Luke 15:21 (DBY)

Passage

And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee; I am no longer worthy to be called thy son.

Nearby Context

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.

Luke 15:21 And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee; I am no longer worthy to be called thy son.

Luke 15:22 But the father said to his bondmen, Bring out the best robe and clothe him in [it], and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet;

Luke 15:23 and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry:

Study Lenses

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

The nearby context moves from verse 20's "And he rose up and went to..." into verse 22's "But the father said to his bondmen...", so "called" and "said" 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 "called" and "said" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.