Luke 18:8

I tell you. These words lend emphasis to the conclusion here stated.

Son of man. See on Matt. 1:1; Mark 2:10.

Cometh. This is one of our Lord’s first direct references to His second coming, to which event He had already alluded briefly about six months prior to this time (see Matt. 16:27). The parable of the Tares, spoken approximately a year and a half before this time, refers to “the Son of man” sending His angels to separate the tares from the wheat (see on Matt. 24:31), but does not refer directly to His coming back to this earth again (see Matt. 13:40-43; cf. Luke 17:22-30).

Some critical commentators have failed to see the connection between this statement about the Son of man finding faith on earth when He comes, and the preceding parable. They have concluded, consequently, that it is a detached saying of Jesus that Luke accidentally inserted here. Those who take this point of view have, in so doing, failed to note that it is “when the Son of man cometh” that He will “avenge his own elect” (vs. 7, 8), a fact clearly noted elsewhere in Scripture in connection with His coming (see Matt. 16:27; Rev. 22:12). It is on that occasion that He sits as judge (Matt. 25:34-46; Rom. 2:16; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8; 1 Peter 4:5; Rev. 19:11).

Shall he find faith? Literally, “Shall he find the faith?” Circumstances will be such immediately prior to Christ’s return that it will seem that evil has triumphed and that God has left “his own elect” to suffer and fall before their enemies (see GC 630). A few weeks after giving this parable, as Jesus spoke of the signs of His coming, He admonished His disciples that they must undergo “great tribulation” (Matt. 24:21) that would try them to the utmost (v. 22). Nevertheless, the “elect” will “endure unto the end” (v. 13) and be “saved.”