Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 18:8
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
8. he will avenge them ] Isa 63:4; Psa 9:12, “When He maketh inquisition for blood, He remembereth them, He forgetteth not the cry of the humble.” “Yet a little while,” Heb 10:37; 2Pe 3:8-9. The best comment on the Parable and our Lord’s explanation of it may be found in His own Discourses, John 14, 15.
speedily ] in reality (2Pe 3:8) though not in semblance.
shall he find faith on the earth? ] Rather, shall He find this faith on the earth? So St Peter tells of scoffers in the last days who shall say “Where is the promise of His coming?” 2Pe 3:3-4; and before that day “the love of many shall wax cold,” Mat 24:12 ; 2Th 2:3. Even the faith of God’s elect will in the last days be sorely tried (Mat 24:22).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Speedily – Suddenly, unexpectedly. He will surely vindicate them, and that at a time, perhaps, when they were nearly ready to give over and to sink into despair. This may refer to the deliverance of the disciples from their approaching trials and persecutions among the Jews; or, in general, to the fact that God will interpose and aid his people.
Nevertheless – But. Notwithstanding this. Though this is true that God will avenge his elect, yet will he find his elect faithful? The danger is not that God will be unfaithful – he will surely be true to his promises; but the danger is that his elect – his afflicted people – will be discouraged; will not persevere in prayer; will not continue to have confidence in him; and will, under heavy trials, sink into despondency. The sole meaning of this phrase, therefore, is, that there is more danger that his people would grow weary, than that God would be found unfaithful and fail to avenge his elect. For this cause Christ spoke the parable, and by the design of the parable this passage is to be interpreted.
Son of man cometh – This probably refers to the approaching destruction of Jerusalem – the coming of the Messiah, by his mighty power, to abolish the ancient dispensation and to set up the new.
Faith – The word faith is sometimes taken to denote the whole of religion, and it has been understood in this sense here; but there is a close connection in what Christ says, and it should be understood as referring to what he said before. The truth that he had been teaching was, that God would deliver his people from their calamities and save them, though he suffered them to be long tried. He asks them here whether, when he came, he should find this faith, or a belief of this truth, among his followers? Would they be found persevering in prayer, and believing that God would yet avenge them; or would they cease to pray always, and faint? This is not to be understood, therefore, as affirming that when Christ comes to judgment there will be few Christians on the earth, and that the world will be overrun with wickedness. That may be true, but it is not the truth taught here.
The earth – The land referring particularly to the land of Judea. The discussion had particular reference to their trials and persecutions in that land. This question implies that in those trials many professed disciples might faint and turn back, and many of his real followers almost lose sight of this great truth, and begin to inquire whether God would interpose to save them. The same question may be asked respecting any other remarkable visitation of the Son of God in affliction. When tried and persecuted, do we believe that God will avenge us? Do we pray always and not faint? Have we faith to believe that, though clouds and darkness are round about him, yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne? And when storms of persecution assail us, can we go to God and confidently commit our cause to him, and believe that he will bring forth our righteousness as the light, and our judgment as the noon-day?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. He will avenge them speedily.] Or, He will do them justice speedily – , instantly, in a trice.
1. Because he has promised it; and
2. Because he is inclined to do it.
When the Son of man cometh] To require the produce of the seed of the kingdom sown among this people.
Shall he find faith on the earth?] Or rather, Shall he find fidelity in this land? Shall he find that the soil has brought forth a harvest proportioned to the culture bestowed on it? No! And therefore he destroyed that land.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
8. speedilyas if pained atthe long delay, impatient for the destined moment to interpose.(Compare Pr 29:1.)
Nevertheless, c.thatis, Yet ere the Son of man comes to redress the wrongs of His Church,so low will the hope of relief sink, through the length of the delay,that one will be fain to ask, Will He find any faith of a comingavenger left on the earth? From this we learn: (1) That the primaryand historical reference of this parable is to the Church inits widowed, desolate, oppressed, defenseless condition duringthe present absence of her Lord in the heavens (2) That in thesecircumstances importunate, persevering prayer for deliverance is theChurch’s fitting exercise; (3) That notwithstanding everyencouragement to this, so long will the answer be delayed, while theneed of relief continues the same, and all hope of deliverance willhave nearly died out, and “faith” of Christ’s comingscarcely to be found. But the application of the parable to prayerin general is so obvious as to have nearly hidden its more directreference, and so precious that one cannot allow it to disappear inany public and historical interpretation.
Lu18:9-14. PARABLE OF THEPHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily,…. As he did in a few years after the death of Christ, when God’s elect among the Jews were singled out, and gathered in from them, and were delivered from their persecutors, and saved from temporal ruin and destruction, whilst the Roman army made sad havoc of their enemies; and so will he do in the end of the world.
Nevertheless, when the son of man cometh; either to destroy Jerusalem, or to judge the world:
shall he find faith on the earth? either in the land of Judea, the believers being removed from thence, and scattered among the Gentiles, and not a man, at least in Jerusalem, that had any faith in Jesus, as the Messiah; or in the world at the last day: there will then be little of the doctrine of faith, and less of the grace of faith, and still less of the exercise of faith, particularly in prayer, and especially about the coming of Christ; it will be little thought of, and expected, or faith little exercised about it. With this agree some expressions in the Jewish writings s:
“Says R. Jose, the holy, blessed God, will not be revealed to Israel, but in the time, , “that faith is not found among them.””
And elsewhere t, speaking of the times of the Messiah, and of a star that shall then appear, it is said
“when that star shall be seen in the world at that time mighty wars shall be stirred up in the world, on all the four sides, , “and faith will not be found” among them.”
They seem to regard the first coming of the Messiah: and which was true with respect to the majority of their nation; and the same holds good with regard to his second coming; in the apocrypha it says:
“Nevertheless as coming the tokens, behold, the days shall come, that they which dwell upon earth shall be taken in a great number, and the way of truth shall be hidden, and the land shall be barren of faith.” (2 Esdras 5:1)
s Zohar in Gen. fol. 118. 1. t Ib. in Num. fol. 86. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Howbeit (). It is not clear whether this sentence is also a question or a positive statement. There is no way to decide. Either will make sense though not quite the same sense. The use of before seems to indicate a question expecting a negative answer as in Acts 8:30; Rom 14:19. But here comes in the middle of the sentence instead of near the beginning, an unusual position for either inferential or interrogative . On the whole the interrogative is probably correct, meaning to question if the Son will find a persistence of faith like that of the widow.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Nevertheless. Notwithstanding God is certain to vindicate, will the Son of man find on earth a persistence in faith answering to the widow ‘s?
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.” ego humin hoti poiesei ten ekdikesin auton en tachei) “I tell you all that he will make the vindication of them (that they need) quickly,” without delay or deference, though the time may seem long to them, Heb 10:36-37; 2Pe 3:8-9.
2) “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh,” (plen ho huios tou anthropou elthon) “Nevertheless when the Son of man comes,” for He will, after awhile, Joh 14:1-3; Act 1:11.
3) “Shall he find faith on the earth?” (ara euresei ten postin epi tes ges) “will he then find the faith upon the earth?” at His second coming, Luk 21:25-28; Deu 30:3; Act 1:9-11, the system of faith which I commit to you all still on earth? and this kind of persevering prayer in faith, “praying always,” Luk 18:1; 1Th 5:17? It seems to be implied that he will find persevering prayer, faith observed by but a few, Mat 24:1; 1Ti 4:1.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
8. When the Son of man shall come. By these words Christ informs us that there will be no reason to wonder if men shall afterwards sink under their calamities: it will be because they neglect the true remedy. He intended to obviate an offense which we are daily apt to take, when we see all things in shameful confusion. Treachery, cruelty, imposture, deceit, and violence, abound on every hand; there is no regard to justice, and no shame; the poor groan under their oppressors; the innocent are abused or insulted; while God appears to be asleep in heaven. This is the reason why the flesh imagines that the government of fortune is blind. But Christ here reminds us that men are justly deprived of heavenly aid, on which they have neither knowledge nor inclination to place reliance. They who do nothing but murmur against the Lord in their hearts, and who allow no place for his providence, cannot reasonably expect that the Lord will assist them.
Shall he find faith on the earth? Christ expressly foretells that, from his ascension to heaven till his return, unbelievers will abound; meaning by these words that, if the Redeemer does not so speedily appear, the blame of the delay will attach to men, because there will be almost none to look for him. Would that we did not behold so manifest a fulfillment of this prediction! But experience proves that though the world is oppressed and overwhelmed by a huge mass of calamities, there are few indeed in whom the least spark of faith can be discerned. Others understand the word faith to denote uprightness, but the former meaning is more agreeable to the context.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith?The question implies, it is obvious, an answer in the negative. When St. Luke wrote his Gospel, men were witnessing a primary, though partial, fulfilment of the prophecy. Iniquity was abounding, and the love of many was waxing cold. And yet in one sense He was near, even at the doors (Jas. 5:8-9), when men thought that the wheels of His chariot drove slowly. So has it been, and so will it be, in the great days of the Lord in the Churchs history, which are preludes of the final Advent; so shall it be in that Advent itself.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Speedily Here is the grand contradiction reconciled in regard to the time of our Lord’s Second Coming.
He will bear with them long He will avenge them speedily. The time is both distant and near. It is distant to man’s eye; near to the view of Him who measures by the chronology of his own eternity.
When the Son of man cometh Our Lord here intimates that in a most solemn and important sense the faith of the Church will scarce hold out until his Second Coming. She will all but faint in her prayer and watchfulness before that day. This is clearly in unison with those texts which represent that it will be upon an apostate earth that the judgment throne of Christ will appear. 2Pe 3:4. See Rev 20:7. Even after the millennium, Satan is released from prison, and deceives again the nations who had before been under the reign of Christ with his saints. The judgment scenes occur immediately after the tribulation of those days. See on Mat 24:29. Notwithstanding, therefore, the certainty that Christ will in due time avenge his elect, the prayer of the Church may hardly last, and faith upon earth may scarce be found. This by no means proves that the number of the saved will be finally few. The elect, gathered during the millennium day, may be a multitude which no man can number, immensely surpassing the entire catalogue of the damned.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“I say to you, that he will avenge them speedily.”
This could mean that when it finally comes it will come with speed, it will occur suddenly, unexpectedly and without delay. And then all will be put right. And as He then makes clear, this refers to the Second Coming. Alternatively it could mean ‘soon’. But in that case it is to be seen as ‘soon’ from God’s perspective. Delay will occur no longer than is necessary. (See 2Pe 3:8-10).
In local situations deliverance may occur almost at once, and certainly after not too long a time, but overall it will occur in God’s time. Things will never get out of hand. The second part of the verse might be seen as favouring speed of fulfilment when the time comes. Once the time does come for God to act nothing will delay its accomplishment. It will be swift and sure. Thus He makes clear that all for which we pray should be prayed for, and seen, in the light of that Day. Our main thoughts in praying should therefore be set on things above, and on the fulfilment of His purposes, as in the Lord’s prayer. And as we pray we can then be absolutely confident that it will come about. But why then pray? It is not in order to change God’s mind about things. It is to be because we are cooperating with God in the family business, and because we are often applying the general to our local situation. It is in order that we might remember that God is in it with us, and so that we might recognise and acknowledge continually our dependence on Him.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
“Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
And then comes the challenge, the open question, that in one way or another regularly comes at the end of what Jesus has to say. And that question is as to whether when the end comes, and Jesus comes in His glory, He will find persevering faith on earth. Whether He will find persistent and continuing prayer. It is a challenge to His listeners. It is not said, however, in order to instil doubt, but in order to encourage persistence in prayer in the face of whatever comes on them. Elsewhere it is made perfectly plain that in the last days there will be faith on earth (e.g. 1Th 4:17-18; Rev 11:1-13). There will be many who, like the skin-diseased Samaritan who was healed, will persistently return to give glory and thanksgiving to God. And this will be so in spite of any tribulation that they might face. This is especially exemplified in the Book of Revelation where the most dreadful events are intermingled with the thought of the endurance of God’s true people.
Alternately ‘ten pistin’ (thus with the article) could signify ‘those who are trusting’, so placing more emphasis on the believing people rather than their faith, or it could signify ‘the faith’, indicating what had been taught and is believed.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 18:8. He will avenge them speedily. Rather suddenly; for so the original , may signify. Besides, scripture and experience teach, that in most cases punishment is not speedily executed against the evilworks of evil men; but that when the divine patience ends, oftentimes destruction overtaketh the wicked as a whirlwind; Psa 73:18-20 and by its suddenness becomes the more heavy. The question at the end of the verse implies, that at the coming of Christ to avenge and deliver his faithful people, the faith of his coming should in a great measure be lost; accordingly it appears, from 2Pe 3:4 that many infidels and apostates scoffed at the expectation of Christ’s coming, which the godly in those days cherished. Instead of on the earth, the Greek would be more properly rendered in the land; for so the word , very frequently signifies in the New Testament. See Act 7:3; Act 4:11. Some commentators read this and the foregoing verse thus; which cry day and night unto him? Though he may be slack towards them. Luk 18:8. I tell you, he will avenge them presently. But when, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Luk 18:8 . An answer to the two parts of the preceding question: (1) , and (2) .
This is the opposite of delay ( , Luk 18:7 ): quickly, without delay (Act 12:7 ; Act 22:18 ; Act 25:4 ; Rom 16:20 ; 1Ti 3:14 ; Rev 1:1 ; Rev 2:5 ; Rev 22:6 ; Wis 18:14 ; Pind. Nem . v. 35; Xen. Cyr . vi. 1. 12), declaring the speedy advent [224] of the Parousia (Luk 9:27 ), at which shall follow the .
