Luke 18:1-43

The Unjust Judge. The Pharisee and the Publican. The Rich Ruler

1-8. The Unjust Judge (peculiar to Lk).

There is a close connexion with what precedes. The mention of the Second Advent leads Christ to speak of the need of prayer and watchfulness in view of it. The main lessons of the parable are: (1) The duty of continual prayer; (2) the certain answer to prayer, if it be only persistent enough; (3) the certainty that in the end God will maintain the cause of His elect against their adversaries; (4) a warning against failure of faith in times of seeming abandonment by God.
The moral difficulty that in this parable God seems to be compared to an unjust judge, is best met by saying that in reality God is not so much compared as contrasted with him. The argument is, If justice can be obtained by persistence even from an unjust judge, how much more can it be obtained from the Author of all justice. It is true that God is said, like the unjust judge, to delay justice. But His motive is entirely different. His delay is due to love, love of the saints, whose faith He designs to purify and strengthen by much waiting, and love of their adversaries, to whom He gives a space for repentance before the day of vengeance comes.