"Checking My Gauges" July 19 Readings: Luke 6:17-49

Today's Reading - Luke 6:17-49

Background

Did Jesus preach the same sermon twice, with a few tweaks, or did Luke and Matthew just disagree about the details of the same sermon? That's the question that faces us as we look at today's passage in Luke 6. It is clearly a retelling of the Sermon on the Mount, but there is quite a bit that is different. The setting is different - Jesus is on a level place, not a mountain. The message is different. Jesus talks about the poor, not the poor in spirit. He balances his blessings with woes. He intersperses a parable into the sermon. 

Read the Sermon on the Mount out loud. It likely does not take more than 10 or 15 minutes. But it seems that Jesus spoke for much longer than that. We only have a synopsis of his words in Matthew. It is also likely that he repeated these words in subsequent messages. So, what we have here in Luke is a repetition, with variations, of the message of the Sermon on the Mount. It is not a contradictory account of the same message but accounts of two similar messages - one on a mountain and one on a plain. 

Devotional - Checking My Gauges

I'm a gauge-watcher when I'm driving down the road, constantly checking the heat gauge, the battery gauge, and of course, the gas gauge. If something is going wrong in a car it often shows up in the gauges, especially the temperature gauge. 

Luke 6:45 tells us that we have a gauge that will actively reveal to us the true spiritual condition of our hearts. 

"...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks."

Can't be much more plain than that, can it? My mouth is a gauge that tells what is in my heart. If my mouth is filled with criticism and complaining it is evidence of a heart that is not giving thanks to God for his blessings. A heart of praise will produce a tongue of thanksgiving. A filthy mouth is evidence of a filthy heart. A critical, gossipy, slanderous tongue reveals a selfish heart that lacks the love of Jesus. What is in my heart shows through in my conversation. 

It is not that I need to "watch my tongue" but that I need to guard my heart. I need to focus my heart on Jesus Christ, my mind on his word, and my soul on loving him. When I do this, the abundance of love and joy will bubble up in me and the praise of Jesus will be on my tongue. 

Father, may the praise of your Son be on my lips as his joy and his peace fills my heart. 

Think and Pray

Imagine that I could play a recording of every word you spoke over the last 24 hours, or over the last week. What would it say about you? What conclusions could I draw about your character, your holiness, your relationship with God as I listened to that recording?