[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Friday, August 30, 2013

[Paul]

Well folks, here in the U.S. and Canada it's the start of a long weekend as I write this, something called a Labor Day weekend, where people who can do so travel to the beach or perhaps out of town to visit relatives.  The eyes of the car racing world, and in particular Grand Prix fans, are centered this weekend on Baltimore where I live, as this is the time that the Baltimore Grand Prix will take place.  Not very familiar with that particular type of race, I'll leave all that to the experts.  Suffice it to say that all of the downtown streets are closed, unless you know of a way around them in your car.

It's been a while since we've had a Bible study, so I thought that we'd have one today.  Under the title of "Baffling Bible Questions Answered," we begin with a question concerning Luke 7:28.  The questioner writes:  How can a person who is "least in the kingdom of God" be greater than John the Baptist, whom Jesus called the greatest of "those born of women?"

John was the greatest in that he had the privilege in announcing the imminent appearance of the Messiah whom the prophets had foretold.  But the people who actually enter the kingdom are greater than John in the sense of having an even higher privilege.  We need to remember that John was in prison at this time.  He was executed before the death and resurrection of Christ, which led to the initiation of the church age and its expression of the kingdom of God on earth.

We now turn to a question concerning Luke 7:47:  Does this story make love for God, rather than faith, the condition of salvation? Is this a theological discrepancy?

Jesus makes it clear to this woman that "your faith has saved you" (Luke 7:50).  Her love, expressed in a generous gift that represented a person's life savings, showed that the woman realized she had been forgiven.  Love is uniformly presented in the New Testament as response to God's grace, never as an act or attitude that God subsequently rewards.

And there you have your two Bible questions and hopefully acceptable answers.

And now until tomorrow when, Lord willing another daily thought message will be posted, may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul