“The three parables of Luke 15 are treated as one, for introducing them Luke wrote: ‘He spake this parable (not parables) unto them’ (Luk 15:3). Each parable adds to the one that went before it, so that they follow one upon another without specific introduction (Luk 15:8,11). They illustrate three different aspects of one subject: The work of redemption. Consider the different causes of the loss in the three parables. The sheep was lost through its own action; it strayed from the shepherd through curiosity or desire for better pasture. The coin was lost, not through its own fault, but that of the woman who possessed it. The son was lost through deliberately, willfully, and consciously leaving the house of his generous father, and squandering the inheritance granted him. The first represented a one per cent loss of the flock; the second, a ten per cent loss of the woman’s hoard; the third, a fifty per cent loss of the family. These figures are significant. They suggest that whilst comparatively few may stray through curiosity or desire for better pasture, the greater number are lost by the carelessness of others, whilst even more leave through wilful, fleshly desire. Now consider the three mediums of reconciliation in each parable. The shepherd represents the Lord Jesus; the woman, the ecclesia; and the father, Yahweh. The first parable centers attention on the loss, the second on the search, the third on the restoration, so that the dominant verbs throughout are ‘lost, seek, find, and rejoice’. If these principles are kept in mind whilst the parables are studied, many wonderful points of exhortation will be revealed” (SB 10:7:108).

The reason for Christ’s use of the three related parables of Luke 15 is given in Luk 15:2, where the Pharisees are heard to murmur, “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.” Here was a question of “fellowship”; this itinerant preacher, this rabbi who was soliciting their discipleship, was asking them — the “separated ones” — to follow his example in taking to their bosom “sinners” of every sort! It was absolutely unthinkable!

The third of the three parables is usually known as “The Prodigal Son”. It may also be called “The Lost Sons” (plural) because, in actual fact, at the beginning both of the sons were lost. Like the one hundredth sheep, the younger son was lost outside the fold, away from home. But, like the tenth coin, the elder was “lost” inside the house. He never strayed physically from his father, but his mind and his heart were miles away!

The parable of the lost sons introduces personal factors which cannot be found in the two preceding parables. “A sheep might realize it is lost — but it cannot rise to any sense of folly in having strayed” (PM 233).

And a coin is completely without thought or feeling. But both sons are capable of realizing their relative positions in regard to the father; they are both capable of repentance, and of taking the initiative to bridge the gap. Whether the elder brother ever succeeded in aligning himself with the mind of his father is the lingering, unanswered question at the close of the parable. And it was the question which lingered in the air, from that day forward, for every one of the proud Pharisees who heard the story.

There is a great urgency of love and reconciliation in Christ’s picture of the waiting and watching father, as he daily and even hourly stares down the road, looking for the familiar figure. There is not one shred of formality or legality in his reception of his returning son. Even while he is a great way off, his father sees him, and with compassion, runs and falls upon his neck and kisses him (Luk 15:20).

“He did not stand upon his dignity, or remain coldly aloof demanding proof of repentance. He did not force an apology. He loved him and he wanted him back and he was willing to forget the past and hope for the future. He showered every display of affection and attention upon him, in his intense joy at reconciliation” (GVG, Ber 48:158,159).

Here is the divine example for the ecclesial attitude toward any sinning brother who makes the first, faltering steps toward repentance. The members should never question the sincerity of those who seek to return (for they would not like their own sincerity to be questioned), nor should they make the barriers to fellowship more difficult for such than for new converts. The ecclesia should rejoice in that the withdrawal of fellowship collectively administered has by God’s grace achieved its hoped-for outcome: the reclamation of the one who has strayed.

In this consideration of the parable we shall concentrate upon the attitude of the elder son, so that at all costs we will avoid his failings. When the younger brother had returned and been received by the father, the elder “was angry, and would not go in” (Luk 15:28). He chose to absent himself from his brother’s feast with the father. In the spiritual application of the parable, he not only put his repentant brother “out of fellowship” but also all those who were “in fellowship” with his brother! In a “clean sweep” he rejected all who sat down to eat with him. But in drawing such a rigid line between himself and his brother, he accomplished one other thing: he unwittingly placed himself outside the father’s house!

The elder brother rudely voiced his own righteousness in rather extravagant terms: “Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment” (Luk 15:29). Here is the extreme Pharisaical attitude that often goes arm-in-arm with the “touch not, handle not” school of “fellowship”: “I thank thee, Lord, that I am not as other men, especially this miserable sinner.”

“How ungracious the older brother seems in contrast with his father’s love! But it did not seem so to him. He felt quite justified in his self-righteous indignation. He had no qualms at distressing his father, or marring the joy of reconciliation. He could only see one point of view and that was that he had worked hard and faithfully and here was this returned wastrel being shown favors that he had never received” (GVG 159).

How could the elder son claim perfect obedience? It was impossible. And even as he stood there in his bitterness and jealousy, he was at that very moment disobeying the father’s will! May it never be our folly to stand upon our “accomplishments” and blindly overlook, at our very fingertips, the simple work we have left undone: that is, reconciliation with our brethren.

“And yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends.” The elder son, just like the younger, had associates outside the family circle, characters that he had not brought to his father’s table. This in itself suggests something less than a perfect obedience. And how true it is, that when we measure ourselves against our brethren, and say secretly, “I am better than he”, we are really only saying, “I was smart enough never to sin openly”! But we have all sinned — of this there can be no doubt. It is fatal to look upon one’s own sins as not being as “serious” as another’s.

The elder contemptuously disclaimed kinship with the younger in Luk 15:30: ‘He may be your son, but he is not my brother’, he seems to be saying. But the father patiently and gently responds, “For this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found” (Luk 15:32). “He is your brother and my son, whether you disown him or not!” It is certainly not without significance that the fatted calf (the special sacrifice of communion typifying Christ) was slain on behalf of the repentant sinner, not the proud “Pharisee”! How tragic it is that by his own hateful words the elder son admits that the “fatted calf” is not for him! He could have shared in it with his brother if only he had swallowed his pride and come into the house!

So we see in the elder brother some rather unlovely characteristics. May they never, even subconsciously, be ours! Here is unbridled jealousy: bitterness at the inclusion of his brother in his own previously exclusive benefits. Here is also greed, the latent fear: ‘He has already thrown away (on harlots, a gratuitous assumption — or was it true?) one-half (or one-third?) of your property, and now he wants mine!’

All that the elder brother had he had received from the father. Should he not go out of his way now to welcome his brother (thus pleasing the father)? There is joy in heaven, with the Father and His angels, when one sinner repents (Luk 15:7,10). What might the Father think of us, if we are angry or jealous or proudly aloof upon an occasion that gives Him joy?

The theme of the Pharisaic attitude toward repentance and reconciliation, which begins with Christ’s three parables in Luk 15, continues through the next two chapters, providing other insights into the mind and character of the brother who was “lost” while still “at home”:

• Luk 16:13: “No servant can serve two masters.” In his scarcely-hid concern for wealth and privilege, the elder son was demonstrating that he was not a single-minded servant of the Father. He was really a clandestine servant of “mammon”, a “hireling” who sought his own reward (Joh 10:12,13), not a son who rejoiced above all else in the work of the Father.

• Luk 16:15: “And he said unto the Pharisees: ‘Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.’ ”

• Luk 17:3-5: “Take heed to yourselves” — Examine yourselves as severely and more so than you examine others. If your brother trespasses, then rebuke him; but always stand ready to forgive him — not just once or twice, but seven times in one day if need be! And the apostles, recognizing that such an attitude requires faith, pray Jesus to increase their faith. It is for us from time to time to exercise this kind of faith — faith that, despite perplexing problems, all things will work together for the good of Christ’s ecclesias; faith that our brethren will by God’s mercy stand firm in the faith despite ever-present failings; faith that God will realize His plan without our constant brooding and worrying, or our presumptuous intervention in matters that do not directly affect us. Can we not develop such faith that God will do His part? This is the faith that pleases God, and without which He cannot be pleased!

