the kind of work which God desires to have done; leaving for the future the things which God has planned to have done in the future. R2690:2 This is the golden rule; and by comparison the rule of Confucius, "Do not do to others what you would not wish them to do to you," might be considered the brazen rule. R2688:1 The Christian businessman's ideal is the Golden Rule; it applies to his buying, selling, dealings with clerks and customers. OV369:2 The Golden Rule is rejected as impracticable, but it has not been given a trial. R5723:5 Luke 6:32 If ye love them -- We are to distinguish between natural love and the love of God--unmerited, sacrificing love--wholly different from anything that is known to fallen humanity. R2648:2 From a selfish motive. R5005:6 It is easy enough to love some of the refined or wealthy or naturally noble or the educated. R4253:6 Which love you -- Implies that it is not the love of God. R2648:2 Nothing specially creditable in this. R5005:6 It is easy enough to love some of the brethren. We are apt to love those who are about on our plane and of our own style and liking. R4253:6 What thank have ye -- What merit is their in it? R4805:1, 1938:5 What proof have you that you have passed from death unto life? R4253:6 The standard of the Lord's people is higher than gratitude, though it must include this, which is a keeping power in our lives. R4200:5,6 Luke 6:33 What thank have ye -- Let us examine ourselves, let us be very humble lest the thoughts of self-congratulation and self-satisfaction which we may consider in our hearts, even if we do not utter them aloud, bring our condemnation. R4805:1 It would be doing from a selfish motive. R5005:6 Our standard is benevolence, a forgiveness of those who transgress against us. R4200:5 Sinners also love -- All mankind has some share of natural love; love of self, family, friends. R2648:2 Luke 6:33 What thank have ye? -- What merit is there in it? R1938:5, 4805:4 Luke 6:35 Love ye your enemies -- The more noble, the less of the Lord's grace is sufficient for them; the more degraded, the more of the Lord's grace is necessary and will be supplied. Thus we are to love the brethren. R4254:1 Be kind to all men, but not friends in the sense of having communion and fellowship. R1588:1 The mark of perfect love. F189 Be large-hearted and generous toward them, illustrated by David's forbearance toward King Saul. R3739:1, 5672:6, 5673:1, 2933:4 Even an "enemy" should be fed, if hungry. R2933:5 In order that our characters may be developed. R5266:5 Show a spirit of liberality that will shame their meanness; show love and mercy that will win their respect. R606:2 Do good -- A love and mercy that will win their secret respect even while they openly oppose us. R606:2 For principle's sake, for goodness' sake. R5005:6 To be in accord with the Heavenly Father. R5005:6, 3738:6 Exercise a benevolent spirit whenever possible and proper. R3739:1, 3738:6 "Do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. (Gal. 6:10) R4971:1 And lend -- Bear with neighbors who wish to borrow for the truth's sake, for the Lord's sake--not directly, but indirectly--but not, of course, to an extreme which injures your own interests. R2539:2 We may do good and lend according to our opportunities and abilities, but are not to obligate ourselves beyond what we would be willing to give or lend outright. R2241:2 There is nothing in the Scripture that says that we should lend to everybody that wishes to ask for a loan, either of goods or money; but we should not turn away with a deaf ear from those in need. R4971:1; Q135:3 Meaningless if we should understand Jesus' teaching to be that we were to give away every farthing to the poor; for then we should be the poorest of all the poor, and have nothing either to lend or to give. R855:1 If we cannot always give much money, we can give a word of encouragement, a kindly look, a helping hand over difficulties; and these will be often more valuable than money, and sometimes more appreciated. R2933:5 What course does brotherly love dictate in the matter of "borrowing and lending"? R3654:2 Not without security; if security cannot be given it should be given as a gift. F567, 568 The Lord's people may be lenders, but not borrowers. R2539:2 Merely in case of necessity, not impairing your own credit or family obligations. OV369:5 Hoping for nothing -- For no interest unless it is a business loan, and without thought of gaining favors in return. F567, 568; R2933:5, 2241:2, 854:6; OV358:3 No reward. R2933:5 And your reward -- Corroborative of the view of future rewards and punishments. R2613:6, 723:4 Kind unto the unthankful -- Reminding us afresh that we should pray, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us," and thus it tend to make our hearts and minds more tender, more gentle, more forgiving toward all with whom we have to do. NS674:6 Not a cruel God, as depicted by men. R5834:3; CR353:5 So we should be who have God's spirit. R5006:1, 2539:2 And to the evil -- Even an "enemy" should be fed, if hungry; but neither friend nor foe should be encouraged in indolence, nor in wastefulness. R2933:5 Similarly, we should not be unkind or unneighborly to the unbelieving. R1588:1 Luke 6:36 Merciful -- But so far as the general principles of righteousness are concerned, we must not interfere. R5259:6 We must expect divine mercy to cover our many imperfections only in proportion as we show mercy to others. R5006:1 As your Father -- Where the interests of the Lord's cause are involved, it is our duty to say something in defense of the truth; but not in a personal matter. This is illustrated in the case of the Apostle Paul at court. (Acts 13:10,11) R5260:1 Luke 6:37 Judge not -- New creatures are not competent to be judges one of another for two reasons: (1) few of them have fully comprehended and appreciate the Divine Law of Love governing all; (2) evidently few can read their own hearts unerringly. F403 Harshly, unmercifully, ungenerously. R2329:3 We should not reckon ourselves as competent judges of men's hearts. But in the cases of disguised wolves, swine and dogs, the condemnation of that law, which is God's judgment, not ours merely, should always be recognized. R1712:5 Some people must be held at arm's length, but at the same time we should be careful to give them credit for any good motives they claim to have. N'05-3-26 Condemn not -- No one but the Lord certainly, truly, knows which are the goats. OV123:1 And ye -- Not applicable to everybody; to so understand it would be to ignore the ransom and faith in the same, and other conditions of discipleship. It is applicable only to believers, already justified and brought into harmony with God. R2294:2 Shall not be judged -- He who stands upon justice will fall before the sword of justice. Realize your own weakness and imperfection and need of help and exercise a similar generosity with your fellows in tribulation. R2294:6 A condition upon which we receive divine mercy is that we ourselves are governed by the same rule of love and mercy toward our fellow-creatures. R2329:3 Forgive -- Heart forgiveness leaves no sting, no animosity, no grudge. R2296:1 Our hearts should be so full of this disposition toward forgiveness that our face would not have a hard look, nor our words a reproof, a bitter sting. R2296:4 Forgiveness in our hearts is the condition which is always to obtain there: we should never harbor any other feeling than that of forgiveness and good will toward all, no matter how seriously they may have trespassed against us. R2296:4 The very essence of Christian principle is love, sympathy and the forgiveness of the faults of others. We may not forgive in the absolute sense until our forgiveness is asked, yet we should be always in a forgiving attitude. R2253:3,4, 4650:5, 2295:6 Ye shall be forgiven -- Believers, already justified and brought into harmony with God. R2294:2 This does not relate to the Adamic guilt of the saints, but to their daily shortcomings. Their share in original sin and condemnation was cancelled through the merit of Christ before they were accepted as his disciples. R5006:1 Luke 6:38 Give -- The general principle of divine dealing--"The Lord loveth a cheerful giver." (2Cor. 9:7) R2514:4 Reckon yourself God's steward, commissioned by him to use all your goods, as well as your personal talents, to his glory in serving those about you. R855:2 Love may go beyond the law and do more than justice could require, in self-sacrifice, but it cannot do less. R5006:4 Running over -- The salesman fills the bushel, then jars or shakes it down solid and fills to the top, then puts in his hand and presses it, then spreads out the top so as to pile on as much as possible and then, running over, empties it to his customer. R1396:4 Exemplifying the good measure of the glorious work of Christ's Millennial Kingdom. R1396:4 Ye mete -- Measure to others. R2253:4 The forgiving of God's children is dependent upon their having a spirit of forgiveness towards the brethren. R5135:5 To you again -- Because you will have shown yourselves either children of wrath or children of love, and God must deal with you accordingly. F403 Luke 6:39 Can the blind -- The scribes, Pharisees and Doctors of the Law. R5029:1 Lead -- The destination sought by the Jews was fellowship with, and relationship to, God. R5029:1 They both -- Both leaders and masses stumbled and fell. So, too, Jesus says of the nominal church here, "Thou knowest not that thou art poor and blind" (Rev. 3:17). Again, for the same reasons, many stumble and fall. R178:4 Fall into the ditch -- The entire Jewish race was blinded and turned aside and fell into the pit of confusion, darkness and separation from God. R5029:1 Into the labyrinths of error. R1875:1 General doubt and unbelief; difficulties. R2948:1, 5029:1 The great time of trouble in the end of the Jewish age. R2615:3 Not into a hell of torment. R2615:3 Luke 6:40 Not above his Master -- As our Lord suffered violence from the prince of this world, so will his followers. OV343:2; R1816:1 "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (2 Tim. 3:12) R1816:1 Luke 6:41 And why -- "Busybodying in other men's matters. " (1Pet. 4:15) F583 The Master here inculcated the necessity of humility on the part of those who would be taught of God. R5029:3 The mote -- A grain of sawdust. R2589:3 The little difficulties and weaknesses with which all the Lord's people have to contend. R2589:3 It is wrong to encourage in oneself a fault-finding disposition. R1922:1 Thy brother's eye -- True brotherly love remembers that, while our neighbor's faults are unpleasant to us, ours may be equally unpleasant to them. R1922:1 Busy-bodies. There are some who are so constituted that it is second nature for them to attempt to regulate everybody else according to their own ideals and standards. R4282:2 Not the beam -- The great fault of lovelessness. R2589:3 Satan possesses this to such an extent that he is called the "Accuser of the brethren." (Rev. 12:10) R2589:4 Luke 6:42 Pull out the mote -- Busybody themselves with other men's affairs. R4282:2 The continual fault-finder, who sees great blemishes in others, but is blind to his own defects. R4567:6 Beholdest not -- Those who think they know everything can learn nothing. "The more a man does examine, the more does he discover the infirmities of his own character"--Chalmers. "Ten thousand of the greatest faults in our neighbors are of less consequence to us than one of the smallest in ourselves"--Wheatley. R5029:3 Thou hypocrite -- A vain pretension to a zeal for righteousness which is not sincere. A sincere zeal for righteousness will always begin with self-discipline. R1922:1 Wishing to give the inference that they are not afflicted with the malady of sin. R2589:4 A loveless, fault-finding, brethren-accusing class. R2589:4 Then shalt thou see -- If any man does not submit his own heart to the leading and teaching of the Lord, he has no authority from him to teach others to do so. R1922:1 Luke 6:43 A good tree -- A healthy Christian. R3747:3 Bringeth not forth corrupt -- Either God, in causing evil, was unholy, impure and sinful; or else he is pure and holy and, as such, could not be the creator or producer of any other quality. R848:3 A corrupt tree -- A Christian that has failed to grow in grace, knowledge and love, one that has not appropriated the nourishment provided, not submitted to pruning, and whose heart has become decayed. R3747:3,4 A perverted and misguided Christian. R3747:3 Good fruit -- The fruit of the lives of the Lord's people is nourishing and refreshing toward all who have fellowship with them. R3747:2 Luke 6:44 Known by his own fruit -- All of our words and actions in the little, as in the great things of life, testify in judgment, either for or against us, every day. R1922:4 While not condemning the heart, we are to judge of the outward character. R5029:4 The fruit-bearing test of being his disciples. R3317:2 Of thorns -- Some people, like thorns, continually reach out to impede, irritate, annoy, vex, poison and injure all those with whom they come in contact. R3747:2 A bramble bush -- Mankind in general, ready to scratch, tear and injure at the slightest provocation; merely self-sustaining and not bringing forth fruitage that would be a blessing to others. R5029:4, 3318:2 It is said at times that a bramble bush will be entirely covered by a vine, so that the grapes would appear to be coming from the bush. We are not to be mistaken. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruitage, neither can an injurious tree bring forth good fruitage. R5029:5, 3318:2 Should we find some of the fruits of the spirit commingling with a thorniness of life, an evil and injurious disposition, we are to assume that, in some sense of the word, the fruitage is merely put on and does not belong to the bramble-bush character. R5029:5 "By their fruits ye shall know them." (Matt. 7:20) R5029:4 Grapes -- God's people are likened to the grape-vine, which produces no thorns, but luscious clusters of fruit. R5029:4 Luke 6:45 Good treasure -- As one thinks upon good, pure, holy things, the mind becomes stored with good treasure. R5518:5,6 Evil treasure -- An evil disposition--a mind in which evil has been stored. R5518:6 That which is evil -- Despite all endeavors to hide it. R5518:6 Abundance of the heart -- Hence the importance of having our hearts filled with good things, in order that out of the abundance of these good things our mouths may speak continually good things that the Lord would approve, and that would minister blessing to those who hear. R2588:3 His mouth speaketh -- The heart is representative of the character, and the mouth is the index of that character. The heart is used with the force of the word mind. R5518:4 How are words the index of our hearts? R3769:5 All of our words and actions testify in judgment, for or against us, every day. R1922:4 If it speaks slander, it shows the real heart condition. F408 Whatever is stored up in the mind is sure to be spoken. R5518:6 Those who think on true, lovely, good and beautiful things will speak to each other of the same. R2588:3 Luke 6:46 And do not -- Many seem content simply to know things. Knowledge does not bring, nor produce, happiness. Obedience does. R1802:2* Luke 6:47 Heareth my sayings -- Understands my teaching. R3318:4 Doeth them -- To do, as the Lord indicated, signified, not an insincere outward show of righteousness, but radical and thorough reform. R1922:4 Luke 6:48 He -- Not the heathen in any sense of the word, but believers. R3318:4 Luke 6:48 A man -- A prudent and careful believer. R5029:6 In this parable our Lord gives a forceful picture of the tests to come upon Christendom at the close of this age. R5443:4 Built an house -- The faith structure of all professed followers. R5443:4, 5029:6, 564:2 Digged deep -- Digging down deep through all the rubbish of pride and conceit, and laying well the foundations of a sincere and righteous character. R1922: One who seeks for the doctrines and principles of the divine Word. R5029:6 Laid the foundation -- No man can build a proper life unless he has some foundation, some doctrine, some faith. A man with no faith, no hope, is sure to be correspondingly lacking in character. R3318:4 On a rock -- Christ is the rock. R1922:5 The solid rock, the ransom, the only sure foundation, which God hath provided. R3823:1 Flood -- Of temptation. R1922:5 Ere long the storm of truth will wash out the quicksand foundation upon which nominal Christianity is built. "The hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding places." (Isa. 28:17-19) R5443:4 Luke 6:49 A man -- An unwise believer. R5029:6 Built an house -- Whether they use good or bad materials. R3823:1 Upon the earth -- The sand alongside the rock. R564:2 In ourselves we find no ground of stability upon which to rear our building of character and faith. R1922:5 The traditions of the elders and the creeds of the dark ages. R5029:6, 1922:5 The stream -- The floods of temptation. R1922:5 Beat vehemently -- Time of stress and storm with which this age will end. R5029:6 It fell -- Their faith will surely be swept away; and character must necessarily suffer from the decline of faith. R1922:5 There will be a general fall of Babylon. Everything not well founded upon the sure Word of God will give way. R5029:6 Well illustrating the overthrow of all systems which reject the only foundation. R564:2 Ruin of that house -- The utter wreck of nominal Christendom. R3748:5, 5443:4 Was great -- Those whose faith structure will fail will thereby suffer great loss, though they themselves may be saved as by fire--through great tribulation. (1 Cor. 3:13-15) R5029:6 Confusion, darkness and separation from God. R5029:1 Luke 7 Luke 7:1 When he had ended -- Following the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew and Luke, in thus arranging matters, show that he who had given the wonderful teachings on the mount was fully attested by the miraculous powers shown to reside in him. R3755:3 Capernaum -- The home city of Peter and others, and now the home city of Jesus, since he had been spurned and rejected at Nazareth. R3755:3 Luke 7:2 Centurion's -- In our judgment the circumstantial evidences are strong that this centurion was Cornelius. R1922:6, 2132:2 A captain of