Luke 8:18

TAKE HEED!

‘Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.’

Luke 8:18

What is the one great truth which is common to this and similar parables? Beyond question, the importance of using our opportunities, such as they are.

I. The opportunity of letting our light shine before men, of fervent love for God and our neighbour.

II. The opportunity of adding to our faith, virtue.

III. The opportunity of works of charity and mercy.

These—because the Kingdom of Heaven will be for us their bestowal—are to be seized and used. If they are not, there will be nothing but the closed door, the outer darkness, and the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. It is well we should think of this. There is hardly anything which ordinary Christians so readily overlook, or fail to recognise as the opportunities they really do enjoy.

—Rev. C. F. Turner.

Illustration

‘Without penetrating the mystery of our Lord’s awful words concerning His betrayer, it will be more helpful to us to think of Judas not so much as a lost soul, but that his was a lost opportunity. It was in fact one such as has been vouchsafed to very few. We can hardly realise what it was. Sometimes we may be tempted to think that had we had the unspeakable privilege of looking with our bodily eyes on our Lord, and listening to His voice ‘with personal intonation’ speaking to us, things would have been different—faith would have been easier, self-denial less distasteful, sin less attractive, our love of God purer and deeper. Yet there is—Judas.’