Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 18:7

"And shall not God avenge his elect, that cry to him day and night, and [yet] he is longsuffering over them?" — Luke 18:7 (ASV)

And shall not God avenge his own elect?—There is at first something that feels jarring to us in this choice of an extreme instance of human unrighteousness as a parable from which we are to learn the nature and the power of prayer. It is not as it was with the Unjust Steward, for there, according to the true interpretation of the parable, the unrighteous man stood for those who were relatively, at least, themselves unrighteous.

It is a partial explanation that our Lord impresses upon the disciples an a fortiori argument. If persistent requests prevail with men, whose character and wills are set against them, how much more with God, in whom character and will anticipate the prayer? Even so, however, we face the difficulty that the idea of prayer as prevailing, at last, through numerous repetitions, seems contrary to the teaching that condemns vain repetitions, on the ground that our Father knows our necessities before we ask Him (Matthew 6:7).

May we not think that here, as elsewhere, there is an intentional assumption by our Lord of a viewpoint which was not His own, but that of those whom He sought to teach? Even His disciples were thinking of God, not as their Father, who loved them, but as a far-off King, who needed to be roused to action.

They called on Him in their afflictions and persecutions, and they lost heart, and they became weary of their prayers.

Might not the parable be meant to:

1. Teach people like them that from their own point of view, it was wise for them to persevere in prayer, and
2. Lead them to reconsider their initial assumptions?

And the one result would in such a case lead almost necessarily to the other. Prayer has a marvelous self-purifying power, and the imperfect thoughts of God in which it may have had its beginning become clearer as it continues. It is one of the ever-recurring paradoxes of the spiritual life, that when we are most persistent we feel most strongly how little persistence is needed.

Avenge his own elect.—Literally, work out His vengeance for, the Greek noun having the article. The “vengeance” is not, however, that of retaliation such as human passions seek for, but primarily the “vindication” of God’s elect, the assertion of their rights, and includes retribution upon others only so far as it is involved in this (Compare to the use of the word in Romans 12:19; 2 Corinthians 7:11; Hebrews 10:30).

This is the first occurrence of the word “elect” in Luke’s Gospel, but it begins to be prominent about this time in our Lord’s teaching (Matthew 20:16; Matthew 24:22). The “elect” are the disciples who being “called” obey the “call” (Romans 8:30). The further question, What leads them to obey? is not here in view.

Which cry day and night unto him.—The words look to the coming trials and afflictions of the elect, which as yet the disciples did not know, or knew only in part. To see the world against them, and its rulers crushing them, to fight against overwhelming odds, this would tempt them to think that God was not with them, that He had deceived them (Compare to the language of Jeremiah 20:7). In the prayer of the souls beneath the altar (Revelation 6:10), we have an echo of the question. In Peter’s insistence on the “long-suffering” of God (2 Peter 3:9), we have a proof that he had learned the answer.

Though he bear long with them.—Literally, bearing long with them. The better manuscripts give “and bear long with them.” The English, which suggests the thought that God bears with, i.e., tolerates, His elect, is misleading. What is meant is, that He shows Himself slow to anger “over them,” i.e., where they are concerned. They implore that “long-suffering” for themselves. They are tempted to murmur when it is extended to others.