Luke 15:18 (DBY)

Passage

I will rise up and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee;

Nearby Context

Luke 15:16 And he longed to fill his belly with the husks which the swine were eating; and no one gave to him.

Luke 15:17 And coming to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have abundance of bread, and *I* perish here by famine.

Luke 15:18 I will rise up and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee;

Luke 15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

Luke 15:20 And he rose up and went to his own father. But while he was yet a long way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell upon his neck, and covered him with kisses.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "rise", "father", "sinned", "against", "heaven", "before", and "thee". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "rise" and "father", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 17's "And coming to himself he said How..." into verse 19's "I am no longer worthy to be...", so "rise" and "father" belong inside that flow. In Luke context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "rise" and "father" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.