Post by M.R. Hagerty on Feb 12, 2024 14:10:10 GMT -7
Luke 12:2
2 But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, . . . 3 whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.
Perfectly horrifying declarations, and words every person including Christians hope will somehow not be true. For we all have secret sins about which we are embarrassed, even if now under the control of the Spirit. Certainly the things over which we slip and stumble we don’t want shouted from the rooftops.
First, this is not a picture of how we will be reconciled about our works and rewards in Heaven – that those attending Christ’s throne will uncaringly announce on loudspeakers our most embarrassing moments in the flesh.
It is rather a prediction concerning those who adopt the view that there will be no consequences for things done in secret, or even this disbelief that God sees in secret. This has a two-fold aspect.
First, persistent sin that is casually disregarded has a way of making its way into public view. Televangelist troubles of 1990’s are painful examples. The corporate fraud of recent times is an example in the secular world.
The key here is a disbelief in the unrighteousness of one’s actions, a lack of concern that things need to be made right with the Lord and neglect in prayer for the power to repent. The Lord is gracious and longsuffering, but eventually the cup of toleration fills and the Lord may engineer or at least allow natural circumstances to create opportunities for exposure.
It is a sober warning for those who treat sin lightly as though God looks the other way in all but the most serious issues.
The second aspect is eternal judgment. For the truly wicked, there is a sort of public disclosure of one’s sins that is made the case for punishment. Some believe that there will be no long drawn out arguing about the unfairness of things or the like, and that the bare facts of what one has done with Christ will be the only indictment - one with which the sinner won’t be able to disagree.
But we do see in Christ’s parable of the judgment that there is discussion about what was not done unto Him – “Ye did it not unto Me” – which leaves some room for a recounting of the sins of life.
For the Christian believer, the debt owed from our sins has been paid. It is no longer then a case of accounting for them in terms of worthiness. It may not even be a case of having to account personally for them in terms of rewards (Paul merely talks about the things of no eternal worth burning up on entry.) So for believers, we should take comfort that Jesus is not going to callously expose us to the rest of faithful Christendom, based on the words here.
4 ". . . do not be afraid of those who kill the body . . 5 . . fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!”
The idea continues here respecting accountability, namely clarifying to Whom we should be the more fearful of accounting for ourselves. If their sins will find them out, the sinner ought to fear the one who will expose them truly, and apply the more enduring punishment for them.
The comparison with those who merely can kill is important for two reasons. First, those who can kill cannot affect harm on the soul. This is a message for the believer. The world will threaten death and suffering for the faith (the persecutions) but can do nothing against the soul to determine the outcome one way or the other. Having no further power beyond this is the point.
Second, God does have power beyond physical death, to wreak eternal punishment on the soul. This is a message for the unbeliever, and a warning to take things seriously when considering what lies beyond the grave.
”Yes, I tell you fear Him!”
An exclamation is seen here in the language. This indicates that the fate of the soul, the pains to be suffered, are dreadful enough as to be avoided at all costs. It is like saying, “You don’t even want to think about going there.” We are not told the scientific description of Hell and its torments except in the pictures of hell fire, intense heat, thirst and privation. We can extrapolate from the rich man’s plight that someone at least should send word to his brothers to avoid the place.
Some have considerable difficulty picturing the God of love designing the torments that plague Hell as a punishment He personally inflicts. Many try to characterize it as a place where the greater harm is done by its inhabitants to themselves and others with no need of any help from God. But to some degree we must bring God into the picture as Creator of the place and its physical conditions, since it is described as a place “prepared” for the devil and his angels.
This rubs us wrong because of our preference for the loveliness of God and His kindness and care for all the living.
But reality is often quite different than our preferences and the Bible must be taken in its whole witness. God has prepared a place and the circumstances for the wicked, and Jesus spent a great deal of time warning people about it.
Love cannot be simultaneously unjust. Justice requires punishment. The disconnection of these is a defining feature of corruption – that the unjust go unpunished. So, like it or not, punishment is in the equation. Our objective is to avoid it and turn our heads rather toward the rewards of Heaven awaiting the righteous.
Luke 12:6-7
6 "Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.”
The price of sparrows is mentioned only to highlight that their worth in human terms is rather small. Despite this, they are still known by God. Their families and offspring are known, the day of their births are known.
” "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
Some have come to regard this as hyperbole only to make a point – God is concerned about every detail. Yet there is nothing to prevent us concluding that His knowledge of us includes the numbering of our hairs, as in 13,206. It is preceded by “Indeed” which was a way of preparing the hearer for a declaration of truth as facts.
7 Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
We would all agree that mankind with all his capacities and potential to achieve is of more value. Still there are some who believe all life is valued the same in God’s eyes – that life is life wherever it is found.
But nature teaches us that there are different values for things, that the communal idea of absolute equality of all things is not realistic. The fact that certain animals actually bear by design thousands of offspring to offset immediate losses to predators, suggests that not all life is valued the same, else there is moral culpability in creating a world in which 90% of those born are directly eaten. God created the food chain and some individuals seem to come into life only to supply it. It is a great enigma in which we shrink back from attributing callousness to God. Much can be attributed to the effects of the Fall. But this is to say the truths of the world are there nonetheless.
However we work out the explanations, we must at least face squarely the words of Jesus, that with respect to men, they are more valuable than sparrows.
