Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Luke 14:12

Luke 14:12. To him also that had bidden him. These remarks imply that the host on this occasion had invited the chief persons of the place, and that he expected to receive some return from them. It was probably in a town in Perea, neither a large city nor a rural district, but just of that intermediate kind, where questions of position are deemed so important. The whole account is exceedingly apt and true to life.

Call not thy friends. ‘Call,' here means more than ‘invite,' it implies a loud calling, an ostentatious invitation, so that the whole town knows of the entertainment. The word will bear pondering wherever people sound a trumpet before their feasts. This is not a positive prohibition of entertaining one's friends and neighbors. Such intercourse is taken for granted. What is forbidden is the thought that this is hospitality, or in itself praiseworthy.

A recompense be made thee. Feasts, etc., are largely mere matters of business, not of kindness. Taken in connection with Luke 14:14, this implies that everything of that kind, however allowable, has no high moral quality, results in no reward in the future world. All expenses for entertainments, for which we expect a return, are expenses for self and not for others. If such entertainments prevent real charity (Luke 14:13) they are forbidden.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Luke 14:12

Old Testament

New Testament