Luke 5:31

31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

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Luke 5:31 in Other Translations

KJV

31 And Jesus answering said unto them,They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.

ESV

31 And Jesus answered them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

NLT

31 Jesus answered them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.

MSG

31 Jesus heard about it and spoke up, "Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick?

CSB

31 Jesus replied to them, "The healthy don't need a doctor, but the sick do.

Luke 5:31 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 5:31

And Jesus answering, said unto them
Knowing that they aimed at him; though, according to this evangelist, they only mentioned his disciples, however, he takes up the cause, and vindicates both himself and them, by observing to them the following proverb;

they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick:
suggesting hereby, that as such who are in good health, who are free from all diseases, wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores, stand in no need of the advice and assistance of a physician, or surgeon, but such who have either distempers or sores on their bodies; so they, the Scribes and Pharisees, who, in their own opinion, were free from the disease of sin, original and actual, and touching the righteousness of the law, were blameless, stood not in any need of him, the physician, who came to cure the maladies of the souls, as well as of the bodies of men; but such persons, who not only are sick with sin, but sick of it, who are sensible of it, and desire healing: and therefore this was the reason of his conduct, why he conversed with sinners, and not with the Scribes and Pharisees; his business, as a physician, lying among the one, and not the other; (See Gill on Matthew 9:12). (See Gill on Mark 2:17).

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Luke 5:31 In-Context

29 Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.

30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”

31 Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

33 They said to him, “John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.”