Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Luke
Book: Luke
Chapter: 18
Overview:
The
Parable of the importunate widow.
(1-8) The Pharisee and
the
Publican.
(9-14) Children brought to
Christ.
(15-17) The
ruler hindered
By his riches.
(18-30) Christ foretells his
Death.
(31-34) A
Blind Man restored to sight.
(35-43)
1-8 All
God's people are praying people. Here
Earnest
steadiness in
Prayer for spiritual mercies is taught. The
widow's earnestness prevailed even with the unjust
Judge: she
might fear lest it should set him more against her; but our
Earnest Prayer is pleasing to our
God. Even to the
End there
will still be ground for the same complaint of weakness of
Faith.
9-14 This
Parable was to convince some who trusted in
themselves that they were righteous, and despised others.
God
sees with what disposition and design we come to him in holy
ordinances. What the Pharisee said, shows that he trusted to
himself that he was righteous. We may suppose he was free from
gross and scandalous sins. All this was very
Well and
commendable. Miserable is the condition of those who come short
of the
Righteousness of this Pharisee, yet he was not accepted;
and why not? He went up to the
Temple to pray, but was full of
himself and his own
Goodness; the favour and
Grace of
God he did
not think worth asking. Let us beware of presenting proud
devotions to the
Lord, and of despising others. The
Publican's
address to
God was full of
Humility, and of
Repentance for
Sin,
and desire toward
God. His
Prayer was short, but to the purpose;
God be merciful to me a sinner. Blessed be
God, that we have
this short
Prayer upon record, as an answered
Prayer; and that
we are sure that he who prayed it, went to his
House justified;
for
So shall we be, if we pray it, as he did, through
Jesus
Christ. He owned himself a sinner
By nature,
By practice, guilty
before
God. He had
No dependence but upon the
Mercy of
God; upon
that alone he relied. And
God's
Glory is to resist the proud,
and give
Grace to the humble.
Justification is of
God in
Christ;
therefore the self-condemned, and not the self-righteous, are
justified before
God.
15-17 None are too little, too young, to be brought to
Christ,
who knows how to show kindness to those not capable of doing
service to him. It is the mind of
Christ, that little children
should be brought to him. The promise is to us, and to our seed;
therefore He will bid them welcome to him with us. And we must
receive his kingdom as children, not
By purchase, and must
Call
it our
Father's
Gift.
18-30 Many have a great
Deal in them very commendable, yet
perish for lack of some one thing;
So this ruler could not
Bear
Christ's terms, which would part between him and his estate.
Many who are loath to leave
Christ, yet do leave him. After a
long struggle between their convictions and their corruptions,
their corruptions carry the
Day. They are very sorry that they
cannot serve both; but if one must be quitted, it shall be their
God, not their worldly gain. Their boasted obedience will be
found mere outside show; the
Love of the world in some form or
other lies at the root. Men are apt to speak too much of what
they have left and lost, of what they have done and suffered for
Christ, as
Peter did. But we should rather be ashamed that there
has been any regret or difficulty in doing it.
31-34 The
Spirit of
Christ, in the Old
Testament prophets,
testified beforehand his sufferings, and the
Glory that should
follow, 1Pe 1:11. The disciples' prejudices were
So strong,
that they would not understand these things literally. They were
So intent upon the prophecies which spake of
Christ's
Glory,
that they overlooked those which spake of his sufferings. People
run into mistakes, because they read their Bibles
By halves, and
are only for the smooth things. We are as backward to learn the
proper lessons from the sufferings,
Crucifixion, and
Resurrection of Christ, as the disciples were to what he told
them as to those events; and for the same reason; self-
Love, and
a desire of worldly objects, close our understandings.
35-43 This
Poor Blind Man sat
By the wayside, begging. He was
not only
Blind, but
Poor, the fitter emblem of the world of
mankind which
Christ came to heal and save. The
Prayer of
Faith,
guided
By Christ's encouraging promises, and grounded
On them,
shall not be in vain. The
Grace of
Christ ought to be thankfully
acknowledged, to the
Glory of
God. It is for the
Glory of
God if
we follow
Jesus, as those will do whose eyes are opened. We must
praise
God for his mercies to others, as
Well as for mercies to
ourselves. Would we rightly understand these things, we must
come to
Christ, like the
Blind Man, earnestly beseeching him to
open our eyes, and to show us clearly the excellence of his
precepts, and the value of his
Salvation.