Bible Commentaries
Luke 11

Verses 1-10

25 A lawyer, or one versed in the law of Moses, especially in making it a burden for others than themselves ( Luk_11:46 ), would naturally be interested in the Lord's opinion as to what deeds would merit eonian life. From the standpoint of the law, this was very simple. Moses had written: "And keep My statutes, and My judgments: which a man should do, and live in them. I am Jehovah" ( Lev_18:5 ). Hence the Lord reminds him of the law he is supposed to understand. He correctly comprehends the whole law in the greatest commandment-love to

God-and its complement-love to man. The lawyer knew the law. All that he needed to do was to keep it! Could he keep the law he would never die. But the law was not given to impart life. It came to cause death. But the law had evidently done some of the work for which it was really intended, and he is conscious that his love to his associate is not up to its standard. Instead of acknowledging this and taking refuge in God's grace, he seeks to justify his failing by a quibble as to who is included in the term "associate", Such quibbling was the stock in trade of the expounders of the Jewish law. They were always seeking a loophole to escape its rigid requirements. To show him the futility of laws and ceremonies the Lord tells him the story of the good Samaritan. The Samaritans were cordially despised by the Jews, who would not be beholden to them at all ( Joh_4:9 ). The lawyer would never acknowledge such to be his associate! But the Lord Himself was despised and rejected, hence He enters the story as a hated Samaritan. The lawyer is the man who descended from Jerusalem to Jericho and is half dead. Jerusalem is the place of blessing and life. Such is his if he keeps the law. Jericho is the place of the curse. Such is his if he breaks the law, for "accursed is everyone who is not remaining in all things which have been written in the scroll of the law to do them" ( Deu_27:26 ; Gal_3:10 ). He is condemned even while he seeks to justify himself. He has hopes that the religious rites will help him. Yet these are dashed to the ground when a priest comes along, but keeps as far from him as he can. The law does not allow a priest to defile himself with the dead. It is not that he is hard hearted. His holy office brooks no defilement. The Levite likewise dare not be defiled with the dead. The lawyer will learn, when the law has had its full effect, that it cannot touch a man in his condition. These two men, like the law, came along casually, not to cure, but to condemn sin. But the Samaritan, that is, the Lord, was on a definite mission. The wounded man does not repel, but rather attracts Him, and draws out His compassion. He is not defiled and disabled by contact with death or sin. While the priest and Levite, with all their holiness, are helpless to manifest the love the law demands, the despised Samaritan, who would doubtless be hated by the helpless Jew under other circumstances, comes to his rescue and actually displays a love for his enemy which rises above the law's demands. So does the Lord seek to drive the lawyer from his own defective doing, even his own reluctant love, to the real source of life, eonian and abundant, found in His grace and love as the Good Samaritan.

38 In Mary and Martha we have a much needed contrast between service and study, and our Lord's estimate of each. Service has its place, and Martha could hardly have been excused if she had not supplied His simple wants. But then, as now, His slaves are tempted to overdo service to the neglect of the more necessary and vital acquaintance with God's will which alone fits for the highest forms of service and worship. Service without a clear knowledge of God's plans is often worse than wasted, but a heart acquaintance with His grace is the preliminary to such worship as most gratifies His heart. The one thing most needful today, as then, is a close acquaintance with His word gained by humbly sitting at His feet.

2 This, though usually called the Lord's prayer, is the disciples' prayer. Every part of it is in close accord with the kingdom ministry of our Lord and can be used intelligently only by those of the Circumcision who are anticipating the kingdom spoken of by the prophets. The prayers for us to follow in our petitions are found in Ephesians ( Eph_11:5-23 ; Eph_3:14-21 ). All here is from the standpoint of earth: all there is from the vantage of heaven. These disciples will be used to enforce His will on earth: we will rule among the celestials. Even in regard to our present life, few of us can conscientiously ask for a daily dole of bread, for we are usually provided with more than that. We surely cannot ask for pardon, for that is an admission of guilt, and we have been pronounced not guilty, or justified. By no means can we base a request for pardon on our own lenience toward others, for our acquittal is by undiluted grace. And the last petition is a definite reference to the great affliction, which will precede the coming of the kingdom, in which we will not be involved. It is only those unacquainted with the calling above, which is ours in Christ Jesus, who can conscientiously repeat this form. It cannot but cloud their apprehension of God's marvelous favor to the nations for the present secret economy to use a prayer every item of which is fitted for an entirely different administration. The custom of constantly repeating this prayer has done much to blind the minds of the saints to the great secrets which lie at the foundation of the truth for the present, and to confound justification with pardon. Those who are merely pardoned are on probation, and need continual renewals. Those who are justified are at rest concerning their sins and need not pray continually for that which they already have.