2 But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, . . . 3 whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.
Perfectly horrifying declarations, and words every person including Christians hope will somehow not be true. For we all have secret sins about which we are embarrassed, even if now under the control of the Spirit. Certainly the things over which we slip and stumble we don’t want shouted from the rooftops.
First, this is not a picture of how we will be reconciled about our works and rewards in Heaven – that those attending Christ’s throne will uncaringly announce on loudspeakers our most embarrassing moments in the flesh.
It is rather a prediction concerning those who adopt the view that there will be no consequences for things done in secret, or even this disbelief that God sees in secret. This has a two-fold aspect.
First, persistent sin that is casually disregarded has a way of making its way into public view. Televangelist troubles of 1990’s are painful examples. The corporate fraud of recent times is an example in the secular world.
The key here is a disbelief in the unrighteousness of one’s actions, a lack of concern that things need to be made right with the Lord and neglect in prayer for the power to repent. The Lord is gracious and longsuffering, but eventually the cup of toleration fills and the Lord may engineer or at least allow natural circumstances to create opportunities for exposure.
It is a sober warning for those who treat sin lightly as though God looks the other way in all but the most serious issues.
The second aspect is eternal judgment. For the truly wicked, there is a sort of public disclosure of one’s sins that is made the case for punishment. Some believe that there will be no long drawn out arguing about the unfairness of things or the like, and that the bare facts of what one has done with Christ will be the only indictment - one with which the sinner won’t be able to disagree.
But we do see in Christ’s parable of the judgment that there is discussion about what was not done unto Him – “Ye did it not unto Me” – which leaves some room for a recounting of the sins of life.
For the Christian believer, the debt owed from our sins has been paid. It is no longer then a case of accounting for them in terms of worthiness. It may not even be a case of having to account personally for them in terms of rewards (Paul merely talks about the things of no eternal worth burning up on entry.) So for believers, we should take comfort that Jesus is not going to callously expose us to the rest of faithful Christendom, based on the words here.
4 ". . . do not be afraid of those who kill the body . . 5 . . fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!”
The idea continues here respecting accountability, namely clarifying to Whom we should be the more fearful of accounting for ourselves. If their sins will find them out, the sinner ought to fear the one who will expose them truly, and apply the more enduring punishment for them.
The comparison with those who merely can kill is important for two reasons. First, those who can kill cannot affect harm on the soul. This is a message for the believer. The world will threaten death and suffering for the faith (the persecutions) but can do nothing against the soul to determine the outcome one way or the other. Having no further power beyond this is the point.
Second, God does have power beyond physical death, to wreak eternal punishment on the soul. This is a message for the unbeliever, and a warning to take things seriously when considering what lies beyond the grave.
”Yes, I tell you fear Him!”
An exclamation is seen here in the language. This indicates that the fate of the soul, the pains to be suffered, are dreadful enough as to be avoided at all costs. It is like saying, “You don’t even want to think about going there.” We are not told the scientific description of Hell and its torments except in the pictures of hell fire, intense heat, thirst and privation. We can extrapolate from the rich man’s plight that someone at least should send word to his brothers to avoid the place.
Some have considerable difficulty picturing the God of love designing the torments that plague Hell as a punishment He personally inflicts. Many try to characterize it as a place where the greater harm is done by its inhabitants to themselves and others with no need of any help from God. But to some degree we must bring God into the picture as Creator of the place and its physical conditions, since it is described as a place “prepared” for the devil and his angels.
This rubs us wrong because of our preference for the loveliness of God and His kindness and care for all the living.
But reality is often quite different than our preferences and the Bible must be taken in its whole witness. God has prepared a place and the circumstances for the wicked, and Jesus spent a great deal of time warning people about it.
Love cannot be simultaneously unjust. Justice requires punishment. The disconnection of these is a defining feature of corruption – that the unjust go unpunished. So, like it or not, punishment is in the equation. Our objective is to avoid it and turn our heads rather toward the rewards of Heaven awaiting the righteous.
Luke 12:6-7
6 "Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.”
The price of sparrows is mentioned only to highlight that their worth in human terms is rather small. Despite this, they are still known by God. Their families and offspring are known, the day of their births are known.
” "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.”
Some have come to regard this as hyperbole only to make a point – God is concerned about every detail. Yet there is nothing to prevent us concluding that His knowledge of us includes the numbering of our hairs, as in 13,206. It is preceded by “Indeed” which was a way of preparing the hearer for a declaration of truth as facts.
7 Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
We would all agree that mankind with all his capacities and potential to achieve is of more value. Still there are some who believe all life is valued the same in God’s eyes – that life is life wherever it is found.
But nature teaches us that there are different values for things, that the communal idea of absolute equality of all things is not realistic. The fact that certain animals actually bear by design thousands of offspring to offset immediate losses to predators, suggests that not all life is valued the same, else there is moral culpability in creating a world in which 90% of those born are directly eaten. God created the food chain and some individuals seem to come into life only to supply it. It is a great enigma in which we shrink back from attributing callousness to God. Much can be attributed to the effects of the Fall. But this is to say the truths of the world are there nonetheless.
However we work out the explanations, we must at least face squarely the words of Jesus, that with respect to men, they are more valuable than sparrows.