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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Luke 2-3.

    Luke chapter 2:1-20 was the passage my Dad read every Christmas Eve when we celebrated Christmas as a family (we celebrated our family Christmas on Christmas Eve because my Dad’s family got together on Christmas Day for a family dinner). The first thing which struck me today was Luke’s attention to detail. Luke’s account contains all of the things which the urban legends websites tell you are missing from urban legends and myths. Luke tells us that Jesus was born during a census taken when Augustus was Emperor and Quirinius was governor of Syria (the word which Luke uses for governor is ambiguous and does not refer to a specific Roman title, merely to the most powerful political figure in a region). I would also note that Luke’s source for most of chapter two must have been Jesus’ mother, Mary. I have two reasons for believing Mary to be Luke’s source. First, these strike me as the types of stories, with the types of details, that a mother would remember. Second, who else that was present would be likely to both remember the incident and still be alive 50 or so years later?

    The message of John the Baptist was very similar to what James wrote in his letter many years later. It really comes down to this, if you truly love God your actions will reflect it. In some ways. what John says here reflects what Jesus said when He told His disciples that it is not food which defiles us. Our words and actions come from our deepest being and reflect what we truly believe. You can say that you believe whatever you want, but people can tell from what you do if you truly believe it. There is one further point I want to make that comes from Jesus’ comment about what defiles us. Over time, your actions will change your beliefs. Every time you take an action which is inconsistent with what you say you believe, the less you will believe it. On the other hand, every time you take an action which is consistent with a particular belief the more you will believe it. The latter works even if you thought you did not believe it in the first place.