Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 15:6

"And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and his neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost." — Luke 15:6 (ASV)

He calleth together his friends and neighbours.—The recurrence of the two words so soon after Luke 14:12 is suggestive. There are times when we do well to recognise the natural and social ties that bind people to one another. It is chiefly right to do so when we make them sharers in our own spiritual life, and raise and purify their life by calling on them to sympathise, not with our sufferings only, but with our purer and nobler joys. As it relates to our Lord’s own work, we may think of His friends and neighbours as being the disciples whom He had chosen; we may also think of the angels of God, and the spirits of the just made perfect, who rejoice over one sinner that repenteth.