• Luk 17:10: “When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.’ ” Here is the reason for the command that we should receive repentant sinners, and for the command that we should seek reconciliation with our brethren despite their imperfections: we are ALL unprofitable servants; the most we can possibly do is but our duty. Our Father has for each of us an inheritance infinitely greater than we could ever earn. Let us not be found in the position of appearing to deny that inheritance to others who have, in the last analysis, applied for it upon the same basis as we: not by works — lest any man should boast — but by the unlimited mercy of a loving Father.

If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, but have not love, I am a housekeeper, not a homemaker.

If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have not love, my children learn cleanliness — not godliness.

Love leaves the dust in search of a child’s laugh. Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window. Love wipes away the tears before it wipes away the spilled milk. Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys. Love is present through the trial. Love reprimands, reproves, and is responsive.

Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, and runs with the child, then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood.

Love is the key that opens salvation’s message to a child’s heart.

Before I became a mother, I took glory in my house of perfection. Now I glory in God’s perfection of my child. As a mother, there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of all is love.

(Anonymous)

In 1Co 12 Paul speaks of spiritual gifts — that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed on some in the first-century ecclesias. These gifts were given with one goal in mind, and no other: the edification of the saints.

In Corinth, apparently, the possessors of these various gifts were flaunting them before their brethren in a disgusting show of pride. The other members of the ecclesia, not so favored, were showing just as much ignorance of the proper use of the gifts, because they coveted them for their own elevation.

To counteract this jealousy and factionalism Paul emphasizes the essential unity of the ecclesia. The ecclesia consists of many members, but they are all parts of the one body of Christ. The individual members possess many gifts (teaching, healing, tongues), but they are all from the one Spirit, and should be used for the benefit of every member equally.

Rather than rivalry, and antagonism, and presumption, the brethren must show love, and care, and modesty, and forbearance toward one another, All are equally partakers of God’s greatest gift: grace and mercy and peace through Christ. Some brethren may have special talents, which of necessity set them apart from their fellows, but these talents must be exercised for the mutual benefit of all.

“There are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary the parts of the body which seem to be weaker are indispensable…” (1Co 12:20-22).

It is a sad but common mistake that we nearly all are guilty of. We Chink first of the prominent among us, or the well-educated, or the socially forward, and we rush to greet them, to talk with them, to keep them company. But the ones perhaps who most need a warm greeting or a kind word are the ones we thoughtlessly bypass.

Imitate Jesus

It is the natural tendency at meetings to gather around the leading brethren, the outgoing personalities, or the visiting speakers — while ignoring those shy, quiet ones “around the edges”. But one of the divine characteristics which Christ showed (to the amazement of the proud Pharisees) was his obvious interest in the lower ranks of society, the poor and ill and discouraged. Can we do any better than to imitate our Master?

Paul enumerates the “gifts” of the Spirit (1Co 12:28-30) and agrees that the higher ones, at least, are desirable (v 31). But great gifts (or even talents and abilities bestowed providentially upon some of us today) are not an end in themselves. They are, or should be, the means to an end.

The end is, as we have said already, the upbuilding of the Body of Christ. The means to that end is the “still more excellent way” (v 31) — the way of love. This is the catalyst without which all of our “gifts” or abilities would be useless. Thus Paul continues:

“If I speak in the tongues of men, and (even) of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1Co 13:1,2).

This is the question: Does a man live for himself or for others?

A man may think of his “service” in the Truth as a series of good works, which take a relatively short time, interspersed with a lot of time to care for his own wants. A few dollars in the collection (to be disbursed in some worthy cause by the properly delegated party, with the least amount of fuss and bother). A practiced “Sunday morning” smile for the struggling widowed sister. A Bible class talk hastily prepared and casually given. Several indifferent daily readings sessions. All this set on the scales over against 40 or 50 or 60 hours of secular work, many hours of “entertainment” or “recreation”, twenty-one meals… Another week in the life of an average “saint”? Is this the proper use of our “talents” in the more excellent way of love?

