Question: Please explain, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.” 1 Corinthians 11:30.
Answer: These persons had failed to judge themselves—failed to discern the Lord’s body in the broken bread—they had eaten in an unworthy manner, though they were true Christians, and hence God, in His government of His house, had to chasten them by bodily sickness even unto death, in order that they might not be condemned with the world. No doubt others were called to learn and take warning from the discipline exercised upon those erring ones.
Question: Please tell us about the “Unjust Steward.” Luke 16:1-12.
Answer: As to the unjust steward, the moral is this—use the present with an eye to the future— “The Lord commends the unjust steward” not for his honesty surely, but because he had dealt wisely; and the wisdom consists simply in providing for the future. This is the point of the parable. The lesson it teaches us is to use this world’s riches—which are not what properly belong to us, as Christians—in the service of Christ—to do good—to distribute and communicate—to open our hands wide to every form of human need—to lay up in store a good foundation against the time to come (1 Tim. 6:17-19).
Question: Was Jephthah’s daughter really sacrificed—killed?
Answer: The margin in Judg. 11:31, reads “or” instead of “and.” Jephthah’s daughter was dedicated to God in being a virgin to her death. We do not believe she was offered up as a burnt offering. No human sacrifices were ever offered to God.