Luke 13:22-30
New American Standard Bible
Teaching in the Villages
22 And He was passing through one city and village after another, teaching, and (A)proceeding on His way to Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And He said to them, 24 “(B)Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 Once the head of the house gets up and (C)shuts the door, and you begin standing outside and knocking on the door, saying, ‘(D)Lord, open up to us!’ and He then will answer and say to you, ‘(E)I do not know where you are from.’ 26 Then you will (F)begin saying, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets!’ 27 And yet He will [a]say, ‘(G)I do not know where you are from; (H)leave Me, all you [b]evildoers.’ 28 (I)In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. 29 And they (J)will come from east and west, and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold, (K)some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Luke 13:27 Lit say, telling you
- Luke 13:27 Or workers of injustice
Luke 13:22-30
The Message
22 He went on teaching from town to village, village to town, but keeping on a steady course toward Jerusalem.
23-25 A bystander said, “Master, will only a few be saved?”
He said, “Whether few or many is none of your business. Put your mind on your life with God. The way to life—to God!—is vigorous and requires your total attention. A lot of you are going to assume that you’ll sit down to God’s salvation banquet just because you’ve been hanging around the neighborhood all your lives. Well, one day you’re going to be banging on the door, wanting to get in, but you’ll find the door locked and the Master saying, ‘Sorry, you’re not on my guest list.’
26-27 “You’ll protest, ‘But we’ve known you all our lives!’ only to be interrupted with his abrupt, ‘Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don’t know the first thing about me.’
28-30 “That’s when you’ll find yourselves out in the cold, strangers to grace. You’ll watch Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets march into God’s kingdom. You’ll watch outsiders stream in from east, west, north, and south and sit down at the table of God’s kingdom. And all the time you’ll be outside looking in—and wondering what happened. This is the Great Reversal: the last in line put at the head of the line, and the so-called first ending up last.”
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Read full chapterNew American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson