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1. What stood out to me from this chapter?
There are some hard teachings in this chapter: woes to the wealthy and well fed, loving your enemies, not judging others. There are two temptations I believe most people face when they encounter these more challenging teachings in the Bible. One is to simply cut them out, almost like you just literally take a scissors and snip out everything that doesn't make you feel good. This is incredibly dangerous, because the whole point of these teachings is to confront attitudes and behaviors that God desires to change in us. The other temptation is to take these tough words to the extreme. "Do not judge..." becomes "Never judge anyone else's behavior as wrong in any circumstance. Since we all sin, none of us can call out wrong behavior in anyone else." Well that message isn't consistent with the rest of Scripture either. That's more like pasting your own additions into Jesus's teachings. Even later he says, "First take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." Remember, Jesus was often speaking to the Pharisees, who knew all the laws, but who had very hard hearts towards actually loving others. He had to be strong in his words. We have to be careful not to cut and paste our way around the Bible. So how do we approach these teachings? I'd simply say whenever we come across a passage in Scripture which is difficult or sounds harsh, we should take an honest look at ourselves and ask God to lovingly tell us if that is true for us. Then we can be open to God's transforming work in us.
2. How does this relate to any other Scripture I know?
Much of this chapter is just a different account of Jesus's teachings in the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7, so that's an obvious connection. But the last section about the wise and foolish builders really caught my attention. Although it does give practical construction advice, Jesus simply used that illustration to teach about the importance of not only listening to his words but putting them into practice. This reminds me a lot of the book of James. Especially in chapters 1 and 2 James convinces us that faith is more than just talk or adhering to a certain set of beliefs. True faith is evidenced by deeds.
3. What does this mean for my life?
Verse 12 of chapter 6 here says that Jesus spent the night praying to God. I don't think I have ever spent an entire night praying to God. In fact I can't remember the last time I devoted in the entire hour strictly to prayer. For Jesus this came right before his big sermon to the crowds. He knew he needed to connect with his heavenly father for strength and guidance and the power of the Holy Spirit. Even though I feel like I do pray fairly regularly and depend on God for strength, all this verse was very convicting for me to rely even more on the power of prayer and the goodness of our heavenly father to provide for everything we need.
4. What questions do I have about this passage?
In versus 20 through 26 Jesus gives a series of blessings and woes. In Matthew's version the woes aren't included, so it seemed easier to interpret the blessings. In Luke's version however, it seems that Jesus is saying that it is wrong to be wealthy or well fed or to laugh. I think that what he means is that it's wrong to be those things and neglect the needs of others around us. But my question is how are we really supposed to interpret this part of the chapter?
Those are my thoughts for this chapter. I'd love to hear yours. God's blessings to you and KEEP DIGGING IN!
In Christ,
Dan
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It is really amazing to think that Jesus devoted so much time to prayer even though He was God. So was that like talking to himself or something? ;) But prayer is definitely important. At some stages in our lives, though, it is a bit more challenging to get that long, uninterrupted time than in other seasons.
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