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Answer to: Are the Jehovah's Witnesses the ones mentioned in Luke 12:42?
Here is the question I received.
Bless you! There is this verse in The book of Luke 12:42 that talks about the faithful and the wise steward that I don’t understand. Can you please explain it to me because that is what Jehovah’s Witnesses base themselves on that they are the one that are taking care of the Sheep. Please include the 144000.
Here is my answer.
The first thing to watch in Bible study is the context of the surrounding verses. Anybody can take one verse out of the Bible, take it out of it's context, and teach just about anything they want to. The Jehovah's Witnesses are very good at miss treating scripture in this way to teach what they want to. More on that later on. First lets look at Luke 12:42 and it's context.
Luk 12:41 Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?
Before verse 42 Peter asks a question. He asks about a parable that Jesus just told. His question is did you speak it to us or to all. Verse 42-43 is Jesus' response.
Luk 12:42 And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom [his] lord shall make ruler over his household, to give [them their] portion of meat in due season?
Luk 12:43 Blessed [is] that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.
Jesus is giving an answer to who the faithful and wise steward is in the parable that He told. And the answer of who the faithful and wise is in verse 43. "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing."
The answer is that the faithful steward is that servant who is found to be doing what the parable said when the lord comes back.
Hopefully you are with me so far. We know that verse 42 and 43 are the answer to a parable. We know that the faithful and wise steward is whom is found doing what the parable says.
That brings up the obvious question. What is it that he is to be found doing?
For that all we have to do is to go back a few verses and look at the parable.
Luk 12:37 Blessed [are] those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
The faithful and wise servants are found to be watching. Notice they also have a heart to serve.
Luk 12:38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find [them] so, blessed are those servants.
Notice they are really watching. The third watch is almost morning. The blessed servants watch continually.
Luk 12:39 And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.
Verse 39 is an illustration about not knowing when a thief might break in. If you know when a thief is coming, then you would watch at that time. But you are not going to spend all your time watching for a thief when you have no idea when he might come. The goodman of the house has a lot of duties. He cannot watch for a thief continually. He might watch for a while and then quit and go about other things. In contrast to that, Christians are to watch for the coming of Jesus. We don't know when He is coming back. However, we are to look for Him continually. Never stop watching. No matter how late it is.
Luk 12:40 Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.
Put the whole context together. Jesus is talking about watching for His return. All Christians are to be like faithful and wise servants who are continually watching for the Master's return. Therefore the faithful and wise servant in verse 42 is simply Christians who are watching continually for the Lord's return.
Watching implies being found in the right place and doing the right thing when the master comes. In the parable they were ready to serve. Ready to please the master at the moment he came in.
A Christian who is involved in doing some sin is NOT watching for the Lord to come back. If you are really watching and expecting Jesus to come back at any moment, then you DO NOT want to be found doing some awful sin.
So verse 42 is talking about faithful servants of God who are really watching for the Lord's return. The context here has nothing to do with feeding the sheep. They take the verse out and separate it from the context and then use it to teach what they want. These are very dangerous people.
As far as the 144,000 they have changed their story on that several times. You see it causes them a big problem for they exceeded that number a long time ago. Which means that any new person who becomes a Jehovah Witness would be, sorry - out of luck.
The Bible is very clear on who the 144,000 is. Rev 7:4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: [and there were] sealed an hundred [and] forty [and] four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
There are from the tribes of Israel. They are Jews. Another principal of Bible study is DON'T make the bible say something that it does not say. To say that the 144,000 is anyone else is totally against the bible and a complete abuse of scripture.
They twist and change scripture time and time again. They also take the writings of their magazine over the word of God. Their teaching constantly contradict the Bible.
The main problem with them is they cannot understand the Bible because they are not saved.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.
The Bible is spiritually discerned. To understand it you have to have the Holy Spirit in your heart to teach you. You receive the Spirit when you get saved.
For a really detailed look at how to be saved please go to this page on my website.
http://www.thewordteaches.com/my_beliefs.htm
Jehovah Witness's will really mess you up. My best advice would be to run from them and spend more time in the Bible.
Again thanks for the email
Bryan
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