Luke 13:25

When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) When once the master of the house . . .—The passage contains elements that are common at once to Matthew 7:22-23; Matthew 25:10-12, where see Notes.

Benson Commentary

Luke 13:25-27. When once the master of the house is risen up — Christ is the master of the house, that will take cognizance of the character and conduct of all that belong to it, or occasionally have a place in it. It now seems as if he left things at large, and made no distinction between his faithful servants and those who falsely pretend to be such. But the time is coming when he will rise up and shut to the door — Namely, a door of distinction and separation between hypocrites and true believers; between formalists, who have only a name to live, and such as are truly alive to God. Now in the temple of the church there are carnal professors, who worship in the outer court, and spiritual worshippers, who worship within the veil; between these the door is now open, and they meet promiscuously in the same external performances; but when the master of the house is risen up, the door will be shut between them, and those who are in the outer court shall be kept out, and remain excluded for ever. Alas! how many that were very confident they should be saved, will be rejected in the day of trial! And ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door — Then, neither asking, nor seeking, nor knocking, nay, nor agonizing, will avail any thing. Let us now, therefore, strive and agonize, by faith, prayer, holiness, patience. Observe, reader, many are ruined by an ill-grounded hope of heaven, which they never once distrusted or called in question; and they conclude their state as good, because they never doubted the goodness of it. They call Christ, Lord, as if they were his servants; nay, in token of their confidence and importunity, they double the expression, Lord, Lord; and are now desirous to enter in by that door which they formerly slighted, and would now gladly have a place among those serious Christians whom they formerly despised! And he shall answer and say, I know you not, &c. — I know my sheep, and am known of mine; but I know not you; you do not belong to my family; you are neither my servants nor my subjects; I have neither employed nor governed you. Alas! how new, how late, how lasting will be the sense which they will now have of their misery! Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, &c. — Over and above the privileges which you have enjoyed by the Mosaic dispensation, you shall plead, on that occasion, the peculiar favour which I showed you in the days of my flesh, by exercising my ministry among you, and by conversing familiarly with you. But he shall say, &c. — He will persist in disowning you, whatever acquaintance with him you may pretend to; declaring again, I know you not whence ye are — All the former relations to which you refer, are, as it were, blotted from my remembrance, since your hearts were still insincere, or unchanged, and your lives unsuitable to your fair professions; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity — For none like you can ever be admitted here. In the character which he here gives them, we have the reason of their doom: they were, and continued to be, workers of iniquity, and under a pretence of piety, persisted, though perhaps secretly, in the practice of sin.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:23-30 Our Saviour came to guide men's consciences, not to gratify their curiosity. Ask not, How many shall be saved? But, Shall I be one of them? Not, What shall become of such and such? But, What shall I do, and what will become of me? Strive to enter in at the strait gate. This is directed to each of us; it is, Strive ye. All that will be saved, must enter in at the strait gate, must undergo a change of the whole man. Those that would enter in, must strive to enter. Here are awakening considerations, to enforce this exhortation. Oh that we may be all awakened by them! They answer the question, Are there few that shall be saved? But let none despond either as to themselves or others, for there are last who shall be first, and first who shall be last. If we reach heaven, we shall meet many there whom we little thought to meet, and miss many whom we expected to find.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

When once the master ... - The figure here used is taken from the conduct of a housekeeper, who is willing to see his friends, and who at the proper time keeps his doors open. But there is a proper time for closing them, when he will not see his guests. At night it would be improper and vain to seek an entrance - the house would be shut. So there is a proper time to seek an entrance into heaven; but there will be a time when it will be too late. At death the time will have passed by, and God will be no longer gracious to the sinner's soul.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. master of the house is risen up and hath shut to the door—awfully sublime and vivid picture! At present he is represented as in a sitting posture, as if calmly looking on to see who will "strive," while entrance is practicable, and who will merely "seek" to enter in. But this is to have an end, by the great Master of the house Himself rising and shutting the door, after which there will be no admittance.

Lord, Lord—emphatic reduplication, expressive of the earnestness now felt, but too late. (See on [1660]Mt 7:21, 22).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 25-27. Our Saviour in these verses doth represent himself by a man, who, having invited guests to his supper, stays till all those who were invited, and accepted the invitation, were Come in; then rising up, shuts the door; and after that is shut, turns a deaf ear to any that shall come knocking, let them plead for admittance what they can plead. By this parabolical expressing of himself, he both openeth in part what he meant by the foregoing words,

many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able, and also lets us know, that there is a determinate time, wherein souls must (if ever) accept of the offers of grace and salvation, when they are made to them, which if they slip, they will not be able to obtain of God an entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Seek the Lord while he may be found, saith the prophet, Isaiah 55:6. In an acceptable time have I heard thee, saith the prophet, Isaiah 49:8; which the apostle applies, 2 Corinthians 6:2, to persuade men that they should not receive the grace of God (in the gospel) in vain. What this determinate time is God hath hidden from us, and it is probable that it is not the same as to all persons; we know nothing to the contrary, but while there is life there is hope, which warrants us to preach truth and repentance to all. We are also further instructed, that no outward privileges though Christ hath taught in our streets; no external acts of communion with Christ, though we can say we have ate and drunk with him; will justify our hopes of entrance into heaven, if in the mean time we be workers of iniquity. We had much the same; See Poole on "Matthew 7:21", and following verses to Matthew 7:23.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

