For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Or perhaps, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build, and wasn’t able to finish.’
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Luke 14:28-30 sits inside this longer paragraph.
Now great multitudes were going with him. He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can’t be my disciple. Whoever doesn’t bear his own cross, and come after me, can’t be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Or perhaps, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build, and wasn’t able to finish.’ Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an envoy, and asks for conditions of peace. So therefore whoever of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has, he can’t be my disciple. Salt is good, but if the salt becomes flat and tasteless, with what do you season it? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Parallel Translations
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For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?
Or perhaps, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, everyone who sees begins to mock him,
saying, ‘This man began to build, and wasn’t able to finish.’
-
Which of you disposed to bilde a toure sytteth not doune before and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to performe it?
lest after he hath layde the foundacion and is not able to performe it all that beholde it beginne to mocke him
sayinge: this man beganne to bilde and was not able to make an ende.
Show all 3 translations
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For which of you minding to builde a towre, sitteth not downe before, and counteth the cost, whether hee haue sufficient to performe it,
Lest that after he hath laide the foundation, and is not able to performe it, all that behold it, begin to mocke him,
Saying, This man began to builde, and was not able to make an end?
Cross-references (18)
- Proverbs 24:27 (v28) Prepare your work outside, and get your fields ready. Afterwards, build your house.
- Matthew 10:22 (v28) You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.
- Joshua 24:19-24 (v28) Joshua said to the people, “You can’t serve Yahweh, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your disobedience nor…
- Luke 14:33 (v28) So therefore whoever of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has, he can’t be my disciple.
- Matthew 8:20 (v28) Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
Show all 18 cross-references
- Matthew 20:22-23 (v28) But Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the…
- Acts 21:13 (v28) Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem…
- Hebrews 6:11 (v30) We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end,
- Genesis 11:4-9 (v28) They said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, lest we be…
- 1 Thessalonians 3:4-5 (v28) For most certainly, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction, even as it happened, and you know. For…
- 2 John 1:8 (v30) Watch yourselves, that we don’t lose the things which we have accomplished, but that we receive a full reward.
- Hebrews 6:4-8 (v30) For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the…
- 2 Peter 2:19-22 (v30) promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.…
- Acts 1:18-19 (v30) Now this man obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness, and falling headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines gushed…
- 1 Corinthians 3:11-14 (v30) For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ. But if anyone builds on the foundation with…
- Hebrews 10:38 (v30) But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
- Matthew 7:27 (v30) The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”
- Matthew 27:3-8 (v30) Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (21 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v28 At home, and casteth all his costs before he…
At home, and casteth all his costs before he begin the work.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv28–29 28 For which of you, intending to build a…
28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Ver. 28. Intending to build a tower] Rodulphus Gualther being in Oxford, and beholding Christchurch College, said, Egregium opus: Cardinalis iste iustituit collegium, et absolvit popinam. A pretty business! a college begun and a kitchen finished.
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Counteth the cost] Let him that intendeth to build the tower of godliness sit down first and cast up the cost, lest, &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On v28 Our Lord had in the parable of the supper…
Our Lord had in the parable of the supper showed what those things are which keep men from embracing the call of the gospel, to wit, their hearts’ too much adherence to and embracing of sensible and sensual things. For the meeting of which temptation he had told them, Luk 14:25-27, that if they loved any thing in the world more than him, they could have no portion in him, they could not be his disciples, for (as Matthew saith) they are not worthy of him; nay, more than this, they must take up and bear their cross, and come after him. Here he directs them the best expedient in order to the performance of these duties, so hard to flesh and blood; that is, to sit down beforehand, and think what it will cost them to go through with the profession of religion. This, he tells them, ordinary prudence directeth men to, when they go about to build, or fight. As to the first, they make as good an estimate as they can of the charge. As to the latter, they consider both the charge, and the strength that they are able to produce to make opposition. So, saith he, must they do who will be his disciples:
1. Sit down and consider what it will cost them to become the Lord’s building, what old foundations of nature must be digged up, what new foundation must be laid, how many stones must be laid before they can come up to a wall level to the promise wherein salvation is insured.
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2. Then they must consider what oppositions they are like to meet with, from the world, the flesh, and the devil.
And they must be ready to forsake all for Christ, though, it may be, they shall not be actually called out to it. Only we must remember, that in parables every branch is not to be applied.
1. We must desire no conditions of peace from our spiritual adversaries.
2. In our counting up of our strength to maintain the spiritual fight we must do as princes use to do, who use to count the forces of their allies and confederates, as well as their own: so we must not count what opposition we, alone can maintain against the world, the flesh, and the devil; but what Christ (who is in covenant with us as to these fights) and we can do together.
So as consideration and pre-deliberation here are not required of as upon any account to deter us from the fight, (for fight we must, or die eternally), but to prepare us for the fight, by a firm and steady resolution, and to help us how to manage the fight, looking up to Christ for his strength and assistance in the management of it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v28 Our blessed Saviour, by these two parables, advises all…
Our blessed Saviour, by these two parables, advises all his followers to sit down and consider, to weigh well, and cast up beforehand, what it is likely to cost them to go through with their profession of religion: this, he tells us, common prudence will direct men to do in other cases; particularly when they either go to build or fight; as a man that intends to build, will consult whether he is able to defray the charges; and a king that goes forth to war, will consider what strength he has to make opposition: in like manner should persons engage in religion: not rashly, but advisedly, with consideration and judgment.
It is good to remember the issues of action, before we act; before we engage in the spiritual combat, to consider the difficulty of the battle; what proud leviathans we have to conflict with, what mighty giants to contend and strive against, even the world, the flesh, and the devil. But then we must take great care that our deliberation and consideration of difficulties and dangers may not deter us from, but work in us, a steady resolution for the combat, looking up to Christ for his auxiliary aid and strength to render us victorious, who though of ourselves we can do nothing, yet we may do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Php 4:13
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Learn from hence, that such as take up a profession of Christianity, without considering the dangers and difficulties, the trials and troubles, the afflictions and temptations, which may accompany it, will never hold out in the spiritual warfare, but either fall in it, or run from it.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv28–30 Lest haply after he hath laid the foundation,.... Has…
Lest haply after he hath laid the foundation,.... Has begun to build, has taken up a profession, has submitted to ordinances, and got into a church state:
and is not able to finish it; a foundation may be laid, and the building may never be finished, because the foundation is not laid right; was it, it would continue, and the building go on, and at last be finished; though no man is able to finish it of himself, yet those hands which have laid the foundation, will raise up the superstructure, and complete the whole building, through the power and efficacy of divine grace: but where there is a beginning, and which at first looks well, and there is no progress, but the work is dropped and left unfinished,
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all that behold it, begin to mock; as follows;
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v28 And which of you intending to build a tower…
And which of you intending to build a tower - That is, and whoever of you intends to follow me, let him first seriously weigh these things.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v28 Verse 28. To build a tower] Probably this means…
Verse 28. To build a tower] Probably this means no more than a dwelling house, on the top of which, according to the Asiatic manner, battlements were built, both to take the fresh air on, and to serve for refuge from and defence against an enemy. It was also used for prayer and meditation.
