Luke 11

1 And it came to pass, in his being in a certain place praying, as he ceased, a certain one of his disciples said unto him, `Sir, teach us to pray, as also John taught his disciples.'

2 And he said to them, `When ye may pray, say ye: Our Father who art in the heavens; hallowed be Thy name: Thy reign come; Thy will come to pass, as in heaven also on earth;

3 our appointed bread be giving us daily;

4 and forgive us our sins, for also we ourselves forgive every one indebted to us; and mayest Thou not bring us into temptation; but do Thou deliver us from the evil.'

5 And he said unto them, `Who of you shall have a friend, and shall go on unto him at midnight, and may say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves,

6 seeing a friend of mine came out of the way unto me, and I have not what I shall set before him,

7 and he from within answering may say, Do not give me trouble, already the door hath been shut, and my children with me are in the bed, I am not able, having risen, to give to thee.

8 `I say to you, even if he will not give to him, having risen, because of his being his friend, yet because of his importunity, having risen, he will give him as many as he doth need;

9 and I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you;

10 for every one who is asking doth receive; and he who is seeking doth find; and to him who is knocking it shall be opened.

11 `And of which of you -- the father -- if the son shall ask a loaf, a stone will he present to him? and if a fish, will he instead of a fish, a serpent present to him?

12 and if he may ask an egg, will he present to him a scorpion?

13 If, then, ye, being evil, have known good gifts to be giving to your children, how much more shall the Father who is from heaven give the Holy Spirit to those asking Him!'

14 And he was casting forth a demon, and it was dumb, and it came to pass, the demon having gone forth, the dumb man spake, and the multitudes wondered,

15 and certain of them said, `By Beelzeboul, ruler of the demons, he doth cast forth the demons;'

16 and others, tempting, a sign out of heaven from him were asking.

17 And he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, `Every kingdom having been divided against itself is desolated; and house against house doth fall;

18 and if also the Adversary against himself was divided, how shall his kingdom be made to stand? for ye say, by Beelzeboul is my casting forth the demons.

19 `But if I by Beelzeboul cast forth the demons -- your sons, by whom do they cast forth? because of this your judges they shall be;

20 but if by the finger of God I cast forth the demons, then come unawares upon you did the reign of God.

21 `When the strong man armed may keep his hall, in peace are his goods;

22 but when the stronger than he, having come upon [him], may overcome him, his whole-armour he doth take away in which he had trusted, and his spoils he distributeth;

23 he who is not with me is against me, and he who is not gathering with me doth scatter.

24 `When the unclean spirit may go forth from the man it walketh through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding, it saith, I will turn back to my house whence I came forth;

25 and having come, it findeth [it] swept and adorned;

26 then doth it go, and take to it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and having entered, they dwell there, and the last of that man becometh worst than the first.'

27 And it came to pass, in his saying these things, a certain woman having lifted up the voice out of the multitude, said to him, `Happy the womb that carried thee, and the paps that thou didst suck!'

28 And he said, `Yea, rather, happy those hearing the word of God, and keeping [it]!'

29 And the multitudes crowding together upon him, he began to say, `This generation is evil, a sign it doth seek after, and a sign shall not be given to it, except the sign of Jonah the prophet,

30 for as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so also shall the Son of Man be to this generation.

31 `A queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and shall condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and lo, greater than Solomon here!

32 `Men of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they reformed at the proclamation of Jonah; and lo, greater than Jonah here!

33 `And no one having lighted a lamp, doth put [it] in a secret place, nor under the measure, but on the lamp-stand, that those coming in may behold the light.

34 `The lamp of the body is the eye, when then thine eye may be simple, thy whole body also is lightened; and when it may be evil, thy body also is darkened;

35 take heed, then, lest the light that [is] in thee be darkness;

36 if then thy whole body is lightened, not having any part darkened, the whole shall be lightened, as when the lamp by the brightness may give thee light.'

37 And in [his] speaking, a certain Pharisee was asking him that he might dine with him, and having gone in, he reclined (at meat),

38 and the Pharisee having seen, did wonder that he did not first baptize himself before the dinner.

39 And the Lord said unto him, `Now do ye, the Pharisees, the outside of the cup and of the plate make clean, but your inward part is full of rapine and wickedness;

40 unthinking! did not He who made the outside also the inside make?

41 But what ye have give ye [as] alms, and, lo, all things are clean to you.

42 `But wo to you, the Pharisees, because ye tithe the mint, and the rue, and every herb, and ye pass by the judgment, and the love of God; these things it behoveth to do, and those not to be neglecting.

43 `Wo to you, the Pharisees, because ye love the first seats in the synagogues, and the salutations in the market-places.

44 `Wo to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because ye are as the unseen tombs, and the men walking above have not known.'

45 And one of the lawyers answering, saith to him, `Teacher, these things saying, us also thou dost insult;'

46 and he said, `And to you, the lawyers, wo! because ye burden men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves with one of your fingers do not touch the burdens.

