Luke 12:1-13

46 Compare Mat_23:4.

47 Compare Mat_23:29-36.

51 Compare Gen_4:8; 2Ch_24:20-21.

51 Men are to be judged by what they know as well as by what they do. To do that which you condemn in others convicts you of their crime as well as your own. Cain was a religious man; in fact he is the first to bring an offering to Jehovah (Gen_4:3). But his works were evil (1Jn_3:12). The first murder was committed by an outwardly religious, but inwardly wicked man. It is rather remarkable that there were three different men, named Zacharias, murdered in the court of the temple. One was Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, who testified against them. And they conspired against him, and stoned him in the court of the house of the Lord. When he died he said..Jehovah is seeing and inquiring:' which corresponds closely with "exacting", here used by our Lord (2Ch_24:20-22). As Chronicles is the end of the Hebrew canon, from Abel to this Zechariah would comprise all the religious murders or the book. But the Zacharias here may be the same as in Matthew, where he is called the son of Berechiah, that is, the author of the book of Zechariah (Zec_1:1). He also testified of their evil ways. We have no other record of the manner of his death, but our Lord knew that he was slain where only a priest could have done the deed. From Abel to this Zechariah would stretch over their whole inspired history. Over thirty years later another Zacharias was foully slain in the outer temple (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, chapter 5). This was near the end of their stay in the land.

52 Compare Mat_23:13.

54 Compare Mar_12:13.

1 Compare Mat_16:6-12; Mar_8:15-21.

1 Though hypocrisy, in all its forms, is most hateful to God, yet it seems most prevalent in the sphere of religion. The most potent preventive is the great truth here enunciated. Once we realize that pretense of any kind is but a temporary expedient which will react with fearful effect in the future it will make us slow to claim to be what we are not. We may be successful now in concealing our deeds of darkness from our fellows, but they are surely known to God and just as surely will be manifest to men. Happy is he who is not concerned with present appearances but so lives that his acts will be approved in the light!

2-5 Compare Mat_10:26-28.

4 Gehenna, the valley of the son or Hinnom just below Jerusalem, is the place where the refuse and offal of the city was burned. In the kingdom the bodies of criminals will be cast into its flames. The distinction here drawn is between the believer, whose death, especially if endured for the Lord's sake, will make him eligible to a high place in the kingdom at the resurrection of the just, and the rebellious, who, even if they should be in the kingdom, will suffer its stern condemnation. The enemies of Christ can kill, and thousands will be slain as witnesses to the truth, yet their act has an effect exactly opposite to what they intend, for it enhances the felicity of the saints in the resurrection. Not so with those whom He executes. They forfeit the joys of the kingdom.

6 The infinitude of God's care in creation surpasses all human comprehension. There is no detail of our lives too small for His microscopic concern, nothing too trivial to touch His tender solicitude.

8-9 Compare Mat_10:32-33.

10 Compare Mat_12:31-32; Mar_3:28-30.

10 The unpardonable sin of Israel was not the crucifixion of Christ, but the subsequent rejection of the holy Spirit's testimony through His apostles. This has brought on their present dispersion for the eon.

11 Compare Mat_10:19-20; Mar_13:11.

11 This has no reference to the preaching of the evangel today, but to the proclamation of the kingdom.

12 Compare Act_4:8; Act_7:2; Act_7:55.