Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Luke 14:13 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 13. 13But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Luke 14:13 directs hosts toward poor and disabled guests who cannot participate in reciprocal status exchange.
Read It With
- Luke 14:7–14:14
Read Luke 14:13 with 14:7–14:14. Luke 14:13 directs hosts toward poor and disabled guests who cannot participate in reciprocal status exchange. The complete unit's controlling movement is: Jesus answers competition for honored seats with humility and tells hosts to invite poor, disabled, and excluded people who cannot repay, locating recompense at resurrection.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Luke 14:13 directs hosts toward poor and disabled guests who cannot participate in reciprocal status exchange. This selected detail moves Luke 14:7–14:14 from its initiating question or action toward the unit's response and prepares Luke's next movement.
Follow the Context
- Identify the actors, setting, and initiating speech or action in Luke 14:7–14:14.
- Jesus answers competition for honored seats with humility and tells hosts to invite poor, disabled, and excluded people who cannot repay, locating recompense at resurrection.
- Hold this material interpretive limit in view: The counsel critiques honor exchange and reciprocal patronage; naming disabled people must not turn them into props or imply they never reciprocate in other ways.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
The teaching does not shame guests, romanticize poverty, instrumentalize disabled people, prohibit friendship meals, or demand unsafe access to one's home.
What Remains True
Luke 14:13 directs hosts toward poor and disabled guests who cannot participate in reciprocal status exchange. Read inside Luke 14:7–14:14, this contribution supports the unit's proportionate truth: Jesus answers competition for honored seats with humility and tells hosts to invite poor, disabled, and excluded people who cannot repay, locating recompense at resurrection. Its use remains accountable to affected people and the unit's explicit boundary.
How It Can Shape Life
- When teaching Luke 14:13, explain this exact contribution inside Luke 14:7–14:14, identify the unit's source-controlled uncertainty, and refuse this misuse before proposing action: The teaching does not shame guests, romanticize poverty, instrumentalize disabled people, prohibit friendship meals, or demand unsafe access to one's home.
Teach It Back
Explain Luke 14:13's specific contribution to Luke 14:7–14:14: directs hosts toward poor and disabled guests who cannot participate in reciprocal status exchange. Include the preceding and following movement, one source-controlled uncertainty, one affected person or group, and what the verse does not authorize.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Luke 14:7–14:14 — Banquet Places Expose Status and HospitalitySources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The counsel critiques honor exchange and reciprocal patronage; naming disabled people must not turn them into props or imply they never reciprocate in other ways.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and coverage.
Exact location: Luke 14:7–14:14, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and sentence relations; the edition is not treated as a complete apparatus.
Exact location: Faithlife SBLGNT official repository, data/sblgnt/text/Luke.txt, 14:7–14:14
Open the Luke Greek text file ↗open translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Luke
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, syntax, KJV-language clarification, historical notes, Synoptic parallels, and textual alternatives.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Luke PDF, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to Luke 14:7–14:14
Open source ↗