Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 17

It is impossible but that offences will come.—In this instance, the absence of any apparent connection might, perhaps, justify us in viewing the two precepts as having been noted by Saint Luke for their own intrinsic value, without regard to the context in which they had been spoken. (See Notes on Matthew 18:7.)

Even here, however, we must remember that there may have been what we have called “dropped links.” It is not hard to see that the self-indulgent life, after the pattern of the rich man in the preceding parable, was an “offence” which, in one sense, would necessarily come in the history of the Christian Church, as it had come in the Jewish, and yet would bring a woe on the man through whom it came.

It were better for him...—See Note on Matthew 18:6, where the order of the two sayings is inverted. Assuming the words to have been repeated where we find them here, the “little ones” must mean the disciples of Christ who are, in both senses of the word, “offended” by the worldliness of those who profess to be religious. They are made to stumble by the temptation to follow the bad example, or their faith in the reality of godliness is shaken by seeing that the form exists without the power.

Take heed to yourselves.—The position of these words is remarkable, and they have nothing corresponding to them in the parallel passage in Matthew 18:21 (see Note). It is as though our Lord saw in the disciples the tendency to sit in judgment on the sins of others, especially on such sins as He had just condemned, and checked it by the words Take heed to yourselves.

They were in danger of faults hardly less fatal to the spiritual life than selfish luxury, and one of those faults was the disposition of hard and unforgiving judgment. When they saw a conspicuous instance of worldliness or other evil, they did as we so often do—they condemned, but did not rebuke.

In practice, as He taught them by example as well as by precept, open, friendly reproof that aims at restoration is the truest path to the forgiveness with which, in the careless estimate of most people, it seems to be incompatible.

If he trespass against you.—Better, if he sin. The better manuscripts omit the words against you, and so make the command more general; and the verb is the same as that in Matthew 18:21, the teaching of which is manifestly reproduced here. The outward form seems at first to present a somewhat lower standard of forgiveness, seven times, instead of seventy times seven. Here, however, it should be remembered that we have seven times a day, and the meaning is obviously the same in both passages. No accumulation of offenses, however often repeated, is to be allowed to bring us to the hardness that refuses to forgive when the offender says that he repents and asks for forgiveness.

The apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.—The form in which the fragment that thus begins is brought before us suggests, as has been stated before (see Notes on Luke 7:13; Luke 10:1), that it was a comparatively late addition to the collection of the words of the Lord Jesus (Acts 20:35), and this is confirmed by the exceptional use of “the Apostles” for “the disciples.” It may have stood originally in an absolutely isolated form.

On the other hand, its position here indicates a sufficiently traceable sequence. That command of a seven-fold—i.e., an unlimited—forgiveness seemed to make almost too great a strain on their faith. Did it not imply an almost miraculous victory over natural impulses, that could be achieved only by a supernatural grace? Was not the faith that could “remove mountains” wanted, if ever, here—a faith in the pardoning love of the Father, and in their own power to reproduce it? And so, conscious of their weakness, they came with the prayer that has so often come from the lips of yearning, yet weak, disciples of the Christ—reminding us of him who cried, Lord, I believe; help my unbelief (see Note on Mark 9:24)—Increase our faith. May we not possibly think of Peter as having struggled to obey the rule which had been given to them before (Matthew 18:22), and as having found himself unequal to the task?