This parable represents the absurdity of those who undertook to be disciples of Christ, without considering what difficulties they were to meet with, and what strength they had to enable them to go through with the undertaking. He that will be a true disciple of Jesus Christ shall require no less than the mighty power of God to support him; as both hell and earth will unite to destroy him.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v28 Luk 14:28-33. Which of you, intending to build a…
Luk 14:28-33. Which of you, intending to build a tower, (the word πυργος here signifying the same as the Hebrew migdol, seems to denote any great building whatever,) sitteth not down first and counteth the cost — To illustrate the necessity of their weighing deliberately, whether they were able and prepared to bear all their losses and persecutions to which the profession of the gospel would expose them, which indeed was the only term on which they could be his disciples, he desired them to consider how prudence would direct them to act in other cases of importance. The most thoughtless person among you, as if he had said, will not resolve on a matter of such importance as the building of a house, without previously calculating the expense; because you know that the builder who begins without counting the cost, being obliged to leave off for want of money, exposes himself to the ridicule of all passengers who look on the half- finished edifice. In like manner, the king who declares war without comparing his forces with those of his enemy, and considering whether the bravery of his troops, and the conduct of his generals, will be able to make up what he wants in numbers, is sure to be ingloriously defeated, unless he humbly sue for peace before the matter comes to an engagement. So likewise — Like the person who began to build and was not able to finish; or like the king who, being afraid to face his enemy, sends an embassy and desires terms of peace; whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath — Who does not engage so earnestly and resolutely in his Christian warfare, as to hold all things cheap in comparison with life eternal, and be ready to forsake them when I call him to it; he cannot be my disciple — He cannot be acknowledged by me as such, because my disciples will be exposed to such trials, to such reproaches, losses, imprisonments, tortures, and martyrdoms, that unless they prefer me, and the cause in which I am engaged, to all visible and temporal things whatever, they certainly will not steadily adhere to me, or continue faithful and constant in my service. “Christ does not here require that we should actually renounce these [temporal] things, but that our heart and our affections should be so taken off from them, that we always love them less than we love him; and be always ready to part with them when we cannot keep them without making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.” —
Whitby. To the same purpose Baxter: “A man cannot be Christ’s disciple if he prefer not the kingdom of heaven before all worldly interest, and forsake it not all comparatively, in esteem and resolution now, and in act when he is called to it.” “It was in this sense that the apostles understood their Master: for though they are said to have forsaken all and followed him, they still retained the property of their goods, as is evident from the mention that is made of John’s house, into which he took our Lord’s mother, after the crucifixion; and from Peter and the other disciples prosecuting their old trade of fishing, with their boat and nets, after their Master’s resurrection: nevertheless, though they thus retained the use and dominion of their property, they had truly forsaken all, in the highest sense of their Master’s precept, being ready, at his call, to leave their families, occupations, and possessions, as often and as long as he thought fit to employ them in the work of the gospel. Upon the whole, therefore, it appears, that the renunciation and self-denial which Christ requires, does not consist in actually parting with all before he calls us to do so, but in being disposed to part with all, that when he calls we may do it.” See Macknight.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv28–29 Intending to build a tower - See Mat 21:33.…
Intending to build a tower - See Mat 21:33. A tower was a place of defense or observation, erected on high places or in vineyards, to guard against enemies. It was made “high,” so as to enable one to see an enemy when he approached; and “strong,” so that it could not be easily taken.
Counteth the cost - Makes a calculation how much it will cost to build it.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv28–29 For which of you, &c. The similitude, which our…
For which of you, &c. The similitude, which our divine Saviour makes us of, represents the offices and duty of a true Christian, for he has to build within himself and conduct others by his example to war with the devil, the world, and the flesh; and he has to season, purify, and keep all his actions free from corruption by the spiritual salt of mortification and prayer. (Tirinus)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v28 which of you, &c.--Common sense teaches men not to…
which of you, &c.--Common sense teaches men not to begin any costly work without first seeing that they have wherewithal to finish. And he who does otherwise exposes himself to general ridicule. Nor will any wise potentate enter on a war with any hostile power without first seeing to it that, despite formidable odds (two to one), he be able to stand his ground; and if he has no hope of this, he will feel that nothing remains for him but to make the best terms he can. Even so, says our Lord, "in the warfare you will each have to wage as My disciples, despise not your enemy's strength, for the odds are all against you; and you had better see to it that, despite every disadvantage, you still have wherewithal to hold out and win the day, or else not begin at all, and make the best you can in such awful circumstances." In this simple sense of the parable (STIER, ALFORD, &c., go wide of the mark here in making the enemy to be God, because of the "conditions of peace," Luk 14:32), two things are taught: (1) Better not begin (Rev 3:15), than begin and not finish. (2) Though the contest for salvation be on our part an awfully unequal one, the human will, in the exercise of that "faith which overcometh the world" (Jo1 5:4), and nerved by power from above, which "out of weakness makes it strong" (Heb 11:34; Pe1 1:5), becomes heroical and will come off "more than conqueror." But without absolute surrender of self the contest is hopeless (Luk 14:33).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv28–29 28. Build a tower—As becoming my disciple is building…
28. Build a tower—As becoming my disciple is building the structure of your salvation.
Sitteth not down first—Added to describe graphically the reckoning of the tower builder.
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Have sufficient—Just so you, pursuers of my footsteps, imagining you will be my disciples, should weigh, before you go farther, whether you have the moral capital. See whether you are so renouncing every obstacle, abhorring every counter tie, and making that complete surrender which the enterprise demands.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv28–29 28. intending to build a tower] This and the…
28. intending to build a tower] This and the next similitude are meant, like the previous teachings, to warn the expectant multitudes that to follow Christ in the true sense might be a far more serious matter than they imagined. They are significant lessons on the duty of deliberate choice which will not shrink from the ultimate consequences— the duty of counting the cost (see Mat_20:22). Thus they involve that lesson of “patient continuance in well-doing,” which is so often inculcated in the New Testament.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v28 (28-30) Which of you, intending to build a tower…
(28-30) Which of you, intending to build a tower . .?—The words do not depend for their meaning on any local or personal allusion, but it is quite possible that their force may have been heightened for those who heard them by the memory of recent facts. Pilate had begun to build—certainly an aqueduct, probably a tower—and had not been able to finish. (See Notes on Luk_13:4; Mat_27:16.) He had not “counted the cost,” and when he was hindered from laying hands on the Corban, or treasure of the Temple, his resources failed.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On v28 Vers. 28-30. For which of you, intending to build…
Vers. 28-30. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. The imagery was not an unfamiliar one in those days. The magnificent Herodian house had a passion for erecting great buildings, sacred and profane, in the varied cities under their sway. They would doubtless be often imitated, and no doubt many an unfinished edifice testified to the foolish emulation of some would-be imitator of the extravagant royal house. Now, such incomplete piles of masonry and brickwork simply excite a contemptuous pity for the builder, who has so falsely calculated his resources when he drew the plan of the palace or villa he was never able to finish. So in the spiritual life, the would-be professor finds such living harder than he supposed, and so gives up trying after the nobler way of living altogether; and the world, who watched his feeble efforts and listened with an incredulous smile when he proclaimed his intentions, now ridicules him, and pours scorn upon what it considers an unattainable ideal. Such an attempt and failure injure the cause of God.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v28 For which of you, intending to build a tower
Luk_14:28-30
For which of you, intending to build a tower
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The Christian builder
Our Lord on purpose mentioned a tower rather than any other building, perhaps to signify that the top of our spiritual building must reach to heaven, or otherwise it will be vain to build.
A Christian, then, is a man that builds a tower, a noble building, not a cottage, and therefore should count the cost.
I. WHAT SORT OF A TOWER THE CHRISTIAN BUILDS.
1. A tower is no small building, but a noble structure; and so is the believers spiritual building.
(1) Infinite wisdom is the contriver of it.
(2) The Lord Jesus Christ is the foundation of it.
2. It is a noble building, or a famous tower, because the design of it is to preserve the soul from all its enemies, and from all dangers whatsoever, to eternal life.
3. This spiritual building may be called a tower, because a Christian is a soldier, and this building is to be his fortress; and if he builds on Christ, or rightly upon the only foundation, he need not fear all the gunshot of Satan, sin, the flesh, and the world, though he must expect to be battered severely by these enemies.
4. It may be called a tower, because the Christian builds for another world. He must gradually proceed until he reaches heaven.
