Luke 12:41-53 comments: a warning to ministers of the gospel

12:41 ¶  Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? 42  And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? 43  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 44  Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. 45  But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; 46  The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 47  And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48  But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. 49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? 50  But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! 51  Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: 52  For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. 53  The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

Peter’s question is met by a direct answer from Christ regarding the labors of the apostles and even future ministers of the gospel. Paul referred to the ministers of the gospel as stewards of the mysteries of God.

1Corinthians 4:1 ¶  Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. 2  Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.

He moved from covetousness to being watchful to now a warning to the shepherds of His flock. Disobedience to this warning is apparent all through Christian history as it was all through the history of the Jews before Christ. The primary duty of a minister of Christ is to feed the flock of God with His words, not to lord it over the flock as some kind of boss man.

1Peter 5:1 ¶  The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: 2  Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3  Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. 4  And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.

Down through the last two thousand years abusers among the so-called clergy have run rampant through the flock of God doing great harm. We hear about Catholic priests today who abuse the most helpless members of their congregations but we also must consider the thousands of Baptist pastors and youth ministers who have done the same. Jesus talks about how the fowls of the air, used in typology for the Devil himself in Mark, chapter 4, will lodge in the shadow of the tree and in its branches, the tree that grows unnaturally large as the kingdom of God and Heaven in Luke 13:19 and Mark 4:32.

Jesus also warns that there are counterfeits among the brethren in Matthew 13:24 regarding the wheat and the tares. In the Old Testament God has an accusation about the false teachers in Israel. Understand that Biblically defined, with and uniting synonyms in most contexts, a pastor is a teacher as per Ephesians 4:11 and prophets are preachers and teachers as per Nehemiah 6:7 and 2Peter 2:1.

Jeremiah 23:1 ¶  Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD. 2  Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD. 3  And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. 4  And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD. 5  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 6  In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 7  Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 8  But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.

    9 ¶  Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness. 10  For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right. 11  For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD. 12  Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD. 13  And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err. 14  I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. 15  Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. 16  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the

LORD. 17  They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. 18  For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it? 19  Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. 20  The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. 21  I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 22  But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. 23  Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? 24  Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD. 25  I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26  How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets

of the deceit of their own heart; 27  Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. 28  The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD. 29  Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? 30  Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. 31  Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. 32  Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.

    33 ¶  And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the LORD. 34  And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house. 35  Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken? 36  And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man’s word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God. 37  Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken? 38  But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD; 39  Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence: 40  And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

Peter devotes what has come down to us as a chapter to the damage wrought by Christian false teachers in 2Peter 2.

2Peter 2:1 ¶  But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

    3 ¶  And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. 4  For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; 5  And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6  And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

    7 ¶  And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8  (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 9  The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

    10 ¶  But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. 11  Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. 12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; 13  And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; 14  Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: 15  Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16  But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet. 17  These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. 18  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. 19  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. 20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Here, in this lesson Jesus is giving it is worse for you to know the truth and to act on it unwisely and disobey than it is for you to not know the truth at all. Perhaps that can be one meaning of Paul’s statement in Romans.

Romans 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 ¶  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

The truth that Jesus reveals will not produce unity in the world but cause divisions down to the very household and family of believers and those who reject Him. There can be no middle ground with Christ. You either trust Him or you don’t. This fire is already kindled by the work of the dividers and the false teachers and elders who plague the cause of Christ as evidenced by the multitude of Protestant denominations and the three great branches of Christianity that are polluted by leaven, a type of hypocrisy and false doctrine in Matthew 16:12 and here in Luke 12:1.

Matthew 13:33  Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

Luke 13:20  And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God? 21  It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

[The woman of this parable may be a reference to Ashtaroth, the fertility goddess of the Canaanites of the Old Testament, who is basically the same as Ishtar, the goddess of liberty and prostitutes of the Babylonians whose statue sits in New York Harbor as Lady Liberty, and various feminine incarnations of Satan around the world including the Japanese Amateratsu, the Roman Diana, or the Greek Artemis among others. It should not be hard to think of Satan as both masculine and feminine as some of the gods of the ancient world were portrayed as both male and female.For instance, the Egyptian god, Atum, was also called the great he-she.]

It appears that what Jesus is saying here is that His servants must be expectantly awaiting His return at any time and going about the business He has given them of expressing the fruit of the Spirit in the world, loving God and their fellow mankind, particularly the brethren, not abusing or mistreating those who God has placed in their care and, most importantly, feeding the flock of God. Those who know the most have the most expected out of them and will suffer loss in that degree based on their unfaithfulness.

