Limitless Word
Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’
Luke 14:20 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB “Another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I can’t come.’
  • KJV And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.
  • BSB Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, so I cannot come.’
  • NKJV Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’
  • NASB And another one said, ‘I took a woman as my wife, and for that reason I cannot come.’

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

A third says his new marriage prevents him from coming. Even good things become excuses when the heart resists God's call.

Overview

This guest does not even ask to be excused but flatly refuses. A legitimate joy like marriage is misused as a reason to decline the feast. Jesus warns that family and earthly relationships, though good, must not become idols that keep us from Him.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 5

  • Deut 24:5When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business. He shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken.
  • 1 Cor 7:33but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.
  • Luke 18:29–30He said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, there is no one who has left house, or wife, or brothers, or parents, or children, for God’s Kingdom’s sake,
  • Luke 14:26–28“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.
  • 1 Cor 7:29–31But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (11)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Luke videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Luke 14:20YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on LukeMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.

How Luke 14:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.