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 12-13

OK, I see several things here I want to write about and a common theme which runs through the entire passage.  Let’s see if I can make this work.  In the middle of the passage, Jesus tells us that He did not come to bring peace, rather He came to bring division.  Some will be for Him and some will be against Him.  Furthermore, the door to the Kingdom of Heaven is narrow and not everyone who desires to enter it will do so.  We must pay close attention to this teaching.   All are welcome to follow Jesus, but it is not enough to say that you want to do so.  You have to actually do so.  Earlier in Luke, Jesus talked about the need to be willing to give up your wants and desires in order to serve Him.  And in today’s passage, He talks about not worrying about what we will eat, or drink, or wear.  Instead, we should use our resources to aid those in greater need than ourselves.

Jesus speaks about hypocrisy in today’s passage and warns us that what we think we are doing in secret will be made public.  When we say something is wrong, but do it any way, we are hypocrites.  Worse is when we try to explain why it is wrong when someone else does it, but not when we do it ourselves.  Now I am going to try to tie this together with what Jesus has to say about lawsuits and going to court.  He tells us that when we are on the way to court with our accuser we should settle things before we get there (by the way, this is the basis for the legal idea of settlements for lawsuits).  However, just before He says that Jesus asks an important question, “Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right?”  The question should not be “What is legal?”  The question we should ask ourselves, is, “What is right?”   And we should not be depending on what someone else says the answer is.  We should decide for ourselves, based on prayer, reading the Scripture, and the Holy Spirit, what is right.  This may involve asking other Believers what they think on the subject, but ultimately, we are responsible to decide what is right and then to do it.  When we know what is right we should do it immediately, so that we are prepared should Jesus return right after.