the Roman guard. R3755:3, 2620:2, 1922:1 All three of the centurions mentioned in the New Testament were evidently reverential: this one; the one who put Jesus to death and subsequently declared, "Surely this man was the Son of God"; and Cornelius, the first Gentile convert. (Matt. 27:54; Acts 10:1) R3755:4 Servant -- One lesson connected with this subject which should especially commend itself to any of the Lord's people who are masters or employers is the lesson of kindness for servants. R2620:6 Masters and servants in olden times occupied a much closer relationship to each other than they do today, a relationship which took on more of paternal sentiment. R2620:1 The employer, under present conditions, feels no responsibility for the employee. All discern that this division between the interest of masters and servants stands closely related to the great time of trouble which now impends. R2620:1 Dear unto him -- So loved, that he went to much trouble to secure his healing. R1922:3 Luke 7:3 He sent -- The fact that it was not presented personally is presumed not to signify any lack of respect, but the very reverse, a realization on his part that Jews were not to having any dealings with Gentiles, except along strictly business lines. R2620:3 The elders -- Not the elders of the Synagogue, but the chief men of the city. R3755:4 Of the Jews -- Realizing that, as a Gentile, he could have no special claim upon this Jewish prophet. R3755:4 Luke 7:4 They -- Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue in Capernaum, with others. R4588:3, 2620:3 Luke 7:5 He loveth our nation -- Testifying that although he was not a Jew, he was a noble character, a lover of Israel. R3755:4 Built us a synagogue -- Evidencing his feelings of reverence for God and love for righteousness and truth. R1922:3 Or, house of worship and Bible study. Its ruins described in detail in article. R2581:2 Evidently respecting the religion of the Jews. R2620:3 In which he himself could not engage, because a Gentile. R3755:4 The ruins of which are supposed to have been found recently and described in the article by Edersheim. R2620:3 The ruins of this synagogue show that great wealth was expended in its elaborate carvings of cornices, tablets, capitals and niches. R2620:2, 2581:2 Luke 7:6 Went with them -- Possibly toward Caesarea, about 45 miles away, with Nain being on the way, about 20 miles from Capernaum. R1922:6 The centurion -- Possibly Cornelius, "A devout man and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God alway." (Acts 10:2) "Them that honor me, I will honor." (1 Sam. 2:30) R1922:6, 2620:6, 2123:3 Sent friends -- Not servants. R2620:3 I am not worthy -- He was like the Syro-Phoenician woman who desired a crumb from the children's table without claiming to be one of the children. R3755:4 We, too, should concede that we have nothing of right or of merit to demand, that we should approach the Lord from the standpoint of unworthy suppliants, seekers of grace and mercy, not justice, at his hands. R3755:5 That thou shouldest enter -- According to Jewish custom, a certain measure of defilement would be implied. R3755:5, 2620:3 Luke 7:7 Say in a word -- Let all the Lord's people, instead of requiring signs and further evidences and assurances, rest content that he who has so graciously done for us in the past is equally faithful today and will fulfill to us all his good promises. R2620:4 Possibly he had heard of the healing of the son of the nobleman of his own city, Capernaum, when Jesus was at Cana and merely spoke the word. R3755:5 Luke 7:8 Go, and he goeth -- Recognizing Jesus, as the Lord's anointed, had control over the influences of nature as his servants, so that he could bid the disease go from the servant and he should be well. R3755:6, 2620:4 Luke 7:9 He marvelled -- Only in one other place do we read that Jesus "marvelled," and that was at the instance of the people of Nazareth. (Mark 6:6) R3755:6 Turned him about -- Having already started toward the Centurion's house, he discontinued his journey and instantly granted the healing of the servant. R1922:6 So great faith -- Nevertheless he could not and did not invite the centurion to become one of his disciples, because "the gifts and callings of God were not things to be repented of." (Rom. 11:29) R2620:5 It is certainly within the range of possibility that this centurion might have been removed from Capernaum to Caesarea, another fortress, and may have been the centurion named Cornelius, the first Gentile convert. R2620:5 No, not in Israel -- Where he had much more reason to expect it. R1922:5 Indicating that the Lord's favor had been confined to Israel not merely because of worthiness and faith. R2620:5 Luke 7:11 The day after -- Soon afterward (Revised Version). R3756:1 Nain -- About 20 miles from Capernaum. R1922:6 Luke 7:12 Dead man -- In the great prison-house of death. R3755:1 Luke 7:13 Had compassion -- We have an High Priest who can touched, was touched and is still touched with a feeling of our infirmities. (Heb. 4:15) R3530:3 Luke 7:14 They -- The pall-bearers. R3756:1 Luke 7:14 Arise -- Greek, egeiro, to awaken, arouse, stir (Liddell and Scott). This word is used in speaking of the temporary awakenings of our Lord's miracles. R1512:2 These restorations of a faint spark of life are never called a resurrection (Greek, anastasis) in the Scriptures. R360:2 Luke 7:15 He that was dead -- Having died, paid the penalty, he was not free from death after Jesus restored life to him, but died again. R392:1 Foreshadowing the resurrection. R4603:4 Luke 7:16 A fear on all -- A reverential fear. R1923:1:: The very thought of the imminence of God is very sure to bring awe to mankind as they realize the holiness, the absolute perfection of the Almighty, and their own blemishes and imperfections in contrast. R3756:1 They glorified God -- Not with loud hosannas, but with a reverent appreciation of the fact that a great Prophet, a great Teacher, was in their midst, and that God was thus with them. R3756:2 God hath visited -- That, in him, God had visited his people to bless them with his love and grace. R1923:4 A realization that God was very near to them as represented in the power of Jesus. R3756:1 Luke 7:17 Throughout all Judea -- As the fame of Jesus increased, because of his miracles and teaching, the opposition to him became more and more pronounced, especially from the Chief Priests, Scribes and Pharisees, as they were brought into competition and unfavorable comparison with him as public teachers. R1735:3 Luke 7:19 John -- Signifies "The favor of God." R4940:2 Then in prison, about 120 miles from where Jesus was laboring so successfully. R2620:6 We are to be copies of Jesus, not of John the Baptizer. R2621:5 To be shut up in a dark dungeon, and to have the Lord proceeding with his work, raising no voice of protest on his behalf and exercising none of his mighty power for his deliverance, probably seemed very strange to John. R2621:1 Notwithstanding the great disappointment he felt, his faith continued in its firm hold on the Lord, as is indicated in his sending of his disciples to Jesus. R2621:1 The proper course of all God's servants when perplexed is the one followed by John, namely to go to the Lord with the perplexity--not doubtingly, but inquiringly--and be set at rest by his word. R2621:3 He that should come? -- Seeking a sign that he was the true Messiah, then present. R712:4 For another -- For a still greater Messiah of whom even you are but a forerunner. R2621:1 Luke 7:20 Look we for another -- Strictly speaking, this was exactly the case. Jesus, in the flesh, was indeed the forerunner and preparer of the way before the still greater glorified Christ of the second advent. R2621:1 Luke 7:21 In that same hour -- While John's messengers were with Jesus, a number of miracles were performed in their sight. R2621:2 Luke 7:22 Jesus answering said -- Calling attention to transpiring events, the fulfillment of their own Scriptures as proof that he was the Messiah. He might have said: "I am he." An imposter might have made the same claim. Jesus called their attention to evidence such as would convince them of the truth of his claim. R821:3* And tell John -- We may not always hear the Lord's words with our own ears, but we can receive it second-hand as did John--through the testimonies of the apostles and prophets, by whose writings God has provided in advance replies to all proper queries. R2621:4 What things ye have seen -- Another pointed proof of his own identity with the predicted Messiah. R1736:3 Similar manifestations will accompany Jesus' second presence in this world. Since now he is a spiritual being, we might expect he would use human agencies as his channels and, in harmony with other parts of his plan, it is now on a higher plane R712:4. The blind see -- Are not eyes and ears long closed by prejudice, superstition and human tradition being opened? R712:4 It should not, and does not, surprise us that now both phases of healing, spiritual and physical, are in progress and being blessed, each to its class. Notice that physical healings now, as at the first advent, are not performed upon the saints, but upon those not consecrated to sacrifice. R712:2 The lame walk -- Are not those who have long been lame, and who have halted between the service of God and the devil, been healed by the truth? R712:4 The gospel is preached -- Is not the gospel, "good tidings," being preached to the poor and to them that have no money? R712:4 Luke 7:23 Be offended -- Made to stumble. R821:3* Luke 7:24 Were departed -- So that his words could not be construed as a sop of flattery to hold John's confidence. R2622:1 Unto the people -- The multitude who stood about must have heard the message which John's disciples brought to Jesus, and no doubt queried within themselves, if not audibly, Is John losing faith in Jesus as the Messiah? R2622:1 A reed -- Because God spoke through him as a Prophet as the wind makes music through the reeds. R5031:1 Shaken with the wind -- Pliable to those who would influence him. No, they found a rugged character, strong, independent in the advocacy of the truth. R4595:1, 2622:1 Luke 7:25 In soft raiment -- Giving evidence of being related to the great, the wealthy, the noble of that time. No, he was simply clad, living in seclusion. R4595:1 Luke 7:26 More than a prophet -- A special ambassador and messenger of God at this present time. R2622:1 God's chosen servant for heralding the Messiah to Israel. R4594:3 Luke 7:27 My messenger -- His message was that the kingdom of heaven was about to be offered to them, and that only the holy would be ready to receive it. R5031:1 Neither John nor his hearers fully realized in what way the kingdom would be offered, namely, that it would be an offer, first of a place or share in the kingdom, and that the terms would be full consecration to the Lord. R5031:1 Prepare thy way -- For those able to appreciate the matter, John the Baptist did a work which was in full accord with the prophecy which declared Elijah must first come and do a reformatory work before Messiah would come. R5030:6 Luke 7:28 Not a greater -- It would be difficult to express in words a higher tribute to John the Baptist. R5030:2 Attesting that John the Baptist was the last of the ancient worthies, the last prophet, the last of the faithful under the Jewish dispensation. R5859:2, 4940:2, 4595:4 Because none of them was entrusted with a more important service of the Lord. R4112:6 A great holy man; he will have a great reward of being one of the glorious princes on the earthly plane. R5069:2 Prophet -- Proclaimer. R4112:3 He was supernaturally guided in the course he took. R2621:5 He was also a special ambassador of God to do an introductory work related to the Kingdom. R2622:1, 1737:4 John the Baptist-- John's mission was pre-eminently that of a reformer. R2621:5 The last of the prophets, he introduced Jesus as the Head of the kingdom class. R5030:6 He that is least -- To have the humblest position in the Church class, in the Bride class being selected during this age, is a higher honor than that which belongs to the very noblest of the previous dispensations. SM251:2 John does not belong to the kingdom class at all, but to the previous dispensation. R2622:2 The kingdom of God -- God had promised a Messianic kingdom, and Jesus had come that he might be the Head of that kingdom. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne" (Rev. 3:21). These would be followers in his footsteps, none could precede him. R5030:3 The spiritual phase of the Kingdom. A288; R1737:4 Greater than he -- John could not be of the Kingdom class. His grand work terminated before the Redeemer's sacrifice was finished. R4940:2, 4653:5 This applies to the entire class of ancient worthies. It refers not merely to the earthly status of the Gospel church as being superior, but also marks the church as a superior class in the future. R4653:1 In God's providence their reward will be different from that of the Church--theirs will be an earthly reward. R5030:3 They will come forth as perfect human beings as a reward of their faithfulness. God promised them the earthly perfection, while he has promised the bride of Christ the heavenly perfection. R5030:5 This does not imply that the ancient worthies will be disappointed; their cup of blessing, being full, and never having been begotten to a spirit nature, they will not be able to comprehend or appreciate any blessings higher than their own. R5030:6 None, prior to Jesus' time, manifestly, could have been invited to "follow in his steps." (1Pet. 2:21) R5774:6 Therefore greater also than Enoch, Abraham, etc.; not because they were more worthy than these, but that the opportunity of becoming members of the house of sons has been granted only since Pentecost. R5775:1, 5030:3 While we draw lessons from the experiences of the noble characters of the past, our patterns are Jesus and his apostles, whom we are to copy--walking in their footsteps in the narrow way of self-sacrifice even unto death. R3248:5 The least one in the house of sons is on a higher plane than the greatest one in the house of servants. R2562:3, 5775:1,2, 2622:2 Greater than the entire class of Ancient Worthies. R4653:1 We are not to infer that those glorious characters who lived before Christ were less faithful than the Gospel Church. R5030:3 In justice God could not show any preference; but by grace he may do what he will with his own. R5069:4 Because only from the time of Christ has the prize of joint-heirship with the Lord been open. T108 "God having provided some better thing for us." (Heb. 11:40) F86; R5030:5, 4595:4, 3248:5 As Christ was to have the pre-eminence in the Kingdom, it was necessary that he should be the first member of it. F86; R5030:2 Only those justified to life could be invited to the high calling, and John died before the sacrifice of the atonement had been completed. D625; F112; R4653:5, 4940:2, 5774:6 Luke 7:29 And the publicans -- Being cast off from the sympathies and friendship of the Jews in general, they were naturally less influenced by their prejudices and hence more ready to receive the truth. R1783:3 Justified God -- Making manifest his justice. R1246:3 Luke 7:30 Rejected -- Jesus testified, "If ye had received John ye would have received me." R5031:4 Luke 7:32 Like unto children -- Having no interest in what was going on. R1737:1 Market-place -- Greek, agora, root of agorazo, to redeem. E429 Ye have not wept -- No matter what kind of evidence was produced, they were so out of harmony with the truth, that they objected to everything which our Lord did. R1737:1 Luke 7:33 Neither eating nor drinking -- John lived a very abstemious life. R2621:5 Wine -- The word is oinos, and signifies grape wine of the usual sort, which always intoxicates when used to excess. R509:4 Luke 7:34 Eating and drinking -- He attended wedding feasts and banquets made in his honor. R2621:5 Luke 7:35 Wisdom -- The divine wisdom, divine truth. R1737:1 Is justified -- Proved right, accepted. R1737:1 Of all her children -- Those who have the spirit or disposition of the truth are not slow to understand the evidences nor to accept the facts. R1737:1 Luke 7:36 One of the Pharisees -- Who believed on Jesus, but did not confess the Lord lest he should be put out of the synagogue, for he "loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." (John 12:43) R2201:1 Desired him -- Evidently considerably impressed with our Lord's character and teachings, and more favorably inclined toward him than the majority. R2625:6 Our Lord's strict observance of the Law no doubt made him at first a favorite with the Pharisees. R1459:6 Not that Simon was a disciple and believer, but rather that, as a prominent man, he posed as a liberal one also. R3761:1 But when they found that he received sinners and ate with them, they realized that his righteousness was different from theirs, and they hated him. R1460:1 Luke 7:37 A woman -- Possibly Mary of Magdala, but surely not Mary of Bethany. R3761:2, 2200:3 Scholars are generally coming to the opinion that it is a mistake to suppose that Mary Magdalene had ever been an unchaste woman--a mistake to identify her with this woman at the house of the Pharisee. R2797:4 Of the city -- Evidently a common character, widely known to the people of the city, though she might not be known to Jesus and the disciples, who were not residents. R2626:2 Which was a sinner -- A harlot, deeply penitent. R5032:5 The Gospel of Christ is the message of divine compassion toward sinners. The Bible, of all the religious books we know, alone tells of a God touched with the feeling of human infirmities and with sympathy toward sinners. R5032:1 An alabaster box -- Our alabaster boxes of perfume, our daily endeavors to serve and please him who has done so much for us. R3762:4 It was about a year and a half after the incident here related before the other anointing of Jesus by Mary, the sister of Lazarus, took place in the house of Simon the Leper. (Compare Matt. 26:6-13.) R2625:3 Luke 7:38 Stood at his feet -- Privacy in the home is still unusual in the East. Neighbors, friends and visitors feel at liberty to come and go as they please, sometimes coming in to converse with the guests while dinner is being served. R3761:2 Weeping -- Without