. . . ] It is to be accentuated (so also Lachmann and Tischendorf); comp. on Gal 2:17 . In connection with the glad promise, to wit, which Jesus has just given in reference to the elect, there comes painfully into His consciousness the thought what a want of faith in Him He would nevertheless meet with at His Parousia . This He expresses in the sorrowful question: Nevertheless will the Son of man when He is come find faith on the earth? Theophylact well says: . The subject: . . and is, with a sorrowful emphasis, placed before the interrogative , on account of the contrast with what follows. See Klotz, ad Devar . p. 183. The is the faith in Jesus the Messiah , which many of His confessors not persevering unto the end will have given up, so that they do not belong to the elect (Mat 24:5 ; Mat 24:10 ff., Mat 24:24 ), and He will meet them as unbelievers. [225] Hence there is no reason for concluding from the passage before us (de Wette), that the putting of the parable into its present shape probably belongs to a time when the hope of the Parousia had begun somewhat to waver (2Pe 3:3 f.).
] is correlative with the coming down from heaven , which is meant by .
[224] It is in vain to weary oneself and twist about in the attempt to explain away this simple meaning of the words, as, for example, Ebrard does on Rev 1:1 , p. 104. There is only this to be said, that the final deliverance, how long soever it may appear to be delayed as to its beginning, shall still be so internally and potentially hastened that it shall be made an unexpectedly hasty ending to the condition of tribulation that precedes it. See, on the other hand, Dsterdieck.
[225] So many, as the Lord sees, shall be seduced into unbelief (as to the , comp. on Gal 1:4 ), that in grief thereat He puts the question generally , whether He shall find faith. Herein lies a sorrowful hyperbole of expression.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
Ver. 8. Shall he find faith upon earth? ] God often stays so long till the saints have done looking for him, when they have forgotten their prayers, and he comes, as it were, out of an engine.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8. ] will not bear the meaning ‘ swiftly ,’ i.e. ‘ suddenly, when it comes ,’ but (see reff.) is shortly soon, speedily, as E. V. And this is no inconsistency with : see 2Pe 3:8-9 .
] See the beginning of this note. This can hardly be, as Meyer interprets it, that the painful thought suddenly occurs to the Lord, how many there will be even at His coming who will not have received Him as the Messiah: for , though ‘faith’ generally, is yet here faith in reference to the object of the parable faith which has endured in prayer without fainting. Or the meaning may be general and objective; as in reff.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 18:8 . , quickly, quite compatible with delay; quickly when the hour comes = suddenly. , yet; in spite of the alleged speed, the time will seem so long that, etc. , so to be taken (not ), as bearing a major force of reasoning, and interrogative. The two words are one in essence, but has more emphasis in utterance, and therefore the first syllable is lengthened, and it stands at the beginning of a sentence, here before ; cf. Gal 2:17 . On the two particles vide Klotz in Dev. , p. 180. : not absolutely, but in reference to the second coming, hope deferred making the heart sick.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mark – Luke
THREE KINDS OF PRAYING
THE CREDULITY OF UNBELIEF
Mar 13:6
It was the same generation that is represented in these two texts as void of faith in the Son of Man, and as credulously giving heed to impostors. Unbelief and superstition are closely allied. Religion is so vital a necessity, that if the true form of it be cast aside, some false form will be eagerly seized in order to fill the aching void. Men cannot permanently live without some sort of a faith in the Unseen, but they can determine whether it shall be a worthy recognition of a worthy conception of that Unseen, or a debasing superstition. An epoch of materialism in philosophic thought has always been followed by violent reaction, in which quacks and fanatics have reaped rich harvests. If the dark is not peopled with one loved Face, our busy imagination will fill it with a crowd of horrible ones.
Just as a sailor, looking out into the night over a solitary, islandless sea, sees shapes; intolerant of the islandless expanse, makes land out of fogbanks; and, sick of silence, hears ‘airy tongues’ in the moanings of the wind and the slow roll of the waves, so men shudderingly look into the dark unknown, and if they see not their Father there, will either shut their eyes or strain them in gazing it into shape. The sight of Him is religion, the closed eye is infidelity, the strained gaze is superstition. The second and the third are each so unsatisfying that they perpetually pass over into one another and destroy one another, as when I shut my eyes, I see slowly shaping itself a coloured image of my eye, which soon flickers and fluctuates into black nothingness again, and then rises once more, once more to fade. Men, if they believe not in God, then do service to ‘them which by nature are no gods.’
But let us come to more immediately Christian thoughts. Christ does what men so urgently require to be done, that if they do not believe in Him they will be forced to shape out for themselves some fancied ways of doing it. The emotions which men cherish towards Him so irrepressibly need an object to rest on, that if not He, then some far less worthy one, will be chosen to receive them.
