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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Luk_14:25 to Luk_17:10
1. The Address to the People (Luk_14:25-35)
Luk_14:26. If any man come to Me.—The coming to ( ðñüò ) Jesus is not the same as the coming after ( ὀðßóù ) Him, Mat_16:24. The latter presupposes that one is already His disciple, the other that one desires to become such. At the very first, it speaks for the Saviour’s deep knowledge of man, that the people who, in the literal sense of the word, are coming along behind Him, so that He must turn Himself around in order to address them, are treated by Him as people who have as yet by no means made the first decisive step to Him, but, in the most favorable case, are in the way now for the first time to take this step.
And hate not.—Comp. Mat_10:37. “The nearer He is to His end, the more decided and idea do His requirements show themselves to the people that are inconstantly and undecidedly accompanying Him.” The lax interpretation of ìéóåῖí = minus amare (Kuinoel, De Wette, and many others), dilutes unnecessarily the powerful sense of this declaration, and finds in Mat_6:24 no support; rather must we compare what is written, in Deu_33:9, of Levi. Not in and of itself is hatred anything antichristian, but only when it is in conflict with the commandment of supreme love, as the Lord, Luk_20:37-40; Joh_13:34-35, has given it. Even to the God of love hatred is ascribed, Rom_9:13; our Lord, who loves what is human in Peter, hates and rebukes what is Satanic in Simon Bar-Jonah, Mat_16:21-23, and we may even assert that he who is not capable of hating has never known love in its full power. This is the deep sense of the famous sentiment of tragedy: Va, je t’aimais trop, pour ne pas te haïr [Go, I loved thee too much not to hate thee now]. That the Saviour here means no hatred towards one’s nearest relatives in itself, needs no explanation, comp. Eph_5:29. He has only that in them in mind which intervenes irreconcilably between the heart and His kingdom, and defines plainly enough His meaning still more specifically by the concluding clause, ἔôé äὲ êáὶ ôὴí ἑáõôïῦ øõ÷Þí . All, therefore, which stands in relation with the sphere of the øõ÷Þ , instead of that of the ðíåῦìá , must be hated and given up. Leave must be taken thereof when it comes into conscious conflict with the requirements of the kingdom of heaven. Certain as it is that one may hold his kindred dear in Christ, and that faith does not dissolve family ties, but knits them closer, and sanctifies them, it is at the same time indubitable that not only at the time of our Saviour, but even now, circumstances may occur in which the union of the duties of faith and of merely natural love is impossible, in which, on the contrary, a conflict is absolutely inevitable. Comp. Mat_10:34-36.
Luk_14:27. And whosoever doth not bear his cross.—See remarks on Luk_9:23, and the parallel passages in Matthew and Mark. We scarcely need remind the reader that here it is by no means all suffering on earth, but exclusively suffering for Christ’s sake, that is spoken of.
Luk_14:28. Intending to build a tower, ðýñãïí .—We are not so particularly to understand a tower in the strict sense of the word, but rather a lofty palace, a sumptuous building, in short, a material erection which requires a more than ordinary development of resources. Here we have the image of seeking after the kingdom of God and of entrance into its discipleship, to which one cannot come without the most strenuous exertion and the most earnest consideration. In a graphic way the Lord sketches the project of the tower-builder. This one has, namely, in the first place, a great plan, which is steadily present to his mind ( èÝëùí ). He considers next, not only slightly, but at the fullest leisure, what is required for the carrying out of this plan ( êáèßóáò øçößæåé . Bengel. “Sedens dato sibi spatio ad faciendam summam rerum suarum”). Thirdly, he does not pass to the carrying out of the plan before he has on the ground of this calculation well persuaded himself that he has really ôὰ ðñὸò ἀðáñôéóìüí , that is, that which is necessary for completing it without and within. Thus does he escape scoffing, which does not befall him if he does not begin at all, but certainly will if he begins without consideration.
Luk_14:29. Lest perhaps.—As in the following parable it is especially the danger and ruinousness, so in this it is the folly and ridiculousness, of an inconsiderate project which is brought to view. We can scarcely avoid the thought that the recollection of the building of the Babylonian Tower, Gen_11:1-9, floated before the Saviour’s mind. While the decidedly Christian life constrains the world to involuntary respect, half Christianity provokes it to not unnatural scoffing. Not a little is the force of the representation heightened by this, that the Saviour represents the scoffers themselves as saying äåéêôéêῶò to one another, ïὗôïò ὁ ἄíèñùðïò , ê . ô . ë . In the third person the mockery is yet more delicate than if it were addressed, in the second person, directly to the imprudent tower-builder, comp. Mat_27:40-42.