our recognition of our sins and of his forgiveness we could bring nothing acceptable to him. R3762:4 To wash his feet -- As was sometimes done with dignitaries of that time. R5032:5 It is not our privilege or opportunity to anoint the Head of the body, the Lord Jesus. With us the privilege remains of anointing the feet members of the body of Christ, and day by day we are tested along this very line. R3762:6 With tears -- By her tears he should know, more eloquently that she could voice her sentiments in words, what were the true longings of her heart for forgiveness and for reconciliation. R2626:3 How merciful and considerate of our needs is the Lord's provision that when we come penitently to his feet for forgiveness, he can read our hearts and accepts our tears and even our humblest efforts to make amends. R2626:3 Kind words and looks, a little assistance, may be the tears or the perfume, as circumstances may permit. R3762:6 Many, who would resent well-meant efforts to wash their feet as interferences with their private business, would be very amenable if approached by such evidences of true devotion and loving interest as would be symbolized by tears. R2202:4 With the hairs -- Her tears having fallen quite contrary to her intention, and dishonoring the very feet she intended to honor, she loosened her hair, using it as a towel, entirely regardless of the fact that for a woman at that time it was considered dishornorable to let down her hair in public. R5032:5 Kissed his feet -- Repeatedly, so implied in the Greek text. R3761:2 Anointed them -- As an honor to the One from whom she had heard "wonderful words of life," words of divine compassion and pity for sinners, words of hope for herself. R5032:5 Luke 7:39 When the Pharisee -- A holiness professor. R3762:3 We see Simon indifferent because he felt his sin was less, the woman repentant because she felt her sin was great. R3761:5 Would have known -- Thinking that Jesus evidently did not know her character and therefore is permitting her to anoint his feet. This seems a proof that he is not a prophet. R2626:3 The Pharisee seems to have entertained no thought of impurity on the part of our Lord, or that there was any acquaintance between him and the sinful woman who did him honor. R3761:3 Although Jesus recognized the woman as a sinner, he had compassion upon her, especially in view of the evidence she gave of shame, contrition and reformation. R3761:3 She is a sinner -- When the Pharisees found that he received sinners, they began to realize that his righteousness was of a different sort from theirs, and, as darkness is opposed to light, they hated him. R1460:1 Some noble characters, like Simon the Pharisee, know not how much they miss; they realize not that some of their more blemished neighbors receive forgiveness, which they lack, not sufficiently humble in heart to make the request. R3761:6 Luke 7:40 Simon -- A Pharisee. R2625:6 A very common name amongst the Jews. Hence it is not remarkable that there were two Simons at whose home Jesus was entertained. It is a little peculiar that at both of them our Lord's feet were anointed. (Matt. 26:6-13) R2625:3 Luke 7:41 The one 500 -- Representing the woman, living in open violation of the Law. R2626:5, 3761:4 And the other 50 -- Representing Simon, trying to keep the Law. R2626:5, 3761:4 Not that Mary was ten times as guilty before the divine law as was Simon. Strictly speaking, both owed the same amount, the lives of both were forfeited because of sin. The ratio does not represent Jesus' view of the situation, but illustrates the sentiments of Mary and Simon. R2200:3 Luke 7:42 Forgave them -- Greek, karazomai; nearly the same meaning as pardon, signifying to forgive freely. E462; R1058:5, 324:4 It is not Jehovah, but Christ and the disciples who do the free forgiving. R324:4, 1058:6; E463 Love him most -- Zeal is the measure of love. R3830:4 Luke 7:43 I suppose that he -- Up to this moment not realizing the bearing of the parable upon his own case and that of the woman--that he represented the debtor owing fifty pence and the woman, the greater sinner, owing five hundred. R3761:4, 2626:4 To whom he forgave -- Greek, karazomai, pardoned. E462; R324:4, 1058:6 Luke 7:44 Unto Simon -- From God's standpoint, undoubtedly Simon was in a better attitude than this sinful woman--he was nearer to God and to righteousness; but he also must depend for divine mercy for forgiveness, as had the woman. R3761:5, 2626:5 This woman -- Her greater love was developed by a greater realization of sin and a greater desire to be relieved from it. R2626:4 I entered into thine house -- Simon treated him kindly and politely, but did not go to any extreme of politeness in his entertainment; perhaps thinking of him as not being used to special attentions. R2625:6 Gavest me no water -- As is customary in that land to those one desired to honor. R5032:6, 3762:2 For the washing of the guest's feet, uncomfortable by reason of travel along the dusty roads of that time. R2200:6 Nor send his servant to take off the Master's sandals, and wash his feet. R2626:1 It could not be that Simon had accidentally omitted these courtesies, for all Pharisees were punctilious on the subject of washings; nor need we suppose that it was an intentional slight put on our Lord. R2201:1 To prevent the thought that he had anything more than a general interest and curiosity respecting Christ, and to maintain the good opinion of his co-religionists, he entertained Jesus as an inferior. R2201:1 Simon, as a wealthy and prominent man, knew all this, and would doubtless have followed the ordinary custom had his guest been one in high social standing; but his invitation had been of a patronizing sort. R3762:2 But she hath -- The still greater attentions of the woman, and the still greater marks of respect which she showed, were evidences that, while they both loved, the woman loved the more. R2626:4 Mary, at this time, had no knowledge of the extent to which the Master would go on her behalf and ours, to redeem us from sin and its sentence of death--Calvary was then still in the future. R2201:2 Washed my feet -- It is still possible to wash and to anoint the Lord's feet. The Lord is still in the flesh, representatively; his faithful are to be esteemed "members of his body." (Eph. 5:30; Col. 1:24) R2201:2 As members of the feet class, many are weary, discouraged, needing rest, refreshment and comfort, such as was bestowed upon the literal feet of the Master. R2201:3 With tears -- It is the sympathetic ones that are most successful in helping the various members of the Body of Christ out of the difficulties, besetments and defilements which will always be theirs so long as they are in the world. R2202:4 Luke 7:45 Gavest me no kiss -- As is customary amongst friends, as it is now our custom to shake hands. R2200:6, 5032:6, 3762:2 Luke 7:46 Thou didst not anoint -- With special guests, sometimes perfumed ointments for the hair and toilet were provided. R2201:1 Anointed my feet -- How few pour upon one another the spikenard ointment of comforting words, helpful suggestions and encouragements. R2201:4 Luke 7:47 Which are many -- A sin is a sin, a violation of divine law, whether in a great or lesser matter. We are not to understand that in God's sight there is any difference as to enormities of sin, but that some are more deeply involved in it than others. R3761:4 Are forgiven -- Not that our Lord loves less those who are more moral, but when the moralist spurns divine favor and ignores his own blemishes, and when the degraded, realizing their sins, cry out for mercy, the contrite heart is more acceptable to God than the other. R3762:1 Although Jesus knew what was in man he was very charitable, which leads us to suppose that if we were perfect we would be all the more charitable towards sinners, though not at all sympathetic with sin. R5032:4 She loved much -- Her greater love was developed by a greater realization of sin and a greater desire to be relieved from it. R2626:4 Those who are helpful to one another will be found filled with a genuine love for the "Head," the "body," and even the "feet." The secret of their love, as in Mary's case, will be found in a large appreciation of their own imperfections and of the Lord's mercy and grace toward them in the forgiveness of their sins. R2201:4 The majority of those who love the Lord most are such as realize their own sinful and fallen condition most. R5032:6 Loveth little -- The secret of the difference of sentiment lay in the fact that Simon loved him little, and that Mary loved him much. R2201:1 Having less to be forgiven, he had been less appreciative of the privilege of forgiveness. R3762:3 Those who are most moral, and therefore might be said to have less to be forgiven, have correspondingly less love. But this should not be the case. The less degraded ought naturally to be more able to love and appreciate divine goodness. R5032:6 Little is forgiven -- Frequently we see people living moral lives, evidently seeking to walk in the paths of righteousness, much less prepared to accept forgiveness through the Lord Jesus Christ than are some others who have been living more carelessly. R2626:6 Luke 7:48 Thy sins are forgiven -- The woman was justified, her sins forgiven, while the Pharisee, with really fewer sins, was unforgiven because he had not appealed for forgiveness, nor appreciated properly his need therefor. R3761:5 On the strength of his covenant and sacrifice he had authority to tell the woman that her sins were forgiven, because he was making the Atonement which would be applicable to her. R5033:4 It was one of his unostentatious methods of calling attention to the fact that he was the Messiah, and that as such, and in view of this work which he has yet to do, all power to forgive sins was in his hands. R2627:1 Every other hope, every other blessing, is based upon this one--the forgiveness of our sins. R3762:4 Her prayer was answered; all the past was treated as forever blotted out. R2626:5 As the Messiah, and in view of the work he was yet to do, all power to forgive sins was in his hands. R2627:1, 2583:6 The ransom price for the sins of the whole world was already on the altar. R1921:3 A blessed illustration of the Lord's sympathy for those who come to him accepting his mercy, love and forgiveness, however unworthy they may be. R3761:3 Forgiveness must be the first message to each one of us; otherwise we could have no peace, joy, or hope of a glorious future. R3762:3 The broken and contrite heart is more acceptable to God and justified rather than the other. R3762:1 Jesus was in the very act of paying the ransom-price. R324:4; E463; 4981:2, 3730:5, 1058:6 Luke 7:49 Who is this -- The only satisfactory answer is that he is the one he professes to be, the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world. R5033:1 Luke 7:50 Thy faith -- It was not the woman's works that saved her, nor the ointment, nor the tears, nor the kiss--it was the faith. But faith must work. If it does not work, it is a sure sign that it is dead. R3762:5, 2627:1 Tears and offerings could avail us nothing except as we present to the Lord our faith, accepting him as the one who has power to forgive sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. R2627:4 True faith produces worship and praise. These conditions will surely manifest themselves, as did the woman's, by tears, by services to the feet of the Master, by an anointing of the most precious perfume that we can bring. R3762:5 Go in peace -- None but the forgiven know the peace of God. Their peace will be in proportion to their faith, and their faith in proportion to their knowledge. R3762:5 Luke 8 Luke 8:1 Glad tidings -- Thus far, only to God's servants; but it shall be to all. R5370:3 The same good tidings that were heralded by the angels at Jesus' birth. R5370:3 Of the kingdom of God -- This is the key to all the preaching that Jesus did; his one message was the good tidings of the Kingdom of God. R5370:2 Not only was the Kingdom the topic with which the Lord began his public ministry, but it was really the main topic of all his preaching, other subjects being mentioned merely in connection with, or in explanation of, this one subject. A274 The very center and essence of the hope of the Church and the world. R5370:3 Luke 8:2 Mary -- Apparently a woman of wealth. R5370:6, 2797:5 Called Magdalene -- Not the same woman who washed and anointed our Lord's feet in the house of the Pharisee. ( Luke 7:37) R2797:5 Signifying that this Mary was of, or from, Magdala, a town on the sea of Galilee. R2797:5 Went seven devils -- The poor woman was in the condition which many are who are in insane asylums. Her trouble was not organic, but caused by the harassing of the seven fallen angels who had taken possession of her. R5370:6 Being set free from their control, she became a very loyal servant of the Lord. R2173:3 Luke 8:3 The wife of Chuza -- Some suppose Chuza to be the nobleman of John 4:46 who traveled 25 miles from Capernaum to Cana to appeal to Jesus for the healing of his son, who was at the point of death. R4132:6 Herod's steward -- Or chamberlain, the king's officer. R4132:6 Ministered unto him -- Voluntarily contributing to the Master's support. R5552:1 The moneys contributed were given to Jesus, and not to the disciples. He voluntarily shared with them. R3257:2 The disciples evidently never lacked, though it is equally evident that they never solicited alms. F286 We have no suggestion that he ever took up a collection or in any manner solicited money. Many think that this is a suggestion that the followers of Christ should likewise make no appeals for money, but merely use of their own substance and such other moneys as shall voluntarily be given unto them. R5370:3 Such voluntary donations made it proper that there should be a common treasurer for the company, and that he should be of superior business acumen. R5552:1 His seamless robe, so beautifully representing his own personal perfection, had probably been a gift from one of these noble women. R2316:1 Luke 8:4 Much people were gathered -- As the fame of Jesus increased his opposition became more and more pronounced; especially from the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees, as they were brought into competition and unfavorable comparison with him as public teachers. R1735:3 Many of them illustrated truths not revealed at that time, and hence not understood. R1742:1 Luke 8:5 A sower -- It is never said, "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a sower." There was no Church of Christ, or Kingdom of heaven, until the day of Pentecost. R97:3* The work of sowing the word was to prepare them for a place in the Kingdom. Thus this parable prepares the way for that of the wheat and tares. This deals with the individual, the other with the Church collectively. R97:4* Sow -- First the Jewish wheatfield, then that of Christendom, and not in heathendom where the Word has never gone. R3764:3 By the way side -- The fields of Palestine are not fenced and the paths of travel frequently cross them. R3763:2 Trodden down -- By life's experiences. R3764:3 And the fowls -- Representing Satan and his agents. R2634:6 The birds of Palestine are so numerous as to be one of the farmer's chief pests. R3763:2 Luke 8:6 Upon a rock -- Palestine abounds with limestone, which renders the soil very rich but, when shallow, very hot. R3763:2 It withered away -- Under the hot sun of persecution. R5650:5, 4910:5 Luke 8:7 Among thorns -- There are fifty kinds of thorny plants in Palestine, and the thistles sometimes grow to a height of 15 feet. R3763:2 Luke 8:8 An hundredfold -- A single grain of barley has been known to produce a fruitage of 276 grains. R3763:2 Luke 8:10 Unto you -- The Little Flock, the faithful, the saints. NS524:2 So constituted through acceptance of Christ, consecration to him, and begetting of the holy Spirit. NS598:1 The meek, honest and faithful of God's people only--in God's due time and way. D614 Not only to the disciples of that day, but to the disciples all through the age. R1742:1 The wise who will understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of the Melchizedek Priesthood are not the worldly-wise or great; they are chiefly the poor of this world, rich in faith. SM13:2 Truth is not intended for all. SM109:2 Not for the blind, not for the deaf, but for those "blessed," favored ones who have eyes and ears. R2414:5 "Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear." (Matt. 13:16) SM109:2 It is given to know -- At the first advent, the humble Israelites indeed were not confused, but enlightened; and the same is true now in the second advent. D599 Passing from grace to grace, and from knowledge to knowledge. SM14:2 Our Lord thus indicated that his disciples should have been able to interpret this parable, because of their knowledge of the truth it was designed to illustrate. R1742:1 While "given," it is not given indiscriminately; it is given only to those of certain character. R4444:6 Those wholly consecrated now, and gladly following the "Lamb whithersoever he goeth" (Rev. 14:4), know that their Master will continue to give them meat in due season (Matt. 13:52), both in things new and old, as they are able to bear it. (John 16:12) R1151:1* The mysteries -- Even partially. R1149:1* "The Mystery hidden from past ages and dispensations, but now revealed unto the saints." (Col. 1:26) SM246:T The Mystery is this: that God's purpose from the first was that the great Deliverer should be not only the Lord Jesus, but should include also the elect Little Flock of this Gospel age. SM246:T It is proper that the saints should know this Mystery, for now the strength which this knowledge would give will be of special value in their combat with the special trials and difficulties immediately before them. SM246:T The Pentecostal blessing, evidencing our forgiveness, has reached every member of the consecrated class to enlighten the eyes of our understanding and to enable us to see the deep things of God and his gracious promises. R3590:6 We may tell of these mysteries, knowing that none will be able to comprehend thoroughly all of these mysteries except such as have taken several degrees in the Order of the Melchizedek Priesthood. SM14:2 Parables, which illustrated truths, can only be seen as the truths they illustrate become manifest. R1742:4 "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief." (1 Thess. 