II. WHY IS A CHRISTIAN SAID TO BUILD THIS TOWER?
1. Because he is to believe in Jesus Christ, i.e., to build on Him.
2. But note that it is God who finds all the materials.
III. EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD CONSIDER THE MATTER SO WELL AS TO COUNT THE COST. Why?
1. Because it will be a very costly building to him.
(1) He must give up all his cursed sins and lusts, though as dear to him in times past as a right hand or eye.
(2) He must expect it will cost him the loss of whatsoever he once accounted gain.
(3) He must part with all his former companions, and expect they will mock and deride him, and may be his own wife also.
2. Because great storms may rise, and floods come, and beat upon his high tower; and he should count the damage he may sustain in such storms.
3. Because he is not able either to begin, nor to build, or lay one stone by his own strength; and if he knows not this, or does not utterly despair of any power or ability of his own, he will never be able to finish, and then men will mock him, etc.
4. He must account how rich, how strong, and able he is in Jesus Christ; and if He knows that Christ is his strength, he counts the cost aright; and if he depends wholly, constantly, and believingly upon Jesus Christ, he need not fear but he shall have wherewith to finish this famous tower, i.e., the salvation of his precious soul.
Application:
1. This reprehends all rash and inconsiderate persons, who, through some sudden flash of zeal (which may prove like a lava flood) set out in a visible profession of Christ and the gospel.
2. This may inform us of the reason there are so many who grow cold, and soon falter, and fall off, or decline in their zeal and seeming love to Christ, His truth, and people. They counted not the cost--what corruptions they must mortify, what temptations they must withstand, what reproaches they must expect to meet with, what enemies they may find, and what relations they may enrage and stir up against them.
3. Let all from hence be exhorted to count the cost before they begin to build, and not expose themselves by their inconsiderateness to the reproach of men, either to the grief of the godly, or to the contempt and scorn of the wicked.
4. Yet let none from hence be discouraged, or decline closing with Christ, or with His people; for if they are sincere and gracious persons, they will understand that the almighty power of God is engaged to help them.
5. Count also all the external charge, which a visible profession of Christ may expose you to; for the interest of Christ, and the charge of His Church, must be borne.
6. How great is the work of a Christian. No lazy life.
7. Let all learn on what foundation to build, and not refuse the chief cornerstone. Depend wholly upon God in Christ. His money pays for all. Yet you shall not miscarry for want of money to finish, if in all your wants you go to Him by faith and prayer. (B. Keach.)
Importance of consideration
Nelaton, the great French surgeon, once said that if he had four minutes in which to perform an operation on which a life depended, he would take one minute to consider how best to do it. (Baxendales Anecdotes.)
Purposes should be weighed
Before proceeding to any work, we should weigh it. Letters are charged in the post office according to weight. I have written and sealed a letter containing several sheets. I desire that it should pass; I think it will; but I know well that it will not be allowed to pass because I desire that it should or think that it will. I know well it will be tested by imperial weights and measures. Before I plunge it beyond my reach, I place it on a balance before me, not constructed to please my desire, but honestly adjusted to the legal standard. I weigh it there, and check it myself by the very rules which government will apply. So should we weigh our purposes in the balance, before we launch them forth in action. (W. Arnot.)
The religious life exceeds human resource
He is not, in our Lords estimation, the true spiritual builder, such as will bring his work to a successful end, who, counting the cost, finds that he has enough, as he supposes to finish the building which he has begun; but the wise and happy builder is he who counts and discovers that he has not enough, that the work far exceeds any resources at his command, and who thereupon forsakes all that he has, all vain imagination of a spiritual wealth of his own; and therefore proceeds to build, not at his own charges at all, but altogether at the charges of God, waiting upon Him day by day for new supplies of strength. (Archbishop Trench.)
Counting the cost
I. TRUE RELIGION IS COSTLY. A poor man is suddenly made a prince; it will cost him the giving up of his former manners, and will involve him in new duties and cares. A man is set on the road to heaven as a pilgrim: does he pay anything to enter by the wicket-gate? I trow not: free grace admits him to the sacred way. But when that man is put on the road to heaven it will cost him something. It will cost him earnestness to knock at the wicket-gate, and sweat wherewith to climb the Hill Difficulty; it will cost him tears to find his roll again when he has lost it in the arbour of ease; it will cost him great care in going down the Valley of Humiliation; it will cost him resistance unto blood when he stands foot to foot with Apollyon in conflict. What, then, is the expense?
1. If yea would be Christs, and have His salvation, you must love Him beyond every other person in this world.
2. Self must be hated. I must mortify the flesh with its affections and lusts, denying myself anything and everything which would grieve the Saviour, or would prevent my realizing perfect conformity to Him.
3. If we would follow the Saviour, we must bear our cross. He who has the smile of the ungodly, must look for the frown of God.
4. We must follow Christ, i.e., act as He acted.
5. Unreserved surrender of all to Jesus. If you possess a farthing that is your own and not your masters, Christ is not your master.
II. WISDOM SUGGESTS THAT WE SHOULD COUNT THE COST.
1. If you do not count the cost, you will not be able to carry out your resolves. It is a great building, a great war. Faith and repentance are a lifework.
2. To fail in this great enterprise will involve terrible defeat. Half-hearted Christians, half-hearted religious men, may not be scoffed at in the public streets to their faces, but they are common butts of ridicule behind their backs. False professors are universally despised. Oh! if you must be lost, be lost as anything but hypocrites.
III. COST WHATEVER IT MAY, TRUE RELIGION IS WORTH THE COST.
1. The present blessings of true religion are worth all the cost.
2. What recompense comes for all cost in the consolation afforded by true godliness in the article of death?
3. Christ asks you to give up nothing that will injure you.
4. Christ does not ask you to do anything that He has not done Himself. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Ill-considered beginnings
This parable stands in juxtaposition with that of the Great Supper, and is plainly designed to supplement its lesson, and preclude any perversion of its meaning. In the one you have the freedom of gospel privileges, in the other you have the costliness of gospel responsibilities. You that are following me so readily, says the Saviour, consider what you do. As builders of a spiritual house, are you incurring a new and a serious outlay; are you prepared to face it? As warriors on a spiritual campaign, you are challenging new and uncompromising enemies; are you able to confront them? Far better leave an undertaking alone, than, after starting it, have thereafter to abandon it, especially when, as in the present case, it attracts the observation of so many watchful eyes, and provokes the resentment of so many jealous hearts. Beware lest you waken the worlds hostility by your pretensions to strength when you begin, and live to incur its mockery by your confession of weakness when you desist. That, then, is the drift of this passage. Of course, only one side of the truth is here brought before us. It is not only on account of the views of outsiders, their spitefulness when a man commences, and their contempt when he leaves off, that our Saviour bids those who would join Him count the cost. There are other and worse consequences to be faced by him who begins and who ceases in this matter, than the pointing of a worldlings finger or the wagging of a worldlings tongue, and for these we must look elsewhere. But so far as it goes the parable is both pertinent and pungent, the lesson of it plain, the application unavoidable. He that will build a tower necessarily invites attention, provokes scrutiny, sets speculation astir, and these not always of the kindest or most favourable sort. Publicly he succeeds, if success be in store for him; but publicly, too, he must fail. Exactly so is it with the assuming of a Christian position. Let a man bear in mind that for this, if for no other reason, he is wise to think well ere beginning, remembering that the eye of the world is upon him. Not only is this matter of a Christian profession and a spiritual life a necessarily public undertaking; it is also a very costly one. And the higher the ideal we erect for ourselves, the more important and commanding the position we assume, the greater the outlay we must face. True, let me remind you again, the building of the tower may turn out in the end the most gloriously profitable investment that is open to us. When the walls are complete, and the headstone brought forth with shoutings of grace, grace unto it, it may prove a magnificent and an everlasting habitation, repaying a thousandfold, both in shelter and in splendour, the disbursements its erection occasioned.
