17:1 Jesus is explaining something we all must understand: life is sometimes difficult. It's impossible to life life without challenge, but what we must also remember is to that will work with us through those challenges if we develop our relationship with Him. The closer we are to God, the more we understand the simple and courageous wisdom He teaches us. He teaches in many ways, by instructing us to be watchful and perceptive we learn to interpret the organizations, people and ideas around us. By instructing us to be hard working and kind we learn value and honesty, we're given purpose and motivation. So, although those challenges do come, do not let them pass without learning from them or gaining strength from them.
17:2 Someone who has offended a kind person, a faithful person or a meek person will have to face the consequences of their actions -- they have no chance of escaping retribution of shame for what they caused. The "little ones" in this verse refer to the people who are walked over, used, oppressed, abused as if they are little... but we know that God's kindhearted children are mighty and so is the love and power behind them.
17:3 Do not let anyone walk over you, if someone does wrong to you, it's your right and your job to make clear their transgressions against you. It's not vengeful to call somebody out on the truth. At the same time, when somebody hears what you say and genuinely is regretful, listen to them... let them try to repair what they've broken. It's important that we be perceptive, we have to be careful to distinguish truth from lies.
17:4 God wants you to understand the nature of His own forgiveness: as many times as someone comes to Him apologetic and ashamed of their mean/bad/evil-behavior is the same amount of times He listens to them and allows them to try to be better. This takes perception as well because: we cannot allow people to continue to hurt or cheat us in the same ways over, and over, and over again because that means they do not truly regret their actions. At the same time, we should be generous in allowing people the opportunity to make up for their mistakes... when they truly want to.
In God be strong and wise and perceptive -- use those gifts to also defend others who might not have the gifts you do. We should determine our value by the amount of people we love and support.
17:5-6 With and through your faith you will always accomplish what might have previously seemed impossible to you. When your heart is motivated and devoted to helping others, God is always going to support your intentions. You can change the world with your voice when your voice is speaking out for others -- we've seen it happen! ex. Martin Luther King Jr, Malala Yousafzai... throughout history people whose intentions were for the betterment of others have been heard by the world. This verse is a metaphor to explain that -- what you command to be done for others will be done, that simple.
17:7 This is a metaphor: God does not want us to do what is our duty (being a good human) only because we want reward for it. We should be good humans for no reason other than because we want to, because we're supposed to.
17:8-9 This person does his job... he's not overly celebrated for doing what he's supposed to do. This person is respected... but he's not a hero for doing his job. Likewise should we be in our lives: we're not heroes for being decent people... that's just doing what we're supposed to do! For example, feeding a hungry children is not something we do to get a trophy but because we want and are supposed to feed a starving child. The trophy should be irrelevant -- we should not even think about, we definitely should not desire it.
17:10 Be a good person without needing an incentive. Do not be a good person for your own reward... that's selfish. Be and do good because it's need to be done and because it is our duty as humanity to protect each other.
17:11-12 In these verses we learn about a flaw of humanity: many people are ungrateful when they receive what they've asked or prayed for. Some people only communicate with God when they are angry about something, sad about something, or wanting something. We need to be appreciative of God for all He does for us and for His constant presence in our lives. This works with people too -- always be appreciative to the people who devote their time and effort to you. Don't be ungrateful!
So, Jesus encounters 10 men who have this infectious disease and want to be healed.
17:13 The men asked Jesus to be healed -- they are desperate to be healed.
17:14 Jesus asks them to show the (corrupt) priests what the truth, fair God has done for them and they will be healed. Immediately they left -- they wanted to be healed so bad they darted off to get it accomplished.
17:15-16 One of the men returned immediately so that he could show his gratitude to Jesus and to God. His prayers were answered and he did not forget the entity responsible. He was so grateful, so in awe and in love with God, he couldn't possibly live his life forgetting about this blessing and Who is came from.
17:17-18 Only 1/10 returned to thank God. They accepted their blessing greedily and forgot about the entity who healed them. They got what they wanted and left. We don't want to be these kind of people in our lives. Always show your gratitude to God and people who help and love you. Be very conscious of when someone has done something for you -- and do not forget about God the minute you feel like you don't need Him anymore. He never abandons you... show Him the same love and respect.
17:19 Your faith will always make you well -- strong of mind and heart, clear headed, focused and loved by God. Your blessings will always remain with you... and will increase and thrive because you nourish your relationship with God... you grow as a person spiritually and in wisdom.
17:20 The Pharisees ask when the kingdom of God will come -- they are not asking out of curiosity, they are asking with as a snide remark. Jesus answers them and the way He answers allows us to understand the scope and the nature of God.
17:21 Jesus does not want us to be focused on the wrong thing: God's eternity is made up of the love we express, inspire and create as humanity. God is within us, the strength of all that He is is made up of the simple wisdom that is love. Don't look for a building, an organization, a man to represent God... because spiritual light and love is God and is within us. It exists in amazing ways.
17:22 Indeed the world has seen days, years and events that have had much of humanity calling out for God. It's a difficult, complex world and evil ideas have always pestered, ruined, oppressed the lives of others. Our time on Earth is a journey of what each individual will do with their freedom and there are unfortunate consequences of that -- but God is fair and He gifts us all freedom here to do what we want. He gives His love and direction to help those who suffer... but we must complete this journey.
17:23 Indeed the world has seen men and organizations come which claim to be holy and wise but instead are deceivers and corrupt. With our freedom, God wants us to be able to identify the true God and to deny those men and organizations which try to control but are selfish and greedy in nature.
17:24 Jesus explains that you should needed follow anyone who claims to be like a god or better than you in anyway because when Jesus returns to Earth with God... they won't need to say a word, the entire Earth will flash with their light. There will be no question, no convincing...
17:25 ... but before Jesus returns, He first had to complete His mission that we are ready about now. He certainly suffered many things and was (and still is) rejected in many ways. He came to Earth, created a beautiful message which would spread through time and space on the Earth and He gives us time to see what we do with it.
17:26 There is much we can learn from the Bible -- the Old Testament and the New Testament. The "end" days will be like the beginning with Noah...
17:27-30 Most of the world will continue through their everyday lives without any clue that Jesus' return is imminent. This verse goes a bit deeper metaphorically, people will be consorting with greed and recklessness and will be caught off guard as they do. Suddenly, because they were not vigilant, a change will come that they were completely unaware of.
Develop your relationship with God -- you'll always be informed and perceptive.
17:31-33 Material possessions do not matter, those who are concerned about keeping and using their means to run from God (either out of shame or evil) will not be able to. Metaphorically: you don't want to be caught away from your humanity and compassion. You don't want to rush, desperately to be a better person because you already wasted your life... you've already made the decisions and created who you are.
If a person lived to make their own lives better (and ruined others' lives in the process) they lose their eternal life. If you give your life, if you devote your life to helping and loving your fellow humans, you preserve your eternal life.
17:34-36 This is not a rapture theory. By learning from God's word, you know how important it is that His faithful children remain on Earth to help Him spread His word to help and love others. These verses mean that some people will be "taken" by Satan... this means that they followed what he stood for: vengeance, greed, power, lust. They were taken by their terrible decisions.
17:37 This is a reiteration of Matthew 24:28. Where are the people who are taken? They circle around the corrupt ideas they sold their souls to.