5:4) C215 Israelites indeed, learn precept upon precept, line upon line. (Isa. 28:9, 10) SM109:2 The permission of evil was not understood until the Gospel age, and more fully in this harvest period; but only by the spirit-begotten. R1506:1 But to others -- All not members of the inner circle of Israelites indeed. NS632:3; SM109:2 Not disciples. R72:2 The masses of Christendom. NS307:2 "Them that are without"--outside the pale of the believing disciples, which included the whole nation of Israel except a small "remnant." R1742:4 We need not be afraid of giving away the secrets of the Lord. SM246:T In parables -- Not understood by the people who heard them, and which seem to be but little better comprehended today. HG394:6 Because they are not in the right attitude of heart to properly profit by the knowledge. NS524:2 Dark sayings. D614 It was not because of Israelitish stupidity that they did not perceive the antitypes, not because of superiority of acumen that we see them now and they do not. NS598:1 So that they might fail to perceive the blessings of which they were proving themselves unworthy. R1742:4 Jesus taught a punishment and trouble now and in the future for the wicked, but it was always by parable. R1151:1*; A128 That seeing -- They had indeed the natural sight and the natural hearing, but they lacked the mental sight and hearing. R2414:4 They might not see -- So hard for the Jew to understand, and equally impossible for the natural man of the Gentiles to comprehend. R3590:6 Our Lord spake in this dark manner with the very intention that the majority might not understand. NS307:2 Natural men and not new creatures, never begotten of the holy Spirit, cannot see and understand spiritual things. R3328:4 Might not understand -- Even if we tell it, all cannot hear. SM246:T "I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you." (Acts 13:41) NS632:3 The parables and teachings were not uttered with the intention of making the blind see and the deaf hear, but purposely so that the deaf might not hear, and so that the blind might not see. R2414:4 Even now the dark sayings of our Lord are not understood except by his footstep followers. A128; D614; R2414:4, 1149:1*; SM109:2 Parables can be understood only as the truths they illustrate become manifest. R1742:4 Luke 8:11 The word of God -- The good seed represents the message of the Kingdom, not a truth about the philosophies of men, or some scientific truth. R5736:5 Even as false teaching, human philosophies and doctrines of devils are not wheat-seed, but tare-seed. R2627:3 Matthew says, "the word of the kingdom." Our Lord, no doubt, used both expressions. R2628:5 The entire revelation which God has made to us--the Bible. R3764:1, 2627:3 Luke 8:12 By the way side -- Hardened by prosperity, needing the plowshare of trouble. R3764:3 Their hearts being solid and compact with selfishness; not bad people, but unsuited to the Lord's present work and call. R2627:3 They that hear -- But into whose hearts it did not enter at all. They simply heard with the outer ear and forgot. It made no impression. R5736:2 Cometh the devil -- We have so much more to contend with than the weaknesses of our own flesh and the imperfections of fellow men. F609 Whose very existence is denied by many. F609 Taketh away the word -- Stealing away from them every element of truth they once had seen. R3764:3 The Adversary would always, if possible, prevent the seed from entering the heart and taking root. R5736:2 Out of their hearts -- In this parable the field of operation is the heart of each individual, while in the wheat and the tares the field is the world. (Matt. 13:38) R97:2* Luke 8:13 They on the rock -- Having a veneer of outward grace but at heart a character of selfishness. R2627:5 Receive the word -- At first give evidence of great fruitfulness and vigor. R2791:2, 5650:5, 4910:4, 3764:4 With joy -- At first very much enthused, but they lack depth of character. They will not bring forth the fruitage, for they have not sufficient depth for rooting. They are shallow. R5736:2 Have no root -- They lack depth of character. R5736:2, 5650:5, 3764:4, 2627:5 In time of temptation -- As soon as they find out that the truth is not popular, they foresee persecution or social ostracism; then their ardor cools and their interest in the harvest message wanes and gradually dies out. R5736:2 Fall away -- Not endure. R4910:5, 2791:2 Wither under the sun of persecution. R4910:4, 5736:2, 2791:2, 3764:4, 5650:5 Such cannot be of the Kingdom class. R2791:2, 4910:5, 2627:6 Luke 8:14 Among thorns -- Good ground, with fine prospects for developing the fruits of the holy Spirit, but it is infested with thorns--not frivolous pleasures, theater, cards, dancing, etc., but the cares and ambitions of life, the deceitfulness of riches. R5736:3 Earthly projects and ambitions whose interests conflict with the interests of the Kingdom. R3764:5 In Palestine these thorns or thistles grow in the very best kind of soil. R2627:6 Are they -- They may be good business men, fine politicians, or immersed in some kind of study. Others may be fine housekeepers, having a pride in how well things are kept, or they may be leaders in society or in works of reform. R5736:3 And are choked -- The ground, while good, is otherwise occupied, and the message of the Kingdom and its work are crowded out to a large degree, so that no fruit is brought to perfection. R5736:3 Riches -- There are but few of the Lord's people that can be trusted with riches. R2520:2 And bring no fruit -- "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." ( Luke 16:13) We cannot bring forth both thorns and wheat. R3764:5 Luke 8:15 But that -- The truth is represented by the seed, and the individuals are also represented by the seed. A grain of truth is planted in an honest heart and it produces a character which is in harmony with that truth. R5736:5 On the good ground -- This condition represents entire consecration to God. Everything which would hinder has been cast out. The cares of this life are not permitted to enter this heart and choke the word. R5736:3 Honest and good heart -- Proper quality or depth of character, honesty being the most important feature of all. R5736:3, 5 Keep it -- His words should lead to self-examination, as not the hearers only, but the doers of the Word, are acceptable with God. R1741:3 Bring forth fruit -- Those of this class grow daily in knowledge, in love, and are building one another up in the most holy faith. R5737:1 Their very best, according to circumstances, conditions and ability. R5736:5 To the very largest degree of our possibilities, surroundings and opportunities. R3765:4 Which will be measured by the degree of our zeal and our love for the Lord. R2628:4 With patience -- The Greek word hypomonee has a deeper and fuller significance than attaches to the English word. It signifies rather constancy--the thought of being an endurance of evil in a cheerful, willing, patient manner. R2971:1, 4910:4, 3584:3 Patient endurance follows after the receiving and sprouting of the seed, and is necessary in order that the fruit may be developed and thoroughly ripened. R5650:5, 4910:5, 2791:2 Luke 8:16 Lighted a candle -- "Ye are the light of the world." (Matt. 5:14) E293; R3243:2, 2036:3 A measure of light in the world, emanating from our dear Redeemer, and still shining forth from all those who are truly his. R3686:2, 5769:5 It is "the light that is in you," a light of faith, hope and love ignited in the heart. R3686:2 Luke 8:16 Covereth it -- If unfaithful in shining for the light under the present conditions of prevalent darkness, they will not be esteemed worthy of a place with the glorified faithful in the Kingdom which shall shine forth as the sun. HG438:6 The extinguishing of their light, the stoppage of their growth, if persevered in, would mean second death. R2966:5 Luke 8:17 Nothing is secret -- Faithfulness consists in a proper and diligent use of our gifts in harmony with the divine purpose and methods; and both the Lord and the Apostle point to a day of reckoning when the secret things will be brought to light. R1972:3 The day of his presence will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the secret counsels of the heart. (1 Cor. 4:5) R2979:6 That shall not -- In the Millennial age. A303 Be made manifest -- A testimony dreaded but disbelieved by unjust stewards of wealth and power. C20 The murderer will be faced by his victim, the debtor by his creditor, the thief by his dupe, the defamer by the one defamed. R1655:1 Luke 8:18 Take heed -- Divine truth, coming to us through the appointed channel of God's Word, comes with a moral and logical power, proving its authority and enforcing it with an emphasis which carries warning with it. R2057:3* How ye hear -- See that your heart is in a right condition to receive the truth. R2627:3 For whosoever hath -- Hath used. R2496:6 Whosoever hath not -- Hath not used. R2496:6 That which he seemeth to have -- The flood is sweeping away what little faith nominal Christians have. R2142:5* Luke 8:21 And my brethren -- In my new family, the "household of faith." (Gal. 6:10) F589 Luke 8:23 He fell asleep -- Evidently thoroughly exhausted with the labors of his journey and ministry. R3324:3 Came down a storm -- Picturing the experiences of the Church during the Gospel age, tempest-tossed by the Adversary. R3325:1 Of wind -- The Sea of Galilee is quite subject to such wind storms. R3324:2 This storm may have been supernatural and of the Adversary. R3324:4 Luke 8:24 Awoke him -- Tired, weary and asleep. R1063:2* Raging of the water -- Symbolizing the restless, anarchistic masses. A318 There was a calm -- "Peace be still" (Mark 4:39)--after the time of trouble. R3325:4, 5058:3,6 Waters lashed to a fury cannot thus be quickly calmed except by a miracle. R3324:4 Yet he refused to miraculously deliver himself from his captors in Gethsemane. F650 "He maketh the storm a calm." (Psa. 107:29) R3324:1 Whoever can, by faith, take hold upon the Lord will find a great peace and calm come into his heart and affairs. R5058:6 Picturing the world's great rest from the evil one for a thousand years. R3325:4 Luke 8:25 Where is your faith? -- When the adversary brings a whirlwind of temptation, opposition or persecution, with waves of adversity or affliction, and the Lord seems heedless, our faith is being tested. R3324:6 We today, by faith, are able to see the Lord with us in the ship, about to speak peace to the world. R3325:4 Luke 8:27 Which had devils -- Apparently the human will must consent before these evil spirits have power to take possession. But when they do take possession apparently the will power is so broken down that the individual is almost helpless to resist their presence, even though he so desires. R2173:3 Luke 8:28 Torment me not -- Implying that an interference with their tormenting of mankind would be an injury to their rights. Similarly today, some men claim that their rights are interfered with when they are stopped from pillaging and injuring their fellow-creatures. R3772:2 Luke 8:30 Many devils -- The tendency of fallen spirits to congregate in one person indicates the desire they have still to exercise the power originally given them--namely, the power to materialize as men. R2173:3 Luke 8:31 Out into the deep -- Into the abyss, the second death, utter destruction. R3772:4 Luke 8:32 Herd of many swine -- Unclean to the Jew, and unlawful for them to eat. R2173:3 And they -- Not attempting to palm themselves off as spirits of deceased human beings. F626 Assuredly these were persons and not merely a disease of the man's mind. R3772:5 Besought him -- Evidently fallen angels cannot impose themselves upon even the dumb animals until given some sort of permission. R2173:3 Luke 8:37 Depart from them -- Wherever the true Gospel goes its effect is to cause uproar and confusion in the kingdom of darkness. R1633:3 Luke 8:38 Might be with him -- "Unto you which believe he is precious." (1 Pet. 2:7) R3773:2 Luke 8:39 Had done unto him -- Our Lord's journey on that occasion seems to have resulted in the conversion of but one person, the demonic, who then became the Lord's mouthpiece there. R3773:4 Luke 8:41 He fell down -- Figuratively expressing his homage, obedience and faith. R4588:5 Besought him -- Here the faith was exercised by another on behalf of the patient, who, being dead, had no ability to exercise faith. R1939:2 Luke 8:44 Touched...his garment -- Believing in his greatness and power, she immediately felt the thrill of life and strength in her body like an electric current. R4588:6 Who touched me? -- Our Lord was full of vital energy, and felt the loss of it as electricity is drawn from a battery. R4588:6 Luke 8:46 I perceive -- He felt the consequent weakness. R1359:4 Virtue is gone out -- Since he could not suffer pain and sickness because of sin, he was placed among sinners, where their weaknesses and pains bore down upon him--he "himself took our infirmities and bare our sickness." (Matt. 8:17; Isa. 53:4,5) R2000:1 Every cure performed by Jesus served to exhaust his very life forces, yet he gave himself--spent his life in acts of love and kindness to poor, fallen humanity. R105:4 Jesus experienced the woes and sufferings of humanity without sharing in the imperfections and sins. R454:3 He impoverished himself to bless others. R1735:4 It is daily more recognized among scientific men that some persons possess greater vitality than others, and can communicate it to others who have less, though such are liable to feel for a time the weakness which is cured in the weaker one. R574:4 Power, vitality, strength, healing vigor. R574:4, 4588:6, 2000:1, 454:3, 105:4 See also comments on 6:19. Luke 8:47 She came trembling -- Fearful she had stolen a blessing of which she felt unworthy. R4588:6 Luke 8:49 Trouble not -- Their faith in the power of Jesus was a very weak faith. When they saw the child was dead all hope departed. They had considerable faith in Christ, but they did not believe that his power extended to the raising of the dead. R1939:2 Luke 8:50 Shall be made whole -- Merely an awakening; nowhere styled resurrection. R5578:3; OV352:1 Not in heaven, purgatory, or hell. R5611:5 Luke 8:52 But sleepeth -- As in the case of Lazarus, our Lord here referred to death as a sleep, in view of the fact of the resurrection. R1939:4 All the dead are to be reckoned as sleeping, waiting for his return and his exaltation with his elect bride in glory. R2197:6 The second death, from which there shall be no resurrection, is never called "sleep" in the Bible. R1939:4 Luke 8:54 He put them all out -- Because they manifested their lack of faith. While he rewarded their faith, weak though it was, he reproved them also. R1939:4 Luke 8:55 Her spirit came again -- Simply signifying, "And her breath returned," and is so rendered in the Diaglott. The Greek word pneuma, translated "spirit" in the Common Version, signifies breath, wind, or the spirit or breath of life. R1939:4 And she arose -- Thus the Lord rewarded even the weak in faith, and gave them additional and overwhelming evidence to strengthen and establish their faith. R1939:4 Did not come back from heaven or hell, and was not resurrected, but was merely awakened out of the sleep of death. Christ was "the first fruits of them that slept" (1 Cor. 15:20), "the first that should rise from the dead." (Acts 26:23) R2618:2,4; OV352:1 Foreshadowing or illustrating the resurrection. R4603:4 Luke 9 Luke 9:1 His twelve disciples -- His apostles; specially called and ordained, a class distinct and separate from other disciples. R1522:3 They were continually under his training, witnesses of his teachings, personal character, manner of life and miracles; the only ones invited to partake with him of the last Passover Supper; witnesses of the agonies of Gethsemane, his betrayal and arrest, his crucifixion, death, burial and the fact of his resurrection. R1522:3,4 Only "the eleven" were the chosen witnesses of the Lord's ascension. R1522:5 And gave them power -- Not until they had received considerable instruction from him were they recognized in their office as apostles and fully empowered for their special work. R2261:1 Over all devils -- Apparently there were great numbers possessed throughout the land of Israel. R2173:2 And to cure -- At the expense of Jesus' vitality. R2636:1 Diseases -- Illustrating our present privilege of opening deaf ears and blind eyes to the knowledge of the Lord's great plan. R2636:4 Luke 9:2 He sent them -- Some little time before sending the seventy, whom he probably sent in the last year of his ministry. R2674:1 Preach the kingdom -- Not only was the kingdom the topic with which the Lord began his public ministry, but it was really the main topic of all his preaching, other subjects being mentioned merely in connection with, or in explanation of, this one subject. A273 The hope of every Israelite. A273 Luke 9:3 Said unto them -- During our Lord's earthly ministry the work of the apostles differed nothing from that of the "seventy" (Compare Luke 10:17); yet they were more directly and continually under his training and were the chosen witnesses of every remarkable feature and event of his course. R1522:3 Take nothing -- Not going as travelers, but rather as persons who were thoroughly at home, and who expected to find a home and the necessities of life wherever they went. R2261:5 Nor scrip -- That is, no valise or satchel wherein to carry surplus. The apostles had something to give, but not to sell. R2261:5 Luke 9:4 There abide -- He sent them to a covenant people, whose duty it was to receive and entertain the messengers of the Lord. Their receiving or rejecting would be a test of their fidelity to God as his covenant people. R1988:2 The family would be blessed of the Lord because of the presence of his representatives. R2261:6 The messengers of present truth are not self-seekers, or money-gatherers, but merely accept, in exchange for the blessings which they confer, enough financial support to meet their expenses, economically. R2262:1 Luke 9:5 Will not receive you -- They were not to stay in any place where the