The Parables of Jesus- Introduction

Posted on February 10, 2026 by Don Merritt

Jesus often spoke in parables, using them as a device to enhance communication.  In this, He was/is not unique, for people have used parables for as long as people have been communicating. A parable is a literary device that is used to convey meaning in an indirect way, to illustrate a point, for example, without being directly antagonistic or indelicate. They tell stories normally, but the stories themselves are not literally true; they are illustrative.

Abrahan Lincoln was known far and wide for his creative use of parables that were little stories from his days out on the law circuit in Illinois and usually began with something like, “that reminds me of the man back in Illinois who…” When he was finished with the story, his listeners would have gotten his point, and be laughing all around, even though the point may have cut very close to home.

Jesus used parables to convey spiritual truths which might be hard for a person to understand any other way, because spiritual truths are not always easy to explain, for a variety of reasons. They might also be hard to explain because they can very uncomfortably personal.

On at least one occasion, Jesus used parables for a different reason, a reason He explained to His disciples when they asked him His reasons. This occasion is recorded in Matthew 13; Mark 4 and Loke 8…

Mark 4:10-12

When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,

“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
    and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

Matthew 13:10-17

The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see;
    though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
    you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
    they hardly hear with their ears,
    and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Luke 8:9-10

His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

“‘though seeing, they may not see;
    though hearing, they may not understand.’

This is all that is recorded for us that is directly from Jesus about why He was teaching in parables, and some of it might come as a shock: Was Jesus really trying to keep the Truth from people so that they couldn’t receive forgiveness?

I doubt it.

It seems to me that He recognized a very basic fact of human behavior, which is that people tend to see what they want to see, to hear what they want to hear, and to believe what they want to believe. At least in this occasion, He used parables so that people who were open to the truth would see it (eyes that see) or hear it (ears that hear) and to thus, believe it. All the while, the ones who were not open to the Truth remained clueless: I was their choice to do so, as Isaiah had foretold in Isaiah 6:9.

With this basic understanding of parables, we will get started in our study tomorrow, see you then!

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Innocence Abroad

Posted on February 10, 2026 by Don Merritt

Proverbs 7

The teacher changes his approach in the eleventh discourse of Proverbs; now he portrays Wisdom as a lady, a sister in fact, and Folly as a harlot to show a young man how he can find himself ensnared. We begin with the first five verses pretty much as we’ve become accustomed, with the teacher urging his pupil to pay close attention and to take his advice to heart. In telling his “son” to consider wisdom to be his sister, an image of love and closeness, yet also one of purity and honor, he is seemingly trying to make wisdom seem dearer than a mere abstract. The antagonist here will be the adulterous woman.

This time, he teaches his lesson in the form of a narrative; he sets the scene with himself viewing the street from behind a lattice, where he can observe events as they unfold and remain unseen. The young man who comes along is described as having “no sense” in the NIV. The Hebrew can also be taken as simple minded or not real smart; clearly, he is meant to seem as though he isn’t quite sure what he’s walking into. A woman comes out to meet the young man. She is dressed like a harlot and is clearly looking for action. She makes her move in verses 15-20; she is quite brazen; she has made preparations to entertain a man. It isn’t entirely clear whether she and this hypothetical young man are already acquainted or if he just happened along at the right time, but she seduces him in either case.

The trap is sprung in verses 21-23 as the young man is unable to resist her charms and off, they go. Yet the teacher makes it clear that the young man is really going to his doom. The woman is not a prostitute, she is a married woman whose husband is out of town; even if he is single, she is not and he has fallen into adultery. What will happen when her husband finds out what he has done? What if she becomes pregnant? What if she has a disease? By implication, it really doesn’t matter which peril befalls him, for the young man has gone where no man should go.

The conclusion is found in 24-27 and contains the sort of warnings we have come to expect.

To a modern reader this will likely seem just a bit sexist: The innocent young man, the wayward woman leading him astray… and all those old worn out images. In ancient times, warnings of this sort were always given to young men, for they, unlike young women, were able to roam more or less freely in the streets. Young women on the other hand, would have been protected from masculine predators and kept either at home, or under the watchful eye of a trusted relative. Thus, these warnings were written for young men. However, in our times, these warnings apply to both young men and young women, for both are subject to temptations and manipulation; both can be led astray by cunning people with ulterior motives. Thus, I would suggest that the principles taught are timeless: Beware!

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Blog Update

Posted on February 9, 2026 by Don Merritt

Happy Monday to Everyone!