When once the master of the house is risen up,.... From table, or off of his couch, the entertainment being over: and so here, the Gospel feast, or dispensation, being at an end, and all the guests come in, who were effectually called, and long patience and forbearance being used towards others; or has entered in, as the Vulgate Latin version reads, and so Beza's ancient copy, and one of Stephens's; is come from the wedding; see Luke 12:36 Christ having espoused all his elect to himself, by the ministry of the word: for by "the master of the house" is meant, the bridegroom of the church, the head of the body, the King of saints, who is Son over his own house, and high priest there; of whom the whole family in heaven and earth, is named:

and hath shut to the door; the door of mercy and of hope; the door of faith; the preaching of the word, and the administration of ordinances, when these shall be no more:

and ye begin to stand without; or "do stand without"; without the holy city, where dogs are; having no admittance to the nuptial chamber, to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and the joys of heaven:

and to knock at the door; which shows how near some persons may come to heaven, and yet not enter there, even to the very door; and what an expectation, yea, an assurance they may have, of admission into it, not at all doubting of it; and therefore knock as if they were some of the family, and had a right to enter; but not finding the door opened to them, so soon as they imagined, they begin to call as well as knock:

saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; they acknowledge Christ to be Lord, as all will at the last day, to the glory of God the Father, even professors and profane; they repeat the word, to show the vehemency and earnestness of their entreaty; and according to the Syriac and, Persic versions, they claim an interest in Christ, which read, "our Lord, our Lord"; and on account of which they doubted not, but the door would be opened: but alas! he was only their Lord in a professional way; they had only called him Lord, Lord, but had never truly and heartily yielded obedience to him; their hearts had never been opened to him, and he had never had a place there, nor his Gospel; wherefore though they knock, he will not open;

and he shall answer and say unto you. The Persic version adds, "nay, but be ye gone hence", for the following reason,

I know you not, whence you are: not but that Christ being the omniscient God, will know who they are, from whence they come, of what country and place they be, and to whom they belong; but the sense is, that he will not own them, and express any approbation of them, as his; but will treat them as strangers, that come, it is not known, from whence; he will reject them, as not being born from above, as not being the sheep of his fold, or members of his true church: they did not come from heaven, they were not heaven born souls, or partakers of the heavenly calling, and therefore shall not be received there; they belonged to the men of the world, and were of their father the devil, and shall be sent to him: so the foolish virgins, or formal professors of religion, and such as have been preachers of the Gospel, will entreat Christ at the last day, and shall have such an answer as this returned to them, which will be very awful and startling; See Gill on Matthew 7:23, Matthew 25:12.

Geneva Study Bible

When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Luke 13:25-27.[163] If you are excluded from the kingdom of Messiah, you shall then in vain urge your external connection with me! Πλάττει γὰρ οἰκοδεσπότην τινὰ καθήμενον κ. ὐποδεχόμενον (at the repast, Luke 13:29) τοὺς φίλους αὐτοῦ (rather his family; see subsequently on πόθεν), εἶτα ἐγειρόμενον κ. ἀποκλείοντα τὴν θύραν τοῦ οἴκου αὐτοῦ κ. μὴ συγχωροῦντα τοῖς ἄλλοις εἰσελθεῖν, Euthymius Zigabenus. The construction is such that the apodosis begins with τότε, Luke 13:26 (Bengel, Bornemann), and continues down to ἀδικίας, Luke 13:27, in accordance with which the punctuation should be adjusted. The apodosis does not begin as early as καὶ ἀποκριθείς, Luke 13:25 (the usual mode of punctuation), so that with Luke 13:26 a new sentence would begin; for the former καί, which would not be a sign of the apodosis (de Wette), but would mean also, would be superfluous and confusing, whereas τότε presents itself, according to a usage known to every one (Luke 5:35, Luke 21:20, and elsewhere), of itself, and according to the meaning, as the division of the sentence. It is according to the meaning, for thus the apodosis brings out the principal point, namely, the urging of the relation of external connection and (observe only the continuation of the apodosis through Luke 13:27) its fruitlessness. Lachmann (following Beza) connects ἀφʼ οὖ … ἄνοιξον ἡμῖν (after which he places a full stop) with καὶ οὐκ ἰσχύσουσιν, Luke 13:24. Schegg follows him. But opposed to this is the second person ἄρξησθε, which is not in accordance with ἰσχύσουσιν, but carries forward the address that began with ἀγωνίζεσθε. Ewald conceives the apodosis as beginning as early as καὶ ἄρξησθε, Luke 13:25, but in such a manner that this apodosis is transformed into a second protasis. The harshness of this supposition is increased still more by the fact that if we read ἄρξησθε, Luke 13:26, the force of the protasis must come up anew with the repetition of the sound.[164]