James 3:1 ¶  My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.

As was mentioned earlier in the parable of the mustard seed that grows unnaturally into a great tree, in the Christian church there are many fake tares, false wheat, and these counterfeits are hiding among its branches and in its shadow.

2Corinthians 11:13  For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

They will find their place in the lake of unquenchable fire when a reckoning is made, with the ignorant unbelievers, though their punishment will be greater.

Matthew 13:40  As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

Verse 50 appears to be likening the coming crucifixion to a baptism for the man who is also God (see Matthew 20:22.) He is focused on it and it is His mission and His purpose. He must be killed by man, paying the price for man’s sins against Himself as God, and then rise from the dead after 3 days.

Straitened is a synonym of being narrowed or focused, restricted by something, either a thing, person, or circumstance. See the definition of strait in the following in the context.

Matthew 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

The gate and the way are strait and narrow. I hope you can see one way the Bible defines itself here.

Luke 12:22-40 comments: at an hour when ye think not

12:22 ¶  And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23  The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. 24  Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? 25  And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? 26  If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? 27  Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28  If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29  And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30  For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. 31  But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. 32  Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33  Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. 34  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 35  Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36  And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37  Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. 38  And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39  And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 40  Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

Jesus continues His lesson about covetousness and what to concern ourselves with from the previous passage and tells His disciples that they should not worry about the basics of life; food and clothing. In His model prayer for them, which He gave in the previous chapter He included Give us day by day our daily bread.

Paul wrote by the wisdom given to him by the Holy Spirit.

2Peter 3:15  And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Paul told the Philippian church…

Philippians 4:19  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

An interesting note here is that God provides our food and that of the beasts and fowls in spite of all of the National Geographic and Discovery Channel blather about predator and prey. You didn’t think that zebra that the lions brought down was chosen by God for their food did you? We are so clueless to the unsearchableness of God’s mind, the Holy Ghost, acting in the world.

Psalm 104:21  The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.

In God’s own words as He spoke to Job He said the following.

Job 38:39  Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions, 40  When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait? 41  Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

Jesus reveals how powerless we are to change many of the most important circumstances in our lives. For instance, all of the Norman Vincent Peale or Dale Carnegie type of positive thinking in the world won’t make you 6’3 rather than 5’8.

We don’t control the most basic of circumstances and yet we worry about things that are way beyond our control. We think we control our health and thereby extend our lives by diet and exercise, one of my favorite objects of thought and action, but that too may be an illusion.

Job 7:1  Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

Psalms 39:4  LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am.

We see news stories about how scientists are on the verge of or at least thinking about everything from extending our lifespans hundreds of years to curing all diseases with gene manipulation and, truthfully, it is almost laughable if it were not so painfully sad in that man thinks so highly of his ability to oppose God’s ordinances and the boundaries He has set and people hope while they lay dying.

God will care for us and we are not to doubt. The unbelieving world is concerned about these carnal things, these things of the flesh, but we are to be about God’s business and all of these things will be given to us as needed. Of course, this is easy to have as a standard of our faith in a rich country where we spend so much less of our income on food than in places in Africa, South America, or Asia. Christians are suffering in some places and in some instances almost always due to cultural impediments and economic injustice and the oligarchic rule of a few powerful, narcissistic sociopaths, sin and wickedness which we who are so blessed should be willing to fight on our poorer brothers and sisters’ behalf. They, on their side, need to trust in God to provide, to pray for deliverance, and that this day they receive just enough to get by knowing that things may not be resolved in this life as they live in a fallen world in fallen bodies under the judgment of sin and the evil, malicious designs of the powerful and the wealthy.

Specifically, and doctrinally, though, Jesus is speaking directly to His Jewish disciples in the first century in a preview of the book of Acts by telling them to sell what they have and be about His business telling Israel about Him and then, after His crucifixion expectantly waiting for His return in an hour they will not have imagined. We must remember in reading this that Christ’s crucifixion and His resurrection were immediate future. We must also remember that God dispersed the Jewish Christians from Jerusalem in Acts so that they would fulfill His command for them to be witnesses to the world rather than hold up in that compound/bunker mentality in Jerusalem.

We Christians today are given this from Paul to keep in our hearts.

