Luke 6:46 Meaning and Explanation
“And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →A question can search a person more thoroughly than an accusation. Jesus asks a short one here, addressed to people who were sincerely devoted enough to call him Lord twice over. Anyone who has felt the distance between what they sing on Sunday and what they do on Tuesday will find this sentence uncomfortable and clarifying at once.
Jesus questions the gap between calling him Lord and living by what he says. The title carries a claim of authority, and obedience is the natural evidence that the claim is real.
The Context of Luke 6:46
The question closes the sermon on the plain. Jesus has blessed the poor and hungry, pronounced woes on the comfortable, commanded love of enemies, warned against judging, and used images of blind guides, specks and beams, and trees known by their fruit. Verse 45 has just spoken of the heart's treasure coming out through the mouth. Verse 46 turns that principle on the hearers themselves, and verses 47 through 49 answer it with the picture of two builders, one who dug deep to a rock foundation and one who built on the bare earth.
What Does Luke 6:46 Mean?
The sentence is built as a question, and the word why matters. Jesus asks for a reason, which leaves room for an answer and treats the hearer as responsible. The doubled address, Lord, Lord, is warm and respectful, and Scripture often doubles a name to mark urgency, as when the angel calls Abraham, Abraham. So the people described here are devoted. What follows is the measuring line: do not the things which I say. Jesus makes his own words the standard, which is an extraordinary claim for a teacher to make. The verse holds together confession and conduct as parts of one relationship, and asks why they have come apart.
This question is the hinge that turns the whole sermon toward the closing parable. Everything Jesus has taught since verse 27 has been practice: loving enemies, lending without expectation, showing mercy, dealing with our own faults first. Verse 44 said every tree is known by its own fruit, and verse 46 applies that test to discipleship. The pattern runs through Scripture, where covenant loyalty is shown by walking in God's ways, and where hearing and doing belong together as one act. Luke will return to it in chapter 8, when Jesus calls those who hear the word of God and do it his mother and brethren.
Calling Jesus Lord is right, and he never asks anyone to stop. The question presses toward a fuller kind of trust, the kind that shows up in a life. The parable that follows makes the promise clear: the one who comes, hears, and does is like a house dug down to rock, and the storm cannot shake it. Obedience in this Gospel grows out of relationship with the person who is speaking. Later he tells his friends that love for him shows itself in keeping his words, and he sends the Spirit to help them do it. The invitation and the enabling come from the same Lord.
Luke 6:46 in the Original Language
kurios (κύριος), 'Lord' -- a title of ownership and authority used for a master over a household and, in the Greek Old Testament, for God himself. Addressing Jesus this way grants him the right to direct a life, which is exactly the right his question raises.
Bible Verses Related to Luke 6:46
“Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:”
- Luke 6:47
“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
- Matthew 7:21
“But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.”
- James 1:22
“If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
- John 14:15
Where Luke 6:46 Echoes in Scripture
Matthew 7:21 carries the same doubled address in a different setting, where Jesus warns that saying Lord, Lord is no substitute for doing the will of his Father in heaven. The two sermons share this concern almost word for word, which suggests Jesus pressed the point often. James 1:22 takes it up again with the call to be doers of the word, and the letter's whole argument about faith showing itself in works grows from the same soil.
How to Apply Luke 6:46 Today
A useful exercise is to take one instruction from this chapter and put a date on it. Verse 27 says love your enemies; verse 30 says give to him that asks; verse 37 says forgive. Choosing a single command and doing it this week closes the gap the question names. It also helps to check where our disobedience is quiet rather than defiant, since most of us drift by postponement. Small acts of obedience, done promptly, build the deep foundation Jesus describes next, and they tend to grow affection for him rather than a sense of duty.
Reflection & Prayer
Which of Jesus' sayings have we admired for years without ever acting on? Lord Jesus, we do call you Lord, and we mean it. Close the distance between our words and our days. Give us courage for the one command we have been avoiding, and let obedience become the shape of our love for you rather than a burden we carry. Amen.