It's Day 6 and we're in Matthew 20.
Where God Spoke To Me:- Verses 30-31 - Don't listen to the voices telling you to keep quiet. Reach out, call out to God.
Help:
- Verses 1-16 - This is a hard parable. There are two main translations of it: (1) it's about heaven and the point is that some are believers for most of their lives while others believe just before death but both receive the reward of heaven; (2) it's about the Gentiles and the point is that even though the Jews have a long-standing relationship with God, He has the right to invite others ("late-comers") in as well. I personally prefer the first option.
- Verse 22 - They will in fact die for God.
If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.
If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.
Your Questions and Comments:
- "Matthew 18:18 - Please explain what is meant by this verse. I'm confused by bind and loose." - Let's start with the context of the verse. In vv. 15-17 Jesus is talking about situations where believers are committing serious sin and another believer has to go confront them about it. Within church life, this is something we call "church discipline." Jesus talks about the possible outcomes of that (everything from repentance and forgiveness all the way to removing the person from church life), then in v. 18 tell us that "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." This is saying that God will endorse and confirm the actions we make in good faith on these matters. If we forgive the repentant person (or "loose" the burden), then heaven will acknowledge what we've done and do what we ask. If we exercise church discipline on the unrepentant person (or "bind" the burden), then heaven will acknowledge what we've done and do what we ask. Jesus is promising that heaven's power will flow through His followers in these matters.
No comments:
Post a Comment