But, meanwhile, these disbursements may be trying. And let every man weigh the solemn fact, the assuming of a Christian profession and the maintenance of the Christian life may in some cases involve a serious price. Nor will any be able to say that the estimates for the building of the tower have been kept in the background by Scripture; they are clearly drawn up, and faithfully presented. And what is the expenditure they specify? This among other things (let the context testify): the hatred of father and mother and sisters and brethren, the losing of ones own life, the taking up of the cross, the forsaking all a man hath. These be strong words, but, brethren, they are Christs, and there are those, many and many a one, who have found them no whit beyond the facts. This brings me to the third point in the parable, for which we are now prepared, namely, the consequence that too often takes place from a rash and ill-considered beginning. For a time the building proceeds. He has founded it in accordance with Gods appointment, he rears it in conformity with Gods plan. But there comes a period when the enterprise gets costly. It touches him on the side of his comfort, touches him on the side of his pride, and the unaccustomed drain begins. It is first a call on his time, time he wanted to use an he liked; next a wrench of affection, the severance of a tie which was dear to the flesh, but which Christian principle forbade; next, the sudden disappointing of desire--desire which only a disciple of Christ would possibly have been asked to deny himself; then an inroad on his purse. And thus there comes a time when in his own heart of hearts the ominous uncertainty begins, even though shame for a time makes him persevere. Have I not gone too far? he is now beginning to ask of himself, and may not this tower of mine bear curtailing, without any loss to the general design? God will make allowance for my poverty, and the world will be unaware of the difference, or approve of it. So, lesser inconsistencies creep in; lesser incompletenesses make themselves manifest; there is a saving here and a saving there. Already the mans life has fallen below his profession; the execution of the building is not up to the plan, and the end of it all throws its shadow before. We all know what that was. Alas, he had not sufficiently examined himself; he had not sufficiently counted the cost. He did not know all he was doing when he separated himself from the worlds companionship, and resolved to take up the cross of Christ. Better never to have asserted a superiority to the world at all, than, having assumed the position by leaving it, thereafter to renounce it by going back. When Pliable re-entered the City of Destruction with the mud of his expedition bespattering his clothes, and its terrors still pale on his face, the city was moved round about trim, and we read that some called him foolish for going, and others called him wise for coming back. But I can fancy that even these did not quite take the erring one back to their arms, nor forget the facts of his escapade, and that all the time he went in and out in the midst of them the consciousness never faded from their hearts, the sneer never passed from their lips. And when the man who has begun to build the tower of a religious profession, and is compelled to leave it unfinished, slinks back to the comrades his enterprise has offended, saying, Brothers, I find I have made a mistake; I am, after all, no better than yourselves; I will henceforth make amends for my folly by dwelling in a house and sitting at a table like your own, think you that the world will have any sympathy or respect for him? It may applaud him to his face, but behind his back there will ever be the pointed finger and the whispered scoff: That man began to build, and was not able to finish. For, oh! here is the solemn thought. The man may change his mind, but the fabric he has reared remains notwithstanding, the monument of his pride and his folly alike, unhonoured, untenanted, and unfinished. There the building stands, in the words of seeming sincerity the man has spoken, in the Christian teaching he has published, in the Christian schemes he has launched, all which he has long since abandoned, because he had failed to lay his account with the difficulties, had forgotten to count the cost. And through all time the unfinished fabric shall remain, the sorrow of the Church and the triumph of the world, ay, and perhaps throughout eternity too, as the rebuke of conscience and the taunt of the lost. Hitherto we have moved only along the strict lines of the parable, and narrowed ourselves to the special thought that the Saviour was enforcing at the time. But there are several thoughts in connection with the passage before us, which, though not exactly in it, are so closely akin to it and so naturally suggested by it, that we cannot quite omit them.
1. And first, are there any among us who have been saying to themselves, But we have been building the tower. Ours has been a Christian profession ever since our earliest years. And really we have had no experience of the difficulties of which you speak. So far as we know, our operations have wakened no ones envy, and provoked no ones hostility. And do you think, therefore, that the statements already made as to the costliness of a Christian profession are overdrawn and exaggerated, suitable perhaps to the times in which the Saviour spoke, but scarcely suitable to our own. Remember, however, ye who speak thus, that there is an evil quite as bad as unfinished building, and that is unstable building.
2. Then, again, it follows from all this, that we are to be cautious and careful in our judgments as to those around us, whom we might have expected to build, but who seem to hesitate. Of the utterly indifferent, who have never yet faced the matter nor once realized the claims of Christ, we do not, of course, speak. But there are others who have not yet taken up a Christian position, not from want of thought, but rather because they are thinking so deeply. They, at any rate, are sensible of the cost, and are settling down to count it. And that is better than the conduct of the man who complacently offers God a service that costs him nothing, and perseveres in his presumption, or of the man who rashly begins what is costly, and then desists.
3. But thirdly, a word in closing to this very class,--the backward and reluctant. Brother, you are counting the cost. You do well to count it. Christ here counsels you to count it. And you feel, do you, that it is a risk that you cannot honestly face? Far better, do you say, to be a consistent man of the world than an imperfect professor of religion--like him who began the tower, and was not able to finish? True, again; but is your state of hesitation therefore defensible? Do you think Christ bids any man sit down and count the cost of the project only that he may renounce it altogether? Nay, verily; it is only that out of a deep sense of your weakness you may be driven to ask the needed strength from Himself, and, knowing that you have not the wherewithal to carry on the fabric He nevertheless seeks you to rear, you may be thrown on the helpfulness and ready supplies of Him who giveth liberally and upbraideth not. (W. Gray.)
Religion
The great fact which our Lord designs to illustrate is this--that numbers embrace the gospel from reasons that are not conclusive, and when stronger reasons, as they appear to them, arise in their intercourse with social life, they lightly renounce a creed they lightly adopted.
I. First, there are THOSE WHO ACCEPT RELIGION MERELY FROM IMPULSE, They are constitutionally the creatures of impulse. One man is the creature of feeling; another is more the creature of intellectual conviction; another is more borne away or decided in his course by fact. The Scotchman must have strong arguments; the Irishman must have eloquent appeals; and the Englishman must have hard matter of fact. Each nation has its idiosyncracy; each individual his peculiar temperament. Men who are the creatures of strong and impetuous emotion, subscribe to a creed, if I may use the expression, on the spur of the moment, and because they feel profoundly, they think they are convinced, and that the creed which they adopt is demonstrable and necessarily true. Now, I answer--this will not be sufficient to keep you steadfast. This is commencing the tower, before you have laid a fit foundation; this is plunging into a conflict whilst you have not the weapons that will enable you to conquer. Feeling in religion is right; but feeling must not be all. An eloquent appeal may move you, but it ought not to decide you.
II. In the second place, there is THE RELIGION OF THE CROWD. Many men are religious in a crowd, who are most irreligious when alone. They like what seems to be popular; they can be Christians in the mass, but not Christians when insulated from others. Many a soldier is a coward when alone, but he becomes a hero in his rank and place in the battalion.
III. There is a third sort of religion--THE RELIGION OF MERE CIRCUMSTANCE. People often accept the religion of those they love, and with whom they associate.
IV. There are others whose religion is simply the religion of tradition. An outside robe; not the inner life.
V. There is another religion which may be called, THE RELIGION OF SENTIMENT. This religion is nourished by all the beautiful and the romantic. It is the religion of Athens rather than the religion of Jerusalem--the religion of painters and of poets, rather than the religion of thinking and intellectual minds.
VI. There is another religion which is equally false; and that is THE RELIGION OF MERE FORM. It regards the outer aspect of things; not the inner light. This is not a religion that will stand.
VII. And in the next place let me add, there is THE RELIGION OF INTELLECT. If some profess Christianity from sentimental sympathy with its beautiful parts, and others profess Christianity from admiration of its ritual, or its form, there are others who profess Christianity from deep intellectual apprehension of it; and yet theirs is a religion that will not stand.