Verses 11-26

11 The secret of acceptable prayer today is conformity to the will and purpose of God at this present time. If we ask amiss, He is not so unkind as to grant our requests, neither can He change His purpose to suit the whims of His erring children. To pray intelligently we must understand what He is about, and fall in line with His plans. No amount of importunity will swerve Him from His course, or pleading of His promises to others divert Him from His present operations. He cannot follow the advice offered by those ignorant of His ways and unresponsive to the transcendent grace which He is lavishing upon them. Those who know Him never advise Him.

17 Few signs were so impressively suggestive of spiritual power as the casting out of demons. That they were the emissaries and subordinates of Satan is implied in our Lord's argument, and every one compelled to leave its victim was sign of the ejection of Satan himself when the kingdom is set up. Indeed, the most important factor in the millennial reign is the absence of Satan, who will be bound during the entire period ( Rev_20:1-3 ). From the primeval temptation in Eden up to that time, man's enmity to God is largely the result of wicked spiritual influences from without. Man is the pawn, played by Satan, in his efforts to overthrow God's sovereignty. To release mankind from this thralldom is the first essential to the establishment of a righteous government. Men's efforts are a dismal failure chiefly because they do not reckon with this unknown influence and could not cope with it even if they were aware of its presence. Satan's influence over mankind will culminate when he is cast down to earth and, as the seven-headed dragon, assumes the leadership of man's campaign against God at the time of the end. Then it is that Christ will descend and cut his career short by confining him for the thousand years. Every time He or His disciples cast out a demon it was a foretaste of that blessed kingdom. Only a stronger One than Satan could invade his realm and defeat his deputies. When they could not question the reality of His miracles, and must give some adequate cause, they became desperate, and committed the sin which could not be pardoned even in the coming eon. To attribute the work of God's spirit to Satan's power is the limit of iniquity.

24 Israel as a nation is here pictured as a man out of whom the unclean spirit of idolatry has been cast. Ever since the Babylonian captivity they have been held back from breaking the first commandment. But freedom from idolatry has not been followed by the worship of God.

The place once occupied by idols is empty. At the time of the end the unbelieving nation will be forced to worship the image of the wild beast, and their state will be far worse than their previous plight.

Verses 27-45

27 This is a delicate yet decisive thrust at the slightest tendency toward Mariolatry. Mary was indeed most blessed to be chosen to bear such a Son, but it was a physical relationship, such as He sustained in some slight degree to all who were descendants of Jacob. Happiness did not inhere in this. It springs from a spiritual source. Hence He ignores the remark as to Mary, and turns it so as to include His spiritual relatives.

29 These were hard sayings for the religious Jews. For such a saying His townsmen at Nazareth sought to kill Him ( Luk_4:24-30 ). They could not bear to hear of blessing coming to gentile curs while they are passed by. They did not see that privilege, in itself, does not bring happiness. It entails suffering if it be unheeded or spurned. He who is under the light of law will be judged by its illumination. Those in darkness will not be held responsible for a light they never had.

31 The resurrection of judgment is not altogether a matter of condemnation. The queen of Sheba will be commended for coming to hear Solomon. The repentance of the men of Nineveh will be recognized and rewarded.

31 Solomon, with all his wisdom, cannot compare with his greater Son. His reign closed under a cloud which caused the division of the kingdom. He did that which displeased Jehovah. But Christ's wisdom extended beyond His words to His ways. What He said and did were both in constant accord with the mind of God.

32 Jonah's conduct, both before and after his proclamation, shows how lacking he was in sympathy with his message and the One Who sent him. Jonah was exceedingly displeased and very angry when he found that God was gracious and merciful and of great kindness, so that He actually did not fulfill His threats of doom. Jonah was angry again because a gourd was destroyed by a worm. He cared only for his own comfort, and, to him, the withering of the gourd which sheltered him was of more consequence than the destruction of the great city with its thousands of God's creatures. God's judgments are not vindictive but remedial. He does not desire to condemn but to save. Judgment is His strange work.

36 That light may become darkness seems, at first sight, incomprehensible. But this was the case with the worst of our Lord's enemies, and is often true today. As an example, the truth that Christ should come from Bethlehem was a pure ray from the word of God. But His enemies turned it to dense darkness for themselves when they took it for granted that He had been born in Nazareth. What should have proven Him to be the Christ was made an argument to disprove it. In the same way today many a precious truth is supposed to deny another, equally precious, because they seem to be irreconcilable. If the scribes had made a careful inquiry, as they should have done, they would have known that, though the Lord was reared in Nazareth, He was born in Bethlehem. And if we seek for the facts accurately and carefully, the truth which we have will not eclipse some other truth. Let us labor that the light in us does not become darkness.

