Luke Chapter 11

From The Open Bible Project

11:1 It happened, that when he finished praying in a certain place, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples."

11:2 He said to them, "When you pray, say, 'Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come. May your will be done on Earth, as it is in heaven.

• (1) A form of true prayer.

11:3 Give us day by day our daily bread.

• (a) That is, as much as is needed for us this day, by which we are not prevented from having an honest care for the maintenance of our lives; but that complaining care, which kills a number of men, is cut off and restrained.

11:4 Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'"

11:5 He said to them, "Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight, and tell him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,

• (2) We must pray with faith.

11:6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him,'

11:7 and he from within will answer and say, 'Don't bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give it to you'?

11:8 I tell you, although he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs.

• (b) Literally, "impudence": but that impudency which is spoken of here is not to be found fault with, but is very commendable before God, for he is well pleased by such importunity.

11:9 "I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.

11:10 For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.

11:11 "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won't give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

11:12 Or if he asks for an egg, he won't give him a scorpion, will he?

11:13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"

11:14 He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. It happened, when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke; and the multitudes marveled.

11:15 But some of them said, "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons."

• (3) An example of horrible blindness, and such as cannot be healed, when the power of God is blasphemed by an evil conscience and pretended malice.

11:16 Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven.

11:17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. A house divided against itself falls.

• (4) The true way to know the true Christ from the false is this, that the true Christ has no harmony or agreement with Satan: and once we know him it is left for us to acknowledge him.

11:18 If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.

• (c) By the name and power of Beelzebub.

11:19 But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore will they be your judges.

11:20 But if I by the finger of God cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come to you.

• (d) That is, by the power of God: so it says in See "Ex.

11:21 "When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe.

• (e) The word properly signifies an open and empty room in front of a house, and so in translation is taken for noblemen’s houses.

11:22 But when someone stronger attacks him and overcomes him, he takes from him his whole armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

11:23 "He that is not with me is against me. He who doesn't gather with me scatters.

• (5) Against indifferent men, and such as love to have a compromise, who seek means to reconcile Christ and Satan together.

11:24 The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, he says, 'I will turn back to my house from which I came out.'

• (6) He that does not continue, but is in a worse case, than he that never began.

11:25 When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order.

11:26 Then he goes, and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first."

11:27 It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!"

• (7) Christ does not seek praise for himself, but in our salvation.

11:28 But he said, "On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it."

11:29 When the multitudes were gathering together to him, he began to say, "This is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. No sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet.

11:30 For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will also the Son of Man be to this generation.

11:31 The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and will condemn them: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, one greater than Solomon is here.

11:32 The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, one greater than Jonah is here.

11:33 "No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, that those who come in may see the light.

• (9) Our minds are therefore lightened with the knowledge of God, that we should give light unto others, and therefore our main labour ought to be to pray for that light.

11:34 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness.

11:35 Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn't darkness.

11:36 If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light."

11:37 Now as he spoke, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in, and sat at the table.

• (10) The service of God consists not in outward cleanliness and planned rites or ceremonies, but in the spiritual righteousness of the heart and charity.

11:38 When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner.

11:39 The Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.

11:40 You foolish ones, didn't he who made the outside make the inside also?

11:41 But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.

• (f) That is, according to your ability: as one would say, instead of your extortion which hindered you so that you could not eat cleanly, use charity, and in accordance with your ability be good to the poor, and in this way will that which is within the platter be sanctified even though the platter is unwashed.

11:42 But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and the love of God. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

• (11) It is the characteristic of hypocrites to stand firmly for little trifles and to let greater matters pass.
• (g) You decide by God’s law that the tenth part is due to be paid.
• (h) Of all types of herbs, some as Augustine expounds it in his Enchiridion to Laurence, chap. 99, where he shows in like manner how that place of Paul, (God "will have all men to be saved"), (1 Timothy 2:4), is to be expounded after the same manner.
• (i) That is to say, that which is right and reasonable to do, for this word "judgment" contains the commandments of the second table, and the other words, "the love of God", contain the commandments of the first.

11:43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces.

• (12) Hypocrisy and ambition are commonly joined together.

11:44 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don't know it."

• (13) Hypocrites deceive men with an outward show.

11:45 One of the lawyers answered him, "Teacher, in saying this you insult us also."

• (14) Hypocrites are very severe against other men, but think that all things are lawful for themselves.

11:46 He said, "Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won't even lift one finger to help carry those burdens.

11:47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

• (15) Hypocrites honour those saints when they are dead whom they persecute most cruelly when they are alive.

11:48 So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs.

• (k) When you persecute God’s servants like mad men, even as your fathers did, though you try and cover it with a pretence of godliness, yet nonetheless, by beautifying the sepulchres of the prophets, what else are you doing but glorying in your father’s cruelty, and setting up monuments (as it were) in glory and triumph of it?

11:49 Therefore also the wisdom of God said, 'I will send to them prophets and apostles; and some of them they will kill and persecute,

• (l) They will so vex them and trouble them, that at length they will banish them.

11:50 that the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;

• (m) That you may be called to give an account for it, yea, and be punished for the shedding of that blood of the prophets.

• Jesus clearly teaches that the blood of the prophets will be avenged in His generation. -KC

11:51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.' Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation.

• Compare to Revelation 6:9-11; 10:6; 17:6; 18:20, 24; 19:2 This judgment happened in AD 70. -KC

11:52 Woe to you lawyers! For you took away the key of knowledge. You didn't enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in, you hindered."

• (16) Those who ought to be the door keepers of the Church have for a long time mainly hindered the people from entering into the knowledge of God.
• (n) You have hidden and taken away, so that it cannot be found anywhere.

11:53 As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be terribly angry, and to draw many things out of him;

• (17) The more the world is reprehended, the worse it is, and yet we must not betray the truth.
• (o) They proposed many questions to him, to draw something out of his mouth which they might traitorously find fault with.

11:54 lying in wait for him, and seeking to catch him in something he might say, that they might accuse him.