Jesus is prophesying that just as in Noah’s day, people will be dominated with the temporary affairs of this life instead of eternal spiritual truths, when Jesus returns. Before our Lord’s second return, there will be plenty of signs to show that the time is drawing near, but few will heed them. Preoccupation with the affairs of this life can dull us to the spiritual realm.

The Lord kindly but seriously, points out the urgent need to be ready for His return. In the same way that a thief comes when people are the least prepared, so our Lord will return in a time when people are not looking for Him.

This is not because our Lord desires to surprise everyone and see how many He can catch unprepared. On the contrary, He is urging us to be watchful so that we will be prepared. Jesus gave us the signs of the end times to help us be prepared. He is simply prophesying that there will be a condition of apathy in the latter days that will tend to lull even the faithful to sleep if they don’t take heed to His words.

Believers will not be assembled on a mountaintop somewhere waiting for the Lord’s return. They will still be going about their daily routines. The Lord told us to “occupy till I come” (Lk. 19:13). We should be ready for the Lord to come back at any moment, yet work as if His return was still far off.

Jesus says the disciples were betrayed by parents, brothers, relatives, friends, and some disciples were even put to death. Yet, the amazing statement of Christ is that not a hair of their head will perish. The context of this statement speaks of some of the disciples dying, so this is not a promise that no physical harm will ever come. This could only refer to the resurrection.

The Greek word for “resurrection” means “a standing or rising up.” The resurrection is a major theme of New Testament teaching. Out of the 13 sermons in the book of Acts, 11 stress or imply the resurrection.

The hope of the believer is the resurrection. The natural, earthly, terrestrial, corrupt, weak, mortal, vile body is said to be raised, changed and fashioned into a spiritual, heavenly, celestial, incorrupt, glorious, powerful, and immortal body. This is the completeness that has been purchased for all of us in Christ.

The Lord views everything in the light of eternity. Man tends to view things in the context of his brief life on earth. From man’s perspective, a person who dies for his faith in Jesus has lost a great deal. From Jesus’ viewpoint, a martyr hasn’t lost a thing. Even the very hairs on our head are numbered.

The patience that Jesus is speaking of here is the calm assurance that God knows every hurt that we feel and He will abundantly recompense us in the resurrection. This knowledge enables us to control our emotions in the face of persecution (i.e. possess our souls) instead of letting our emotions of fear dominate us.

Here, Jesus teaches that the believer must persevere to receive complete salvation. Salvation is a gift that cannot be earned or maintained by our own works. It has to be received by faith. However, there is effort on our part to maintain that faith. This is where holiness comes in.

Holiness will not produce relationship with God, nor will a lack of holiness make God turn away from us. He deals with us according to our faith in Jesus, not our performance. Holiness will keep Satan from stealing our faith, while a lack of holiness is an open invitation for the devil to do his worst. A person who wants to endure to the end cannot live a lifestyle that permits Satan free access to him.

Although God is not imputing our sins unto us, we cannot afford the luxury of sin because it allows Satan to have access to us. When a Christian does sin, and allows the devil an opportunity to produce death in his life, the way to stop this is to confess the sin. God is faithful and just to take the forgiveness that is already present in our born-again spirit and release it in our flesh, thereby removing Satan and his strongholds.

Holiness is a fruit and not a root of salvation. That is to say that holiness is a by-product of relationship with God; it does not produce relationship with God. It is the nature of a Christian to walk in the light, not in the dark. When we are rightly informed of who we are and what we have in Christ, then holiness will naturally flow out of us because it is our nature.

The only reason that an abundance of iniquity would make anyone’s love for the Lord wax cold, is if he were not separated from that iniquity. As with Lot, a righteous man can vex his soul from day to day by hearing and seeing the unlawful deeds of the ungodly (2 Pet. 2:8).

We have to deal with the world’s system and those in it, but we need to be careful and maintain proper balance. We should shun relationships with those who influence us negatively more than we influence them positively.

Marriage is one area where this principle is especially true. There is no closer union in life than the marriage relationship. A believer who marries an unbeliever is directly violating this scripture and is toying with disaster. The Lord should be the most important person in our life. How could we possibly become “one” with a person who doesn’t love our Lord?