VIII. And, lastly, there is another religion which will still more surprise you when I say that it also may be a religion that will not stand--THE RELIGION OF CONSCIENCE. It is possible for conscience to be in religion, and yet your heart not to be the subject of living and experimental Christianity. You will go to the house of God because your conscience would torment you if you did not do so. But is this the beautiful, the blessed, the happy religion of Jesus? Such service is slavery; such duties drudgery; and such a religion is a ceaseless and perpetual penance, and not righteousness and peace in the Holy Ghost. (J. Cumming, D. D.)
On counting the cost
THE COST ATTENDING THE CHRISTIAN PROFESSION.
1. In order to be the disciples of Christ, there is much that we must instantly renounce It is a profession of holiness: it, therefore, demands the immediate renunciation of criminal and forbidden pleasures. By His gospel, and by His Son, God has called us, not to uncleanness, but to holiness; so that he that despiseth the precepts of purity, despiseth not man but God.
2. The Christian profession is spiritual, and therefore requires the renunciation of the world.
3. In order to be a disciple it is necessary, in the concerns of conscience, to renounce every authority but that of Christ. The connection of a Christian with the Saviour is not merely that of a disciple with his teacher; it is the relation of a subject to his prince. One is your Master, even Christ.
4. The cost of which we are speaking relates to what we are to expect. In general, to commence the profession of a Christian, is to enter upon a formidable and protracted warfare; it is to engage in an arduous contest, in which many difficulties are to be surmounted, many enemies overcome. The path that was trod by the great Leader is that which must be pursued by all his followers.
5. The cost of the Christian profession stands related to the term and duration of the engagement--Be thou faithful unto death. It is coeval with life.
II. WHY, WE SAY, IS IT EXPEDIENT FOR THOSE WHO PROPOSE TO BECOME CHRISTIANS TO COUNT THE COST?
1. It will obviate a sense of ridicule and of shame (see the context).
2. It will render the cost less formidable when it occurs.
3. If it diminishes the number of those who make a public and solemn profession, this will be more than retrieved by the superior character of those who make it. The Church will be spared much humiliation; Satan and the world deprived of many occasions of triumph.
III. THE REASONS WHICH SHOULD DETERMINE OUR ADHERENCE TO CHRIST, NOTWITHSTANDING THE COST WHICH ATTENDS IT.
1. His absolute right to command or claim our attachment.
2. The pain attending the sacrifices necessary to the Christian profession greatly alleviated from a variety of sources.
3. No comparison betwixt the cost and the advantages. (R. Hall, M. A.)
True heroism: counting the cost
The cost of a Christian profession, if it be genuine and true. Alas! to be called Christian, to have the Christian name, to pass muster with the world as a Christian, is a light and little thing; and as John Bunyan well paints in his admirable portraiture of the false as well as the true professor; There are many By-ends, who like to go with religion when religion goes in silver slippers, who love to walk with him in the street, if the sun shines and the people applaud him, but such By-ends will not pass muster in the great day. They may be esteemed members of the visible Church, but the question is, Will they stand the test in the great day, when the Lord comes to reckon with the servants? If, indeed, we understand the Christian profession as Jesus portrays it, we cannot suppose it is a thing that does not require to be weighed well. There is a cost, there is a sacrifice to be counted upon, there are difficulties and dangers to be looked forward to, there is much to be borne up against that will be hard to bear, and on these things we are to decide. If a man must thus deny himself in order to be a soldier of his country, how much more must he deny himself to be a soldier under the Captain of his salvation? He requires us to renounce His enemies, who are our foes, let us not forget, though we naturally regard them as our friends. Our sympathies are with them, and our desires and tastes lead us captive after them. A man must make his election; will you have Jesus to be your Redeemer? But we must not glance only at what a man must forego, but at what he must undergo; and here is the part of the cost that many shrink from. For instance, a young man is entangled in the midst of worldly connections, and he begins to look more serious, and to go to church, and to read his Bible regularly, and to find out that he is disinclined to go to the theatre, and to scenes of rioting and revelling, and to join the multitude to do evil. He knows what will follow, but the cross must be taken up. He will be laughed at by the silly and ungodly. And therefore, brethren, there is a cost; a man must undergo shame and the cross; it will not do to dismiss it, to muzzle it, to step over it even in order to escape it, for, as the Master tells us, If any man will come after Me, he must bear his cross daily and hourly. If a man counts the cost, he counts also the help and succour he shall find; for he knows his weakness, and he learns his strength; and if he finds himself encompassed with danger, he will not rush into the temptation, but he will nestle beneath the Almighty wings, and shelter beneath the ark of safety. In the first place, if a man count the cost of taking up the standard, and enlisting in the army of Christ, he has to obey the simple claims of Christ as one in whom there is power and authority. And then, brethren, let us not forget that if the service of Christ has its sorrows, it has its joys; if it has its self-denials, it has its self-indulgences; if here there are thorns and briers, the world above has everlasting flowers, and heavenly violets, and sweet-smelling lilies, that shed a fragrance around all and above all; and though the way may be narrow, it is a straight one; it has no pitfalls, no traps, no bitter fears, no dark forebodings, no haunting spirits, but it has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. It saves a man from a thousand snares, it shields him from a thousand dark remorses, it guards him from a thousand fearful misgivings, and enables him to look God and man in the face. Can the world, or the service of the world, do that? Then, to sum up all, if we cast into the balance of gains life everlasting, surely that must make the scale touch the ground, and the opposite scale strike the beam. What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? I reckon, said one, who had large experience of the worlds trials, that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Can language go further? And that is not the language of a fanatic or a fool, but of the Spirit of God, teaching us through one whom He had taught with Divine wisdom, that overcoming is heroism. The heroism of the Cross--that is true heroism. (H. Stowell, M. A.)
Holiness: the cost
I. WHAT IT COSTS TO BE A TRUE CHRISTIAN.
1. It will cost a man his self-righteousness. He must be content to go to heaven as a poor sinner saved only by free grace, and owing all to the merit and righteousness of another. Sir, said a godly ploughman to the well-known James Hervey, of Weston Favell, it is harder to deny proud self than sinful self. But it is absolutely necessary.
2. It will cost a man his sins. No truce with any one of them. This also sounds hard. Our sins are often as dear to us as our children: we love them, hug them, cleave to them, and delight in them. To part with them is as hard as cutting off a right hand, or plucking out a right eye. But it must be done.
3. It will cost a man his love of ease. He must take pains and trouble, if he means to run a successful race towards heaven. He must be careful over his time, his tongue, his temper, his thoughts, his imagination, his motives, his conduct in every relation of life.
4. It will cost a man the favour of the world. He must count it no strange thing to be mocked, ridiculed, slandered, persecuted, and even hated.
II. WHY COUNTING THE COST IS OF SUCH GREAT IMPORTANCE TO MANS SOUL. There are many persons who are not thoughtless about religion: they think a good deal about it. They are not ignorant of religion: they know the outlines of it pretty well. But their great defect is that they are not rooted and grounded in their faith. For want of counting the cost myriads of the children of Israel perished miserably in the wilderness between Egypt and Canaan. For want of counting the cost many of our Lord Jesus Christs hearers went back after a time, and walked no more with Him. For want of counting the cost, hundreds of professed converts, under religious revivals, go back to the world after a time and bring disgrace on religion. They begin with a sadly mistaken notion of what is true Christianity. They fancy it consists in nothing more than a so-called coming to Christ, and having strong inward feelings of joy and peace. And so, when they find after a time that there is a cross to be carried, that our hearts are deceitful, and that there is a busy devil always near us, they cool down in disgust, and return to their old sins. And why? Because they had really never known what Bible Christianity is. For want of counting the cost, the children of religious parents often turn out ill, and bring disgrace on Christianity. And why? They had never thoroughly understood the sacrifices which Christianity entails. They had never been taught to count the cost.
