Excuses, excuses

Proverbs 

Proverbs 22:13 - The sluggard says, "There is a lion outside!" or, "I will be murdered in the streets!"

How sad is it when we get to such a state that the excuses we make up are hardly plausible?  And yet, we have the ability and oftentimes the desire to make up such excuses to avoid something we really don't want to do, whether or not we are lazy.  Matthew Henry made an insightful comment on this verse:

          "The slothful man talks of a lion without, but considers not his real danger from the devil, that roaring lion within, and from his own slothfulness, which kills him."

Luke

Jesus' speech on benefactors may not have caught my eye if I had not read a sidebar in my bible that discussed the cultural trend of benefactors in Ancient Roman society.  Apparently, there was a cultural role that some wealthy individuals could pursue - that of benefactor.  These benefactors would use their wealth to gain the popularity of the common people so that they could remain in public office.  They were generous only to serve their own ends.  Jesus is calling us to be generous and kind to others to bring glory to God.  We are not to draw attention to ourselves, and if we do, we should pass the glory on to God, with whom it rightfully belongs in the first place.

 

Hebrews

The phrase used in 5:9 "once made perfect", which is in reference to Jesus, caught me off-guard because I thought, wasn't Jesus always perfect?  After looking into this phrase even further, I realized that what this meant was that after Jesus died and came back to life, he was the perfect Saviour in that he conquered death for us and now we no longer have to die for our sin.  Hallelujah!