It is just to the illustration of these thoughts that I seek to turn now, and in such alternatives as these-
I. Reception of Christ as the Revealer is the only escape from unmanly submission to unworthy pretenders.
Christ comes to satisfy the need as the visible true embodiment of the Father’s love, of the Father’s wisdom.
If He be rejected-what then? Why, not that the men who reject will contentedly continue in darkness-that is never possible; but that some manner or other of satisfying the clamant need will be had recourse to, and then that to it will be transferred the submission and credence that should have been His. If we have Him for our Teacher and Guide, then all other teachers and guides will take their right places. We shall not angrily repel their power, nor talk loudly about ‘the right of private judgment,’ and our independence of all men’s thoughts. We are not so independent. We shall thankfully accept all help from all men wiser, better, more manly than ourselves, whether they give us uttered words of wisdom and beauty, having ‘grace poured into their lips,’ or whether they give us lives ennobled by strenuous effort, or whether they give us greater treasure than all these-the sight once more of a loving heart. All is good, all is helpful, all we shall receive; but in proportion to the felt obligations we are laid under to them will be the felt authority of that saying, ‘Call no man your master on earth, for One is your Master, even Christ.’ That command forbids our slavishly accepting any human domination over our faith, but it no less emphatically forbids our contemptuously rejecting any human helper of our joy, for it closes with ‘and all ye are brethren’-bound then to mutual observance, mutual helpfulness, mutual respect for each other’s individuality, mutual avoidance of needless division. To have Him for his Guide makes the human guide gentle and tender among his disciples ‘as a nurse among her children,’ for he remembers ‘the gentleness of Christ,’ and he dare not be other than an imitator of Him. A Christian teacher’s spirit will always be, ‘not for that we have dominion over your faith, but we are helpers of your joy’; his most earnest word, ‘I beseech you, therefore, brethren’; his constant desire, ‘He must increase. I must decrease.’ And to have Christ for our Guide makes the taught lovingly submissive to all who by largeness of gifts and graces are set by Him above them, and yet lovingly recalcitrant at any attempt to compel adhesion or force dogmas. The one freedom from undue dependence on men and men’s opinions lies in this submission to Jesus. Then we can say, when need is, ‘I have a Master. To Him I submit; if you seek to be master, I demur: of them who seemed to be somewhat, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me.’
But the greatest danger is not that our guides shall insist on our submission, but that we shall insist on giving it. It is for all of us such a burden to have the management of our own fate, the forming of our own opinions, the fearful responsibility of our own destiny, that we are all only too ready to say to some man or other, from love or from laziness, ‘Where thou goest, I will go; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.’
Few things are more strange and tragic than the eagerness with which people who are a great deal too enlightened to render allegiance to Jesus Christ will install some teacher of their own choosing as their authoritative master, will swallow his dicta, swear by him, and glory in being called by his name. What they think it derogatory to their mental independence to give to the Teacher of Nazareth, they freely give to their chosen oracle. It is not in ‘the last times’ only that men who will not endure sound teaching ‘heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts,’ and have ‘the ears’ which are fast closed to ‘the Truth’ wide open ‘to fables.’
On the small scale we see this melancholy perversity of conduct exemplified in every little coterie and school of unbelievers.
On the great scale Mohammedanism and Buddhism, with their millions of adherents, write the same tragic truth large in the history of the world.
II. Faith in the reconciling Christ is the only sure deliverance from debasing reliance on false means of reconciliation.
But closely as His work fits men’s needs, it sharply opposes some of their wishes, and of their interpretations of their needs. The Jew ‘demands a sign,’ the Greek craves a reasoned system of ‘wisdom,’ and both concur in finding the Cross an ‘offence.’
But the rejection of Jesus as the Reconciler does not quiet the cravings, which make themselves heard at some time or other in most consciences, for deliverance from the dominion and from the guilt of sin. And men are driven to adopt other expedients to fill up the void which their turning away from Jesus has left. Sometimes they fall back on a vague reliance on a vague assertion that ‘God is merciful’; sometimes they reason themselves into a belief-or, at any rate, an assertion-that the conception of sin is an error, and that men are not guilty. Sometimes they manage to silence the inward voice that accuses and condemns, by dint of not listening to it or drowning it by other noises.
But these expedients fail them some time or other, and then, if they have not cast the burden of their sin and their sins on the great Reconciler, they either have to weary themselves with painful and vain efforts to be their own redeemers, or they fall under the domination of a priest.
Hence the hideous penances of heathenism; and hence, too, the power of sacramentarian and sacerdotal perversions of evangelical truth.