III. Hints which may help men to count the cost rightly. Set down honestly and fairly what you will have to give up and go through if you become Christs disciple. Leave nothing out. But then set down side by side the following sums which I am going to give you. Do this fairly and correctly, and I am not afraid for the result.
1. Count up and compare, for one thing, the profit and the loss, if you are a true-hearted and holy Christian. You may possibly lose something in this world, but you will gain the salvation of your immortal soul.
2. Count up and compare, for another thing, the praise and the blame, if you are a true-hearted and holy Christian. You may possibly be blamed by man, but you will have the praise of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
3. Count up and compare, for another thing, the friends and the enemies, if you are a true-hearted and holy Christian. On the one side of you is the enmity of the devil and the wicked. On the other, you have the favour and friendship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your enemies at most can only bruise your heel. They may rage loudly, and compass sea and land to work your ruin; but they cannot destroy you. Your Friend is able to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by Him.
4. Count up and compare, for another thing, the life that now is and the life to come, if you are a true-hearted and holy Christian. The time present, no doubt, is not a time of ease. It is a time of watching and praying, fighting and struggling, believing and working. But it is only for a few years. The lime future is the season of rest and refreshing. Sin shall be east out.
5. Count up and compare, for another thing, the pleasures of sin and the happiness of Gods service, if you are a true-hearted and holy Christian. The pleasures that the worldly man gets by his ways are hollow, unreal, and unsatisfying. They are like the fire of thorns, flashing and crackling for a few minutes, and then quenched for ever. The happiness that Christ gives to His people is something solid, lasting, and substantial It is not dependent on health or circumstances. It never leaves a man, even in death.
6. Count up and compare, for another thing, the trouble that true Christianity entails, and the troubles that are in store for the wicked beyond the grave. Such sums as these, no doubt, are often not done correctly. Not a few, I am well aware, are ever halting between two opinions. They cannot make up their minds that it is worth while to serve Christ. They cannot do this great sum correctly. They cannot make the result so clear as it ought to be. But what is the secret of their mistakes? It is want of faith. That faith which made Noah, Moses, and St. Paul do what they did, that faith is the great secret of coming to a right conclusion about our souls. That same faith must be our helper and ready-reckoner when we sit down to count the cost of being a true Christian. That same faith, is to be had for the asking.. He giveth more grace (Jam_4:6). Armed with that faith we shall set things down at their true value. Filled with that faith we shall neither add to the cross nor subtract from the crown. Our conclusions will be all correct. Our sum total will be without error. (Bishop Ryle.)
On the folly of profession without forethought
I. The entrance upon, and progress in, a religious life, may, with some considerable propriety, be COMPARED TO THE BUILDING OF A TOWER. Something to be done by us. Many graces to be exercised, many temptations to be resisted, many enemies to be vanquished, and many duties to be performed. The power of religion must first be felt, then a profession of it made, and, last of all, care taken to adorn the profession; the whole of which may be compared to building a tower, because--
1. There must be a foundation to support the building. Christ--the foundation of doctrinal, experimental, and practical religion.
2. It is a work of labour and difficulty. Requires exertion of all the strength we have, and every day fresh supplies out of the fulness of Christ.
3. A gradual work. A tower reaching to heaven. Patient continuance in welt-doing.
4. A visible work. The Christian is a spectacle to world, angels, and men. His sufferings make him so; his conduct, so different from that of others, makes him so; and though the springs of his life are hid, yet the workings and effect of it are manifest to the world. Grace makes a visible change in the temper and conversation.
5. A durable work. True religion is like a strong and well-built tower, secure itself, and a security to its builder. The foundation and materials of it are both lasting.
II. THIS WORK CALLS FOR GREAT CAUTION AND CIRCUMSPECTION.
1. The Christian will consider beforehand the certain and necessary expense.
(1) Remorse for past sin.
(2) Conflict with spiritual enemies.
(3) Corruptions to be mortified.
2. To this he will add the possible and contingent expense. Not only what it must, but what it may, cost him. Friends may desert him, enemies assail, and a thousand obstacles be thrown in the way to discourage him.
3. There is another kind of expense which such a one will also take into account, not only what it will cost him, but what--if I may be allowed to use the expression--it must cost God, before He can finish his work. The Spirit of God must afford him His continual aid, and Christs strength must be made perfect in his weakness. No spiritual duty can be performed without a Divine influence.
4. To the labour and expense he is at, he will oppose tim benefits and advantages hoped for. The cross is the way to the crown.
5. Where this caution and circumspection is neglected, it is an instance of egregious folly, and will expose to universal shame and contempt. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
Unfinished works
Such uncompleted buildings, open to all the winds and rains of heaven, with their naked walls, and with all that has been spent upon them utterly wasted, are called in the language of the world, which often finds so apt a word, This mans, or that mans Folly; arguing as they do so utter a lack of wisdom and prevision on their parts who began them. Such, for example, is Charles the Fifths palace at Granada, the Kattenburg at Cassel. They that would be Christs disciples shall see to it that they present no such Babels to the ready scorn of the scornful; beginning as men that would take heaven by storm, and anon coming to an end of all their resources, of all their zeal, all their patience, and leaving nothing but an utterly baffled purpose, the mocking-stock of the world; even as those builders of old left nothing but a shapeless heap of bricks to tell of the entire miscalculation which they had made. Making mention of a tower, I cannot but think that the Lord intended an allusion to that great historic tower, the mightiest and most signal failure and defeat which the world has ever seen, that tower of Babel, which, despite of its vainglorious and vaunting beginning, ended in the shame, confusion, and scattering of all who undertook it (Gen_11:1-9). (Archbishop Trench.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On v28 28–33. Doth not sit down first and count the…
28–33. Doth not sit down first and count the cost? This calculation of what any enterprise or step will require before entering upon it is the part of wisdom. So, too, a disciple of Christ should count the cost. It is well to understand that every obstacle to the service of Christ must be given up.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v28 Luk 14:28-30. “For which one of you, wishing to…
CHRISTIAN PERFECTION
Luk 14:28-30. “For which one of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first, sitting down, count the cost, if he has unto sufficiency? Lest he, having laid the foundation, and being unable to finish it, all those seeing it may begin to mock him, saying that this man began to build, and was not able to finish.” The word which we here in two verses translate “finish” is ektelesai, “completely perfect.” Telesai is the regular verb constantly used in the New Testament where the E. V. has “perfect.” Hence this word for Christian perfection occurs twice in the above quotation. Besides, the preposition ok, preceding this verb, adds additional force to its already superlative signification. Hence the plain meaning of this forcible little parable is, that it is not worthwhile to become a disciple or set out for heaven, unless you are going for perfection. Before the man begins to build, he projects and contemplates, not an unfinished frame, but a house complete in every respect, suitable and comfortable for habitation. An unfinished house, exposed to the weather, soon rots down. Man is unwilling to live in an unfinished house; how can he expect Jesus to live in it? No wonder you have a lonesome time out in an uninhabited house. Stir up, push the work to completion, and turn over the key to Jesus, so He will move in, to abide with you forever, bringing down heaven and glory. Here you see that Jesus gives no encouragement to imperfect discipleship, but presents the highest possible incentive to Christian perfection, His plain statement clearly involving the conclusion of ultimate wreckage and failure, even becoming a laughing-stock for men and devils, if you do not reach the experience of perfection. O, what an inspiration to entire sanctification!
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v28
Luke
THE RASH BUILDER
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Luk 14:28.
Christ sought for no recruits under false pretences, but rather discouraged than stimulated light-hearted adhesion. His constant effort was to sift the crowds that gathered round Him. So here great multitudes are following Him, and how does He welcome them? Does He lay Himself out to attract them? Luke tells us that He turned and faced the following multitude; and then, with a steady hand, drenched with cold water the too easily kindled flame. Was that because He did not wish them to follow Him? He desired every soul in that crowd for His own, and He knew that the best way to attract is sometimes to repel; and that a plain statement of the painful consequences of a course will quench no genuine enthusiasm, but may turn a mere flash in the pan into a purpose that will flame through a life.
