The Good Gift
J. Jowett, M. D. Luke 11:13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children… I. THE FACT HERE TAKEN FOR GRANTED — that earthly parents, though evil, know how to give good gifts unto their children. It is not said that parents know how to choose always what is best for their children. Neither would our Lord assert that parental affection is never overpowered by other principles. Long misbehaviour has sometimes induced a father to disinherit his son. Such, and so strong, is natural affection: a principle, necessary indeed for the preservation of the species; and so deeply implanted by our all-wise Creator, that it still survives the wreck of everything else that once was good in man. II. THE DOCTRINE, FOR THE ILLUSTRATION OF WHICH THIS FACT IS ALLUDED TO. The doctrine is, that your heavenly Father is much more likely to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. Now, by following up the comparison which our Lord makes in the text, we shall see abundant reason for concluding, that God is not only as affectionate, but infinitely more so, than any human benefactor. For I may ask, in the first place, with Moses — 1. "Is not He thy Father, that hath bought thee? hath He not made thee and established thee?" Has not Creation made you His children? and did He make you to destroy you? "But you think of your sins!" You do well; but think also of the unfathomable mines of love, which those sins have brought to light. 2. What can this heavenly Father bestow on His children more worthy the name of a "good gift" than His Holy Spirit? He has given His Son; yet even that gift avails us not, till the Spirit be added. 3. Is the spiritual bounty of our heavenly Father limited, like the affection of earthly parents, to those who can prove that they are His children? No — it is far more wide and expansive. It is offered to all that are His children by Creation; without stopping to consider whether they are such by regeneration or no. For here again our Lord makes a change in His language. It is not — "How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to His children"; but — "to them that ask Him." (J. Jowett, M. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? WEB: If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"