The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
Luke 18:9-14 · Berean Standard Bible
Two men pray in the temple: a Pharisee thanks God that he is better than others, while a tax collector, unable even to look up, begs, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner.' Jesus declares it was the humble tax collector, not the self-righteous Pharisee, who went home justified. The parable teaches that God receives the humble and resists the proud: 'everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.'
9To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable:
10“Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
12I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire.’
13But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’
14I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Read the wider context: Luke 18.
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