So our Lord lays down in stringent words the law of discipleship as being self-sacrifice; the abandonment of the dearest, and the acceptance of the most painful. And then He illustrates the law by these two expanded similes or condensed parables, of the rash builder and the rash soldier. Each contains a side of the Christian life, and represents one phase of what a true disciple ought to be. I wish to look with you now at the first of these two comparisons.
I. Consider then, first, the building, or the true aim of discipleship.
The building of the tower represents what every human life ought to aim at, the rearing up of a strong, solid structure in which the builder may dwell and be at rest.
But then remember we are always building, consciously or unconsciously. By our transitory actions we are all rearing up a house for our souls in which we have to dwell; building character from out of the fleeting acts of conduct, which character we have to carry with us for ever. Soft invertebrate animals secrete their own shells. That is what we are doing-making character, which is the shield of self, as it were; and in which we have to abide.
My friend, what are you building? A prison; a mere garden-house of lustful delights; or a temple fortress in which God may dwell reverenced, and you may abide restful? Observe that whilst all men are thus unconsciously and habitually rearing up a permanent abode by their transient actions, every life that is better than a brute’s ought to have for its aim the building up of ourselves into firm strength. The development of character is what we ought to ask from, and to secure by, this fleeting life of ours. Not enjoyment; that is a miserable aim. Not the satisfaction of earthly desires; not the prosperity of our business or other ordinary avocations. The demand that we should make upon life, and the aim which we should have clearly before us in all that we do, is that it may contribute to the formation of a pure and noble self, to the development of character into that likeness to Jesus Christ, which is perfection and peace and blessedness.
And while that is true about all life, it is eminently true in regard to the highest form of life, which is the Christian life. There are dreadful mistakes and imperfections in the ordinary vulgar conception of what a Christian is, and what he is a Christian for. What do you think men and women are meant to be Christians for? That they may get away from some material and outward hell? Possibly. That they may get celestial happiness? Certainly. But are these the main things? By no means. What people are meant to be Christians for is that they may be shaped into the likeness of Jesus Christ; or to go back to the metaphor of my text, the meaning and aim of Christian discipleship is not happiness, but the building up of the tower in which the man may dwell.
Ah, friend; is that your notion of what a Christian is; and of what he is a Christian for, to be like the Master? Alas! alas! how few of us, honestly and continually and practically, lay to heart the stringent and grand conception which underlies this metaphor of our Lord’s, who identifies the man that was thinking of being His disciple with the man that sits down intending to build a tower.
II. So, secondly, note the cost of the building, or the conditions of discipleship.
Building is an expensive amusement, as many a man who has gone rashly in for bricks and mortar has found out to his cost. And the most expensive of all sorts of building is the building up of Christian character. That costs more than anything else, but there are a number of other things less noble and desirable, which share with it, to some extent, in the expenditure which it involves.
Discipleship demands constant reference to the plan. A man that lives as he likes, by impulse, by inclination, or ignobly yielding to the pressure of circumstances and saying, ‘I could not help myself, I was carried away by the flood,’ or ‘Everybody round about me is doing it, and I could not be singular’-will never build anything worth living in. It will be a born ruin-if I may so say. There must be continual reference to the plan. That is to say, if a man is to do anything worth doing, there must be a very clear marking out to himself of what he means to secure by life, and a keeping of the aim continually before him as his guide and his pole-star. Did you ever see the pretty architect’s plans, that were all so white and neat when they came out of his office, after the masons have done with them-all thumb-marked and dirty? I wonder if your Bibles are like that? Do we refer to the standard of conduct with anything like the continual checking of our work by the architect’s intention, which every man who builds anything that will stand is obliged to practise? Consult your plan, the pattern of your Master, the words of your Redeemer, the gospel of your God, the voice of judgment and conscience, and get into the habit of living, not like a vegetable, upon what happens to be nearest its roots, nor like a brute, by the impulses of the unreasoning nature, but clear above these put the understanding, and high above that put the conscience, and above them all put the will of the Lord. Consult your plan if you want to build your tower.
Then, further, another condition is continuous effort. You cannot ‘rush’ the building of a great edifice. You have to wait till the foundations get consolidated, and then by a separate effort every stone has to be laid in its bed and out of the builder’s hands. So by slow degrees, with continuity of effort, the building rises.
Now there has been a great deal of what I humbly venture to call one-sidedness talked about the way by which Christian character is to be developed and perfected. And one set of the New Testament metaphors upon that subject has been pressed to the exclusion of the others, and the effortless growth of the plant has been presented as if it were the complete example of Christian progress. I know that Jesus Christ has said: ‘First the blade, then the ear; after that the full corn in the ear.’ But I know that He has also said, ‘Which of you, intending to build a tower’-and that involves the idea of effort; and that He has further said, ‘Or what king, going to make war against another king’-and that involves the idea of antagonism and conflict. And so, on the whole, I lay it down that this is one of the conditions of building the tower, that the energy of the builder should never slacken, but, with continual renewal of effort, he should rear his life’s building.
And then, still further, there is the fundamental condition of all; and that is, self-surrender. Our Lord lays this down in the most stringent terms in the words before my text, where He points to two directions in which that spirit is required to manifest itself. One is detachment from persons that are dearest, and even from one’s own selfish life; the other is the acceptance of things that are most contrary to one’s inclinations, against the grain, painful and hard to bear. And so we may combine these two in this statement: If any man is going to build a Christlike life he will have to detach himself from surrounding things and dear ones, and to crucify self by suppression of the lower nature and the endurance of evils. The preceding parable which is connected in subject with the text, the story of the great supper, and the excuses made for not coming to it, represents two-thirds of the refusals as arising from the undue love for, and regard to, earthly possessions, and the remaining third as arising from the undue love to, and regard for, the legitimate objects of affection. And these are the two chords that hold most of us most tightly. It is not Christianity alone, dear brethren, that says that if you want to do anything worth doing, you must detach yourself from outward wealth. It is not Christianity alone that says that, if you want to build up a noble life, you must not let earthly love dominate and absorb your energy; but it is Christianity that says so most emphatically, and that has best reason to say so.
Concentration is the secret of all excellence. If the river is to have any scour in it that will sweep away pollution and corruption, it must not go winding and lingering in many curves, howsoever flowery may be the banks, nor spreading over a broad bed, but you must straighten it up and make it deep that it may run strong. And if you will diffuse yourself all over these poor, wretched worldly goods, or even let the rush of your heart’s outflow go in the direction of father and mother, wife and children, brethren and sisters, forgetting Him, then you will never come to any good nor be of use in this world. But if you want to be Christians after Christ’s pattern, remember that the price of the building is rigidly to sacrifice self, ‘to scorn delights and live laborious days,’ and to keep all vagrant desires and purposes within rigid limits, and absolutely subordinated to Himself.
On the other hand, there is to be the acceptance of what is painful to the lower nature. Unpleasant consequences of duty have to be borne, and the lower self, with its appetites and desires, has to be crucified. The vine must be mercilessly pruned in tendrils, leaves, and branches even, though the rich sap may seem to bleed away to waste, if we are to grow precious grapes out of which may be expressed the wine of the Kingdom. We must be dead to much if we are to be alive to anything worth living for.
Now remember that Christ’s demand of self-surrender, self-sacrifice, continuous effort, rigid limitation, does not come from any mere false asceticism, but is inevitable in the very nature of the case, and is made also by all worthy work. How much every one of us has had to shear off our lives, how many tastes we have had to allow to go ungratified, how many capacities undeveloped, in how many directions we have had to hedge up our way, and not do, or be this, that, or the other; if we have ever done anything in any direction worthy the doing! Concentration and voluntary limitation, in order to fix all powers on the supreme aim which judgment and conscience have enjoined is the condition of all excellence, of all sanity of living, and eminently of all Christian discipleship.
