Luke 17

1 Jesus told his disciples, "Situations that cause people to lose their faith are certain to arise. But how horrible it will be for the person who causes someone to lose his faith!

2 It would be best for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large stone hung around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to lose his faith.

3 So watch yourselves! "If a believer sins, correct him. If he changes the way he thinks and acts, forgive him.

4 Even if he wrongs you seven times in one day and comes back to you seven times and says that he is sorry, forgive him."

5 Then the apostles said to the Lord, "Give us more faith."

6 The Lord said, "If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Pull yourself up by the roots, and plant yourself in the sea!' and it would obey you.

7 "Suppose someone has a servant who is plowing fields or watching sheep. Does he tell his servant when he comes from the field, 'Have something to eat'?

8 No. Instead, he tells his servant, 'Get dinner ready for me! After you serve me my dinner, you can eat yours.'

9 He doesn't thank the servant for following orders.

10 That's the way it is with you. When you've done everything you're ordered to do, say, 'We're worthless servants. We've only done our duty.'"

11 Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee on his way to Jerusalem.

12 As he went into a village, ten men with a skin disease met him. They stood at a distance

13 and shouted, "Jesus, Teacher, have mercy on us!"

14 When he saw them, he told them, "Show yourselves to the priests." As they went, they were made clean.

15 When one of them saw that he was healed, he turned back and praised God in a loud voice.

16 He quickly bowed at Jesus' feet and thanked him. (The man was a Samaritan.)

17 Jesus asked, "Weren't ten men made clean? Where are the other nine?

18 Only this foreigner came back to praise God."

19 Jesus told the man, "Get up, and go home! Your faith has made you well."

20 The Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come. He answered them, "People can't observe the coming of the kingdom of God.

21 They can't say, 'Here it is!' or 'There it is!' You see, the kingdom of God is within you."

22 Jesus said to his disciples, "The time will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

23 People will say, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Don't run after those people.

24 The day of the Son of Man will be like lightning that flashes from one end of the sky to the other.

25 But first he must suffer a lot and be rejected by the people of his day.

26 "When the Son of Man comes again, the situation will be like the time of Noah.

27 People were eating, drinking, and getting married until the day that Noah went into the ship. Then the flood destroyed all of them.

28 "The situation will also be like the time of Lot. People were eating, drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.

29 But on the day that Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from the sky and destroyed all of them.

30 The day when the Son of Man is revealed will be like that.

31 "On that day those who are on the roof shouldn't come down to get their belongings out of their houses. Those who are in the field shouldn't turn back.

32 Remember Lot's wife!

33 Those who try to save their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives will save them.

34 "I can guarantee that on that night if two people are in one bed, one will be taken and the other one will be left.

35 Two women will be grinding grain together. One will be taken, and the other one will be left."

36

37 They asked him, "Where, Lord?" Jesus told them, "Vultures will gather wherever there is a dead body."

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.