Lord's blessing would not be appreciated. R2261:6 Shake off the very dust -- Not as a vindictive expression of hatred, but rather as a symbolic act implying that they renounced all responsibility for what the consequences might be. R2262:4 Luke 9:6 And they departed -- Himself going also. R1754:2 And healing -- Merely as foregleams of the blessings which, in fuller measure, would result from the inauguration of Messiah's Kingdom. R2261:5 Luke 9:10 When they were returned -- The news of John's death and the possible effect of this sudden outburst of royal wrath seems to have brought them all together again to take counsel of the Lord. R1754:2 Told him all -- Just so, the Lord would have all his disciples come to him for counsel, rest and refreshment. "He never asks of us such busy labor as finds no time for resting at his feet." R1754:3 Went aside privately -- Probably in part for private meditation and conference with his disciples, who undoubtedly would be greatly agitated by the news of John's beheading, and needed his calming influence and assurance that Herod could have no power over them except such as might be permitted by the Father. R2435:2 Bethsaida -- Just outside the boundary of Herod's dominion. R2435:3, 1754:3 Luke 9:11 He received them -- He could not refrain from giving them his vitality in curing their ailments, and pouring in the oil and wine of truth, and satisfying their hungers and thirstings of heart with the good promise of the Kingdom, and finally providing them natural food; and such should be the spirit of all the Lord's followers. R2435:3 Our delight will be, not in self-gratification, but chiefly in "doing good to all men as we have opportunity, especially to the household of faith." (Gal. 6:10) R2435:5 He is today looking with sympathetic compassion upon the multitudes of so-called "Christendom" and beholds them, dissatisfied with the husks of human tradition and philosophy, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. R2436:1 Luke 9:12 And get victuals -- The people themselves seem to have been so entranced with the good tidings that they entirely forgot their own necessities. R2435:5 Luke 9:13 Give ye them to eat -- It is remarkable that the Gospels do not parade our Lord's generosity and kindness, but content themselves with recording the simple facts. R2435:3 Seeing the dark night approaching, the Lord today instructs his disciples to supply them with something to eat--spiritual food, truths pertaining to the Kingdom, which will afford them some strength and encouragement in the time of trouble. R2436:1 We should be ready at any time to distribute our store of truth. It should be sufficient for us to know that someone present is hungering and thirsting after righteousness. R3333:5 And two fishes -- The Lord takes our time and talents, little and unworthy as these are, and blesses them and uses them in his service, and accomplishes great things. R3780:5 Our Lord's miracles of feeding and healing were performed, not upon the consecrated disciples, but upon others. R1754:6 Luke 9:14 Five thousand -- The largeness of the company is accounted for by the fact that it was near the time of the Feast of the Passover, and according to custom large numbers of the religiously inclined were on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. R2435:3 Men -- Besides women and children. R1754:3 Yet at the time of his temptation he refused to miraculously appease his own hunger. F650 Luke 9:16 And the two fishes -- We offer no objection to those who claim better health as a result of a purely vegetable diet, but we do object to the claim of special sanctity on account of it. R3098:3 And looking up -- It is incomprehensible how any consecrated Christian dare to neglect to render thanks for his daily food. R2643:6, 3780:6, 2644:2 He blessed them -- The giving of thanks did indeed bring a blessing upon the food. R3780:6 To the disciples -- Representing the Little Flock during the Millennial age. R3781:4 Though he could have fed the multitude without their help. R2644:4 Similarly, he could feed hungry spiritual Israelites with the harvest message without our aid, but is pleased to use us as disseminators of the truth. R2644:4 Luke 9:17 They did eat -- The Lord's miracles of feeding and healing were performed, not upon his consecrated disciples, but upon others. His followers were covenanted to share with him in the work of sacrifice. R1754:6 Were all filled -- Plainness and simplicity of food would not only be more healthful, but would leave much more time for the spiritual refreshment. R3781:1 The skeptics who deny this miracle cannot question but that this grain and these fishes could in due time, in the course of nature, have brought forth a harvest sufficient for the 5,000. R3333:2 There was taken up -- A good supply for their future necessities. R2435:5 Of fragments -- Those who receive of the Lord's bounty should be none the less appreciative of it, and careful in its use. R2435:6 We are not to waste spiritual privileges because they are God's free gifts. Rather, we are to prize every spiritual morsel and to gather up in store for future needs of ourselves and others. R2435:6 Not the fragments left by the multitude, but those broken by the Lord and not distributed. R3781:4 Twelve baskets -- Haversacks, in which the twelve apostles carried their provision. R2435:5 So that none of God's provision for his people might be wasted. R3333:3 It was those who scattered to others who had their haversacks full in the end. Those who are most intent upon feeding others the Bread of Life are themselves most bountifully supplied. R3504:2 Our memories are our haversacks in which we are to gather up in store for ourselves and others every spiritual morsel. R2435:6 Luke 9:20 Whom say ye -- The teaching of Jesus was chiefly by induction. R5767:5 Peter -- Probably the oldest of the disciples and their spokesman. R3339:6 The Christ of God -- The word Christ or kristos is a Greek word, introduced into our English language, but not translated into it. Its translation is anointed. R270:2, 134:2 Jesus was always his name, but from the time of his baptism, when the holy Spirit descended upon him and anointed him as the High Priest, his title has been "The Anointed." R270:2, 134:2 Jesus was frequently called by this title instead of by his name; as English people most often speak of their sovereign as "the Queen," instead of calling her by her name. R270:2, 134:3 As Jesus was the "anointed one," we also, the Church of Christ, have the same anointing of the Spirit, as members of his Body. R134:3, 270:3 He indicated that Jesus was the son of God, not the son of Joseph. R5767:5 Luke 9:21 Tell no man -- The Lord preferred to give the people the evidences, rather than the assertions, of his Messiahship, and to let the logic of his mighty works lead them to the only reasonable conclusions. R1939:2 Because it might interfere with the divine program respecting his crucifixion, either hastening or hindering it. R3790:1 Luke 9:22 Must suffer -- Even with this forewarning, the faith of most of those who believed proved very superficial. They were swayed in judgment by the opposition of their leaders, and only a few stood firm in the midst of the trials following. R1939:3 Testings of faith and loyalty to God are as necessary to Jesus' followers as they were to himself--to develop and crystallize character. PD76:4/90 Consequently if any followed him from wrong motives, the trial coming would sweep them away. R1939:2 Luke 9:23 If any man -- Already a disciple. R3235:6 If we turn aside from the path of humiliation and daily cross-bearing, and strive for present exaltation and preferment, we are forgetting the very conditions upon which the future exaltation depends. R1988:2 Will come after me -- He had showed them how he must suffer, and that, if they would follow him and continue to be his disciples, they must do as he did. R1939:5 Will follow my example. Our Lord's life was an illustration. R3790:3, 5654:1, 4557:4 As sheep. R5654:1 Let him deny himself -- Sacrifice himself, his personal interests and ambitions. R3846:4, 4557:4 Kill his will outright, not merely hack and mutilate it. This is not and must not be a cross. The desire to give up our will and accept God's will must be a pleasure, or God will take no joy in our service. "I delight to do thy will, O my God." (Psa. 40:8) R5654:1, 5719:2, 3237:1,2; Q399:T "If we be dead with him we shall also live with him." (2 Tim. 2:11) R2615:6 "Blest Savior, Thou knowest the weakness of man; With strength that thou givest, we answer, We can." R401:4* Take up his cross -- At the very beginning of our course we each found the cross confronting us. Had we not taken it up we would not have been accounted worthy even to look with intelligent appreciation into the precious truths of God's plan. R3103:6 Having counted the cost of discipleship. R3235:6, 3236:4 The trials, difficulties, disappointments, the crossing of the human will made necessary by the doing of God's will under present unfavorable conditions. R3236:4, 3237:3 Being sacrificed of earthly interests. Q399:T As soon as we take hold of the cross and put forth our efforts, our Lord lifts the real weight of it. R3236:6, 5222:4 And follow me -- Who has set an example, to live separate from the world, to live for God and the truth and for the blessing of fellowmen. SM383:2 The difference between the masses of nominal Christians and the true Christian is that the latter take the name Christian to mean followers of Christ, and not merely to mean respectable and moral people. NS263:2 This Kingdom class must all be footstep followers of Jesus. R4754:4 "Walk not after the flesh but after the spirit." (Rom. 8:4) R3237:5 Luke 9:24 Lose his life for my sake -- The Greek word is psuche, signifying existence or being. R248:6; E336 Our Lord's human life and restitution rights, applied "for us," give us by faith those rights, as a loan, on condition that we do not keep them, but follow his example and sacrifice them, that God might reward the sacrifice with the new, spirit nature. R4556:5 Only by sacrificing present interests and life itself can any now obtain eternal life. R4556:5, 1939:5 Loss of worldly and sectarian life is really gain. R508:5* The same shall save it -- Faithfulness to our covenant of sacrifice insures eternal life as spiritual beings, while the repudiation of it would surely forfeit that life. R1939:6 That we may be members of the Christ--the world's Prophet, Priest, King, Mediator. R4556:6 Luke 9:26 Be ashamed of me -- Ashamed to confess themselves his followers; ashamed to own his "brethren," the members of his Body. E237; R3777:1, 3776:3 To know the Song of Moses and not to sing it, to understand the good tidings and not to proclaim them, would mean fear, shame or lack of zeal, any of which would be quite sufficient reasons for losing a knowledge of the Song. NS636:5 As of one unfit for the Kingdom--unfit to be entrusted with so great power, honor and glory, and with immortality. R4115:3 It is not a matter of favoritism, but of character-development. If they will not endure to the end, if they do not prove overcomers, they will not be fit for the Kingdom and association with their Lord. R5669:4 The Lord is still present in the world in the flesh--in the flesh of his consecrated members. The world is still ashamed of Christ. R3776:6 Love for the brethren means love for the Lord. "He that despiseth you despiseth me; he that rejected you rejecteth me and him that sent me." ( Luke 10:16) R3777:1 And of my words -- Ashamed to confess the doctrines which he taught. E237; R5120:4 The Bible and the literature which expounds and illustrates it. The Lord puts his Word on a parity with himself--his representative. R3777:4, 3776:3, 2597:4, 2430:5 The teaching of the great Teacher and of his chosen twelve apostles is to be the kriterion or rule of judgment (Greek: krino) to his followers. R2430:5 Not addressing those who burn the Bible, or do not have one, or neglect to read it, or fail to take their texts from it, or quote it incorrectly, but those who in their hearts are ashamed of the Word of God, and give evidence of that shame by failing to take a stand in support of the truth. R3777:1 The Word of God is not merely the Bible, but it includes sermons, tracts, books, etc., in proportion as they contain and truly represent the message of God's dear Son. R3777:4 The Son of man -- The seed of Adam, through Eve; the Son of the Man. E152, 153; R944:1 Be ashamed -- Not fit for the Kingdom. R2966:5, 5669:4, 4967:6, 4115:3, 3777:1 One must not, cannot, keep silence nor put their light under a bushel. If they do, it means the extinguishment of their light and the stoppage of their growth. R2966:5 Will not own them as members of his Bride Class. R4967:6 When he makes up his jewels (Mal. 3:17) at his second coming. E237 When he shall come -- In the Kingdom of God. C302 Of the holy angels -- "The Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints." (Jude 14) C302 "The Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels [the saints, his holy messengers] with him." (Matt. 25:31) C302 Luke 9:27 See the kingdom -- A prophecy which received almost immediate fulfillment. R1761:1 Little did the disciples imagine that our Lord's statement would be fulfilled within six days to Peter, James and John in the Mount of Transfiguration. R2288:3 He did not explain to them whether they would see the Kingdom in reality established in eight days, or whether they would see a vision of the Kingdom. R3793:2 Showing clearly that the transfiguration vision, eight days later, was intended to be a foreshadowing of the glories and honors of the Kingdom in some sense of the word. R3793:5 A vision of it, as explained in next nine verses. R3790:5, 1939:6, 1761:1 Luke 9:28 About an eight days -- Six days later; the eight counts the one in which this was uttered and the one in which it was fulfilled. R2659:1 Peter and John and James -- The Lord showed distinctly his appreciation of the warm, ardent temperament of these three in the fact that they were his closest companions. F135 The three most advanced of the Lord's followers. So since then, it is the most advanced followers, the most humble, zealous and faithful, who are granted the clearest perceptions of the Kingdom, to reveal to others of the elect Little Flock. R3794:2, 2659:1 If we would be closest to the Master and most frequently privileged to have fellowship with him, we should have a similar earnest and zealous spirit. R2289:3 The three favorite disciples who accompanied the Lord on this occasion and had also done so on several other occasions. R2289:2 Representatives of the twelve. R3793:6 Into a mountain -- Presumably Mount Hermon. R3793:2 Type of the Kingdom. A318 To pray -- From a comparison of the accounts some have surmised that possibly the Lord and the apostles remained in the mountain all night, as Jesus sometimes did. R3793:2 Luke 9:29 As he prayed -- The "vision" came in answer to the Lord's prayer. R1761:4 So all those who seek God in prayer may, to a large extent, with the eye of faith realize this same blessed vision of the Kingdom. R2660:1 Countenance was altered -- Not changed actually. The change from human to divine began at his baptism, but did not actually occur until three days after Calvary, when he was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. R3793:6, 2659:5 White and glistering -- Radiant like the sun, as in Rev. 1:14-16. R3794:4 After the manner of angels, the vision thus representing the Lord after having experienced his resurrection change from earthly to heavenly conditions. R5121:2 Representing him as no longer the man Christ Jesus, but the risen, glorified, Son of the Highest. R2659:4 Representing the "Glory to follow" (1 Pet. 1:11), when the sufferings are all complete. B20; R1761:2 Luke 9:30 There talked -- Probably while the disciples were asleep and, therefore, specially for his own comfort. R1761:4 With him -- The central figure of the vision was Jesus himself. Moses and Elias were merely accessories to fill out the picture. R3793:5 The object of the "vision" was probably two-fold: for the comfort and strengthening of the Lord; and for the enlightenment of his chosen witnesses. R1761:4 Moses and Elias -- They appeared to be present, but they were not actually present, because it was merely a "vision." R2659:5, 2288:3, 1761:2 Moses represented the faithful of natural Israel, the "house of servants," and Elijah represented The Christ in the flesh, the "house of sons." The glorified one stood between the Moses class, called previously, and the Elijah class, which had just begun to be called. R5121:5, 3794:3, 2659:4, 2289:1, 1761:2 Representing the Law and the Prophets. Moses spoke of the sufferings of Christ in all the arrangements of the Law, its sacrifices, etc., and the prophets declare not only the coming glories, but also the sufferings which must precede them. R2659:3 These two, like Jesus, had each fasted forty days: thus, representatively, they were one with the Lord in a remarkable devotion to the heavenly Father--in the practice of self-denial. R3794:3 A figure of Moses, representing the Ancient Worthies. F677; B20; R3794:3,4, 2659:4, 2289:1 A figure of Moses, representing the earthly phase of the Kingdom. R1761:2, 2289:2 A figure of Moses, representing the Mosaic or Law dispensation. B255; R5772:4, 3794:3 Jesus and the Church, spiritual Israel, their spiritual resurrection shown by Moses' hidden grave. R4054:4; D629 A figure of Elijah, representing the Gospel age Church. R3794:3; F677; B20, 252; R2659:4, 2289:1 A figure of Elijah, representing a united work of Christ and the Church. B255 A figure of Elijah, representing the spiritual or heavenly phase of the Kingdom. A288; R1761:2 A figure of Elijah, representing the Gospel or Christian dispensation. B255; R5772:4 Luke 9:31 Appeared in glory -- It was only an appearance, because Christ was the firstborn from the dead, and neither Moses nor Elias is as yet "made perfect." (Heb. 11:40) R2659:5, 1761:2; Q761:3; F676 A picture of the glory of the Kingdom. R2659:2 Radiant, but less so than Jesus. R5121:2 Spake of his decease -- Intended for the ears of the disciples to convince them that the matters which should occur before long on Mount Calvary would