Luke 8:18
Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”
Have you ever tried to paddle upstream, or go against the current? It is difficult because for every couple of feet you make going upstream, the flow brings you back one.
In this verse, and the ones before it, Jesus was saying to His followers that they need to be diligent and pay attention - and use their understanding. If they did not, what they have would just go away, or be taken from them.
Often in school, we learn lessons that we are eventually tested on, and we might even do well on the examinations. But, after a few years, months, or even days, if we do not work to keep it, our knowledge on the subjects we studied disappears. It is as if we never knew what we knew!
This is what Jesus is saying to us here. Get knowledge, use knowledge, share knowledge, just don't neglect knowledge. Neglected knowledge goes away.
They say "Practice makes perfect," but really practice just keeps our skills from eroding -- a lot of practice can help them increase. An Olympic athlete, even on his worst day, is better at his event than the rest of us, but only because he works at maintaining the momentum he has built up -- he uses his skills -- he practices.
If he stopped working out? His muscles, skills and agility -- everything he has developed -- would deteriorate and go away.
A lamp is meant to shine -- an athlete is meant to perform -- knowledge is meant to be used.
Use what you have been given. Study God's Word to increase your knowledge. Once you have it, don't neglect it, and more will be given you.
To do otherwise is to have worked hard at paddling upstream toward your destination, only to slide back downstream -- to a point even further downstream than where you began!
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