Daily Bible Reading 31st October 2026 // Luke 15:1-3

1 Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

3 So he told them this parable:

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There are some who would say that this is the greatest chapter in the whole Bible. Certainly that part of it known as the parable of the prodigal son has made a greater impression on men's minds than almost anything else Jesus ever taught. It is a wonderful chapter, full of rich and profound teaching. What we ought to do first is to look at it as a whole - for, we should note, Luke says in 3 that 'He spake this parable unto them' - that is, the three stories - the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son - all belong to it and constitute the one parable. To view the chapter this way will serve to obviate one very real misunderstanding of the third story, that of the prodigal. Is it true, for example, to say, as some do, that we have the whole gospel in this one story? For if so, the implication is that forgiveness from God is a possibility and a reality without the necessity of a cross and an atonement for sin, and that therefore the latter are additional accretions which simply serve to confuse the 'simple gospel' of Jesus. No; the message of the story of the prodigal is the freeness and fullness of God's grace; it says nothing as to the method of that grace. That is spoken of in the two stories that precede it: the shepherd seeking the lost sheep, the woman searching diligently for the lost coin. We shall continue our thinking about all this in tomorrow's Note.