all be features of the divine plan. R2659:3 Intending to assure the apostles respecting the certainty of the Kingdom, notwithstanding the apparent failure of all Kingdom hopes in our Lord's crucifixion. R2659:2 Drawing their minds gradually to a realization that his death would not mean a repudiation of the promise of the Kingdom and its glory. R5121:1 There could have been no Kingdom glory without the redemptive work. But this vision portrays the Kingdom glories which will ultimately result from our Lord's death. R2289:1 Not only the ancient ones trusted in a sacrifice to come, but the Gospel Church trusts in the sacrifice already accomplished for her, and there is a full communion of fellowship between the two. R3794:4 Illustrating how the death of Christ was fully attested beforehand. Moses spoke of it in the sacrifices of the Law, and all the Prophets declared it and the coming glories. ( Luke 24:25-27) R2659:3 Luke 9:32 Peter and they -- In this tableau, the three disciples formed no part. They were merely witnesses. R2288:6 They saw -- So far as the apostles were concerned, what they saw was so actual, so real, that they supposed the whole matter actual. Our assurance that the transfiguration was a vision is in our Lord's words, "Tell the vision to no man." (Matt. 17:9) R3793:3, 1761:1 A vision was just as useful to the purpose as a reality could have been. R2659:5 In this vision, as in all visions, the unreal appears real. R2288:3 His glory -- The "vision" was a vivid and refreshing symbolic view of the Kingdom, but without the "sure word of prophecy" (2 Pet. 1:19), it would have been unintelligible. R1761:4 Luke 9:33 Make three tabernacles -- Evidently thinking that the Master would be rejoiced at such blessed fellowship, and willing to do anything for his aid. R5121:2 We cannot build tabernacles on the mountain heights of faith and hope, and expect to dwell there in enraptured vision always. We must remember that the duties and trials of present experiences in conflict with sin and self and the Adversary are essential to our development and part of our covenant. R2660:1,4 How many there are who, Peter-like, want to be doing something, want to be rearing earthly tabernacles. All about us we see the disposition to rear costly temples of an earthly kind to the Lord, and a neglect of the vision in its real meaning. R3795:1 Not knowing what he said -- He was bewildered and confused, but in harmony with his natural temperament, he wished to say something. R2289:3 Peter's rash expression found a reproof in the voice from heaven which said, "Hear ye him." And fear fell upon the disciples. R2289:4 Luke 9:34 There came a cloud -- A misty cloud of light, saying to the apostles and to us, that glory will, in a considerable measure, be obscured for a time, so that you will see your Lord only with the eye of faith; though more or less cloudy, the cloud will nevertheless be bright unto those who look unto him. R2659:6 Representing the darkness and trouble which would be permitted to come upon the Lord's followers in the midst of all the trials of the dark days that were coming upon them in connection with Jesus' rejection by the Jews. R3794:5 And they feared -- Overpowered by the brilliancy of the vision; so we, in our weak and imperfect conditions, sometimes find it difficult to grasp the glorious things which God hath set before us. R3794:6 Not only is the fear of the Lord valuable as a beginning of true wisdom, but it is valuable all our journey through. R2289:4 The fear which we are to lose entirely is the "fear of man which bringeth a snare." (Prov. 29:25) He who loses the fear of God and of losing the great prize is in a very dangerous position. He is likely to become self-conscious and self-satisfied. R2289:5 One account shows that it was necessary for the Lord to touch the apostles, saying, "Arise, and be not afraid." (Matt. 17:7) R3793:3 Representing our fears lest we should fail in the great undertaking. R3794:6 Luke 9:35 There came a voice -- The voice of God. R2659:6 "This voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy mount. (2 Pet. 1:18) B255; R5121:1, 4649:3, 1761:1 This is my beloved Son -- Their faith was corroborated; God himself had testified in this miraculous manner that Jesus was his Son. R5121:3 At his birth the heavenly messengers announced him; at his baptism the heavenly voice declared him the acceptable Son of God, and here it is reiterated. R1761:5 Jesus was the first Son of God after Adam; and since our Lord's time, the Church have been called sons of God. (1 John 3:2) R5623:5 Hear him -- The voice seemed to say, Be still! hearken rather to the words of my beloved Son. Not a few need to learn the lesson of quietness --to hear and learn, be taught of God. R2289:3 Hear and obey his word. All through the Gospel age, we will have great need to continually hearken to the Word of the Lord. R2659:6 We have taken the first step of belief; we have taken the second step of response, and agreed to do these things; the important question with each of us, therefore, must be--Am I obedient? R3163:6 Continually hearken to the Word of the Lord, the very essence of wisdom and righteousness. R2659:6, 3163:6 "My sheep hear my voice." (John 10:27) R3346:5 "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak." (James 1:19) R2289:4 Luke 9:36 Was found alone -- Only Jesus with them, no longer with radiant appearance. R5121:2, 4649:3, 1761:5 The vision, the voice and the cloud had all passed away, while the lessons of that solemn hour remained to gain a yet broader significance after Pentecost. R1761:5 Which they had seen -- A symbolic representation of the glory of Christ's Millennial Kingdom. R1761:1 Luke 9:46 Should be greatest -- A question naturally suggested by the Lord's selection of the three to witness the experiences on the Mount of Transfiguration. R1766:2 While the humility of the Lord's apostles is very marked in their subsequent career, in the beginning of their course they were all to some extent influenced by old ideas which it was the object of Christ's teaching gradually to eradicate. R1766:2 To aspire to advancement for self-glory or self-gratification, to desire personal preferment above others, is contrary to the spirit of God's plan, which is love. R875:4* It would be the very height of presumption on the part of any human being, as it was on the part of Satan, to aspire to the divine nature if we were not invited to that position by God himself. R875:2* We have no intimation that either Jesus, or any of the angels that kept their first estate, ever aspired to anything beyond that sphere to which divine wisdom had appointed them. R875:1* It was to ambition that Satan tempted Eve, saying, "God doth know that in the day that ye eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods." (Gen. 3:5) R875:1* 9:47 And Jesus -- Avoiding personalities, as it is always best to do wherever possible. R3796:2 Took a child -- The special characteristics of a little child are: simplicity of heart, meekness, truthfulness, freedom from ambition and rivalry, faith, confiding trust, love, obedience, teachableness, indifference to social distinctions and popular opinions, guilelessness. R1766:6, 3796:4 Luke 9:48 And said unto them -- His manner is impressive and solemn, as though he would say, I want you to take this lesson to heart and ponder it well. R1766:6 Receive this child -- Recognize, and show kindness to the least and humblest of God's children. R1767:4 If we would be pleasing to God, we must have the spirit of a little child with regard to others--an unselfish, guileless spirit, full of love and without hypocrisy. R875:4* Receiving such disciples as have this childlike character. R3797:2 In my name -- Because he is mine. R1767:4 He that is least -- Not only a warning to the individual seeking preferment in the Church, but also an instruction to the Church to accept as its honored servants only such as he describes. R875:4* Jesus was a perfect illustration of humbling himself; first, to become a man; and then when a man, to become obedient unto death. R875:1* Shall be great -- Not by any arbitrary law of retribution, but on the philosophical principle that humility leads to greatness. R1767:2 Will be most honored. Humility and child-likeness among the brethren now should be considered a mark of true greatness. R3796:5 Luke 9:49 We forbad him -- This one forbidden by John would correspond well with some now holding meetings other than those which we attend. R5501:3 Followeth not with us -- In the school of Christ there are various classes. Their exercise and instruction is under the direction of the principal teacher, Christ, who will lead each class as it may be able and willing to advance. R226:3 Luke 9:50 Forbid him not -- Conscience is always to be respected, never to be throttled or violated. Nor is any one who stands faithful to his conscience to be disesteemed therefor by his brethren, even if their consciences view the matter differently. R5501:6 Where brethren find it advantageous to meet in different classes, it will usually be found, we believe, that originally too great restraint of personal liberty was exercised, and that the majority were too careless of the sentiments of the brethren constituting the minority. R5502:1 It is for the Lord to bless them or not to bless them, according to his wisdom. R5501:3 Is for us -- We should love and wish Godspeed to all who love the Lord and manifest his Spirit, whether they associate with us or not. R3747:1 Luke 9:51 Steadfastly set his face -- He knew his hour was come, that his sacrificial life of three and a half years should be accomplished. He was full of courage. "But of the people there were none with him" in the sense of sympathetic appreciation of the conditions. (Isa. 63:3) R4701:3 Luke 9:52 Of the Samaritans -- Of mixed blood, Jewish and Gentile. They were counted by the Jews as though they were Gentiles; hence "the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans." (John 4:9) R2960:3 Could not receive special blessings until the seventy weeks of favor to the Jews was ended. R4132:3 To make ready -- Another account intimates that James and John visited the Samaritan city for the purchase of bread and supplies. R4701:3 Luke 9:53 Did not receive him -- Or permit him to pass through their city on his journey. R2574:2 In contrast with the Samaritan city of Sychar, where he was received and stayed for two days. (John 4:19-29) R4132:2 Refused to sell the disciples food. R4132:3, 5698:6, 4540:4, 2960:3; CR480:3 Would go to Jerusalem -- Would the Great Teacher recognize them and heal their sickness, or would he treat them as Jews generally treated them--unkindly? They believed the latter. R4701:6 Luke 9:54 And John -- Nevertheless this earnest, active disciple was specially loved of the Master, and doubtless he himself was very loving. NS818:1 We command fire -- Said in their zeal, but not according to knowledge. R2289:2 Let the brethren of exuberant and effervescent disposition learn the moderation which the Apostle commanded. F135 In comparison with eternal torture, this proposal of burning up the city, and incidentally burning them for a few minutes, would be as nothing. R4702:1; NS839:1 So there are some today who are ready to quarrel on every occasion. Although this tendency does not prove that they are not children of the Lord, nevertheless it demonstrates that they are not in the right attitude and that improvement is necessary. R5699:1 Reminiscent of the translators who translate John 5:28,29 as the "resurrection of damnation," instead of "judgment." NS315:4 An illustration of what an impulsive temperament may lead to; yet these were specially close to the Lord in the Mount of Transfiguration, at the raising of Jairus' daughter, and in Gethsemane's garden. F135 The same delusion caused men to be burned at the stake, and put through torture, in the name of Jesus. CR480:3 Luke 9:55 What manner of spirit -- They had not yet realized what is the spirit of a true disciple. It was therefore no wonder that they did things contrary to the Lord's spirit. CR495:2; OV433:4 They had a vengeful spirit, contrary to the loving kindness and tender mercy of God who planned the salvation of mankind. CR480:4 Luke 9:56 Destroy men's lives -- Greek, psuche, souls, beings. E336 "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world." (John 3:17) A255 A guide for all the Lord's followers for today, as well as before. We are not to render evil for evil or slander for slander; but, contrariwise, to speak kindly, lovingly and generously of those who say all manner of evil against us falsely for Christ's sake. R4540:4 God's work in Christ was not to sacrifice the world, but to save it. R539:1* But to save them -- Jesus had the Father's spirit; his teaching was sympathetic, loving, kind. R4702:1 Thank God for the coming Kingdom and its righteous judgments and assistances. R3320:5 Nevertheless, we remember that Jesus would not perform miracles in healing the Samaritan sick, and that it was for this reason that the Samaritans resented and would not receive him. R2574:2 The first work of the Savior is the redemptive work of Calvary. His second work is the selection of his Church to be joint-heirs in the Kingdom. His third work will be the saving of Adam and all his race from sin and death. R4702:4 Luke 9:57 I will follow thee -- Evidently with the thought that one so gifted and so well supplied with the necessities of life must be wealthy. R5370:6 Luke 9:58 Hath not where -- That is to say, Are you willing, if need be, to be thus homeless and comfortless that thereby you may render greater service to our Heavenly Father? R540:3* Apparently his ardor was cooled when Jesus informed him that he had no property. None but the very sincere would likely be attracted to follow a leader under such circumstances. Wealth attracts many, poverty few. R5370:6 Luke 9:59 Suffer me first -- As honey was forbidden in sacrifice, so whatever is sweet to nature must be disowned, if we would walk after the example of Christ, who pleased not himself. R84:6* Bury my father -- After my father's death I will come and be one of your disciples. While the old gentlemen lives I had better stay with him, but after he is dead I will become one of your disciples. Q217:1 Luke 9:60 Let the dead -- The whole world is already dead from the divine standpoint. R5371:1; Q287:4 His father, not being united to the Life-giver, and still therefore under the curse of death as the wages of sin, would find plenty of others similarly dead in Adam to perform the necessary services down to the very last. HG357:4 "The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God." (John 5:25) R2435:1 Bury their dead -- Not that our Lord required the disciple to absent himself from the funeral of his own father; but the young man probably thought to leave the Lord's service and serve his father until his death. In doing this, other business or pleasure would crowd upon him, and he might never return to the higher service. R1987:1 There are plenty in the world who can attend to the earthly things; few who can attend to the greater and more important work of proclaiming the Kingdom and gathering the Kingdom class. R5371:1 But go thou -- The young man should consider himself as figuratively risen from the dead, as no longer one of those dead in trespasses and sins. HG357:4 As one figuratively risen from the dead and alive through faith in Christ, and hoping to have that life perfected in the First Resurrection, should live and act in all the affairs of life from this new standpoint. HG357:4 Preach the kingdom -- The sum and substance of the Gospel theme. R1579:3, 1351:3, 702:2* Most of God's people grasp earthly reforms and push them, instead of prosecuting the work for the promised but deferred and unseen Kingdom. R1227:5 Jesus' reply shows the importance he attaches to every service we can render in the Father's cause. R5371:1 The present embryo Kingdom in its humiliation, and the Kingdom to be established in power and glory. R1579:3 Luke 9:61 Bid them farewell -- Spend a little time with them. R5371:2 Luke 9:62 And Jesus said -- It was not heartlessness on Jesus' part that suggested this answer. R5371:2 Having put -- We should make up our mind to use all of our powers, or else stand aside. R5422:5 Hand to the plough -- The Lord counsels those who would come to him to "first count the cost." ( Luke 14:28) R854:3, 5223:2, 2081:4*; SM390:1 The consecration, the covenant, the promise, will avail nothing if we prove unfaithful to it. R2154:5 And looking back -- Through fear that the Lord is abandoning him in trial, or through unwillingness to longer submit to polishing. R2405:2 It would be better not to take up the cross unless we have the determination to go on unto the end. R5223:2 We are to have no thought of turning back. SM347:T; R1775:4 "If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." (Heb. 10:38) R1775:4, R2081:4* "Remember Lot's wife." ( Luke 17:32) C194 Preferring the world. R854:3 Holding back the word of truth. R3211:2 "Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay." (Eccles. 