Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Luke 14:23 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 23. 23And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Luke 14:23 uses urgent invitation language whose coercive reception must be explicitly rejected.
Read It With
- Luke 14:15–14:24
Read Luke 14:23 with 14:15–14:24. In isolation, this contribution—uses urgent invitation language whose coercive reception must be explicitly rejected—can be detached from its speaker, audience, scene or teaching sequence, and outcome. The complete unit establishes: A banquet blessing prompts a story in which invited guests offer property and family excuses; the host angrily fills the house with poor and disabled city residents and then people from roads and hedges.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Luke 14:23 uses urgent invitation language whose coercive reception must be explicitly rejected. This precise contribution belongs inside “The Great Supper Reaches People Previously Excluded” because A banquet blessing prompts a story in which invited guests offer property and family excuses; the host angrily fills the house with poor and disabled city residents and then people from roads and hedges.
Follow the Context
- Identify the actors, setting, and initiating speech or action in Luke 14:15–14:24.
- A banquet blessing prompts a story in which invited guests offer property and family excuses; the host angrily fills the house with poor and disabled city residents and then people from roads and hedges.
- Hold this material interpretive limit in view: The command to 'compel' means urgent persuasion within the story and has a violent coercive reception history. The first invitees must not be equated wholesale with Jews.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
This verse does not detach its specific contribution—uses urgent invitation language whose coercive reception must be explicitly rejected—from the complete unit or override the unit's explicit boundary: The parable does not authorize forced conversion, kidnapping, antisemitism, contempt for work or marriage, or using vulnerable people to spite others.
What Remains True
Luke 14:23 uses urgent invitation language whose coercive reception must be explicitly rejected. Read inside Luke 14:15–14:24, this contribution supports the unit's proportionate truth: A banquet blessing prompts a story in which invited guests offer property and family excuses; the host angrily fills the house with poor and disabled city residents and then people from roads and hedges. Its use remains accountable to affected people and the unit's explicit boundary.
How It Can Shape Life
- Luke 14:23 uses urgent invitation language whose coercive reception must be explicitly rejected. Its faithful response is proportionate to that role: Extend welcome beyond familiar networks and remove practical barriers for excluded guests; invitation must not become coerced conversion, ableist labeling, or contempt for those who declined.
Teach It Back
Explain Luke 14:23's specific contribution to Luke 14:15–14:24: uses urgent invitation language whose coercive reception must be explicitly rejected. 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 14:15–14:24 — The Great Supper Reaches People Previously ExcludedSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
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 14:15–14:24, 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, 14:15–14:24
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 14:15–14:24
Open source ↗