Luk_14:31. Or what king.—Plainly the Saviour is concerned to impress on the hearts of His hearers the same thing again, although the representation this time is a somewhat different one. The words themselves are not hard to understand. Óõìâáëåῖí belongs together with åἰò ðüëåìïí ; the numbers ten thousand and twenty thousand are designedly chosen to denote a comparatively important, and yet entirely unequal, military power, and the ôὰ ðñὸòåἰñÞíçí = to the previous ôὰ åἰò ἀðáñôéóìüí , designates, not peace itself, but that which he must entreat from the too powerful enemy, in order to come into the enjoyment of a lasting peace. [It appears to me that the author has not brought out the point of the particular disproportion. Many a battle has been gained by a force only half as large as that of the enemy. Yet, unquestionably, the probabilities are very greatly against this. The numbers, therefore, appear to be chosen to indicate a disproportion so great as to make success improbable, but not so great as to make it impossible.—C. C. S.] As respects the subject itself, we may, perhaps, distinguish thus, that the building of the tower is the image of the internal, the war, that of the external, development of the Christian life. So far, Bengel is right in saying that the first image is taken designedly from a res privata, the other from a res publica. Entirely arbitrary is it, on the other hand, to see in the ten thousand soldiers an allusion to the Ten Commandments, and yet more forced to see in the king with twenty thousand a designation of God the Lord Himself (Stier, Lisco). How it can be said of God, in this connection, that He marches against any one to battle, while yet the ten thousand of His adversaries are to be the type of spiritual forces bestowed by Himself, we do not comprehend. The symmetry of the discourse requires imperatively that we should coördinate the thoughts; not to follow Jesus inconsiderately, not to begin the building of the tower without reckoning of the cost, and to beg for peace (that is, not to give up, but to postpone the strife). Comp. Lange, L. J. ii. p. 1041.
Luk_14:33. So likewise, whosoever he be.—According to De Wette, this application is not exact. It is, however, at once obvious that the consideration commanded by the Saviour, Luk_14:28-31, must necessarily lead to self-renunciation, and that the building of the tower remains unfinished, the strife undecided, precisely when one is disinclined in his heart to such a renunciation. Precisely because self-denial is required is earnest consideration absolutely unavoidable. (See the ãÜñ , Luk_14:28.)
Luk_14:34. Salt, therefore, is good.—“Nil sale et sole utilius.” Plin. H. Nat. xxxi. 9. According to the ïὖí (see the notes on the text) this sentence does not stand here independently, but is in some measure the application of the previous remarks, comp. Mat_5:13; Mar_9:50. “Adagium hoc sœpiuscule Christus usurpavit, ut et alia ejus sœculi.” Grotius. The saying would here be hardly congruous (De Wette) only in case it were addressed to the people in just the same sense now as formerly it was to the Apostles. This is, however, by no means necessary to be assumed; nothing hinders us from supposing that the sense of the declaration is modified by a look at the hearers. As the disciples were a purifying salt with reference to the unbelieving world, so was Israel (here represented in the people following) called to be such a salt for the heathen nations. The Saviour, by the pregnant concluding remark, will lead the throng following Him to deeper reflection as to whether, and how far, they have satisfied this high vocation, and show them that they, persevering in unbelieving and unfaithfulness, run the danger of being condemned as saltless salt, of being cast out upon the highways of the heathen world, and trodden down by unclean feet. On this interpretation the figurative mode of speech is applicable even to a mixed throng, and expresses thus the thought which, as is visible from the parable of the Great Supper, nay, from more than one expression in the foregoing chapter, hovered continually, just in these days, before the Saviour’s soul—the thought, namely, that Israel, in consequence of rejecting the Messiah, should itself be rejected. Such a warning was, more than any other, worth being crowned with the concluding admonition: “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Compare, moreover, the remarks on the parallel passages.
Luk_14:35. Not fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill.—By this addition the figurative expression of the salt in this connection acquires peculiar force. It belongs to the nature of salt that it can only be used for the purpose peculiar to it, and is good for nothing else. It is as little used for manure, as it is necessary to sow upon salt, Psa_107:34. The people of God, as well as each individual who fails of his original high destination, has, therefore, become not merely in a manner less usable, but wholly unusable. The end of the whole address, such a reminder must make the hearers sensible that it helps nothing, even if one originally might have had some ground to expect something of them, so far as they did not advance to victory in the strife begun, and to the completion of the tower already commenced. Whoever is like the inconsiderate builder, and resembles the presumptuous warrior, he deserves no better name than “Salt that has lost its savor.” Neither directly nor indirectly is he good for anything, who has failed of his high destination.
2. As this instruction has high significance for the beginning, so has it not less for the continuance and completion, of the Christian life. How many a one accounts all as accomplished when he finds a beginning of the new life, a pietistic awakening in his heart, and believes that therewith all is won. The Saviour gives such to consider that it is of the least possible value if one even comes to Him once, but does not go along steadily behind Him, and that a genuine disciple must be recognized at least by two traits of character: by not beginning before all is maturely weighed, and also, after such a beginning, by not ceasing before all is completely accomplished. Thus is the saying justified: “It is easier to throw away the life, than to live it Christianly.” Nitzsch. The beginning signifies nothing unless it leads to the end; a good ending is impossible without careful calculation and continually renewed exertion of all inward powers. Only then is the lofty destination of the Christian life, which is comprised in two words, “Building and Warring,” happily attained.
