Luke chapter 10

It took me years before I realized that Jesus was quoting from the Old Testament when he said, “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself” (Luke 10:27).  I finally did look it up, as this well-used copy of the Bible confirms with the margin writing.  He mined the two commandments from Deuteronomy (6:5) and Leviticus (19:18 in part).  Dummelow mentions fear in relation to the Deuteronomy one, so that it reminds me of one of my favourite Bible passages – II Tim. 1:7, which Moffatt translates as “For God has not given us a timid spirit but a spirit of power and love and discipline.”

Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42).  I must have said something that gave my friend the impression that I held the common view of Martha – that she was the drudge, while her sister Mary just sat and listened to Jesus, because next thing an email brought a copy of a Christian Science Sentinel article about Martha.  It is to be found in the Sentinel for July 6, 1998 – title Martha still served. It has some instructive points about her; some of them we will leave till we come to John’s references, for the big story of Lazarus and his sisters is to be found in John. In Luke’s account she was rebuked by Jesus.  What a blessing this was for her.  One is reminded of Mary Baker Eddy’s rebukes to some of the helpers in her home. (Ref. Laura Sargeant in We knew Mary Baker Eddy expanded edition Vol. I; John Salchow p.388 and Robert Peel’s Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority p. 319.) Mrs. Eddy pointed out that she was not rebuking Laura as a person, rather she rebuked the error which seemed to be influencing her.

Note: I found another article when searching JSH-Online – Martha who served in the March 23, 1918 Sentinel, by Anne Treacher Hall.

In church a couple of weeks ago, I was taken with the words, “reprove, rebuke, exhort” as they were read from the desk.  It was so clear to me that I am not to reprove or rebuke either myself or another; rather I am to rebuke and reprove any error, any impression on my consciousness that is not good, and therefore, not of God and hence not real.  At this stage I am uncertain as to the Lesson’s source of the phrase because it is quoted in Science and Health (p. 443:21) from II Timothy 4:2.

Joyce Voysey