Luke 16:12 KJV
And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
I recently reviewed a series of short videos designed to introduce concepts of logic and thinking. The videos cleverly illustrated how easily our minds can be deceived. For instance the in the gamblers problem, a coin is flipped nine times. Of those nine, three of them are heads and six are tails. The mind is so quick to recognize patterns that it immediately assumes that the probability is it will be tails in the tenth toss (or else reasons that heads is due). But the fact is, even if it had been nine for nine, as long as the coin has not been tampered with the toss is always a fifty-fifty chance. There is no predictable pattern.
The point is that our minds, unless carefully trained, may deceive us. (The Bible says the same thing of our hearts.)
Now this illustrates the passage in this way; Jesus implied in this parable that no one on this earth owns anything. We are merely stewards of another man's goods. However, it is difficult for any of us to grasp hold of that. What we hold seems so really ours that the largest numbers of people alive accept it and use it as their own. It takes discipline and training and great faith to come finally to see that all that is in our hands today, including life itself, belongs to God and we will give account of its use to Him.
But then Jesus implied that those who are stewards will receive riches of their own one day. That day is of course in heaven. The natural mind cannot conceive of this thing so it takes what is not its own and uses it as if it was its own, rejecting the notion that one day it will give account and ruining its hope of true ownership in eternity. The heart that lays up its treasure there is a heart that has been purposefully trained.
And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
I recently reviewed a series of short videos designed to introduce concepts of logic and thinking. The videos cleverly illustrated how easily our minds can be deceived. For instance the in the gamblers problem, a coin is flipped nine times. Of those nine, three of them are heads and six are tails. The mind is so quick to recognize patterns that it immediately assumes that the probability is it will be tails in the tenth toss (or else reasons that heads is due). But the fact is, even if it had been nine for nine, as long as the coin has not been tampered with the toss is always a fifty-fifty chance. There is no predictable pattern.
The point is that our minds, unless carefully trained, may deceive us. (The Bible says the same thing of our hearts.)
Now this illustrates the passage in this way; Jesus implied in this parable that no one on this earth owns anything. We are merely stewards of another man's goods. However, it is difficult for any of us to grasp hold of that. What we hold seems so really ours that the largest numbers of people alive accept it and use it as their own. It takes discipline and training and great faith to come finally to see that all that is in our hands today, including life itself, belongs to God and we will give account of its use to Him.
But then Jesus implied that those who are stewards will receive riches of their own one day. That day is of course in heaven. The natural mind cannot conceive of this thing so it takes what is not its own and uses it as if it was its own, rejecting the notion that one day it will give account and ruining its hope of true ownership in eternity. The heart that lays up its treasure there is a heart that has been purposefully trained.
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