How best to serve God

God has given us all that we have: the air we breathe, the food we eat, the homes we live in. Is any amount of devotion too much when this is considered? Shouldn’t we, at every waking moment, think how best to serve God?

God is a jealous God. He demands all our love and attention. But because we love God the more, do we love our brethren less? Sometimes it seems that we think so. We stand strong and proud on the principles of obedience to God, and the “purity of the Truth”. And we use these concepts to exalt ourselves above our brethren, while remaining indifferent to their spiritual needs.

Our love for God is different, in this respect, than our love for another person. If we truly love God, we will show our love for Him in practical expressions of love for others. True divine love does not exclude human love; it enhances it.

Verses 4-7 contain a dozen or so characteristics of Scriptural “love”:

“Love is patient”

We have the example of Christ, who patiently taught his disciples and time after time helped them when they stumbled and lost faith. Undoubtedly there were times when he wanted to throw up his hands and abandon the effort altogether, for they were so slow to learn and so bent on maintaining their own natural affections. But he loved them dearly; he loved them despite their inadequacies; he prayed for them; and he persisted until his efforts began to bear fruit. Can we do any less for our brethren?

“Love is kind”

This English word “kind” is one of those pale, sentimental words that just does no justice to the original. We should say, instead, that love is consideration — active, involved concern for the needs of others, even to the detriment of one’s own comfort. I am sure that we all think of ourselves as being “kind”, for we certainly are never (seldom?) “unkind”, are we? Are we?

“If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?” (James 2:15,16).

There are times when a “kind word” is no more than hypocrisy, because it masks a failure to help in any practical way. Have we ever been guilty of such an act, in a benign, “friendly” indifference to the circumstances of others? Then we may have been courteous and civil and pleasant, but we have not been kind, and we have not been loving.

“Love is not jealous”

The divergence of gifts among the Corinthian brethren was a cause of jealousy. Likewise, envy can result today from comparisons between brethren: “Who is the better speaker?” “Why was elected Arranging Brother?” “So-and-so wants to run everything. Who he put him in charge?” The person who can ask such questions does not have at heart the best interests of the whole body.

Jealousy is a terrible disease, and often fatal. It destroys its originator much more quickly than the one at whom it is directed.

“Love is not boastful… not arrogant”

Envy and boasting are quite closely related. They both stem from the same basic problem: love of self rather than love of others. True love does not have to be pushy. It does not need attention. It can afford to wait. Remember what Jesus said of the arrogant Pharisees — who did their works to be seen of men: “They already have their reward.” Let this not be said of us.

“Love is not rude”

There is a right way and a wrong way to do almost anything.

Sometimes a gentle admonition or even a stern rebuke needs to be administered. It is possible to be in the right — even to say the right thing — but to say it in absolutely the wrong way. A criticism may be correct in every particular, but if it is delivered with a superior or proud or overbearing manner — or if it is delivered in front of an audience — it will not achieve a good result. As always, the principle is consideration for others: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In short… love.

“Love does not insist on its own way”

Have you ever participated in a three-legged race? You may be the fastest runner at the picnic, but you’ll wind up sprawled on the grass unless you can adapt yourself to the style of your partner. This principle also holds true in the ecclesia. We are all members of the one body, and we must learn to function as a unit. We are “yoked together” with our brethren in many endeavors; we cannot always choose the way that pleases us most.

Your way of doing things may always be the best, but I can guarantee you that it won’t always be the one chosen by the majority. Then what do you do? Go along or “drop out”? There have been cases of members who have left meetings because of absolutely trivial disagreements, in which they failed to get their own way and just could not bend enough to go along with the others. And they, and sometimes their families, have paid for that stubbornness with twenty or thirty years of self-imposed isolation. There is an extremely illuminating passage, the force of which fairly exploded upon me one day. I had read it dozens of times, but never to much purpose until one day it hit me! Just six words, but a world of exhortation and self-examination:

“For even Christ pleased not himself” (Rom 15:3).

So who are we to think that things should always go our way? Who are we to please ourselves in everything?

“Love is not irritable or resentful”

A person possessing the true love of God has a peace of mind that no other has. In the midst of strife and controversy, he maintains a calm and reasoning mind, and a disposition to peacemaking. He has that same inner serenity that sustained Christ through his great trials.

A person in such a frame of mind cannot be offended by others. He is not provoked to backbiting or vengeance. He relies upon the grace of God, he knows that there is a final judgment that will right all wrongs, and he is not concerned about what man may do to him in the meanwhile. If God is for him, who can be against him?

“Love does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right”

If ever a thought might be coupled with “Let a man examine himself”, surely this is it! Don’t we all do this? Don’t we all listen to gossip and rumors and evil insinuations? Don’t we all — sometimes — derive pleasure from the shortcomings of others, especially those who have previously appeared to be models of rectitude?

We judge ourselves by the standards of others, and when we do this we are glad to see them fall. We tend to think we are lifted up in proportion as our brother is cast down. But when we live by this standard we are completely corrupting Paul’s teachings of the unity of Christ’s body and the dependence of one member upon another. These lofty ideas lose their meaning when cooperation is replaced by competition.

“Love bears all things”

We need go no further than Christ’s example. Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree, and more than that he bore our sorrows that he might be a perfect mediator.

The mind lingers on a picture, perhaps well-known to many. One boy with a younger boy on his back. “He ain’t heavy. He’s my brother!” Strain is obviously there, but he bears his burden gladly. All things are relative, aren’t they? Yes, in more ways than one! We are willing to do for our families what seems intolerable if done for others. Do we sit in the meeting on Sunday morning, and feel that those with whom we break bread are really our family? We write salutations like “Dear Sir” to faceless clerks in faraway cities. For all we know, we could be addressing a computer as “dear”! Are our expressions of “Brother Smith” and “Sister Jones” the same sort of formal, stylized address, or do they express a reality? If a reality, then let us live that family relationship with our brethren. Let us rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Let us “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2).

“Love hopes all things… endures all things”

The Christian’s life of love is a joyful existence. In the midst of sorrows and pains, he rejoices in the great gifts of his Creator.

His eye is firmly set upon the hope that rises as a mountain before him. There may be a valley to traverse before he reaches that distant peak. But he never takes his eye off that glorious future; and all life’s little annoyances and Inconveniences are seen for what they are — stepping-stones in route to the kingdom. Paul says in another place: “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phi 4:12,13).

***

All that God has given us… riches, talents, intelligence, health… diminish with the passing of time. Man grows old and dies. Only love remains, as a bridge between this life and the life to come, a bridge over the chasm of eternal nothingness. Every other gift or talent will fail, just as the Holy Spirit gifts finally ceased. The only thing that endures is the character of a man, engraved in the infinite mind of God.

“Greater love hath no man than this — that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

The bridge over that chasm is constructed from the two timbers of a cross. On one is written, “Love God”. And on the other, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” By those two principles he lived and died, and he asks us to do the same — to fill up in ourselves, as best we can, the measure of the perfect man. We have been children, petulant and selfish and impatient. Let us now be men, and put away childish things. We have seen in our mirrors blurred images of the perfect man who is striving to be “born” in us, but one day we will see the man himself face to face — and we will know at once by his look whether or not we have made his love our example. For, lest we ever forget, that is the test by which we shall stand or fall:

“So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but…”

“THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE.”

Luke’s genealogy is given after the record of the baptism of Jesus, and not as part of the record of his birth, because it reveals the reason for his baptism: his descent, shared with all men, from Adam. Jesus’ baptism was the initial step of obedience by which he would deliver himself and others from the condemnation of Adam. It was necessary that the Savior be himself subject to the same weaknesses and infirmity of the flesh as those whom he sought to save (Heb 2:14,15; 4:15; 5:7,8).

Jesus is shown to be the son of Adam, and the last “Adam” because he was the beginning of a new creation. The first Adam brought only death, but in the last Adam all who believe will have life (1Co 15:22,23).

As with Matthew’s list, the numbers are again important. Counting God (Luk 3:38) and Jesus (Luk 3:23), Luke’s genealogy contains 77 names, and 77 is the number of times we must forgive those who sin against us (Mat 18:22; ct Gen 4:24). All those who have sinned against God and His Son may have forgiveness of sins through Christ. Beginning the genealogy with Adam, there are actually 75 generations. Seventy-five is the number of Jacob’s family that went down into Egypt, and died there (Act 7:14,15); they sig all men, who are “dead in their sins” until Christ their passover is sacrificed that they might be set free.

Women are nearly always excluded from genealogies. [To substantiate: Case of Jair, father of Judah (1Ch 2:22). But his grandfather had married the daughter of Machir, tribe of Manasseh (1Ch 2:21; 7:14). And Jair is called the SON of Manasseh (Num 32:41).]

Luke has the most universal outlook of all the gospels; he portrays Jesus as the perfect man with compassion for all peoples.

Whereas Matthew traces Jesus’ genealogy back to Abraham, the father of the Jews (Mat 1:2), Luke traces it back to Adam the father of the human race (Luk 3:38).

Luke is written for the Greeks. He substitutes Greek expressions for nearly all the Jewish expressions (“Amen” is one of the few exceptions), and he seldom refers to OT prophecy.   Luke was a skilled writer, and the literary quality of the Gospel of Luke is thought to be the highest of all four gospels. The literary structure of the Gospel of Luke is constructed primarily around Jesus’ ministry in Galilee and in Jerusalem.   Main Themes

* When He was in the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus gave the keynote of His ministry by reading from Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To preach deliverance to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Isa 61:1- 2).

In Luke, Jesus’ life is presented as a commentary on this passage of Scripture:

1. He blesses the poor, the hungry, those who weep, and the excluded (Luk 6:20-23).

2. In one parable He takes the side of a beggar who sits outside the gate of a rich man (Luk 16:19-31); and in another parable He celebrates a tax collector who shies away from the Temple because of his sinfulness (Luk 18:9-14).

3. Jesus reaches out to a widowed mother who had lost her only son (Luk 7:11-17) and to a sinful woman (Luk 7:36-50).

4. In another parable the hero of mercy is a despised Samaritan (Luk 10:25-37); and after a healing, a Samaritan is praised for his gratitude (Luk 17:11-19).

5. The open arms of the Father, as in the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luk 15:11-32), await all who return to Him. Jesus’ identification with sinners leads Him to open His arms to them on the cross, where “He was numbered with the transgressors” (Luk 22:37).

* The Return of Christ is one of this Gospel’s main points and makes this gospel one of joy.

* Luke is a gospel of prayer.

• The multitude prays as Zacharias serves at the altar (Luk 1:10)…

• Mary prays at the news of salvation (Luk 1:46-55)…

• Jesus prays at His baptism (Luk 3:21)…

• When He chooses His disciples (Luk 6:12)…

• At Peter’s confession (Luk 9:18)…

• At His transfiguration (Luk 9:29)…

• In the solitude of prayer Jesus takes the first steps of ministry (Luk 5:16)…

• On the Mount of Olives (Luk 22:39-46)…

• He gives His final breath back to God, “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit” (Luk 23:46).

* There are 10 parables recorded by Luke which are not recorded by the other gospel writers: (1) the good Samaritan (Luk 10:30-37); (2) a friend at midnight (Luk 11:5-13); (3) the barren fig tree (Luk 13:6-9); (4) the lowest room (Luk 14:7-14); (5) counting the cost (Luk 14:28-33); (6) the lost coin (Luk 15:8-10); (7) the prodigal son (Luk 15:11-22); (8) the unjust steward (Luk 16:1-13); (9) the importunate widow (Luk 18:1-8); and (10) the pounds (Luk 19:11-28).