5:5) R2154:5 Regretting your consecration, and desiring to be excused from faithful service as the Lord's steward. R819:3 Looking back regretfully, desiring to abandon the plow, and really doing it. NS746:1 In the sense of declining to go forward, in harmony with the consecration of their lives, unto death. NS746:1 Do not think of reconsidering the question of consecration now. R935:5* "Sit down first and count the cost," before you undertake such a consecration of your life, such a sacrifice of your earthly interests. ( Luke 14:28) SM390:1; R5223:2 Day by day, week by week, month by month, we are to carry out the terms of our covenant. We are to have no thought of turning back. SM347:T To look back is one step, and a long one, towards ignoring and breaking our covenant. It is the first step in unrighteousness, and if not quickly retraced, it will sooner or later lead to darkness and apostasy. R947:1 To even look back longingly at the things of the present time, to even in their hearts rue the sacrifice which they had made, would mean that they would be unworthy of a place in the Kingdom. NS308:4 Looking back at the things behind prepares the way for turning back, and makes onward progress in the narrow way more and more difficult, and finally impossible. R955:5* It is not enough that we have consecrated ourselves to God as living sacrifices; that we have covenanted to follow in the footsteps of Jesus; for the consecration and covenant will avail nothing if we prove unfaithful to them. R2154:5 "If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." The Apostle Paul shows that some, at least, will draw back unto perdition, destruction. (Heb. 10:38,39) R2081:4* However difficult and thorny the path may be, forget not the privilege of walking in it. We may not repine and wish it otherwise. R1263:4 When, in answer to our inquiring prayer, "What lack I yet?", the Lord applies some test to prove our standing before him, let us bravely determine that, by his grace, we will not draw back. R1775:4 This class must be thoroughly imbued with a zeal for God and for righteousness, else they will not be persevering enough, nor zealous enough, to fight the good fight of faith, and overcome. R3236:1 Many not only are looking back and making special provisions for the social amenities of life, but additionally are plunging into many of the luxuries, pleasures and frivolities of the world. R5371:2 Is fit -- There is one certain standard of fitness for the Kingdom; but there may be quite a variety of conditions which make one unfit for the Kingdom. (Article describes three--murder, drunkenness and pride--in detail). NS745:2 Not fit to be of the Bride class, whatever else they may be fit for. R3211:2, 819:6; SM390:1 It would unfit you for the world, and you would not be fit for the Kingdom of heaven. R854:3 It would be better not to take up the cross unless we have the determination to go on unto the end. R5223:2 We may require much more trimming on some sides of our characters than on others. The disposition often is to "draw back," to be not fully submissive. But to draw back would leave us unfit for the Kingdom. R2405:2 To be fit, such must have a zeal for righteousness, a conception of what God has in reservation, and an appreciation of Kingdom privileges. R3236:1 Must be absorbed with interest in the Kingdom blessings and in conferring blessings upon others. R5371:4 Only the saints are fit. R3507:1 Fit for a place with himself in that glorious Messianic empire. R5371:4 The kingdom of God -- Not the Millennial reign, nor the perfect Kingdom as it will be turned over to the Father at the end of the Millennium, but the Church class, now called of the Father to be the "Kingdom," in the sense of being the kings and priests of that Kingdom. NS744:3 Our Lord could not refer to the Millennial Kingdom, because that Kingdom is designed for the very purpose of dealing with the unfit and gradually uplifting them out of sin and death conditions. NS744:4 Luke 10 Luke 10:1 After these things -- Our Lord had previously sent forth the twelve apostles. The sending forth of the seventy was evidently some little time afterward, probably in the last year of his ministry. R2674:1 The harvest work during the three and a half years of our Lord's ministry seems to have been crowded chiefly into the last nine months of that period. R3346:2 As the principal part of the Lord's work at the first advent was crowded into the closing six months, so we anticipate that the principal work of the present harvest will be crowded into the last six years. R3347:4 The Lord appointed -- Ordination does not relate to a ceremony, or form, as many suppose. It signifies an authorization, a commission to preach. R5362:6 Not to be apostles, but to be general ministers, or missionaries. R5363:1 Partakers of the pre-anointing that had already come upon their Master. Although this anointing did not come directly upon them until Pentecost, they had a foretaste of it when the Lord conferred upon them a share of his spirit, power, when he sent them out to preach. F212 Other seventy -- Representatives of a much larger company of deeply interested ones. R2674:1 Undoubtedly a part of the "five hundred brethren" mentioned by the Apostle as having seen our Lord after his resurrection. (1 Cor. 15:6) R3346:3 As the twelve apostles corresponded to the twelve tribes of Israel, so the seventy evangelists corresponded to the seventy elders of Israel appointed by Moses in the wilderness, afterward represented in the Jewish Sanhedrin. R3346:3 The honor and privilege passing by those of influence and education who might have enjoyed it had they been worthy--the seventy members of the Sanhedrin. R2674:5 They represented all the elders or leaders amongst God's people today. R3346:3 Ready to send as many more as might become ready. R1742:3 Also -- Not apostles in the special sense, but additional to the twelve apostles, they were evangelists. R3346:3 Typified by the seventy palm trees at Elim. R4011:2 If the Jewish nation had been in a proper condition of heart, the 70 members of the Sanhedrin would by that time have been proclaiming the Messiah throughout the length and breadth of Palestine. R2674:5 Sent them -- Across Jordan into the district known as Perea. R5369:2 On a work of service, not lordship. F212 Under his direction and supervision. R1742:3 Two and two -- Similarly we, at the present time, encourage the colporteurs to go two and two, for mutual encouragement and helpfulness. "So when two work together, each for each, is quick to plan and can the other teach." R2674:4 As advance missionaries to proclaim the Kingdom of God. R3346:2 He himself would come -- They were to prepare the people for the later arrival of Jesus in the various cities of Israel east of the Jordan. R3346:3 Luke 10:2 Said he unto them -- Their commission reads almost in the same words as that given to the twelve, though they are not recognized anywhere as apostles, on an equality with the twelve. R2674:1, 1521:5 During our Lord's ministry the work of the apostles differed nothing from that of the "seventy," nor were there labors any more signally blessed; yet they were more directly and continually under his training and the chosen witnesses of every remarkable feature and event of his course. R1522:3 The harvest -- The Lord designated the end of the Jewish age as the "harvest" time for the reaping of the wheat of that people; a figure, type or foreshadowing of the harvest time in the end of this Gospel age. R3346:6 Truly is great -- Not necessarily that the amount of ripe "wheat" to be garnered is great. It means rather, that the difficulties and oppositions, and multitudes of "tares," make it difficult to reach all of the "wheat" class. The work is great. R2674:2 The harvest there, so far as Jesus was concerned, was the gathering in of 500 brethren, but that was not all of the Jewish harvest, more were gathered later. Q319:6 Relatively--there is a great work to do in comparison with the few that are ready and willing to do it. Q319:6 Sympathizingly drawing the attention of the believers of that time to the ripeness of the conditions around them. R3346:6 And so it is today. As we look all about us we see nominal Christendom like a great wheat field, ripe and ready for the reaping. R3346:6 So now, do not expect that the harvest work here will include millions, but a considerable number, and in my judgment there is yet a great work to be done. Q319:6 Labourers are few -- Too few to properly consummate the work in the time appointed of the Father. R2674:1; Q319:6 We have more opportunities for using unencumbered brethren, filled with the Spirit, than ever before. R5200:2 The Lord is opening up the use of worldly newspapers and sending them to millions of people. Why? There are not enough reapers. Q320:1 Pray ye therefore -- While praying, ask yourself, What can I do? If he has a work going on you want to get your share, so with everyone. Q320:1 Pray to the Lord to send them forth into his service, or if already engaged in it, that he would graciously open to them doors of opportunity for greater usefulness in his service. R2674:2 Apparently it was those who prayed who consecrated themselves to this service, this evangelistic ministry. R3346:6 It is not supposable that our Lord meant that any should appeal to him to send forth more laborers who, at the same time, would not be willing and anxious, to the extent of their ability, to enter the harvest service themselves. R2674:3 We may be sure that those who are most earnestly sympathetic and most earnestly praying are those who are most earnestly laboring in this harvest. R3347:1 Lord of the harvest -- None could engage in the service unless they were sent forth by him--the Lord of the harvest. R3347:1 That age ended with a harvest, in which Jesus in the flesh was the reaper, the disciples being the assistant reapers, under his direction. Our age also ends with a harvest, of a spiritual house, in which Jesus a spiritual body is the reaper, while the angels, also spiritual bodies, are the assistants. R175:5 Send forth labourers -- All of the Lord's faithful ones at the end of the Jewish age were to recognize the great privilege of being engaged in the harvest work, and the same must be true now. R5363:4 The Lord is sending forth more laborers continually; yet only such as recognize the Kingdom as nigh, the parousia of the King, have the zeal to tell the joyful tidings to others. R2674:3 Into his harvest -- The harvesting of the Jewish Age did not close with AD 70, and we know of no time limit here. R5950:6, 5951:1 At one time we supposed that the harvest work would be fully accomplished with the ending of Gentile Times. That was merely a supposition; the gathering in of the ripe grain has been progressing since 1914 as never before. Ci; R5950:6 Luke 10:3 Go your ways -- The fact that seventy men would voluntarily go forth as ministers of the Lord, without hope of earthly reward or salary, is sufficient evidence that a strong influence had already been exerted by Jesus' teaching. R2674:1 I send you -- Harvest workers acceptable to the Lord are fully consecrated to him. Other cannot expect the same success and blessing as such. Thus we find unbelievers--book agents and book stores--are not successful in handling our publications. R3347:2 Now, as then, we cannot hope that any would succeed in doing harvest work unless specially commissioned or sent forth by the Chief Reaper. R2674:2 As lambs -- Gentle, inoffensive. R5363:4 Innocent and almost helpless creatures, harmless. R3347:2 Among wolves -- Jews, Israelites, nominally God's favored people for centuries--now ravenous, destructive, selfish. R3347:2 The self-righteous, Sabbath-keeping, street-corner praying, tithe-giving scribes and Pharisees, who had the form of godliness, but not the power of it in their hearts and lives. R3347:3 The selfish, unregenerate world. R5363:4 Should the sheep suffer at their hands, we may be sure it will not be permitted until the due time. It will not be permitted to interfere with the harvest work, and none can be seriously molested except by permission of the Chief Reaper. R3347:4 Consecrated to self and selfishness, sect and party. R2674:6 Nominal Christendom of today is likewise wolflike. R3347:3 Luke 10:4 Carry neither purse -- Special instructions were given to these special sent-forth ones. They had a peculiar work to do and the conditions accorded. They were not, therefore, a criterion for subsequent workers under different circumstances. R2674:6 Both testing the faith of those who went forth, keeping them continually dependent upon the Lord's supervising care; and furnishing an opportunity for hospitality to those to whom they preached. R2674:6 Depending wholly upon the Lord and making no attempt to provide for their needs, Later, Jesus sent forth his disciples, telling them to provide for their wants to the best of their ability. R5363:4 These evangelists were not to take up any collections. R3347:5 Similarly the pilgrim brothers go from place to place taking no collections. The same is true of the colporteurs. Although the message is sold for a price, that price is no more than the seventy received when they went from place to place. R3347:5 Nor shoes -- Their journey was to be quickly made and all attention was to be given to their missionary duties. They were not to attempt to make themselves specially comfortable. R3347:5 Extra shoes; house shoes or slippers. R2674:6, 3347:4 Salute no man -- Not that they might not say "Good morning," but that they were not to follow the custom of their times of stopping by the way to discuss whatever matter of news might be carried from one village to another. R3347:5, 2675:1; Q618:3 We have no time for ordinary converse; the time is short; the harvest work is great; the laborers are few; our time is consecrated; we must work while it is called day. R2675:2 Less time should be spent in news reading and gossip. Q618:3 What time have we for frivolities or worldliness or the many social amenities? R2675:2; Q618:3 Luke 10:5 Whatsoever house -- Their message was to be a house to house message, and not a public one, not given in the streets or in the public squares. R5979:3 Inquiring for the most worthy people in every village. R5363:4 Peace be -- Wherever the Lord's representatives go peace should go, not strife, contention, turmoil or quarreling. R3347:6 How few, comparatively, have learned how to speak the truth in love; and always to give a soft answer which turneth away wrath; and always to avoid the grievous words which stir up anger. R2675:2 Upon entering any house, our thought should be to do good, to carry blessing, to exercise an influence favorable to the peace, joy and uplift of those within. R5980:2, 3348:1 The Lord's people should be peacemakers, peace-promoters, peace-lovers. R2675:2, 5979:6, 5980:2 The heart-sentiment of every one of the Lord's people, that peace and blessing may accompany them wherever they go. R3484:3 "So far as lieth in you live peaceably with all men." (Rom. 12:18) R3348:1, 5980:2 It is not the great time of trouble that constitutes our message, but a message of peace. R5979:6 It was a custom in Palestine 19 centuries ago to salute a house thus. R2675:2 This form of salutation sounds rather peculiar to us; for it is not our custom to use this style of greetings. But it is still customary in Eastern countries to salute one another thus. R5979:3 This salutation was to prove a test to the people. R5979:5 Luke 10:6 The son of peace -- A child of God. R2675:1 If we find one having the same spirit of the Lord we should rejoice to meet him as a brother and communicate to him the harvest message as he might have ears to hear it. Thus a blessing would be his. R3348:2 Turn to you again -- Our Lord would not have us violate courtesy by imposing ourselves or our teachings upon those who are unappreciative. R3348:2, 5980:3 Luke 10:7 Remain, eating -- They were to find those in Israel who would have an ear for God's message then due to be presented--the "Israelites indeed." These would gladly entertain them free of charge. R5979:2 Today conditions are different. With us it is much better to take some tracts, or to sell literature at a moderate price, which will stir up their interest and fix it. R5979:6 As they give -- Not considering these hospitalities in the light of alms; for as the Lord's representatives they were to confer blessings greater far than they would receive; and even as common laborers the service they rendered should be worth at least their keep. R5980:3, 3348:2, 449:5* The Lord's true people should be on the lookout to entertain hospitably any servants of the Lord, who they are sure carry his message; and just as careful not to entertain, assist, or bid Godspeed to any who are bearing a false gospel, denying that the Lord bought us. (2 John 10) R2675:3 Worthy of his hire -- Our hire is, in this present life, difficulties and sacrifices as respects earthly things; but the divine favor and blessing upon our hearts, and our faith and hope beyond the veil constitute the chief elements of our wage. NS489:3 The necessities of life in exchange for the spiritual blessings bestowed. R2261:5 Even the strongest statements of Scripture refer not to princely salaries, but to bare necessities. F287 If the labor is desired and accepted, it is equivalent to hire. R449:5* These instructions, afterwards changed by the Lord, are not applicable to the present time. R2500:2, 5363:4 Later, Jesus sent forth his disciples, telling them to provide for their wants to the best of their ability. R5363:4 Subsequently the apostles acted very differently. The Apostle Paul, for instance, made tents; and their change of course was under the Lord's direction. (See Luke 22:35,36.) R2500:2 Go not -- Not to change from house to house during their stay in the place. R5979:5 From house to house -- As beggars, to get a meal here, a lodging there. R5980:3, 3348:2 Luke 10:8 Into whatsoever city -- The same principle was to apply, not only to a house, but to a city. R3348:2 They receive you -- Inquire for the most worthy people in the village; if received, remain there until having given a witness in that village. R5363:4 Luke 10:9 Heal the sick -- The Master's spirit was given to them in such measure that they were enabled to do as he did--heal the sick, etc. R5363:4 Their commission was one of service--they were to serve one another, to serve the Lord, and to lay down their lives for their brethren. These services were to be rendered specially in connection with the promulgation of the Gospel. F212 Might at first appear applicable to the Jewish harvest only; but not so. There is spiritual as well as physical sickness, and the Lord's ambassadors today should consider it their business to open blind eyes, unstop deaf ears, and assist the spiritually sick by pouring the balm of Gilead upon bruised and broken hearts. R5980:4, 5363:4, 3348:2 We are not to understand that there is such an authorization of the Lord's people today. R5363:4 We are to help others out of soul-sickness by administering the good medicine of the present truth. R2675:6 The kingdom of God -- The hope of every Israelite. A273 This announcement has not been proper all through the age, but has been appropriate merely in the ends, or harvests, of the two ages. R5980:4 It is not the great time of trouble that constitutes our message. The time of trouble, if referred to at all, should be