Bible Gateway Blog

How would you react if someone you loved left you for a life of debauchery… and then returned?

In Luke 15, Jesus tells a series of parables about things being lost and then found: the first is about a lost sheep, the second a lost coin, and the third a lost son.

The final parable—about the lost son—is often called the Parable of the Prodigal Son. In it, a son requests his inheritance early from his father, loses it all… and finally comes crawling back home. Whether you’ve heard this story a hundred times or have never encountered it, read on to see how it ends:

Luke 15:11-32

…Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

“A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

“So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’

“But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

“Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, and he asked one of the servants what was going on. ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’

“The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’

“His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’” — Luke 15:11-32 (NLT)

Questions to Consider

• Who in this story do you most identify with? Would you have answered differently at different points in your life?
• Have you ever been in a situation where you faced the father’s choice—to condemn, or to forgive? Which did you choose, and how did it work out?
• Are you more like the son, the brother or the father?

How are Christians to live in an age of wickedness, hypocrisy, and false teaching? Although it might seem that modern Christians live in a uniquely sinful age, the ancient church also struggled to live righteously in a culture filled with spiritual darkness. What should be our guiding principle in such times?

1 Timothy 4

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.

Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. — 1 Timothy 4 (NIV)

Questions to Consider

1. What does it mean to have a conscience “seared as with a hot iron?”
2. What “godless myths and old wives’ tales” threaten our spiritual focus today?
3. What does it mean, practically speaking, to “train yourself to be godly?” Why do you think the writer here uses the metaphor of sports training to describe the Christian life?

Watch a Rube Goldberg machine in action and try not to be impressed. You’ve most likely seen one: devices crafted of a plethora of parts and random trinkets. A ball rolls down a shoot and falls into a cup, causing the cup to tip and pour water on a water wheel. The water wheel turns, pulling a string attached to a light switch. It can go on and on.

At a quick glance, an individual part of a Rube Goldberg machine might look useless or pointless—but when you step back and watch the machine in action, you see that each part has been carefully positioned to do a very specific job that’s necessary for the puzzle to work. Of course, your life isn’t part of a divine Rube Goldberg machine—but it’s a fun metaphor to consider as we read 1 Corinthians 12: God’s children are granted a wide variety of gifts, some obvious and others subtle; but each is important.

1 Corinthians 12

Now, concerning what you wrote about the gifts from the Holy Spirit.

I want you to know the truth about them, my friends. You know that while you were still heathen, you were led astray in many ways to the worship of lifeless idols. I want you to know that no one who is led by God’s Spirit can say A curse on Jesus! and no one can confess Jesus is Lord, without being guided by the Holy Spirit.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit gives them. There are different ways of serving, but the same Lord is served. There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to all for their particular service. The Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all. The Spirit gives one person a message full of wisdom, while to another person the same Spirit gives a message full of knowledge. One and the same Spirit gives faith to one person, while to another person he gives the power to heal. The Spirit gives one person the power to work miracles; to another, the gift of speaking God’s message; and to yet another, the ability to tell the difference between gifts that come from the Spirit and those that do not. To one person he gives the ability to speak in strange tongues, and to another he gives the ability to explain what is said. But it is one and the same Spirit who does all this; as he wishes, he gives a different gift to each person.

Christ is like a single body, which has many parts; it is still one body, even though it is made up of different parts. In the same way, all of us, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether slaves or free, have been baptized into the one body by the same Spirit, and we have all been given the one Spirit to drink.

For the body itself is not made up of only one part, but of many parts. If the foot were to say, Because I am not a hand, I don’t belong to the body, that would not keep it from being a part of the body. And if the ear were to say, Because I am not an eye, I don’t belong to the body, that would not keep it from being a part of the body. If the whole body were just an eye, how could it hear? And if it were only an ear, how could it smell? As it is, however, God put every different part in the body just as he wanted it to be. There would not be a body if it were all only one part! As it is, there are many parts but one body.

So then, the eye cannot say to the hand, I don’t need you! Nor can the head say to the feet, Well, I don’t need you! On the contrary, we cannot do without the parts of the body that seem to be weaker; and those parts that we think aren’t worth very much are the ones which we treat with greater care; while the parts of the body which don’t look very nice are treated with special modesty, which the more beautiful parts do not need. God himself has put the body together in such a way as to give greater honor to those parts that need it. And so there is no division in the body, but all its different parts have the same concern for one another. If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it; if one part is praised, all the other parts share its happiness.

All of you are Christ’s body, and each one is a part of it. In the church God has put all in place: in the first place apostles, in the second place prophets, and in the third place teachers; then those who perform miracles, followed by those who are given the power to heal or to help others or to direct them or to speak in strange tongues. They are not all apostles or prophets or teachers. Not everyone has the power to work miracles or to heal diseases or to speak in strange tongues or to explain what is said. Set your hearts, then, on the more important gifts.

Best of all, however, is the following way.

— 1 Corinthians 12 (GNT)

Questions to Consider

1. Do you know what your talents and gifts are? Do you use them consciously in the service of God?
2. Do you ever covet the gifts that other people possess?
3. How can you aptly use your gift for the Lord this week? Try to think of three ways you can honor him with the talents he’s given you.

This week’s Monday Morning Scripture is a day late—but this Scripture passage is particularly relevant this week as we grieve and pray for the community affected by Sunday’s Sikh temple shooting.

Are you familiar with the term “The Other?” It’s used to identify someone who exists outside the borders of what’s accepted in your own culture or society. Someone might be labeled “Other” because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, poverty, or many other factors. Throughout history, individuals and groups branded as “Other” have found themselves marginalized, shunned, and sometimes persecuted.

For Jews in the 1st century, Samaritans were definitely “Others.” That made it shocking for Jesus to be talking with a Samaritan woman in John 4. Beyond her nationality, it turned out that this woman was a known adulterer—yet another reason Jesus should have been keeping his distance. With that in mind, read how Jesus treated this woman who was about as “Other” as you could get.

John 4:4-26

He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.

The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”

Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water? And besides, do you think you’re greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and his animals enjoyed?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

“Please, sir,” the woman said, “give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.”

“Go and get your husband,” Jesus told her.

“I don’t have a husband,” the woman replied.

Jesus said, “You’re right! You don’t have a husband—for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you must be a prophet. So tell me, why is it that you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?”

Jesus replied, “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. You Samaritans know very little about the one you worship, while we Jews know all about him, for salvation comes through the Jews. But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus told her, “I Am the Messiah!” — John 4:4-26 (NLT)

Questions to Consider

1. Who are the “Others” in your local culture? What does this story teach you about interacting with them?
2. Later on in this passage, we read that through this woman’s testimony, many came to know Jesus. How do you think your story of encountering Jesus might help others?
3. What does Jesus mean when he says that the time has come to worship God “in spirit and in truth?”