It is folly to think that after marriage an unbelieving spouse will accept the Lord. Although that does happen, it cannot be guaranteed. In fact, statistics are overwhelmingly against this happening. Regardless of that possibility, a believer who marries an unbeliever is directly violating God’s instructions here. It is not a good start to any marriage to spurn God’s Word.

Being unequally yoked with unbelievers just doesn’t work. Believers and unbelievers are as different as righteousness and unrighteousness, light and dark, Christ and the devil. One has faith and the other has none. One is the temple of God and the other an idol. Any Christian who doesn’t see this conflict is deceived.

Deception can be avoided or else Jesus would not have said, “Take heed that no man deceive you.” Satan can only deceive those who allow him to do it.

Ephesians 6:11 tells us to “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Putting on the whole armour of God will protect you from the deception of the devil. Just wearing part of God’s armour will not fully protect you. Many Christians have been running around with the helmet of salvation on but nothing else. There is more to overcoming the devil than just being saved. We have to understand our righteous position in the Lord. We also must possess faith, know the Word, and understand the gospel of peace.

The Christian life is a constant struggle against Satan, who is trying to corrupt us. Most Christians are aware of the warfare, but they don’t know where the warfare is occurring. The battle is in our mind. Just as the serpent didn’t come against Eve with brute force, but rather used words to deceive her, likewise Satan tries to corrupt us through thoughts contrary to the gospel. Satan’s original tactic was deception and that is still his method of operation today.

One of the characteristics of children is that they are easily deceived. They are gullible. One of the things that must take place to move from childhood into sonship is spiritual discernment. This comes from being grounded in the Word of God.

The way to recognize deception is not to analyze all the false claims but rather to become so familiar with what is genuine that a counterfeit will be easily recognizable. Anyone who is truly grounded in the Word of God will not be deceived.

The treasury that is spoken of here is a place located in the Women’s Court that was in the temple complex but was not part of the temple itself. Women were not allowed in the temple, so the fact that this widow was casting her offering into the treasury verifies the location of the treasury.

Jesus used this instance to teach His disciples a very important lesson. He did not say these things to this widow personally. God’s promises concerning giving give us an assurance that this offering was blessed back to this woman in this life, but the widow did not hear His commendation. There is no indication that this poor widow ever knew that anyone recognized the extent of her sacrifice.

Likewise, there are times when we may feel that no one knows or appreciates our sacrifices. However, just as surely as Jesus saw this woman’s giving and knew of the sacrifice involved, God takes note of our smallest deeds and one day, will reward us openly.

The Lord does not judge the size of our gifts by how much we give, but rather by how much we have left over after we give. Men tend to compare themselves with each other but the Lord doesn’t judge our giving by what others give. He judges our gifts by what we have to give. The Lord looks at the heart of the giver more than at the gift. The Lord weighs the giver more than the gift.

When we stand before the Lord, all of our works, not only our giving, will be tried to determine what sort – not what size they are.

One of the ways that God’s goodness is revealed is by His mercy. We may describe mercy as the readiness of God to relieve the misery of fallen creatures. Many times, mercy is called compassion or lovingkindness. It is expressed toward the sinner because of the misery that sin has brought upon him.

God’s mercy to the believer is revealed by God taking away the misery of sin’s consequences through the New Covenant of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Mercy is not something merited or earned, but a gift, as the apostle Paul states, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to HIS MERCY He saved us” (Ti. 3:5).

Paul speaks of the heavenly Father as “The Father of mercies.” The word father is used many times in scripture as an originator or as a source of something. For example, the devil is called the father of lies (Jn. 8:44), i.e. he is the author and originator of lying. Likewise, our heavenly Father is the author, originator, and source of all mercy. Each time that mankind cried out in faith, God’s mercy reached out and met their need.

God is said to be rich in mercy because of His great love wherewith he loved us (Eph. 2:4), and to have a throne called grace whereby we may come and obtain mercy. God wasn’t motivated to save us through pity or a sense of obligation as our Creator. He was motivated solely by love. God loves us.

