Challenge:  Read all of Luke 17

With Luke chapter 17, we really just need to be real.

It’s a hard chapter to read, consume, digest, and walk away from without being forever changed. It is a story of forgiveness, faith, duty, and the coming of a Kingdom that Jesus’ followers, and others as well, have been waiting on since long before He ever arrived on the scene.

There are so many lessons to be learned in this one passage, but here are a few key take-aways as I understood it over the course of the three times I read it:

• Offenses are inevitable
• If your brother sins against you, rebuke him
• If they repent, forgive them
• Know the worth of only a little faith
• Don’t expect “thanks” for doing your duty
• Don’t look back

There are a hundred ways to break this chapter down, but I think in this season, as we draw nearer to Christmas, we should remember what Jesus’ birth really meant.

He CAME so that our sin debt would be PAID.

More than that, God laid aside diety to come in the flesh. He could have simply appeared, as He did to Moses and Abraham, and others. But He chose the flesh and blood body, to be tempted in all ways, like as we are (Hebrews 11:37).

What better way to honor His birth than to do our duty without expecting praise or thanks, and to be READY because the coming of the Son of Man will be like a flash of lightning?

If we are not ready when He comes the second time, then it won’t matter how we celebrated His first coming, as a Babe in a manger.

Praise His Name, let’s be joyful that we are more than conquerors, all because of His birth! A true reason for the celebration!

If you missed other parts of this series, you can find it here >> Advent Series<<<