Daily Bible Reading 21st October 2026 // Luke 14:12-14
12 He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbours, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. 13 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
The principle referred to at the end of yesterday's Note involves the hidden and subtle tendency often shown in human relationships and attitudes, in which we may simply make use of people for our own selfish ends, often riding roughshod over them, sometimes very ruthlessly and callously, then tossing them contemptuously aside when these selfish ends have been accomplished. One has known people 'using' friendship with another in this way, to gain selfish ends - being not in the least interested in the friend for his or her own sake, but only for the advantage that friend and friendship can bring. We recall the deep hurt and pain a fine Christian girl felt when she discovered that a girl friend of hers, who had become very much a close confidante of hers had simply 'used' her in order to further an interest in a young man she was set on attracting to herself. One has sadly known of people 'using' a whole series of friends in this way for various ulterior purposes - personal ambition, emotional attachment, the furtherance of one's family's interests or careers - people with their 'eye on the main chance', and who would not hesitate to trample someone else's feelings if it meant gaining their end. Such people have no real interest in others: they simply 'use' them. They are dangerous, and, alas, their danger is often not discerned till the harm is done and others deeply hurt.
Thus penetratingly does Jesus expose the devious and subtle motives of the human heart!