III. Faith in Christ as the Regenerator is the only deliverance from baseless hopes for the world.
The conviction that society needs to be reconstituted on other principles is spread everywhere, and is often associated with intense disbelief in Christ the Regenerator.
Has not the past proved that all schemes for the regeneration of society which do not grapple with the fact of sin, and which do not provide a means of infusing into human nature a new impulse and direction, will end in failure, and are only too likely to end in blood? These two requirements are met by Jesus, and by Him only, and whoever rejects Him and His gift of pardon and cleansing, and His inbreathing of a new life into the individual, will fail in his effort, however earnest and noble in many aspects, to redeem society and bring about a fair new world.
It is pitiable to see the waste of high aspiration and eager effort in so many quarters today. But that waste is sure to attend every scheme which does not start from the recognition of Christ’s work as the basis of the world’s transformation, and does not crown Him as the King, because He is the Saviour, of mankind.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
He will avenge = He will perform the avenging (Greek. ekdikesis. Compare Luk 18:5) of. Compare Psa 9:12, Isa 63:4. Heb 10:37.
the Son of man. App-98.
faith = the faith.
on. Greek. epi. App-104.
the earth. Greek. ge. App-129.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
8.] will not bear the meaning swiftly, i.e. suddenly, when it comes, but (see reff.) is shortly-soon, speedily, as E. V. And this is no inconsistency with : see 2Pe 3:8-9.
] See the beginning of this note. This can hardly be, as Meyer interprets it, that the painful thought suddenly occurs to the Lord, how many there will be even at His coming who will not have received Him as the Messiah: for , though faith generally, is yet here faith in reference to the object of the parable-faith which has endured in prayer without fainting. Or the meaning may be general and objective; as in reff.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 18:8. ) He will both effect the avenging of His elect, and effect it speedily.- ; nevertheless when the Son of man shall come, whether shall He find faith on the earth?) , nevertheless, it is not so much the prayers of the pious (inasmuch as their faith, which evinces itself in their crying, shall be reduced to a marvellous paucity and smallness) as the goodness and justice of God, which will accelerate the consummation. The nevertheless, and the , num [an interrogative which expects an answer in the negative], have great (characteristic feeling and graphic power); the negative assertion being modified and tempered by the interrogative form of the sentence. For He shall come, before that the faith of the godly utterly fails. He does not declare that faith shall be universal; nor does He say that faith shall have been utterly at an end on the earth, replete as it shall be with iniquities and calamities, inasmuch as faith had not utterly ceased upon it even at the time of the flood, Heb 11:7. It was deemed [by God] right that there should be persons who should receive the Messiah, at His first coming, with faith: Luk 1:17 [It was John the Baptists office accordingly to make ready a people prepared for the Lord]; much more therefore will it be deemed right that there should be believers, to whom He is hereafter to come, having been long expected by them [Psa 72:5-7; Psa 72:17]; Mat 24:31; Mat 23:39; Mat 25:1, et seqq. [Five wise were found when He came]; 2Th 1:10; 1Th 4:17; 1Co 15:51; Heb 9:28; Rev 22:20.- , the Son of man) to Whom the judgment has been assigned, Joh 5:22; Joh 5:27.-, when the Son of man shall come) from heaven. For the antithesis, on the earth, follows. From the verb , shall He find, the participle has the force of a future: and He is speaking of His coming to avenge His saints: 2Th 1:8 : that is to say, He is speaking of His coming visibly for the last judgment; as the appellation, Son of man, leads us to infer. Comp. ch. Luk 17:24; Luk 17:20.-, shall He find) Comp. ch. Luk 7:9 [Jesus as to the centurion, I have not found so great faith, viz. though looking for it].- ) the faith, whereby the godly trust in the Lord, and cry to Him. The hope of better times is neither confirmed nor discouraged (weakened) by this declaration. The worst of all times, and that most full of careless security, shall succeed to the better times,-a time most widely removed from (most alien to) faith, a time running on to the very coming of the Son of man.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
faith
The reference is not to personal faith, but to belief in the whole body of revealed truth. (Cf) Rom 1:5; 1Co 16:13; 2Co 13:5; Col 1:23; Col 2:7; Tit 1:13; Jud 1:3.
See “Apostasy,” above, in marg. of Luk 18:8.
(See Scofield “2Ti 3:1”).
