The Good News by Luke 17

<< Luke 16

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Forgive Others

1 Isa said to his disciples, “It's inevitable that things will happen which cause people to sin, but how terrible it will be for anyone who is the cause of their occurrence. 2 [It would be] better for him if a millstone were tied around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 So beware of this.

“If your brother* sins against you, rebuke him; then if he apologizes, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in a day and returns to you seven times and says, ‘I am sorry,’ then forgive him.”

Faith [in Allah]

5 The apostles said to Maulana Isa, “Increase our faith.” 6 He said, “If you have faith like a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.

Humility in Service

7 “Let's suppose that one of you has a servant who plows the land or looks after the sheep. When he returns from the field, do you say to him, ‘Come quickly, sit down, and eat’? 8 Of course not. Instead, you say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, then get yourself ready and serve me while I eat and drink. Then after that, you yourself may eat and drink.’ 9 And do you thank the servant because he did what you ordered him [to do]? 10 [It's] the same thing with regard to you: When you have done everything you were ordered [to do], you should say, ‘We are servants who [deserve] no credit; we have only done our duty.’”

He Heals Ten [Men] of [their] Leprosy

11 On his way to Jerusalem, Isa was traveling along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was entering one of the villages, ten men afflicted with leprosy met him. They stood at a distance* 13 and called out, “Isa, our Master! Have pity on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.”* While they were going, they were cleansed.

15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back praising Allah at the top of his voice. 16 He threw himself down on his face at the feet of Isa and thanked him. He was a Samaritan!* 17 Isa said, “Were not [all] ten cleansed? So where are the [other] nine? 18 Was there no one found who would return and praise Allah besides this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Get up and go. Your faith has saved you.”

The Kingdom of Allah

20 Then the Pharisees asked him, “When will the Kingdom of Allah come?” He answered them, “The Kingdom of Allah is not coming in a visible way. 21 People will not say, ‘It's here or there!’ The truth, rather, is that the Kingdom of Allah is [already] among you.”

22 Then he said to his disciples, “The time will come when you will long to see one of the days of the One Who Became Man, but you will not see it. 23 They will say to you, ‘He is here,’ or ‘He is there,’ but don't go, and don't follow them. 24 For the One Who Became Man, in his day, will be like the lightning that flashes and lights up the sky from its beginning to its end. 25 But first it is necessary that he suffer greatly and that this people reject him.

26 “Just as it happened in the days of Nuh, so will it happen in the days of the One Who Became Man. 27 The people were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Nuh entered the ark;* then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 It's the same as what happened in the days of Lut; people were eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building; 29 but on the day Lut left Sodom, the sky rained fire and sulfur, and they all perished.

30 “On the day when the One Who Became Man comes, the same thing will happen. 31 On that day, if anyone is on the housetop and his belongings are in the house, he should not go down to get them. And similarly, anyone in the field should not return home. 32 Remember Lut's wife!* 33 Whoever wants to preserve his life will lose it, whereas anyone who loses his life [in my cause] will save it.

34 “I assure you that on that night, two people will be in one bed; one will be taken, and the other will be left. 35 Two women will be grinding [grain] together; one will be taken, and the other will be left. 36 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken, and the other will be left.” 37 They asked him, “Where will this be, Master?” He replied, “Where the dead body is, the birds of prey will gather.”

<< Luke 16

Definitions

 *17:3 brother: fellow disciple of Isa the Messiah.​​​​​​

 *17:12 They stood at a distance: The Taurat prohibited people with a skin disease from coming near anyone else.

 *17:14 See the note at Luke 5:14.

 *17:16 Samaritan: See footnote at Luke 9:52.

 *17:27 the ark: the vessel built by Nuh and his sons to keep their families and various animals from drowning during the Flood. The word ark comes from the Latin arca, which means a wooden box. In this case it would have been a barge, which is a kind of boat shaped like a box for transporting freight on large rivers.