I’m writing today to fill you in on some of my ideas for this blog, and to follow up on some ideas I had several weeks back when I posted an update. At that time, I mentioned that I would very much like to complete a series of posts on the Life of Jesus in a side-by-side study of the four Gospels, as I have done many times in my Sermonary teaching days. My concern going into that was really about the imitations of Word Press as far as presentation of four Gospels at once. A second concern is the length of that study in a blog format.

You might also recall that I did use this format with my series in December on the Christmas Story, but these issues weren’t a factor because no part of the Christmas Story is mentioned in more than one of the Gospels, and I thought that one went fairly well.

I am going to try another experiment, starting tomorrow at 11:30 am Eastern time. I will be running a series on the Parables of Jesus, and there are quite a few of them that appear in Matthew, Mark and Luke- John didn’t record any. The Introduction will run tomorrow, and even in the introduction, I have three Gospels recording the same explanation of why Jesus spoke in parables, and I am not satisfied with the way they display in Word Press…

Still working on it.

If you have any suggestions or ideas you’d like to share, I’d be very happy to hear from you; see you tomorrow!

Don

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Another Pass at Adultery

Posted on February 9, 2026 by Don Merritt

Proverbs 6:20-35

In the tenth discourse, the teacher takes another pass at the issue of adultery. This time, it seems to be more intimate, more personal than in chapter 5.

Verses 20-25 provide some transition from the previous discourse, reminding the student to take to heart the basic things that their parents taught them so lovingly; the most basic of all being that adultery is off limits.

For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread,
    but another man’s wife preys on your very life.
Can a man scoop fire into his lap
    without his clothes being burned?
Can a man walk on hot coals
    without his feet being scorched?
So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife;
    no one who touches her will go unpunished.

Proverbs 6:26-29

As I read this, these verses are at the heart of the matter, for if it is just about sex, a prostitute is cheap enough; why destroy someone else’s family in the process? It doesn’t get any more personal than that.

A man who sleeps with another man’s wife strikes at the very heart of the other man, at his home, his family, at the very core of his life. When the injured party discovers this treachery, there will be a price to be paid. In the ancient world, this price could be execution, for a Commandment had been violated, but more commonly, the other man wouldn’t want that, for his wife would also be executed. No, his remedy might be just as personal against the man who violated his home. Beatings, disgrace, dishonor, all fully supported within the community, would be likely to result. Who would ever trust the adulterer again? His whole family would be disgraced…

Why did those parents make such a big deal out of their insistence about not committing adultery? Because in those days, execution for the offense would have been the easy way out of the situation; that’s how big of a deal this was; in fact, it was such a big deal that we aren’t finished with the subject yet, for the next discourse deals with it as well.

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Steadfast

Posted on February 8, 2026 by Don Merritt

Have you ever come across a split in life’s road where you aren’t sure which path to follow?  Maybe it involved changing jobs or moving to a new town, or it could be a time when you are considering moving to a different church.  It could even be when you are facing a temptation; should you go back to the old way of living?

I think we have all had this kind of experience; what did you do?  Did you follow the right path, or did you follow the wrong one?  If you’re anything like me, you’ve done both.

There is a principle that can help at these times of indecision.  The principle is that we should try to do the thing or make the choice that will best advance the will and purposes of God, rather than our will or purposes.  Oh, I know that this isn’t always an easy decision to make, because often our purposes and God’s purposes don’t quite line up together.  Yet whenever I’ve followed my own purposes instead of God’s, I’ve come to grief sooner or later; how about you?

These incidents remind me of a passage from Joshua 24 when the people of Israel faced a major turning point when they were renewing their covenant with God; follow God or go back to the old way.  Joshua made a stark contrast and a bold statement for them to consider:

 “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness.Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord.  But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Joshua 24:14-15

As we remain steadfast in our faith and steadfast in our service to the Lord, our choices are often made easier because we will follow His path and leave our own.  Yes, the choice might be easier, but the path is sometimes harder, but our Lord will never leave us alone to fend for ourselves; He will sustain us as we go.

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Constructing a Life

Posted on February 7, 2026 by Don Merritt
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Building a life in Christ is very much like building a house or any other building; it must have a proper foundation.  A life that is built on a foundation of popular culture is like a building that is built upon shifting ground with no firm foundation at all, for popular culture is anything but consistent.  Pop culture shifts with the latest winds, and the winds are always changing.  The very sad thing is that so many lives are constructed and built upon pop culture…

A real life is built upon the firm and sound foundation of the Word of God, and it is anchored to that foundation with God’s love for us.

As we go through life, our experiences and understanding of our faith is like adding rooms to the house, one by one, until our house becomes a great one.  Some of those rooms may need to be re-done as we mature, but then don’t we do the same in our homes as we grow and mature?

Finally, the day comes when we can take a step back and come to realize that our house isn’t standing on a lot all by itself, for with some perspective we see that it is a wing that is a living part of the very house of God.

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Second question from a reader

Posted on February 6, 2026 by Don Merritt

The other day, Citizen Tom left a couple of very interesting questions in the comments section, and I thought I’d share the questions and my attempt at answers with everyone because these are not only interesting but asked by a great many people. So, having done the first one yesterday, today I’ll tackle the second one.

Q:           Much of the Bible indicates that whether we go to Heaven or Hell is foreordained. At the same time, we are called upon to spread the Gospel, and that is confusing. I have reached the conclusion that I can share the Gospel with someone, but when and if the Word of God takes root in anyone who hears it is up to God. Therefore, I think the primary role of the church is fellowship in Jesus. That is, we spread the Word, disciple new believers, and we help each other to study the Bible and live in accordance with Biblical teachings. If this is true, then we have very little to do with the process of justification, but as Christians, we do help each other to become sanctified in Christ. What puzzles me is that I have not heard anyone explain the church’s role that way. I don’t a lot of deep thinking in this conclusion. [sic]

A:    Oh dear, there isn’t actually a question there, is there? Even so, I think we can discern what Citizen Tom is getting at, so let’s jump in:

Much of the Bible indicates that whether we go to Heaven or Hell is foreordained. At the same time, we are called upon to spread the Gospel, and that is confusing.

The idea of our eternal future being foreordained comes essentially from the “Doctrine of Selection and Predestination” which has its origins in the teachings of John Calvin, who lived in the 16th century. This teaching is based primarily on Paul’s writings in the letter to the Romans. The doctrine as it is taught in some circles today holds that God decided who would receive grace and who would not receive grace before He had even laid down the foundations of the Earth. You have identified one of the main arguments against this interpretation. You see, for Jesus to command us to make disciples of all Nations, knowing full well that most of those people had already been condemned to Hell before they were even born, would be ridiculous. The truth is, that God chose all of us, but gave us free will. If we choose to accept grace, we are saved, if we choose to reject grace, we condemn ourselves.

I have reached the conclusion that I can share the Gospel with someone, but when and if the Word of God takes root in anyone who hears it is up to God.

There is a false premise that has colored the discussion of Selection and Predestination for centuries, and we should probably deal with it now. It goes like this:

1) God is all knowing, all present and all powerful.  2) God’s greatest strength is His unlimited exercise of His unlimited power. 3) Therefore, God is sovereign in all things.

This is Western thought; all the rage in the 16th century, but not at all the way the men who took pen in hand to record the Scriptures thought, for their orientation was not ancient Greek, it was ancient Hebrew. To the ancient Hebrew, God’s most notable attribute was not His unlimited power; it was His restraint. God does not make our decisions for us because He created us with free will: We ultimately decide whether it will be heaven or hell. Through the Bible, God has dealt with His people within the framework of Covenants which, of necessity, restrict His freedom of action to a certain degree, according to the terms of the Covenant. Finally, consider Adam and Eve: They had everything going for them, and yet they chose to violate the one stipulation they had from God, they sinned against Him and He neither stopped them nor smote them and started over; He adapted and went on to Plan B, we might say.

Therefore, I think the primary role of the church is fellowship in Jesus. That is, we spread the Word, disciple new believers, and we help each other to study the Bible and live in accordance with Biblical teachings. If this is true, then we have very little to do with the process of justification, but as Christians, we do help each other to become sanctified in Christ.

Amen, well said!

We might choose slightly different words to describe it, but that’s the way I teach about the Church and its purpose, and there are lots of us out there who are teaching it this way.

I hope I have covered your questions and concerns in a satisfactory degree, and I hope that others may benefit from the discussion.  If anyone has questions or comments, please feel free to chime in below!

I have followed Citizen Tom for many years now and his blog is always interesting, you might want to check it out!

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Threats to Your Happiness

Posted on February 6, 2026 by Don Merritt

Proverbs 6:1-19

The ninth discourse consists of a series of four warnings that, when taken in the overall context, amount to problems that can rob a person of marital happiness, since both the eighth and tenth discourses deal with adultery.

Verses 1-5 deal with a person who has placed himself in a position of being a guarantor for the debts of another person. For most of us, the most familiar modern equivalent to this would be to cosign for someone’s loan which would result in you becoming liable for repayment of the other person’s debt, in the event of a default. You wouldn’t necessarily know there’s a problem until you received the demand notice from the lender. The teacher advises that the person who has done this should not rest until they have been released from this obligation, taking whatever means they can to ensure they are freed from its trap.

Laziness is the next thing the teacher warns about in 6-11. Here he enjoins everyone to be industrious and active in providing for the material needs of their families and setting something aside for a “rainy day” so to speak. Imagine living in an agrarian society in which wealth was achieved by producing food. Your first goal would be to produce enough to feed your family. Your second goal would be to produce enough extra to exchange with others for additional supplies that your family might need that you cannot grow or make yourself, and only then can you have enough to sell so that you can have savings for hard times. In such circumstances, there isn’t much leisure time; thus the warning.

In 12-15 the teacher warns against stirring up trouble within the community. There is no coincidence that this follows the warning about laziness, for this is the kind of person who ends up being the one described in these verses; a troublemaker. This is the person who has a foul mouth, a toxic attitude, someone who would rather scheme and plot than do an honest day’s work. This reminds me of the classic villain in an old Western; the guy who is more interested in cheating someone than earning a living, the guy who always gets killed at the end of the movie.

The last small section really needs no elaboration from me. Seven woes that should be our guides through life:

There are six things the Lord hates,
    seven that are detestable to him:
       haughty eyes,
        a lying tongue,
        hands that shed innocent blood,
       a heart that devises wicked schemes,
        feet that are quick to rush into evil,
       a false witness who pours out lies
        and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Proverbs 6:16-19

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Questions from a reader

Posted on February 5, 2026 by Don Merritt

The other day, Citizen Tom left a couple of very interesting questions in the comments section, and I thought I’d share the questions and my attempt at answers with everyone because these are not only interesting but asked by a great many people. So, I’ll tackle the first one today, and the second tomorrow.

Q:           Couple of questions. I have tried to resolve these two issues on my own, but there seems to be a lot of division. And the answers I have heard don’t seem satisfactory.

What happens to people who have never even heard of Jesus? Since the New Testament provides a list of Old Testament heroes and Paul writes in Romans that Gentiles have the law written on their hearts, I presume that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to those ignorant of Jesus is the law written upon our hearts and the conscience that pleads with all of us to do what is right. That make sense?

A:           Yes, I think it makes sense, and you might very well be right, although many would want to argue. Yet I am not one of those people, and I’ll tell you why. Remember, the question is: What happens to people who have never even heard of Jesus? I come from a Theological background that teaches that “Where the Bible speaks, we speak, and where the Bible is silent, we are silent.” The Bible doesn’t speak to this question specifically; therefore, I don’t know the answer for certain, which creates a dilemma.

This dilemma has brought about so much confusion for people and so much division, but we aren’t going to fall into that trap. Let’s avoid the trap by recognizing that we are now dealing with something called “Hermeneutics,” or “the study of interpretation.” There are many different methods of interpretation, and you might recognize some of them, for example, there is the Hierarchical Method which holds that only recognized experts or professionals can interpret. There is the Literal Method which holds that everything in the Scriptures must be understood literally and chronologically. I normally use the Historical-Critical Method which I’ll talk about shortly, for now, understand there are several others as well, and each has it advantages and disadvantages, and… they are not only used to interpret Scripture, they also can be used for other things.

As I approach the this or any other Bible question, I need to see what the Bible says on the topic; usually, this starts with word searches. When I have a list of texts that may provide answers, I must ask these questions for each of those texts: 1) who wrote it 2) when it was written 3) to whom was it written  4) what the purpose for was writing it  5) which covenant was it written under. Once we have those answers, we can usually rule some out of our inquiry.  The remaining texts still need to be examined some more for context: section context and passage context, before we use them to reach a conclusion. Here’s an example that went wrong for a group of church ladies years ago:

When I was a fairly new member of a church leadership team, they came to me with a list of people who should be kicked out of our congregation if they didn’t stop smoking cigarettes.  I asked if they had guidance from Scripture for their complaint and was told that smoking is sin because the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So, I asked them what the context was for that teaching, and they didn’t know. They were a tad surprised when I told them that Paul was talking about sex with a prostitute in that passage, not smoking; smoking is dumb, not a sin. This is the Historical-Critical Method in a nutshell.