Son of man (See Scofield “Mat 8:20”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
he will: Psa 46:5, Psa 143:7-9, 2Pe 2:3, 2Pe 3:8, 2Pe 3:9
when: Mat 24:9-13, Mat 24:24, 1Th 5:1-3, Heb 10:23-26, Jam 5:1-8
Reciprocal: Deu 32:20 – children Deu 32:35 – the things 2Sa 4:8 – the Lord 2Sa 18:31 – the Lord 2Ki 9:7 – I may avenge Psa 9:12 – he forgetteth Psa 10:18 – judge Psa 31:2 – deliver Pro 20:6 – proclaim Isa 40:27 – my judgment Jer 15:15 – remember Hab 2:3 – it will surely Mat 10:23 – till Mat 16:28 – see Mat 25:5 – they Luk 17:26 – the days of the Son Luk 18:3 – Avenge 2Th 3:2 – for Heb 10:37 – General Jam 5:7 – unto Rev 6:10 – they cried Rev 18:20 – God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
RELIGIOUS UNSETTLEMENT
When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?
Luk 18:8
The significance of this question is best seen in the Revised Version, where it is given, When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find the faith on the earth?the faith once delivered to the saints.
Now whenever our Lord may come He surely will find faith; that will not have died out. But the faith once delivered to the saints, those truths that we hold to be essential to our salvation, saving truths as we rightly call them, the great facts and verities of our Christian creed, will they be non-existent?
It is worth our while to spend a little time considering, as far as we may, some of the direct and some of the indirect influences which are slowly and surely doing their work of disintegration and unsettlement, as frost and rain, wind and storm, disintegrate cliffs, and as the roots of ivy find their way through the strongest masonry.
I. Impatience of creeds.What are you to say in connection with this, and upon the very threshold of it, of the extraordinary and the growing impatience in our days of creeds? The cry is everywhere for undenominational teaching, and the cry is against dogmatic teaching. It is constantly urged that the creeds are the difficulties. The Athanasian Creed, it is urged, is out of date, but if people would only carefully read the history of that marvellous creed, they would see it is the most wonderful composition of argument against the heresies that prevailed in the early Church, and which are being revived in our own. Do not easily part with your creeds. They are of great historic value. They are a protest against what somebody has called fancy religions, against partial views, against a bundle of notions instead of profound convictions.
II. Objection to mysteries.There is a common objection against, or at any rate a sort of hesitancy on account of, the mysteries of religion. There is so much known, but there is so much concealed. And are there not greater mysteries than these? There is less to try your faith in our mysterious creed than in the godless systems which some men would invent.
III. Other disintegrating causes.Let us take one or two more of these disintegrating causes
(a) Our apparent divisions. It is the heart-burnings; it is the bitter controversies and bitter spirit between those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in their hearts, and are always quarrelling with those that differ from them, which cannot do good. Is there no harm being done to the Christian laity by some utterances in our pulpits? In the midst of this confusion of thought the humanitarian steps into the arena, and he tells us that doctrines have done their work.
(b) The departure from old traditions. The simple Gospel of Jesus Christ is not preached nowadays as we remember it when we were children. One hears Christless sermons, sermon after sermon in which there is no mention of the Holy Ghost, and no teaching people that they can only believe by His enlightenment and by His inspiration. No wonder that when these things are put together you find a defection from the faith.
IV. But the Master is with His Church.Missionary work is extending all over the face of the globe, and the Bible is being translated into every known language. There is a faith for you to keep. You have power in your generation, your own personal steadfastnessa tremendous parental responsibility of teaching your little ones in their childhood. Higher religious education supplies an intellectual antidote to what is going on, but there is, at all time, for youprayer. It was the Masters remedy. You can have no better.
Dean Pigou.
Illustration
If these things are so, if it be a fact that faith is getting rarer and rarer, is not it very important to each one of us to determine how it stands with our faith? Let me just throw out one or two suggestions to you about faith. Faith is a moral grace, and not an intellectual gift. It lives among the affections; its seat is the heart. A soft and tender conscience is the cradle of faith; and it will live and die according to the life you lead. If you would have faith you must settle with yourself the authority, the supremacy, and the sufficiency of the Bible. All truth must be an uncertainty if you have no standing-ground. Therefore, establish to your own mind the Divine origin, the universal application, and the ultimate appeal of the Scriptures. Then, when you have done that, you will be able to deal with promises. Feed upon promises. Take care that you are a man of meditative habit. There cannot be faith without daily, calm, quiet seasons of thought. But, above all, have the eye upward. All faith, and every stage of it, is a direct answer to prayer.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE DECAY OF FAITH
These words of our Lord are becoming every day something more than prophecy. We are probably living almost, if not quite, in their fulfilment. Let us look at facts. I believe that I am speaking the opinion of all who are the most conversant with the state of Christendom, when I state that faith is greatly on the decrease. And the result of all is an awful breadth of spiritual wilderness.