καὶ ἄρξησθε] can only arbitrarily be limited to κρούειν, as though it ran ἄρξ. ἔξω ἑστῶτες κρούειν (Fritzsche, ad Matth. p. 541). It refers to both the infinitives. The people have begun the persistent standing there and knocking, in respect of which they say: Lord, open to us; then the master of the house answers that he knows them not (Matthew 25:12), etc.; next, they begin to say something else, to wit, their ἐφάγομεν κ.τ.λ. Thus there appears in ἄρξησθε and ἄρξεσθε, Luke 13:26, a very vivid representation of their several fruitless attempts.

ΚΑῚ ἈΠΟΚΡ. ἘΡΕῖ ὙΜ] a graphic transition to the future: after that … ye shall have begun … and he shall say. At the same time, however, it is a departure from the regular construction,[165] as though ἄν had not gone before (Klotz, ad Devar. p. 142).

οὐκ οἶδα ὑμᾶς πόθεν ἐστέ] Comp. John 7:27; Winer, p. 551 [E. T. 781].

ΠΌΘΕΝ] i.e. of what family (see on John 7:27); ye are not members of my house, but of another that is unknown to me.

Luke 13:26 f. ἐνώπιόν σου] before thine eyes, as thy guests, but corresponding in a more lively manner to the expression of the master of the house than the mere μετά σου.

ἐν ταῖς πλατ. ἡμ. ἐδίδαξ.] A divergence from the person describing to the person described, which occurs in Luke 13:27 in ἈΠΌΣΤΗΤΕ … ἈΔΙΚΊΑς,[166] and at Luke 13:28 f. Bengel aptly says on Luke 13:27 : “Iterantur eadem verba; stat sententia; sed iterantur cum emphasi.” For the rest, comp. on Matthew 7:22 f. According to the tendency-critics, the doers of iniquity in Matthew must be Pauline-Christians, but in Luke Jewish-Christians; see Hilgenfeld, Krit. Unters. p. 184 f., Evang. p. 196, Zeitschr. 1865, p. 192. What crafty turns the evangelists have got credit for! Antinomians (Weizsäcker) are not meant at all, but immoral adherents.

[163] Down to ver. 29 we have a series of reminiscences of very varied discourses linked together in Luke’s source of the journey, which are found in several portions of Matthew taken from the Logia.

[164] This reading, indeed, has in its favour A D K L M T5 X Γ Δ Π א and many min., but it is a mechanical repetition of the subjunctive from ver. 25. Yet it is now adopted by Tischendorf [Tisch. 8 has ἄρξεσθε].

[165] On the question discussed in so many ways whether in the classical writers (except Homer) ἄν stands with the future (Brunck, Heindorf, Hermann, Hartung, Stallbaum, Reisig, Kühner, Krüger, and many others) or not, see especially Hermann, de part, ἄν, p. 30 ff.; Hartung, Partikell. II. p. 282 ff. (both in favour of it); and Klotz, ad Devar. p. 118 ff. (against it).

[166] On ἐργάτης, a doer of good or evil (so only in this place in the New Testament), comp. Xen. Mem. ii. 1. 27: τῶν καλῶν καὶ σεμνῶν ἐργάτην; 1Ma 3:6.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 13:25-27. Here begins a new parable and a new sentence, though some (Beza, Lachmann, W. and H[115]) connect with what goes before, putting a comma after ἰσχύσουσιν. Against this is not only the change from the third person to the second (ἄρξησθε), but the fact that the cause of exclusion is different: not the narrowness of the door, but coming too late. The case put now is that of the master of a house who is giving an entertainment. He waits for a certain time to receive his guests. At length, deeming that all are, or ought to be, present, he rises and shuts the door, after which no one can be admitted. Some, however, come later, knock at the door, and are refused admission. The moral of this parable is distinct; of the former parable it was: be in earnest; of this it is: be not too late.—ἑστάναι καὶ κρούειν: both verbs depend on ἄρξησθε: ye begin to stand without and to knock. Some take ἑστάναι as = a participle, but it is better to take it as denoting a first stage in the action of those arriving late. At first they expect that the door will be opened soon as a matter of course, and that they have nothing to do but to step in. By-and-by they find it will be necessary to knock, and finally, being refused admission even when the door is opened, they are fain to plead (Luke 13:26).—καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς: the καὶ here has the force of then. The sense would have been clearer had it been omitted. Here properly begins the apodosis of the sentence and the close of the parable proper = then he answering will say: I do not know you.—πόθεν ἐστέ: these added words rather weaken than strengthen the laconic οὐκ οἶδα ὑμᾶς of Matthew 25:12 = you must be strangers, not of those invited.