Titus 2:11 ¶  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

For those who would use the watches mentioned as a key to knowing when Christ will return verse 40 is an alarm that tells us we should not claim knowledge we do not have. Your preacher does not really know when Christ will return and acting as a minister of Satan by misrepresenting God does not speak well for those who claim that knowledge from the pulpit. We are not given prophecy for us to sit smugly and shout to those we consider spiritual lessers that we know when that will be or who the Antichrist is or other things we do not know. Prophecy is given for a specific reason according to Jesus Himself.

John 16:4  But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.

Just as Paul gave us the reason for the preservation of the Old Testament writings and histories.

Romans 15:4  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

To all those people out there who divide and parse out words and verses and examine numbers and compare verses to current news items, writing books like ones I have from the 1990s about how Saddam Hussein was rebuilding Babylon and could be the Antichrist all the way back to those who called Kaiser Wilhelm the Beast of Revelation I say one thing. Spend more time considering and obeying what Christ has told you to do, how to treat God and others, and less time presuming knowledge you do not have.

Deuteronomy 29:29  The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

My final comment on Old Testament prophecy in particular is to ask you to remember that every individual Christian’s life is like the experience of the entire nation of Israel taken collectively. We can be visited by God and judged in this life for our sin and disobedience but God will never forsake us, as He will not Israel, or put us away forever because it is Christ’s righteousness and not our own that saves us. We can look at Old Testament prophecy as directly applying to the Jews then, as applying to the first and second advents of Christ, and as a tale of how our backsliding and rebellion can lead to ruin and despair knowing only that Christ will lift our sorry heads out of the dust, as He will Israel’s, at the end of the day.

Luke 12:13-21 comments: materialism versus Christ

12:13 ¶  And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. 14  And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? 15  And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. 16  And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17  And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18  And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19  And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20  But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21  So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

I thought this was interesting on one part because here Christ denies any involvement in civil law. This brought to mind another important statement of His.

John 18:36  Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

Again, when you consider other passages like the one where Peter asks about paying taxes…

Matthew 17:24 ¶  And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? 25  He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? 26  Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. 27  Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

…Jesus even pays them in a supernatural act, miraculously. Indeed, it appears that there is no warrant to justify being rebellious against the laws of the land in which you live for the fruits or proof of your being a Christian outwardly cannot be legislated against.

Galatians 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

James 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

See what Paul and Peter also said;

Romans 13:1 ¶  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. 2  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. 3  For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: 4  For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 5  Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. 6  For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.

1Peter 4:15  But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.16  Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

The exception appears only to be when the secular rulers demand that you disobey what God has called you to do in proclaiming Christ and His gospel to the world.

 Acts 5:26 ¶  Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. 27  And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, 28  Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. 29  Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

Don’t use Christ as a justification for your seditious, rebellious heart. If you want to make a case for resistance against everything from a local zoning ordinance to the federal tax code then make it based on sound political arguments, moral arguments, or personal opinion or self-interest but don’t use the name of God to justify your unwillingness to do what lawful authority tells you to do.

This doesn’t mean we don’t fight and try to change unjust laws like the ones that permit and even encourage infanticide or encourage depraved behavior or try to limit the power and scope of government over our lives as citizens. It just means to be careful how you bring your Saviour into the argument. In the end all of the laws, institutions, and structures of your country will be burned up and in eternity be totally meaningless. Keep in mind that the government is not a fit substitute for God though Christians have made it so. The three branches of proper government are not found in Washington, D.C. but under God’s righteous authority.

Isaiah 33:22  For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

Notice Isaiah said the LORD, not the Supreme Court, Congress, or the President.

One of the great and profound statements of the Bible is found in verse 15 and it goes against American ideals completely. We’ve always been taught that more is good and that we should stay hungry, so to speak, and never be satisfied or content. But, as Paul said;

1Timothy 6:6 ¶  But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. 9  But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11  But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. 12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

You who are proud of your possessions, have worked hard to get them and work even harder to keep and maintain them, must understand that God is the possessor of all and they will be taken from you, or you from them, in an instant. Someone else will enjoy them if they do not perish.

Verse 21 shows that your passion for your temporary possessions does not reflect a passion for God.

Luke 12:1-12 comments: the leaven of the religious elite

12:1 ¶  In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2  For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. 3  Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. 4  And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5  But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. 6  Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? 7  But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. 8  Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: 9  But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. 10  And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. 11  And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: 12  For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

Do you see how leaven has negative connotations in that it can, in specific contexts, represent corruption?