The next step is this: Scriptural guidance comes in at least one of these: Direct command of God, an approved (by God) Apostolic command, or by a necessary inference.  Mind you, there is a huge difference between a necessary inference and a possible inference. In today’s question, we have none of these. When we do not have any of these three criteria, then we may have an opinion, but that opinion is not a doctrinal fact or teaching, and that is the substance of “where the Bible speaks, we speak, and where the Bible is silent, we’re silent.”

Citizen Tom offered his solution to the dilemma above, and it makes sense to me, even though I might probably offer a different solution: We can disagree without rancor on questions like this one.

As for my view, it is simple, maybe simplistic: Our God is merciful and just. He is not looking to condemn people on technicalities; He is a loving God. He knows our deeds and He knows our thoughts and motivations- and He knows whether we have rejected His Son or if we have never had the opportunity to receive His offer of salvation. I am happy to leave the question up to Him and I’m quite confident He will do what is right as He always does what is right. This is my possible inference.

Thanks again to Citizen Tom for the question, there is one other that he asked, and it’s a doctrinal doozy that you won’t want to miss right here tomorrow, see you then!

I have followed Citizen Tom for many years now and his blog is always interesting, you might want to check it out!

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Warning Against Adultery

Posted on February 5, 2026 by Don Merritt

Proverbs 5

In this, the eighth wisdom discourse, the teacher warns his students against adultery. It continues to be written as a teacher to his male students, using an adulterous female as the protagonist, but the principles certainly would apply if the genders were reversed or rendered neutral in the modern fashion. There are four subsections in this discourse, each of which covers a slightly different aspect of the issue, the first of which is comprised of verses 1-6.

These verses give a general description of the temptation, in this case of a woman who is eager to stray. Notice that she is described as being seductive and smooth in her speech, no doubt full of compliments and innuendo, appealing to the ego of her prey, his need for attention and enticing in its attentiveness. Yet the teacher goes to great lengths to tell his students that such a person will lead the unwary into disaster and death. Relationships are ruined; reputations are destroyed; the pleasures of the moment will lead to a life of despair.

The next subsection, in verses 7-14 tell more of the consequences of adultery, adding more detail to the story. The shame, the losses and the regrets, not to mention the possibility of disease; all are hinted at here. Clearly, the section ends with an older man looking back of the futility of a life wasted chasing after the allurements of the flesh wishing he had listened to the warnings of the wise brings the matter home for anyone with a brain.

…for the greatest wisdom we see here might just be in the way the warning is given.

The next subsection in verses 15-19 is rich with imagery. The “well” “Cistern” and “fountain” refer to the  wife’s sexually. Here, it is important for us to understand how precious a well, cistern or fountain would have been 3,000 years ago as sources of life-giving water in a parched land. “Drink water from your own cistern” and “running water from your own well” (v. 15) are references to sex within the marriage. Verse 16 refers to having multiple partners. The fountain being blessed in verse 17 is a reference to the children that will result from sex within marriage; both partners will be blessed through them. 18b-19 are telling the student that he should be crazy in love with his own wife, a contrast to the notion of seeking the comforts and charms of another man’s wife, and that would remain a great blessing for all concerned for a lifetime.

The last subsection, verses 20-23 remind the student that he shouldn’t be involved with another man’s wife because his actions are known to God, and unless my memory has failed me, there is a commandment about adultery. His adulterous actions will “ensnare” and “bind” a person in their sin; they will pay the consequences both in this life, and afterwards.

To my mind, this chapter provides a very interesting example of ancient Hebrew wisdom, one that modern day Christians need to pay attention to. Read it carefully and note that this is not the legalistic rantings of a self-appointed holier-than-thou kind of a person. Rather, it is careful logic that contains clearly reasoned thoughts about why adultery is not in a person’s best interest either now or later. Notice also that even though the commission of adultery is a violation of one of the Ten Commandments, the teacher didn’t start off by calling the would-be adulterer any names or saying that anyone is going to fry in Hell. The teacher acknowledged the real temptation of sexual immorality and reasoned out a case to show that it wasn’t worth the costs. You see dear reader, the wisdom of this section goes deeper than the lesson itself, for the greatest wisdom we see here might just be in the way the warning is given.

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