Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 14:23

"And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and constrain [them] to come in, that my house may be filled." — Luke 14:23 (ASV)

The highways and hedges.—In the framework of the parable, this points to a still lower class of the population of an Eastern country—to the tramps and the squatters who had no home, and who were content to sleep under the shelter of a hedge or fence. For the most part, these were low walls or palisades, rather than hedges in the English sense of the word. In the application of the parable, the people thus brought in can hardly be any other than the wanderers of the outlying Gentile world.

Compel them to come in.—It would have seemed almost incredible—had it not been so painfully and conspicuously true—that some could have interpreted these words as a sanction for the employment of force, pains, and penalties as means of converting people to the faith of Christ. To us it seems almost a truism to say that such methods may produce proselytes and hypocrites, but cannot possibly produce converts. There is, of course, something that corresponds to this compulsion in the work of Christian preachers, but the weapons of their warfare are not carnal (2 Corinthians 10:4), and the constraint which they bring to bear on people is that of the love of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14). The only instances of the other kind of compulsion in the Apostolic age are when Saul compelled men and women to blaspheme (Acts 26:11), or the Judaizers compelled Gentile converts to be circumcised (Galatians 2:14; Galatians 6:12).

That my house may be filled.—It is obvious that we cannot introduce space-limits into the interpretation of the parable. The gates of the Father’s house are open forevermore, and in its many mansions (John 14:2) there is, and ever will be, room for all who come.