Luke 18:11

Luke 18:11. The Pharisee stood. The publican also stood, but the word here used implies that the Pharisee took a position of confidence, a conspicuous one at all events (comp. Matthew 6:5).

Prayed thus with himself, i.e., to himself, not orally, since he would hardly venture to speak thus. But the phrase doubtless alludes to the fact that his prayer was not really a communing with God, but a communing with himself.

God, I thank thee. He did not thank God, but boasted. It is possible to thank God for what we do and become more than others (1 Corinthians 15:9-10), but such a thanksgiving springs out of the most profound humility.

Not as the rest of men. Self-righteousness sets at nought, not ‘others,' but ‘the rest of men;' as if no one else could be so acceptable to God. The Pharisee then subdivides the rest of men into classes: extortioners, unjust (in the restricted sense of those who act unjustly, illegally), adulterers (to be taken literally), or even as this publican. ‘Even' is contemptuous; it does not imply that he considered the publican as less unworthy than the other classes. The thanksgiving was not for freedom from these sins, but for his superiority to sinners; and he introduces the concrete and actual sinner (the publican).