Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 23-24.

I really believe that chapter 23 here is very important and that we do not pay close enough attention to what Jesus tells us here.  The New Testament contains many warnings against hypocrisy, but here Jesus gives us a guideline which will help us avoid it.  That guideline has two sides to it.  On the one hand, we should not ask others to address us with titles which elevate us above them.  On the other hand, we should not address others with titles which elevate them above us.  Specifically, Jesus tells us not to allow anyone to call us “Teacher”, because we should have only one Teacher.  And we should not address anyone as “Father”, because God is our Father.  In my opinion, Jesus makes it clear that we should not address anyone with a title which puts them between us and God, nor should we allow anyone to address us with a title which puts us between them and God.  When you start elevating people, or allowing yourself to be elevated, you begin the process which causes the appearance of righteousness to be more important than the reality of righteousness.  We will begin to see ourselves as above others rather than as their servants.

One of the most difficult parts of understanding chapter 24 is that we need to realize that the disciples question was actually three questions.  Nevertheless, Jesus answer tells us a lot about God’s plans for the world.  Point one, the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, will be preached throughout the entire world before Jesus returns.  Point two, many will come claiming to be Jesus Returned, and many more will prophesy falsely in His name claiming to be announcing His return.  Some of them will perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive many.  We should not believe such false prophets and false messiahs because no one will need to announce Jesus’ Return: it will be obvious to all.  Finally, Jesus warns us that no one will know in advance the date and time of Jesus’ return.  Since we cannot know in advance when He will come back, we should make every effort to be doing the work He has given us all of the time.

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