[115] Westcott and Hort.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. to stand without, and to knock at the door] Matthew 25:10. That the first application of the warning was to Jews who relied on their privileges appears from the fact that the excluded class are not poor sinners, but self-righteous Pharisees who claim entrance as their right.

Lord, Lord, open unto us] Matthew 7:22-23.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 13:25. Ἀφʼ οὗ, from the time that once [when once]) This being abruptly subjoined, has great force. The Apodosis is in τότε, then, in Luke 13:26 : nor is the employment of the Indicative ἐρεῖ, shall say, an objection to this view of the construction. Comp. note on Mark 3:27.—ἐγέρθῃ, shall have risen up) from the banquet (supper) in order to shut the door. For He is not speaking concerning His advent: for at the Advent it is not the Lord that opens to the servants, but it is the servants who open unto their Lord: ch. Luke 12:36.—ἀποκλείσῃ) shall have shut, against strangers alien to Him. Now, now is the time for striving in the [good] contest.—τὴν θύραν, the door) What seems to those standing outside to be a gate, is a door to those who are within, as in a house (home).[131]—ΚΑῚ ἌΡΞΗΣΘΕ, and ye shall have begun) This too depends on ἀφʼ οὗ, from the time that once; for the ζητήσουσιν, shall seek, is handled (treated of) in Luke 13:26; and the οὐκ ἰσχύσουσιν, shall not be able, is handled (treated of) in Luke 13:27. Such persons had never thought so before. O how new [implied in τότε ἄρξεσθε] shall be their sense of misery then first realized, and how late, and how long-continuing! It is when his opportunity has passed by, that man begins to wish: Numbers 14:40. [The Israelites began thus to feel only when doomed to forty years wandering, whereas, had they believed in time, they would have entered the promised land at once: Too late “they rose up early, etc., and said, Lo we be here and will go up,” etc.]—ΚΡΟΎΕΙΝ ΤῊΝ ΘΎΡΑΝ, to knock at the door) which was now not merely στενὴ, as before, Luke 13:24, but by this time closed and shut to (ἀποκλείσῃ, Luke 13:25).—ΠΌΘΕΝ, whence) Herein is implied the point of view in which He refuses to know them. They are recognised by Him, in their character as workers of iniquity.

[131] Beng. thus reads, with Rec. Text, πύλης in Luke 13:24; and this reading is supported by Abc Vulg. (‘portam’), d (‘januam’). But θύρας, in Luke 13:24, is the reading of BDL, Origen 3,804a, who adds ὅτι ὀλίγοι εὑρίσκουσιν αὐτὴν (evidently inserted from the parallel, Matthew 7:13, from which probably the πύλης also, in Luke 13:24, has come).—ED. and TRANSL.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 25. - When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and Co knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are. The great Teacher here slightly changes the imagery. The narrow door no longer is the centre of the picture; one, called the "master of the house," becomes the principal figure. The door now shut may still be, most probably is, the narrow fort or hill-city entrance, and the one called the master is the governor of the Place of Arms, into which the door or gate led. It is now too late even for the earnest striver to enter in. Sunset probably - the shades of night, had the Divine Painter furnished the imagery - would have been the signal for the final closing of the door of the fortress. Death is the period when the door of salvation is shut to the children of men. It has been asked - To what time does the Master refer in the words" when once"? It cannot be the epoch of the ruin of Jerusalem and the breaking up of the Jewish nationality, for then there was nothing in the attitude of the doomed people to answer to the standing without, to the knocking at the door, and to the imploring cries, "Lord, Lord, open unto us," portrayed here. It cannot be the second coming of the Lord; surely then his people will not call on him in vain. It refers, without doubt, to the day of judgment, when the dread award will be pronounced upon the unbelieving, the selfish, and the evil-liver. Luke 13:25

Vincent's Word Studies

When once (ἀφ' ou)

Lit., from the time that. Compare Luke 13:7. Some editors connect this with the previous sentence: "Shall not be able when once," etc.

Whence (πόθεν)

Of what family. Ye do not belong to my household. See John 7:27 : "We know whence he (Jesus) is;" i.e., we know his birthplace and family.