Matthew 16:11  How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? 12  Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Here is another verse about corruption with the Greek word for corrupt having to deal with selling wine that has been diluted with water thereby making, “an unworthy profit;” pronounced kap-ale-yoo-o’.

2Corinthians 2:17  For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

https://www.studylight.org/lexicons/trench/corrupt.html

Here Jesus foretells of the persecution His followers will suffer under the immediate oppression of the religious authorities and He tells them not to worry about that because they belong to a power that is much higher.

Two other important points should be made here. First, the very hairs of our head implying that the days of our lives, in this context, are numbered. Do not fear persecution and death because God will decide what and when that happens.

Job 7:1  Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

The time of our death, from whatever cause, is determined by God and there is no escape from it.

Ecclesiates 8:8  There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it.

The truth, which the Pharisees are hiding with their oral laws and many extra-Biblical rules and regulations, subverting the truth of God, cannot be hid and will be revealed and proclaimed by Jesus’ followers.

Verse 8 is regarding how they respond to persecution. It is not about whether or not you hand out a gospel tract at the gas pump. There are several references on staying strong in the face of death for your faith.

2Timothy 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:

13  If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

Revelation 3:7 ¶  And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; 8  I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

To deny can also mean to reject or dismiss.

Acts 3:14  But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;

1John 2:23  Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.

But in this passage in Luke deny is contrasting with confess and the context is about being persecuted for faith in Christ. The Pharisees here can be transferred to any period of Christian church history where an institutional elite had nonconforming Christians and non-Christians tortured and burned at the stake or killed by some other gruesome method. He tells His followers not to worry what they should say when arrested but that the Holy Ghost will provide them the words.

Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost was spelled out more clearly in Mark’s gospel which I commented on in comments on Luke, chapter 9.

Mark 3:28  Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: 29  But he that shall blaspheme

against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation:

30  Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.

Is this possible today, after the resurrection? Can someone commit such a sin that they have no possible chance to be forgiven by God?

The Holy Ghost, the very mind of God as Christ is the very body of God and God the Father is the very soul of God, the seat of will and self-identity, always points to Christ and never to Himself. He is the spiritual counterpart to a John the Baptist announcing Christ in the flesh. He points at the Saviour of mankind.

John 14:26  But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

What prompted Jesus’ statement in Mark 3 was that those speaking against had said about Him as He walked the earth He hath an unclean spirit. The idea that the very mind of God, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, that is present moving in all creation from the beginning and does His will in every cell function, heartbeat, wave of the sea, or fluttering of a bird’s wings is an evil spirit and that was what was the operational entity behind Christ’s work of salvation would not be overlooked. It was an unpardonable sin.

Typically, when you hear someone reject Christ today they will deny He exists or existed, claim He was simply a remarkable teacher which propagandists created a whole deity mythology around, or that they’re good people and they don’t need to be saved by Him or anyone else. I have never heard anyone reject salvation through Christ because they said that Christ was an evil person intent on creating havoc and causing harm or that He was demon-possessed. They might say that about Christians, though. No, that was something the people who opposed Him at the time said.

We Baptists, for the most part, do not believe you can lose your salvation because you did not save yourself.

John 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Titus 3:4  But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,5  Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6  Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7  That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

And we are sealed until the day of redemption, our resurrection.

2Corinthians 1:21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; 22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

Ephesians 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 4:30  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

So, since you cannot lose your salvation the only way to interpret the Mark 3 verses for us is to say that there are those who will never be saved as they will always be against God’s work of redeeming mankind to Himself, or at least as much as will accept His free gift of mercy. But, for those at that time walking on the earth with Him it was an apparent danger. The time was filled with spiritual warfare and the unseen world, which we are sometimes given a glimpse of, is very hard at work.

Verses 6 and 7 are very interesting in that they declare that God is aware, does not forget, even one little seemingly insignificant sparrow that dies. In fact, He is not only the cause of their life but of their death, and, in the context, of ours as well.

Matthew 10:29  Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

This fact about reality and the physical world and universe in which we live is lost on many Christians today who worship a caretaker God, a sort of absentee landlord they call on when the plumbing breaks. The God of the Bible has His part in every moment of reality and life is a continuous miracle. Nothing happens without His direct and perfect will involved, requiring it, or His permissive will involved, allowing it. Read the book of Job carefully.