Three Parables
THREE PARABLES
LUKE 6:39-49
As we are all forgiven sinners, we should not be quick to criticize others.
Three parables close the sermon.
6:39-42. The blind were primarily the corrupt priesthood and religious plutocracy. “Beam” is to be understood as a piece of oriental hyperbole. The “mote” was a scrap of chaff blown from the threshing floor and a common autumn nuisance.
6:43-45. The point of the illustration is that a change in nature is required if a tree is to change its fruit. The parable looks on to John 3.
6:46-49. The picture probably includes two ways of life. The dry river valleys of the Middle East, the “wadis” of Arabia, were the highways of trade, but subject to occasional disastrous floods. Going with the crowd, seeking the moment’s advantage, intent on gain, one man risks danger and builds on the sandy floor. The other, more concerned for security, builds on the “crag” (6:48, literally). His position is lonely, less convenient for trade, buffeted by the winds, but safe. So in life. The wrong foundations, chosen for the same reasons, are self-confidence, material wealth, social position. Hence, in the flood of life’s testing—moral, and often mental, collapse. The true foundation is defined in 1 Corinthians 3:11. Read also Ephesians 6:11-13.
This entire section emphasizes the principle that conduct depends on character. And it is what a man believes that makes him what he is. Recent controversy has emphasized this: the so-called “new theology” was inevitably followed by the “new morality”—although it is straining language to employ the terms “theology” or “morality” to such nebulous concepts.
Note 6:48: Greek—“like a man building a house, who dug and kept on deepening …” emphasizes the tedious persistence involved.