They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’
Parallel translations
- WEB saying, ‘This man began to build, and wasn’t able to finish.’
- KJV Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
- BSB saying, ‘This man could not finish what he started to build.’
- NKJV saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?
- NASB saying, ‘This person began to build, and was not able to finish!’
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
Onlookers mock the man who began but could not finish building. Abandoned commitment to Christ invites shame.
Overview
The mockers' words drive home the embarrassment of unfinished work. Applied to discipleship, it warns of the dishonor of turning back from Christ. Jesus calls for a faith that endures rather than starts and stalls.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Heb 6:11We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end,
- 2 Jn 1:8Watch yourselves, that we don’t lose the things which we have accomplished, but that we receive a full reward.
- Heb 6:4–8For concerning those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
- 2 Pet 2:19–22promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.
- Heb 10:38But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
- Acts 1:18–19Now this man obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness, and falling headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines gushed out.
- 1 Cor 3:11–14For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ.
- Matt 27:3–8Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
- Matt 7:27The rain came down, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house; and it fell — and great was its fall.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 14:30 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.