mentioned only as a necessary accompaniment of the change of dispensation. R5979:6 Is come nigh -- The Kingdom of God would be so different from what was expected. The Kingdom of God would be a spiritual one. All who would be its members would be spirit beings, as invisible to mankind as are the angels at the present time. NS100:6 The Jews had been waiting for the coming of Messiah and the establishment of the Kingdom for many centuries. NS100:5 In its glory and completeness now, as, at the time of the Jewish harvest, it was at hand in its embryo condition. R1742:3 It is this message which was the test of natural Israel and is now the test of spiritual Israel. C136 Peter's suggestion to return to fishing after Jesus' crucifixion was because he did not then see how he could continue the message. B117 Luke 10:10 Go your ways out -- The message is not now for the swinish, quarrelsome, selfish and wicked. R5980:1 And say -- Peradventure they found no entertainer in the village, they were, nevertheless, to give their testimony. R2675:1 Luke 10:11 We do wipe off -- To the Oriental mind, a very solemn and final testimony. R2675:1 If, as the Lord's ministers, we should be rebuffed and disdained, not welcomed, we should be careful not to intrude ourselves further, hastening away to find those whose hearts are hungry for the Word of grace. R5980:2, 3348:1 To leave the place, figuratively shaking the dust of that city from their feet. R5979:5 Is come nigh -- The Israelites had been waiting for it many centuries. R5363:5 Luke 10:12 More tolerable -- More favorable for them to fall in line with the Lord's gracious arrangements. R3349:4 In that day -- The Millennial day. R3348:5 The terms of the Millennial age will be equally open to all mankind, but all mankind will not be in equal readiness to profit by those blessed conditions of the kingdom. It is a law of nature that a blessing, once despised, and truth, once rejected, is on that account more difficult to be grasped if offered again. R3349:1 For Sodom -- Degraded ones who never heard of the grace of God, never tasted divine favors, never witnessed divine healings, nor were taught of the Lord. R3348:5 Because its sin was against less light and privilege. R5363:6 The eternal fate of the Sodomites is not sealed. R5179:6 Than for that city -- Those who had such large favor and were not moved to repentance and obedience. R3348:4 Luke 10:13 Woe unto thee -- They rejected the privilege of becoming disciples and joint-heirs in the Kingdom. That will never be offered to them again. When next divine favor is exercised toward them it will be with the privilege of restitution to the human nature. R3348:6, 624:2 "That servant that knew his Lord's will and did it not shall be punished with many stripes." ( Luke 12:47) R2612:2. Chorazin -- The people of Bethsaida, Chorazin and Capernaum were regular attendants of the synagogues--decent people, having a form of godliness, but knowing little or nothing of its power. HG647:6 Tyre and Sidon -- Both of which then were in ruins, brought down to hades, down to the dust. R5363:5 All six cities mentioned are utterly destroyed, and their inhabitants all totally dead. R3348:4 Notoriously unholy, licentious, unclean cities. R2623:3 While ago repented -- Yet the worldly wise and prudent tell us that these poor sinners long ago passed into eternal torment. R2624:4 Luke 10:14 More tolerable -- Meaning that in the Millennium it will be favorable even for those who were not moved by the Lord's miracles to repentance; and still more tolerable for the heathen of Tyre and Sidon. R3348:5 If they will, they may then learn the lessons necessary and eventually attain everlasting life. But because of their greater privileges, the blessings they will enjoy in the future will be correspondingly curtailed. HG647:6 The Sodomites were not so great sinners in God's sight as were the Jews who had more knowledge. A110 Than for you -- Under Millennial arrangements conditions will be favorable or tolerable, even for those people who witnessed divine healings, or had opportunities of being taught of the Lord, or being accepted as disciples of Christ. R3348:5 Luke 10:15 Exalted to heaven -- Hyperbolically speaking. It was highly privileged in that it had our Lord as a resident for some time, enjoyed the privilege of his teaching, and witnessed many of his mighty works. E376; R2600:4 Thrust down -- The people of the cities of Galilee and of all Palestine were involved in the great time of trouble with which the Jewish age was wound up and that nation blotted out of existence as a nation. R3349:1 To hell -- Because of the misuse of God's favors, it would be debased, overthrown, destroyed. It is now so thoroughly buried in oblivion that even the site where it stood is a matter of dispute. R2600:4; E376 Greek, hades, oblivion, death, as a city. R2623:2; E376; R5363:5, 4557:1, 2600:4 Luke 10:16 He that heareth you -- These faithful members of Christ are in every Church and outside of every human system. PD88/102 Heareth me -- It should prompt us to feel the dignity of the smallest service rendered to the Lord's cause. It should banish fear of man and all feelings of weakness and trepidation. It should make us more dignified in manner, more earnest in service, as well as less careful of what man might say to us. Our whole concern would be that we might please him who hath chosen us. R3349:4 Despiseth you -- Demonstrating that a wrong condition of heart and mind prevailed. R3777:1 Despiseth me -- He who is ashamed of the brother or sister or tract or book by which God was pleased to send him the truth shows clearly that, had he lived in the days of our Lord's humiliation, he would have been ashamed of him and the humble men he chose and used to promulgate his Gospel in the beginning. R2026:2 In despising the brethren, they are despising the Lord, and not fit for the Kingdom. R3777:1 "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed." ( Luke 9:26) R3776:3 Nominal Christians are as much ashamed of him today as was natural Israel then. R3776:6 This is one of the great tests of our relationship to him and the Father. R3777:1 Him that sent me -- The Father. R5363:6 Luke 10:17 The seventy -- These all had the Lord's special love, fellowship and instruction. R2072:3* Whom the Lord appointed to the ministry, though not to the apostleship. R1521:6 Even the devils -- Those who deny the Scriptures say that these people were deceived and that our Lord was unscientific. Our holding is the reverse: that the Lord and the Apostles were scientific, and that the people of our day are deceived in supposing that there are no evil spirits. R4976:3 Apparently there were great numbers possessed throughout the land of Israel. R2173:2 Our Lord and the apostles had frequently cast out these evil spirits. R5908:2 Some physicians say that more than half of those in insane asylums are obsessed by evil spirits. R4976:3 Are subject -- Their success in their work was as marked at that time as were the apostles in their work. R1521:6 Through thy name -- By the power of the spirit, Jesus had communicated to them. R5392:6 Luke 10:18 I beheld -- In his pre-human condition. R2675:3 Satan -- Whose very existence now is being denied by many. F609 It is for those who deny the personality of Satan and who deny that there are any fallen angels, to explain away these plain statements of Scripture. R2675:4 As lightning -- An angel of light. R1833:3 As a bright one. R2675:4 Spiritual bodies are represented as shining as the lightning. (Matt. 28:3; Dan. 10:6; 1 Cor. 15:8) HG25:5 Fall from heaven -- Fall from high glory, privilege and position to his present attitude of chief adversary of God. R2675:4 When all is complete Satan will fall from his present position as ruler "like lightning." This Jesus saw in vision. R519:1* Luke 10:19 I give unto you power -- Confined to the twelve and the subsequent seventy, never given to the Church in general. The only text that seems to so imply is Mark 16:9 to the end, and these verses are not found in the oldest Greek manuscripts, and are evidently interpolations. R2675:5 Granting us the privilege of successfully contending against the great Adversary and his servants, and hindering us from being stung or "hurt" by their words, looks or deeds. R2675:6 Serpents and scorpions -- All enemies, but specially the enemy, Satan. R2675:5 Hurt you -- As new creatures in Christ. R5862:5, 2675:5 Surely anxiety would be a lack of faith, a lack of confidence, or else ignorance of the divine promises, character and arrangement. SM271:2 Luke 10:20 Rejoice not -- Cautioning them against thinking too highly of such miraculous gifts, assuring them that their chiefest cause of joy lay in another direction. R2675:5 They were overlooking their chief cause of joy. So with us, salvation is a personal matter, and works and preachings are merely incidentals connected with the work of personal salvation. R5369:2 In harmony with 1 Cor. 13:1, where Paul assures us that the miraculous gifts are not proofs of spirit-begotten conditions; that a greater proof is the possession of the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of love that never faileth. R2675:5 Written in heaven -- But we have no record to indicate that they were enrolled on earth. R1420:6, 1309:2 God's Church is separate from all human institutions. Only saintly persons, regardless of denominational lines, are members of the true Church. HG693:4 We belong to no earthly organization. We adhere only to the heavenly organization. All the saints now living, or that have lived during this age, belong to our church organization. R584:3 Some would have followed Jesus and have been willing to join his church, if he had one--but the Church He represented was bound together by the truths he taught. R213:5 As prospective joint-heirs with Christ in his Kingdom, prospective members of the Body of Christ. R2675:5 And not in any human organization called a church. R4033:1 They can be blotted out because of unfaithfulness. (Rev. 3:5) R1908:3 Our first work now is to prepare our own hearts and characters for divine approval that we may share in the glorious Kingdom work of the future. R5369:3 Luke 10:21 Rejoiced in spirit -- From the standpoint of the flesh he was in very unfavorable and uncongenial surroundings, but from the standpoint of his mind, his heart, he was in a very favorable condition. NS190:6 And said -- Prayer may be properly offered audibly, in the presence of fellow-believers. This prayer could not have been recorded if it had not been heard by the apostles. R2251:3, 2023:3 Hid these things -- In the sense of permitting it to come through unpopular channels. Sometimes the unpopularity is deserved and sometime undeserved, but it always serves to keep away those who are not in the right attitude of heart. R3483:2 This gracious plan which provides such wonderful future opportunities for the people of Tyre, Sidon and Sodom. R2624:4 The wise -- Their position in society and professionally has made them arrogant and self-conceited. From their standpoint the words of the Bible have become to them foolishness. As the Scriptures declare, the world by wisdom knows not God. R3328:4 The "remnant" which the Lord will own as his, will contain few of the chief priests, scribes, Pharisees--few of the clergy or great ones, more of the "laity"--those reckoned publicans and sinners in comparison with the "holier than thou" ministers and priests. R921:1 Their school will open by and by--during the Millennial reign of Christ and the Church, who will be their instructors. R2882:4 Among the Apostles, only Paul was before a theologian--a Pharisee. R921:4 The truth is not intended for the worldly-wise, proud or the dishonest. R2026:5 Some preachers and teachers hide the truth from the Lord's people, so they might use it for their own benefit; but such make little progress. R3138:4 And prudent -- Those who might preserve God's Word to themselves and dole it out second-hand to the church, either as a whole or such parts of it as in their judgment would be prudent. R3138:4 Prudence, as generally exercised by the world, has greatly hindered the truth always. It is better termed policy. We want none of it. R508:4 Unto babes -- Those who will utter it unreservedly. R508:4 We are not to despise the least, the most ignoble or illiterate of those who give evidence of a purity and honesty of heart toward God, and to whom he seems to give the anointing of his spirit. R3226:6 Those who make no boast of wisdom according to the course of this world. R2492:6 "God looketh on the heart." (1 Sam. 16:7) R3226:5 By candor and humility and zeal let us keep ourselves in the love of God. R2026:5 "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God." (1 Pet. 5:6) R2882:4 Luke 10:22 But the Son -- Whose prehuman fellowship with the Father was impressed with sufficient clearness to enable our Lord to say that "what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth." (John 3:32) E91 Luke 10:23 Unto his disciples -- Confined, during the Gospel age, to a special few. HG145:5 The eyes which see -- There are many who have not this sight and hearing, for the Apostle says, "The god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the goodness of God should shine unto them." (2 Cor. 4:4) HG145:5 Luke 10:25 A certain lawyer -- One well versed in the teachings of the books of Moses, a theological doctor. R5369:3, 2683:2 Probably of the Sadducees, who denied a resurrection and any future or eternal life. R2683:3 Stood up -- Thus politely intimating his desire to say a word in connection with the subject under discussion. R2683:2 Tempted him -- That is, to prove him, to draw him out, to expose the weakness of his argument. R2683:3 The insincerity and evil disposition toward Jesus on the part of the Jewish teachers was very manifest in the questions they publicly propounded to trap him. It was for this purpose that they mingled with the multitudes. R1939:3 Jealousy of Jesus sprang up among the Doctors of the Law. To them he was a rival teacher, and accordingly they sought to entrap him, with a view to exposing him to ridicule before his followers. R3803:2 The questioner probably thought he would say, You must believe that I am the Son of God, the promised Messiah. Then they would have said, He repudiates the Law. R1939:6 What shall I do -- A scribe, a Doctor of the Law, a teacher; one, therefore, who is living a godly and upright life, so far, at least, as his neighbors and pupils may be able to discern. R2683:3 There are some people of the same kind today, who are ready to acknowledge that God has a perfect standard, but believe that they are sufficiently near the divine standard to have eternal life, and are therefore not looking for any Savior. R3803:5 To inherit eternal life -- The best of the nation had not inherited eternal life; on the contrary, they had died as other men--whether it be of the Lord's failure to fulfill his promise, or man's failure to comply with the conditions. R2683:3 Luke 10:26 What is written -- Practically saying, I stand by the Scriptural record. R2683:5 The answer was politely deferential to the office of the inquirer. R1767:3 Note how, in meekness, the Lord instructed those that opposed themselves (2 Tim. 2:24-26). He did not bluntly say to his insincere inquirer, Your heart is not right, but rather sought carefully and wisely to lead his opposer to this realization and to consequent repentance. R1767:6 In the law -- God has but one standard, which is fully set forth in the Scriptures. The law of God is the standard. NS690:4 Referring the inquirer to the law for his answer because he was vainly trusting in the Law for salvation, and opposing the new and only way of life through Christ. R1767:3 Why did Jesus thus refer to the Law? Why did he not avail himself of this opportunity for preaching the Gospel? It was necessary that the lawyer recognize his own inability to keep the full letter of the divine law, so that he might be prepared to look for divine mercy through Jesus. R3803:4 How readest thou -- Quote, as you understand it, the teachings of the Law on this subject. R2683:5 Luke 10:27 He answering said -- Quoting Deut. 6:4,5. He added nothing, because nothing could be added. R5521:3 The Ten Commandments are divided into two parts: one part related to the duty and obligation toward God; the other to the duty and obligation to fellow-men. R5699:3 The Ten Commandments delivered to Moses were written upon two stone tablets. One bore the first four commandments, which appertain to God; the other bore the remaining six, which appertain to humanity. R5287:2 Thou shalt love -- This love (Greek, agapee) which God exemplifies, is the kind he sets before us as the highest standard or "mark" toward which we must run if we would gain the prize. R2807:4 Love is the principal thing. R5521:3, 5370:1 Substantially the same law of God which is now over mankind must ultimately govern all of God's intelligent creatures, and that law is briefly comprehended in the one word, love. A136 The "thou shalt nots" might be multiplied indefinitely to fit the thousands of occurrences in daily life, but the one "thou shalt" covers the entire situation. R5287:2 We should judge ourselves by this law, to see to what extent we are loving God thus, and are loving our neighbors as ourselves. This is our primary work of judging. R5887:2 The law is the Father's law. It existed before Jesus came. It still exists. It will always be in existence. Jesus did not put it to an end, and never will put it to an end. Q431:5 Failure to keep this law is the direct cause of the time of trouble. A309 This is the very essence of the great law of God. R5887:2; Q179:6 "Love is the fulfilling of the Law." (Rom. 13:10) A246 The Lord thy God -- Jehovah. E40; R5521:3 With all thy heart -- Meaning that the sum of all our affections would center upon the Lord, so that our love for him would far excel all of our dear ones of the home and family and of the whole world. R3803:6 The true God is to be recognized and have first place in our heart; any division of the heart or strength or mind or soul violates this commandment. R5286:3, 3803:6 The first test of relationship to the Lord, preceding meekness, gentleness, patience, etc. R4480:4 It is impossible to live up to