38 Compare Mat_7:1-8 .

38 Baptism is simply ceremonial washing. The merest dipping of the hands in water would suffice for luncheon. No such ceremony was commanded by the law. It was one of the precepts of men which they had added to His statutes. The Pharisees made much of externals and non-essentials so as to have the appearance of sanctity. But their fastidiousness did not extend to the vital realities of life. Alas! Is not this the condition of the great religious world today? There is form and ceremony, but vital power is not present.

39 Compare Mat_23:25-26 .

42 Compare Mat_23:23 .

42 "Judging" in this connection can only mean the correction of wrongs. There is no good

English equivalent for the Greek word krisis . By leaving the term uniformly "judging" we hope to rid it of the sense of condemnation and attach to it the neutral idea of executing justice to the deserving as well as the undeserving. Judging awards for good as well as punishes for evil.

43 Compare Mat_23:6-7 ; Mar_12:38-39 .

44 Compare Mat_23:27-28 .

45 English needs a special term to distinguish these teachers of the law of Moses from the legal profession. They seem to have been a special class taking upon themselves what really pertained to the priesthood. The failure or the priests seems to have led to the rise of "lawyers" to expound the law of Moses, and to determine its application in practical life. This gave them an advantage of which they were not slow to avail themselves. Whenever men are given a divine monopoly they abuse it. When the exposition or the scriptures is usurped by a special class they not only fail to unfold them but they effectively hinder others from discovering the truth for themselves.

Verses 46-54

46 Compare Mat_23:4 .

47 Compare Mat_23:29-36 .

51 Compare Gen_4:8 ; 2Ch_24:20-21 .

51 Men are to be judged by what they know as well as by what they do. To do that which you condemn in others convicts you of their crime as well as your own. Cain was a religious man; in fact he is the first to bring an offering to Jehovah ( Gen_4:3 ). But his works were evil ( 1Jn_3:12 ). The first murder was committed by an outwardly religious, but inwardly wicked man. It is rather remarkable that there were three different men, named Zacharias, murdered in the court of the temple. One was Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, who testified against them. And they conspired against him, and stoned him in the court of the house of the Lord. When he died he said ..Jehovah is seeing and inquiring:' which corresponds closely with "exacting", here used by our Lord ( 2Ch_24:20-22 ). As Chronicles is the end of the Hebrew canon, from Abel to this Zechariah would comprise all the religious murders or the book. But the Zacharias here may be the same as in Matthew, where he is called the son of Berechiah, that is, the author of the book of Zechariah ( Zec_1:1 ). He also testified of their evil ways. We have no other record of the manner of his death, but our Lord knew that he was slain where only a priest could have done the deed. From Abel to this Zechariah would stretch over their whole inspired history. Over thirty years later another Zacharias was foully slain in the outer temple (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, chapter 5). This was near the end of their stay in the land.

52 Compare Mat_23:13 .

54 Compare Mar_12:13 .

1 Compare Mat_16:6-12 ; Mar_8:15-21 .

1 Though hypocrisy, in all its forms, is most hateful to God, yet it seems most prevalent in the sphere of religion. The most potent preventive is the great truth here enunciated. Once we realize that pretense of any kind is but a temporary expedient which will react with fearful effect in the future it will make us slow to claim to be what we are not. We may be successful now in concealing our deeds of darkness from our fellows, but they are surely known to God and just as surely will be manifest to men. Happy is he who is not concerned with present appearances but so lives that his acts will be approved in the light!

2-5 Compare Mat_10:26-28 .

4 Gehenna, the valley of the son or Hinnom just below Jerusalem, is the place where the refuse and offal of the city was burned. In the kingdom the bodies of criminals will be cast into its flames. The distinction here drawn is between the believer, whose death, especially if endured for the Lord's sake, will make him eligible to a high place in the kingdom at the resurrection of the just, and the rebellious, who, even if they should be in the kingdom, will suffer its stern condemnation. The enemies of Christ can kill, and thousands will be slain as witnesses to the truth, yet their act has an effect exactly opposite to what they intend, for it enhances the felicity of the saints in the resurrection. Not so with those whom He executes. They forfeit the joys of the kingdom.

6 The infinitude of God's care in creation surpasses all human comprehension. There is no detail of our lives too small for His microscopic concern, nothing too trivial to touch His tender solicitude.

8-9 Compare Mat_10:32-33 .

10 Compare Mat_12:31-32 ; Mar_3:28-30 .

10 The unpardonable sin of Israel was not the crucifixion of Christ, but the subsequent rejection of the holy Spirit's testimony through His apostles. This has brought on their present dispersion for the eon.

11 Compare Mat_10:19-20 ; Mar_13:11 .

11 This has no reference to the preaching of the evangel today, but to the proclamation of the kingdom.

12 Compare Act_4:8 ; Act_7:2 ; Act_7:55 .