Illustrated New TestamentLuke 17

Unto him, &c.; that is, unto him who tempts or entices others to sin.

Offend one of these little ones; lead any one of the humble disciples of Christ away into sin.

Rebuke him; that is, state your complaint frankly to him; and not, as is usual, go to others, when he is absent, with your censures and reproaches.

Faith as a grain of mustard-seed; that is, a very small degree of faith.

Trow; think.

We have done that; we have done only that, &c.

Samaria lay between Galilee and Judea.

Stood afar off. Lepers were required to avoid communication with others on account of the contagiousness of their disease.

Show yourselves, &c.; for examination. The leper, when healed, was required to go to the priest, to have his cure officially ascertained.

With observation; with circumstances of pomp and ceremony.

Is within you. It is a spiritual kingdom, having its seat in the feelings and affections of the soul.

And thus the kingdom of Christ is a spiritual light, springing up in the minds of men, so that those who seek it need not look far away, but will see it at once within them and around them.

They did eat, they drank, &c.; that is, they lived at ease, and in fancied security.

Even thus shall it be; that is, the coming of the Son of man, by which is meant the establishment of the Redeemer's spiritual kingdom upon the earth, shall be attended with a period of great and sudden calamity to the Jews. The result corresponded with this and similar predictions. The great historical event which, perhaps, more than any other, attended and marked the early establishment of Christianity, was the destruction of Jerusalem, and the ruin of the Jewish state,—accompanied by circumstances of confusion and terror graphically exhibited by the images presented in the remaining verses of the chapter.

Stuff; furniture and goods.

The meaning is, that the most prudent and cautious will in some cases be lost, while others, exposed to the most imminent dangers, will be saved; in other words, that the confusion and destruction will be so terrible as to set all human calculations at defiance. Similar phraseology occurs in Matt. 10:39, but in a different connection, and different in sense.

The eagles; the birds of prey.