3. The scoffing of the world at so much that calls itself Christian loses much of its surprising character if we consider how much half-Christianity there is, showing itself in all manner of forms, and coming forward with the pretension of being already complete Christianity. So long as the City of God shows so many incomplete towers and heaps of ruins, it cannot possibly make upon its enemies the impression of an impregnable fortress. The world is fully justified in laughing aloud or in secret at so many who have indeed a desire to distinguish themselves from it, but show no power to vanquish it.
4. But what if, even after careful calculation of forces, it should appear that one is not in a condition to build a tower, not in a condition to overcome the enemy? To this question the parable gives no answer, and we should certainly completely misunderstand the Saviour, if we from His words should conclude that in this case it is better not to think at all of building or warring. The tower must be built; the strife must be striven; the kingdom of heaven must at any price and above all be sought. But when the severe requirement of self-denial and of conflict has brought the sinner to the consciousness of his own impotency, then the Gospel composes our distress by assuring us that all which the Lord requires He Himself can give, and that what is impossible with men is now as ever possible with God, Joh_1:17; Mat_19:26. This whole instruction, therefore, is admirably fitted to bring home to us the prayer of the old father: Da quod jubes, et jube quod vis.
5. Three times the Saviour warns His followers against the fate of the salt that has lost its savor, as He elsewhere speaks of the vine that is cut down and cast into the fire, Joh_15:6. To view such warnings as ideal threatenings, because they do not admit of being reconciled with the ecclesiastical dogma of the Perseverantia Sanctorum, is as arbitrary as to emphasize them at the cost of other declarations which appear to intimate exactly the opposite, e. g., Joh_10:28-30. It is obvious enough that the same subject in the Gospel is sometimes regarded from the theological, sometimes from the anthropological side; but that the warnings of the Saviour are quite as earnestly meant as His promises are true and faithful. It belongs to the hardest, but also to the noblest, problems of believing science, to investigate with continually greater profoundness the connection between freedom and the election of grace; to recognize with continually greater impartiality the connection of the Divine and the human factor in the work of salvation, and when the solution of every difficulty in this relation presents itself, perhaps, as impossible on this side the grave, to accord equally its due to the one truth on both sides, and to hope for the full explanation of the problem from the world where our knowledge shall no more be in part, 1Co_13:9. In no case can a difference of opinion in respect to this mystery justify a lasting separation of really believing Evangelical Christians.
6. What is true of every individual and of Israel, is still true also of the Church of the New Testament, which is planted in the midst of the unbelieving world, in order as a purifying salt to preserve it from destruction. If it fails of this destination, it is wholly unprofitable, and deserves, therefore, to be rejected: comp. Rev_2:5; Rev_3:3-16. This word of the Saviour gives, therefore, into our hands the key to the answer of the question why so many a candlestick, whose flame burned lower and lower, has been finally taken away from its place. In the denunciation of this judgment, love speaks; in the carrying out of it, the most inexorable severity reveals itself.
Starke:—Canstein:—Christ is not concerned about the great number of hearers, but about the honest heart.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Self-love is death, and the suicide of the old man is life.—Believing, doing, and suffering, admit of no separation in religion.—Brentius:—God is served with no great Babylonian tower.—Christians must at the commencement of all things ever look at the end.—There is no lack of scoffers at true religion, but let us look to it that we give not cause and occasion for scoffing, comp. 1Pe_3:16; Tit_2:7-8.—Satan and the world leave here no peace to true Christians.—It is not always true that a Christian must forsake his own for Jesus’ sake, but a heart prepared thereto is required of all, Act_21:13.—Whoever in and with Christ finds all, such a one can very easily for Christ’s sake lose all.—Canstein:—True Christians are profitable to themselves and the world, in words and works, Col_4:6, but hypocritical Christians are the most unprofitable men on earth, like spoiled salt.—Brentius:—That a backsliding or apostasy from Christianity may not be accounted a small thing, for this reason has the Lord Jesus added so strong and powerful an awakening voice: Oh that they were wise.
Zimmermann:—Weighty questions for every one that will enter into the kingdom of God: 1. What shouldst and wilt thou build? 2. against what hast thou to combat? 3. hast thou also means and energies for the carrying through of this strife?—The whole Pericope admirably adapted for a confirmation discourse. In the sphere of missions also advantageous for the answer of the question whether one can continue the building and conflict begun or not. The pro and contra admit of being weighed successively; the result of the consideration cannot be doubtful, but gives then new excitement to arouse to increased zeal.
Footnotes:
Luk_14:34.—On the authority of B., [Cod. Sin.,] L., X., &c., we receive ïὖí , with Tischendorf, [Tregelles (brackets it). Alford,] into the text.
Luk_14:34.—According to the testimony of B., D., [Cod. Sin.,] X., &c., êáß must be here inserted, by which the force of the language is not a little heightened. “If even the salt itself becomes insipid, which least of all might be expected to lose its taste,” &c. Êáß appears to have been omitted hero only because it is not found in Mat_5:13; Mar_9:50.