If I venture for a moment to look into the reasons of these things, perhaps I might particularise the following:
I. Preference for the visible.It is always in the indolent and grosser nature of man to prefer the present and the visible to the future and the unseen. The heart gravitates to practical materialism as a stone gravitates to the ground. It is always a special act to make a man feel the invisible, live in the invisible. For in fact, all faith is miracle.
II. The advance of science.And days of great science, such as these, are always likely to be days of proportionate unbelief, because the power of the habit of finding out more and more natural causes is calculated, unless a man be a religious man, to make him rest in the cause he sees, and not to go on to that higher cause of which all the causes in this world are, after all, only effects.
III. Familiarity with Divine things.And familiarity, too, with Divine things, which is a particular characteristic of our age, has in itself a tendency to sap the reverence which is at the root of all faith.
IV. The selfishness of the age.But still more, the character of the age we live in is a rushing selfishness. The race for money is tremendous; men are grown intensely secular; the facilities are increased, and with them the covetousness. You are living under higher and higher pressure, and everything goes into extremes; all live fast. And the competition of business is overwhelming, and the excitement of fashion intoxicating. How can faith, which breathes in the shade of prayer and meditation, live in such an atmosphere as this?
Illustration
We hear people speaking of the coming of the Son of God as something of which they were exceeding glad. But stay and think, ask your own hearts the question, Would the coming of Jesus be a happy and joyful thing for me? What would the advent of the All-righteous Judge mean to the man whose religion is merely outside, who is covering with the ample cloak of respectability the threads and patches of an indifferent life? What would the advent mean to the man of business whose religion begins and ends with one formal attendance at church on Sunday, and whose character is utterly unleavened by the teachings of the Gospel? What to the man or woman who never used self-denial, never gave up anything for Christs sake, in a word, what would the advent of Jesus be to a majority of those who profess and call themselves Christians?
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
8
Shall he find faith on the earth? We must not interpret one passage in such a way that it will contradict others. It is clearly taught in the New Testament that the church with its faithful members will be here when Jesus comes. (See Mat 24:40-41; 1Co 15:24; 1Co 15:51; 1Th 4:15; 1Th 4:17.) Therefore the question of Jesus should be understood as a kind of warning, stirring up his hearers to beware lest their individual faith should fail them.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 18:8. I say unto you. Our Lord answers His own question.
He will avenge them speedily. Not suddenly, but quickly. If Luk 18:7 be explained: Is it His way to delay in their case? then this is the expected negative reply. But the avenging belongs to the coming of the Son of man, which is still future after eighteen centuries. However long delayed in mans estimation, the day of the Lord will quickly come, as God regards it. Both ideas are ever conjoined in the New Testament to combine the lessons of patience and hope.
When the Son of man Cometh. The second coming of Christ is evidently meant
Will he find faith on the earth? It is not implied that there will be no faith at that time, but only that it is doubtful whether the faith spoken of will continue until that time. What faith does our Lord mean? If He means saving faith in Himself, then the question points not only to the speedy falling away of many who heard Him then, out also to the great apostasy which will precede His coming (2Th 2:3). But it is more probable that He refers to the kind of faith set forth in the parable: faith which endures in importunate prayer. The question then implies that the trials of the faith and patience of the church during the Lords delay will be so great as to make it doubtful whether such importunity for the Lords return will be the rule in the day of His appearing. This view does not encourage the over-gloomy view that the day of Christs triumph will be when His people have become very few in number. On the other hand, it agrees with the representations repeatedly made, that the coming will be an unexpected one even to real believers. The special form of faith which will be lacking is faith in the return of the Lord as evidenced by importunate prayer for the hastening of that event.
Luk 18:9. This parable. The parable consists in this, that the two persons represent two classes.
To certain. To them, not concerning them, hence they were probably not Pharisees.
Who trusted in themselves and set the rest at nought. They were Pharisaical at heart, though not be longing to that party. They represent a numerous class. The setting the rest at nought is a consequence of self-righteousness.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
OUR LORDS SECOND COMING
Luk 17:22; Luk 18:8. And He said to the disciples, The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and shall not see it. Having answered the captious question of those critical Pharisees, informing them that the kingdom of God, which comes by the silent, invisible work of the Holy Ghost in the heart, is already among them, though in their gross spiritual blindness they are utterly unapprehensive of the fact, He now turns and addresses His disciples with reference to Himself, stating to them that the days will soon come when they will desire to see one of the days of the Son of man and shall not see it. As this is only about eight or nine days before His crucifixion, He notifies them that, having been with them three years, He is going to leave them, and they will desire to see Him and be with Him as hitherto, but shall not be able; this idea of His departure and return now running on into a beautiful and sublime revelation and exposition of His return back to the earth, where they will see Him again.