47 `Wo to you, because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

48 Then do ye testify, and are well pleased with the works of your fathers, because they indeed killed them, and ye do build their tombs;

49 because of this also the wisdom of God said: I will send to them prophets, and apostles, and some of them they shall kill and persecute,

50 that the blood of all the prophets, that is being poured forth from the foundation of the world, may be required from this generation;

51 from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, who perished between the altar and the house; yes, I say to you, It shall be required from this generation.

52 `Wo to you, the lawyers, because ye took away the key of the knowledge; yourselves ye did not enter; and those coming in, ye did hinder.'

53 And in his speaking these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began fearfully to urge and to press him to speak about many things,

54 laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.

Luke 11 Commentary

Chapter 11

The disciples taught to pray. (1-4) Christ encourages being earnest in prayer. (5-13) Christ casts out a devil, The blasphemy of the Pharisees. (14-26) True happiness. (27,28) Christ reproves the Jews. (29-36) He reproves the Pharisees. (37-54)

Verses 1-4 "Lord, teach us to pray," is a good prayer, and a very needful one, for Jesus Christ only can teach us, by his word and Spirit, how to pray. Lord, teach me what it is to pray; Lord, stir up and quicken me to the duty; Lord, direct me what to pray for; teach me what I should say. Christ taught them a prayer, much the same that he had given before in his sermon upon the mount. There are some differences in the words of the Lord's prayer in Matthew and in Luke, but they are of no moment. Let us in our requests, both for others and for ourselves, come to our heavenly Father, confiding in his power and goodness.

Verses 5-13 Christ encourages fervency and constancy in prayer. We must come for what we need, as a man does to his neighbour or friend, who is kind to him. We must come for bread; for that which is needful. If God does not answer our prayers speedily, yet he will in due time, if we continue to pray. Observe what to pray for; we must ask for the Holy Spirit, not only as necessary in order to our praying well, but as all spiritual blessings are included in that one. For by the influences of the Holy Spirit we are brought to know God and ourselves, to repent, believe in, and love Christ, and so are made comfortable in this world, and meet for happiness in the next. All these blessings our heavenly Father is more ready to bestow on every one that asks for them, than an indulgent parent is to give food to a hungry child. And this is the advantage of the prayer of faith, that it quiets and establishes the heart in God.

Verses 14-26 Christ's thus casting out the devils, was really the destroying of their power. The heart of every unconverted sinner is the devil's palace, where he dwells, and where he rules. There is a kind of peace in the heart of an unconverted soul, while the devil, as a strong man armed, keeps it. The sinner is secure, has no doubt concerning the goodness of his state, nor any dread of the judgment to come. But observe the wonderful change made in conversion. The conversion of a soul to God, is Christ's victory over the devil and his power in that soul, restoring the soul to its liberty, and recovering his own interest in it and power over it. All the endowments of mind of body are now employed for Christ. Here is the condition of a hypocrite. The house is swept from common sins, by a forced confession, as Pharaoh's; by a feigned contrition, as Ahab's; or by a partial reformation, as Herod's. The house is swept, but it is not washed; the heart is not made holy. Sweeping takes off only the loose dirt, while the sin that besets the sinner, the beloved sin, is untouched. The house is garnished with common gifts and graces. It is not furnished with any true grace; it is all paint and varnish, not real nor lasting. It was never given up to Christ, nor dwelt in by the Spirit. Let us take heed of resting in that which a man may have, and yet come short of heaven. The wicked spirits enter in without any difficulty; they are welcomed, and they dwell there; there they work, there they rule. From such an awful state let all earnestly pray to be delivered.

Verses 27-28 While the scribes and Pharisees despised and blasphemed the discourses of our Lord Jesus, this good woman admired them, and the wisdom and power with which he spake. Christ led the woman to a higher consideration. Though it is a great privilege to hear the word of God, yet those only are truly blessed, that is, blessed of the Lord, that hear it, keep it in memory, and keep to it as their way and rule.

Verses 29-36 Christ promised that there should be one sign more given, even the sign of Jonah the prophet; which in Matthew is explained, as meaning the resurrection of Christ; and he warned them to improve this sign. But though Christ himself were the constant preacher in any congregation, and worked miracles daily among them, yet unless his grace humbled their hearts, they would not profit by his word. Let us not desire more evidence and fuller teaching than the Lord is pleased to afford us. We should pray without ceasing that our hearts and understandings may be opened, that we may profit by the light we enjoy. And especially take heed that the light which is in us be not darkness; for if our leading principles be wrong, our judgment and practice must become more so.

Verses 37-54 We should all look to our hearts, that they may be cleansed and new-created; and while we attend to the great things of the law and of the gospel, we must not neglect the smallest matter God has appointed. When any wait to catch something out of our mouths, that they may insnare us, O Lord, give us thy prudence and thy patience, and disappoint their evil purposes. Furnish us with such meekness and patience that we may glory in reproaches, for Christ's sake, and that thy Holy Spirit may rest upon us.