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 17-18.

    This is another passage packed with teachings to which we would do well to pay close heed. The first bit is a series of passages about exercising and increasing our faith. Jesus warns us that we will be tempted, but that we must strive to avoid being the source of temptation. Encouraging, both passively and actively, others to sin is just as much of a sin as any other. Immediately following that, both in the passage and as a matter of doctrine, is the teaching that when we see a fellow believer sin we should confront them about that sin (Matthew 18 expounds more thoroughly on this). The key element here is that, if our fellow believer repents we must forgive them, even if they continue to do so. One might question whether they truly repent id they continue to repeat the sin, but that is an issue for another day. The important thing here is that we are to forgive time after time. The final piece in this paragraph is Jesus’ teaching on how to grow our faith. Reading this instruction runs counter to our modern culture. If we want to grow our faith we need to do the things which we know God wants us to do, one after another, with no expectation of positive feedback. When we receive recognition for doing God’s will we should view it as a bonus, not as our due. The way to build our faith is to do as I noted yesterday, consider doing God’s will to be our reward for doing God’s will.

    There are three more things in this passage that I want to touch on. These are not as closely tied together as the things from my previous paragraph. Jesus tells us two important facts about His return and the end of the world. His return will not be announced in advance. We may, and should, be expecting it, but there will be no warning. On the other hand, when it happens it will not be a secret. Everyone will know. You will not need to wait for the announcement on the news, or over Twitter, or some other media. When Jesus returns everyone will see it for themselves.
    I originally intended to put all three of these teachings in one paragraph, but realized I could not tie the second two into the previous one. Jesus teaches that we should be persistent in our prayer. It occurs to me to link that persistence with the teaching which immediately followed, humbly acknowledging our sin to God. We should continue to present our requests to God until He has satisfied them. However, as we do so we should also acknowledge ourselves as sinners, undeserving of God’s great love.