Some have taught that Jesus did away with the tithe since it is not a specific part of the New Testament teaching. But in this instance, Jesus made reference to the scribes and Pharisees tithing and implied that they were right in doing so. The New Covenant did not do away with the tithe but it clarified what the motives for tithing should be.

Abram tithed over 430 years before the law was given. Jacob also tithed approximately 300 years before the time of the law. Therefore, tithing was a Biblical principle that didn’t begin or end with the law of Moses. However, the law of Moses did include tithing as part of its commandments and attached were stiff penalties for those who failed to comply. It was concerning these punishments for not tithing, that the New Testament differed from the Old Testament. Malachi 3:8-9 says that if a man doesn’t tithe, he has robbed God and is cursed with a curse. Therefore, people gave out of the motivation of debt and obligation. Jesus redeemed us from this and all the other curses of the law, so that God will not curse us for not tithing.

The apostle Paul also made it very clear that any type of giving motivated by anything less than God’s kind of love is useless. He went on to explain in 2 Corinthians 9:7, that God wants us to give, “not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” The type of giving that God loves is cheerful, freewill giving. This does not mean that tithing is contrary to the New Testament. It is the “fear of punishment” motive, that the Old Testament law attached to tithing, that has been done away with. Giving and tithing are still very much a part of the New Testament doctrine, and if done with the New Testament attitude, are still acceptable to God. Be a giver.

He who thinks that he will be exalted by acting as a servant, pretending to be humble so that he will receive the promise of God’s Word, is sadly mistaken. Hypocrisy is an attitude or motive.

There are two main types of hypocrisy: 1) People don’t practice what they preach. 2) People’s motives are wrong even though their actions are right.

The second type of hypocrisy is why Jesus rebuked the scribes and Pharisees.

It is more subtle than the first type and is very prevalent today in religion. They were seeking self-glory instead of seeking to glorify God.

Their priorities are wrong, and their focus is on outward displays instead of on the inner condition of their heart. Furthermore, they always persecute the true worshipers of God.

Universally, people dislike blatant hypocrisy; although this subtle type of hypocrisy has been encouraged and even promoted by religion. Religion teaches tithing and giving for selfish motives while 1 Corinthians 13:3 and 2 Corinthians 9:7, make it clear that giving will profit us nothing unless we have the proper motive. The same thing happens when people try to achieve holiness by performing many other religious acts. It is not always the acts that are wrong, but the motives behind the acts. These wrong motives can also make you a hypocrite.

Anyone who rejects salvation because he doesn’t like religious hypocrites, should remember that if he doesn’t receive Jesus as his Lord, then he will spend eternity with these hypocrites in Hell.

In Romans 12:10 we are admonished to desire the welfare of others more than our own; to like others better than ourselves. That is an awesome command that is only obtainable through God’s supernatural love. If this very simple, yet very profound truth could be understood and applied, then strife would cease (Prov. 13:10). The world would see Christianity as never before, and we would discover the true joy that comes from serving someone besides ourselves.

There is much confusion today on the subject of love because we have only one English word (love) to describe a broad aspect of meanings. For example, if I said, “I love my wife, I love apple pie, and I love my dog,” obviously I am not talking about love in the same degree or definition.

God’s type of love; the highest kind of love, is AGAPE. This is when we seek the welfare or betterment of others even when we don’t feel affection. AGAPE love does not come from one’s feelings. Jesus displayed this AGAPE kind of love by going to the cross and dying for us even though He didn’t feel like dying. Jesus sought the betterment of you and me, regardless of His feelings.

We, too, can AGAPE love our enemies even though we don’t have a warm feeling of affection for them. If they are hungry we can feed them; if they are thirsty we can give them a drink. We can choose to seek the betterment and welfare of others regardless of how we feel.

If anyone becomes a servant and humbles himself with the motive of being exalted, then he is not truly fulfilling Jesus’ command. Jesus is teaching about a true, servant’s heart, that loves others more than itself and will joyfully go without so that someone else may prosper.