Luke 17

Instructions

1 He said to His disciples, "¹It is inevitable * that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come!

2 "²It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he would cause one of these little ones to stumble.

3 "Be on your guard! ³If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

4 "And if he sins against you ⁴seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, 'I repent,' forgive him."

5 ⁵The apostles said to ⁶the Lord, "Increase our faith!"

6 And ⁷the Lord said, "If you had faith like ⁸a mustard seed, you would say to this ⁹mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea '; and it would obey you.

7 "Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come immediately and sit down to eat'?

8 "But will he not say to him, '¹⁰Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward * you may eat and drink '?

9 "He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?

10 "So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.' "

Ten Lepers Cleansed

11 While He was ¹¹on the way to Jerusalem, ¹²He was passing between * Samaria and Galilee.

12 As He entered a village, ten leprous men who ¹³stood at a distance met Him;

13 and they raised their voices, saying, "Jesus, ¹⁴Master, have mercy on us!"

14 When He saw them, He said to them, "¹⁵Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they were going, they were cleansed.

15 Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, ¹⁶glorifying God with a loud voice,

16 and he fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him. And he was a ¹⁷Samaritan.

17 Then Jesus answered and said, "Were there not ten cleansed? But the nine -where are they?

18 "Was no one found who returned to ¹⁸give glory to God, except this foreigner?"

19 And He said to him, "Stand up and go; ¹⁹your faith has made you well."

20 Now having been questioned by the Pharisees ²⁰as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God is not coming with ²¹signs to be observed;

21 nor will ²²they say, 'Look, here it is!' or, 'There it is!' For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst."

Second Coming Foretold

22 And He said to the disciples, "²³The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.

23 "²⁴They will say to you, 'Look there! Look here!' Do not go away, and do not run after them.

24 "²⁵For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.

25 "²⁶But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.

26 "²⁷And just as it happened ²⁸in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:

27 they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

28 "It was the same as happened in ²⁹the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building;

29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

30 "It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man ³⁰is revealed.

31 "On that day, the one who is ³¹on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back *.

32 "³²Remember Lot's wife.

33 "³³Whoever * seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever * loses his life will preserve it.

34 "I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left.

35 "³⁴There will be two women grinding at the same place; one will be taken and the other will be left.

36 [ "³⁵Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left."]

37 And answering they said to Him, "Where, Lord?" And He said to them, "³⁶Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered."

Luke 17 Commentary

Chapter 17

To avoid offences, To pray for increase of faith, Humility taught.11-19. Ten lepers cleansed. (1-10) Christ's kingdom. (20-37)

Verses 1-10 It is no abatement of their guilt by whom an offence comes, nor will it lessen their punishment that offences will come. Faith in God's pardoning mercy, will enable us to get over the greatest difficulties in the way of forgiving our brethren. As with God nothing is impossible, so all things are possible to him that can believe. Our Lord showed his disciples their need of deep humility. The Lord has such a property in every creature, as no man can have in another; he cannot be in debt to them for their services, nor do they deserve any return from him.

Verses 11-19 A sense of our spiritual leprosy should make us very humble whenever we draw near to Christ. It is enough to refer ourselves to the compassions of Christ, for they fail not. We may look for God to meet us with mercy, when we are found in the way of obedience. Only one of those who were healed returned to give thanks. It becomes us, like him, to be very humble in thanksgivings, as well as in prayers. Christ noticed the one who thus distinguished himself, he was a Samaritan. The others only got the outward cure, he alone got the spiritual blessing.

Verses 20-37 The kingdom of God was among the Jews, or rather within some of them. It was a spiritual kingdom, set up in the heart by the power of Divine grace. Observe how it had been with sinners formerly, and in what state the judgments of God, which they had been warned of, found them. Here is shown what a dreadful surprise this destruction will be to the secure and sensual. Thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. When Christ came to destroy the Jewish nation by the Roman armies, that nation was found in such a state of false security as is here spoken of. In like manner, when Jesus Christ shall come to judge the world, sinners will be found altogether regardless; for in like manner the sinners of every age go on securely in their evil ways, and remember not their latter end. But wherever the wicked are, who are marked for eternal ruin, they shall be found by the judgments of God.

Cross References

• 1. Matthew 18:7; 1 Corinthians 11:19; 1 Timothy 4:1
• 2. Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42; 1 Corinthians 8:12
• 3. Matthew 18:15
• 4. Matthew 18:21
• 5. Mark 6:30
• 6. Luke 7:13
• 7. Luke 7:13
• 8. Matthew 13:31; Matthew 17:20; Mark 4:31; Luke 13:19
• 9. Luke 19:4
• 10. Luke 12:37
• 11. Luke 9:51
• 12. Luke 9:52f; John 4:3
• 13. Leviticus 13:45
• 14. Luke 5:5
• 15. Leviticus 14:1-32; Matthew 8:4; Luke 5:14
• 16. Matthew 9:8
• 17. Matthew 10:5
• 18. Matthew 9:8
• 19. Matthew 9:22; Luke 18:42
• 20. Luke 19:11; Acts 1:6
• 21. Luke 14:1
• 22. Luke 17:23
• 23. Matthew 9:15; Mark 2:20; Luke 5:35
• 24. Matthew 24:23; Mark 13:21; Luke 21:8
• 25. Matthew 24:27
• 26. Matthew 16:21; Luke 9:22
• 27. Luke 17:26, 27: {Matthew 24:37-39}
• 28. Genesis 6:5-8; Genesis 7
• 29. Genesis 19
• 30. Matthew 16:27; 1 Corinthians 1:7; Colossians 3:4; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 4:13; 1 John 2:28
• 31. Matthew 24:17, 18; Mark 13:15; Luke 21:21
• 32. Genesis 19:26
• 33. Matthew 10:39
• 34. Matthew 24:41
• 35. Matthew 24:40
• 36. Matthew 24:28

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "temptations to sin"
• [b]. Lit "is"
• [c]. Lit "Take heed to yourselves"
• [d]. Lit "you shall forgive"
• [e]. Lit "have"
• [f]. Lit "have obeyed"
• [g]. Lit "recline"
• [h]. Lit "gird"
• [i]. Lit "after these things"
• [j]. Lit "will"
• [k]. Lit "through the middle of;" or "along the borders of"
• [l]. Lit "Were there not found those who"
• [m]. Lit "has saved you"
• [n]. Lit "observation"
• [o]. Or "within you"
• [p]. Lit "under heaven"
• [q]. Lit "under heaven"
• [r]. Lit "In the same way as"
• [s]. I.e. burning sulfur
• [t]. Lit "according to the same things"
• [u]. Or "soul"
• [v]. Early mss do not contain this v
• [w]. Or "eagles"