Lk. 12:35-48, To Whom Much Is Given

(Today’s photos are from previous trips to Israel.  I’m not taking very many on this tour.) 

This is one of those “universal principles” in Scripture.  For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed of him they will ask the more (Luke 12:48).  It is a truth that you see illustrated throughout Israel.

You could just start with the previous occupants of the land, the seven nations defeated by Israel: the Amorites, Girgashites, Jebusites, Canaanites, Hivites, Perizzites and Hittites (Dt. 7:1).  Why were they replaced?  They had received this amazing land with all it’s potential prosperity, “the land of milk and honey.”  They had plenty of time from God, as Gen. 15:16 indicates: Abraham’s descendents spent four generations in Egypt awaiting their time to take the land, because the iniquity of the Amorites (was) not yet complete.

But the archaeological ruins we visit are mostly from Israelite and Roman times.  In Luke 10:13-15 Jesus called attention to the three cities of Galilee: Chorazin (first picture, Synagogue at Chorazin), Bethsaida and Capernaum (second picture, Synagogue at Capernaum).  Because they had seen many signs from Jesus and still rejected Him they would bear the consequences of rejecting.

In John 15:22 Jesus applied this principle to the “shepherds” of Israel, the religious leaders.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  The Apostle Paul lived by this truth, understanding that he had been entrusted with something special, the gospel, and had to dispense it freely (1 Tim. 1:11; Titus 1:3).  And he also applied it to Timothy, to guard the sound doctrine that had been entrusted to him (1 Tim. 6:20).

Note that Jesus said, in Luke 12:48, the truth was applied to “everyone” and “to whom.”  Nations and organizations and yes, churches (Rev. 2-3) are subject to this.  But so are individuals.  This standard of judgment will be applied to the United States, to my local church, and to me!