Outline

Luke 1:1-4:	Introduction
Luk 1:5 – 2:52:	The birth and childhood of Jesus
Luk 3:1 – 4:13:	Preparation for the ministry — John the Baptist; Jesus’ baptism; Jesus’ temptation
Luk 4:14 – 9:50:	The ministry in Galilee — Teaching through parables; teaching through healing
Luk 9:51 – 19:40:	The ministry continues on the way to Jerusalem
Luk 19:41 – 21:38:	The ministry in Jerusalem — prophecy
Luk 22:1 – 24:53:	The crucifixion, resurrection and ascension

LAW: The orderly means by which a society enforces its will. A law not enforced is simply not a law. Based on accumulated experience of past.

COVENANT: A binding promise in a relationship between individuals and groups. It has far-reaching effects on behavior and attitudes. Based on loyalty and love in future.

In both cases, where there is no relationship, there is no obligation — and no security.

COMPARATIVE STUDY:

(A) PURPOSE: Law/to regulate existing relationships by orderly means; Covenant/to create new relationships (ie marriage).

(B) PENALTY: Law/punishment defined by and administered by society’s means (police/military); Covenant/punishment and reward meted out by God (curses/blessings).

(C) NORMS: Law/formal rules defined by society; Covenant/precepts and principles developed by God.

(D) BINDING: Law/by enactment of legitimate social power, regardless of individual’s attitude; Covenant/by voluntary commitment of individual (ie baptism).

(E) VALIDITY: Law/territorially bound, not valid beyond territory; Covenant/unlimited, bound to the individual wherever he might be.

(F) TIME REFERENCE: Law/past; does not operate until a violation has taken place; may deter bad behavior; Covenant/ future; a solemn promise concerning future behavior.

“The primary function of any political system is to secure and maintain its own power… All that any legal system in normal human society can expect to do is to secure its own continuity by maintaining a delicate balance between conflicting interests.”

“It is clear that in Biblical usage love is first of all a label for the fact that persons have established and continue to maintain personal relationships with others, in which the concern for the wellbeing of the other is recognized as an obligation that takes precedence over other concerns such as the exercise of power or profiting at the other’s expense.”

(Adapted from NZ)

There were various reasons for the laying on of hands:

• Blessing, or benediction: Gen 48:14; Mat 19:13,15;
• Transfer of sin to sacrifice: Exo 29:10,15,19; Lev 1:4,12;

• Confirmation by witnesses of a capital offense: Lev 24:14;

• Appointment to office: Num 8:10; Acts 6:6; 13:3; 1Ti 5:21;

• Outward sign of healing: Mat 9:18; Mar 6:5; Luk 4:40; Acts 9:12,17; 28:8;

• Outward sign of imparting the Holy Spirit: Acts 8:17,19; 19:6; 1Ti 4:14; 2Ti 1:6.

I went on a search to become a leader.

I searched high and low. I spoke with authority, people listened but, alas, there was one who was wiser than I and they followed him.

I sought to inspire confidence but the crowd responded, “Why should we trust you?”

I postured and I assumed the look of leadership with a countenance that glowed with confidence and pride. But many passed me by and never noticed my air of elegance.

I ran ahead of the others, pointing the way to new heights. I demonstrated that I knew the route to greatness. And then I looked back and I was alone.

What shall I do, I wondered? I’ve tried hard and used all that I know.

And I sat me down and I pondered long.

And then I listened to the voices around me. And I heard what the group was going to accomplish.

I rolled up my sleeves and joined in the work.

As we worked I asked, “Are we all together in what we want to do and how to get the job done?”

And we thought together and we fought together and we struggled towards our goal.

I found myself encouraging the fainthearted. I sought the ideas of those too shy to speak out.

I taught those who had little skill. I praised those who worked hard.

When our task was completed, one of the group turned to me and said, “This would not have been done without your leadership.”

At first I said, “I did not lead; I just worked with the rest.”

And then I understood: leadership is not a goal. It is a way of reaching the goal.

I lead best when I help others to go where we have decided we want to go.

I lead best when I help others to use themselves creatively.

I lead best when I forget about myself as leader and focus on the group, their needs and their goals.

To lead is to serve, to give, to achieve together.