III. Further, note the failures.
The tower of the rash builder stands a gaunt, staring ruin.
Whosoever throws himself upon great undertakings or high aims, without a deliberate forecast of the difficulties and sacrifices they involve, is sure to stop almost before he has begun. Many a man and woman leaves the starting-point with a rush, as if they were going to be at the goal presently, and before they have run fifty yards turn aside and quietly walk out of the course. I wonder how many of you began, when you were lads or girls, to study some language, and stuck before you had got through twenty pages of the grammar, or to learn some art, and have still got the tools lying unused in a dusty corner. And how many of you who call yourselves Christians began in the same fashion long ago to run the race? ‘Ye did run well.’ What did hinder you? What hindered Atalanta? The golden apples that were flung down on the path. Oh, the Church is full of these abortive Christians; ruins from their beginning, standing gaunt and windowless, the ground-plan a great palace, the reality a hovel that has not risen a foot for the last ten years. I wonder if there are any stunted Christians of that sort in this congregation before me, who began under the influence of some impulse or emotion, genuine enough, no doubt, but who had taken no account of how much it would cost to finish the building. And so the building is not finished, and never will be.
But I should remark here that what I am speaking about as failure is not incomplete attainment of the aim. For all our lives have to confess that they incompletely attain their aim; and lofty aims, imperfectly realised, and still maintained, are the very salt of life, and beautiful ‘as the new moon with a ragged edge, e’en in its imperfection beautiful.’ Paul was an old man and an advanced Christian when he said, ‘Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after.’ And the highest completeness to which the Christian builder can reach in this life is the partial accomplishment of his aim and the persistent adherence to and aspiration after the unaccomplished aim. It is not these incomplete but progressive and aspiring lives that are failures, but it is the lives of men who have abandoned high aims, and have almost forgotten that they ever cherished them.
And what does our Lord say about such? That everybody laughs at them. It is not more than they deserve. An out-and-out Christian will often be disliked, but if he is made a mock of there will be a soupçon of awe and respect even in the mockery. Half-and-half Christians get, and richly deserve, the curled lip and sarcasm of a world that knows when a man is in earnest, and knows when he is an incarnate sham.
IV. Lastly, I would have you observe the inviting encouragement hidden in the apparent repelling warning.
If we read my text isolated, it may seem as if the only lesson that our Lord meant to be drawn from it was a counsel of despair. ‘Unless you feel quite sure that you can finish, you had better not begin.’ Is that what He meant to say? I think not. He did mean to say, ‘Do not begin without opening your eyes to what is involved in the beginning.’ But suppose a man had taken His advice, had listened to the terms, and had said, ‘I cannot keep them, and I am going to fling all up, and not try any more’-is that what Jesus Christ wanted to bring him to? Surely not. And that it is not so arises plainly enough from the observation that this parable and the succeeding one are both sealed up, as it were, with ‘So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.’
Now, if I may so say, there are two kinds of ‘forsaking all that we have.’ One is the forsaking by which we become disciples; and the other the forsaking by which we continue true disciples. The conviction that they had not sufficient to finish is the very conviction that Christ wished to root in the minds of the crowds. He exhibits the difficulties in order that they may feel they cannot cope with them. What then? That they may ‘forsake’ all their own power to cope with them.
That is the first kind of ‘forsaking all that we have.’ That makes a disciple. The recognition of my own utter impotence to do the things which yet I see must be done, is the underside of trust in Him. And that trust in Him brings the power that makes it possible for us to do the things which we cannot of ourselves do, and the consciousness of the impotence to do which is the first step toward doing them. It is the self-sufficient man who is sure to be bankrupt before he has finished his building; but he who has no confidence in himself, and recognises the fact that he cannot build, will go to Jesus Christ and say, ‘Lord, I am poor and needy. Come Thou Thyself and be my strength.’ Such a forsaking of all that we have in the recognition of our own poverty and powerlessness brings into the field an Ally for our reinforcement that has more than the twenty thousand that are coming against us, and will make us strong.
And then, if, knowing our weakness, our misery, our poverty, and cleaving to Jesus Christ in simple confidence in His divine power breathed into our weakness, and His abundant riches lavished upon our poverty, we cast ourselves into the work to which He calls us by His grace, then we shall find that the sweet and certain assurance that we have Him for the possession and the treasure of our lives will make parting with everything else, not painful, but natural and necessary and a joy, as the expression of our supreme love to Him. It should not, and would not be difficult to fling away paste gems and false riches if our hands were filled with the jewels that Christ bestows. And it will not be difficult to slay the old man when the new Christ lives in us, by our faith and submission.
So, dear brethren, it all comes to this. We are all builders; what kind of a work is your life’s work going to turn out? Are you building on the foundation, taking Jesus Christ for the anchor of your hope, for the basis of your belief, for the crown of your aims, for your all and in all? Are you building upon Him? If so, then the building will stand when the storm comes and the ‘hail sweeps away the refuges’ that other men have built elsewhere. But are you building on that foundation the gold of self-denial, the silver of white purity, the precious stones of variously-coloured and Christlike virtues? Then your work will indeed be incomplete, but its very incompleteness will be a prophecy of the time when ‘the headstone shall be brought forth with shoutings’; and you may humbly trust that the day which ‘declares every man’s work of what sort it is’ will not destroy yours, but that it will gleam and flash in the light of the revealing and reflecting fires. See to it that you are building for eternity, on the foundation, with the fair stones which Jesus Christ gives to all those who let Him shape their lives. He is at once, Architect, Material, Foundation; and in Him ‘every several building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v28 Two parables for emphasis:
Two parables for emphasis:
v. 28. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
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v. 29. Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
v. 30. saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
v. 31. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
v. 32. Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an embassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
v. 33. So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.
Foolish is he that counteth not the cost. If a man wants to build a tower, a fine, high structure, prominent before all the buildings in the neighborhood, prudence will dictate that he sit down first and’ calculate the cost very carefully. His plan will be gone over thoroughly; the material is painstakingly grouped and added; the exact cost of the project is computed. For if the man should start to build and then find that it is impossible for him to finish up, he will become an object of ridicule for all the passers-by. In the same way, prudence will govern the actions of a king who has broken off diplomatic relations with another ruler. He will call in all his counselors and make a very careful calculation whether he will be able to carry out his plans in case he should decide to assume the offensive. And in case the matter seems dubious, he will prefer to enter upon negotiations with the enemy in time, and find out his conditions of peace. Either parable teaches the necessity of considering the costs; either one represents the absurdity of those that undertake to be disciple of Jesus Christ shall require no less difficulties they are to meet with, and what strength they have to enable them to go through with the undertaking. "He that will be a true disciples of Jesus Christ shall require no less than the mighty power of God to support him, as both hell and earth will unite to destroy him. " Because complete self-renunciation is required, earnest consideration is absolutely unavoidable. So much the discipleship of Christ demands, and so much the true disciple will give cheerfully.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v28 General Information:
General Information:
Jesus continues to explain to the crowd that it is important to count the cost of being a disciple.
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For which of you who desires to build a tower does not first sit down and count the cost to calculate if he has what he needs to complete it?
Jesus uses this question to prove that people count the cost of a project before they begin it. AT: "If a person wanted to build a tower, he would certainly first sit down and determine if he had enough money to complete it." (See: Rhetorical Question)
tower
This may have been a watchtower. "a tall building" or "a high lookout platform"
Otherwise
It may be helpful to give more information. AT: "If he does not first count the cost" (See: Ellipsis)
when he has laid a foundation
"when he has built a base" or "when he has completed the first part of the building"
is not able to finish
It is understood that he was not able to finish because he did not have enough money. This could be stated. AT: "does not have enough money to be able to finish" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
translationWords
watchtower
found
mock
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.