Luke 16

Lu 16:1-31. Parables of the Unjust Steward and of the Rich Man and Lazarus, or, the Right Use of Money.

1. steward--manager of his estate.

accused--informed upon.

had wasted--rather, "was wasting."

3. cannot dig ... to beg, ashamed--therefore, when dismissed, shall be in utter want.

4. may receive me, &c.--Observe his one object--when cast out of one home to secure another. This is the key to the parable, on which there have been many differing views.

5-7. fifty ... fourscore--deducting a half from the debt of the one, and a fifth from that of the other.

8. the lord--evidently the steward's lord, so called in Lu 16:3, 5.

commended, &c.--not for his "injustice," but "because he had done wisely," or prudently; with commendable foresight and skilful adaptation of means to end.

children of this world--so Lu 20:34; compare Psa 17:14 ("their portion in this life"); Php 3:19 ("mind earthly things"); Psa 4:6, 7.

their generation--or "for their generation"--that is, for the purposes of the "world" they are "of." The greater wisdom (or shrewdness) of the one, in adaptation of means to ends, and in energetic, determined prosecution of them, is none of it for God and eternity--a region they were never in, an atmosphere they never breathed, an undiscovered world, an unborn existence to them--but all for the purposes of their own grovelling and fleeting generation.

children of light--(so Joh 12:36; Ep 5:8; 1Th 5:5). Yet this is only "as night-birds see better in the dark than those of the day owls than eagles" [Cajetan and Trench]. But we may learn lessons from them, as our Lord now shows, and "be wise as serpents."

9. Make ... friends of--Turn to your advantage; that is, as the steward did, "by showing mercy to the poor" (Da 4:27; compare Lu 12:33; 14:13, 14).

mammon of unrighteousness--treacherous, precarious. (See on Mt 6:24).

ye fail--in respect of life.

they may receive you--not generally, "ye may be received" (as Lu 6:38, "shall men give"), but "those ye have relieved may rise up as witnesses for you" at the great day. Then, like the steward, when turned out of one home shall ye secure another; but better than he, a heavenly for an earthly, an everlasting for a temporary habitation. Money is not here made the key to heaven, more than "the deeds done in the body" in general, according to which, as a test of character--but not by the merit of which--men are to be judged (2Co 5:10, and see Mt 25:34-40).

10. He, &c.--a maxim of great pregnancy and value; rising from the prudence which the steward had to the fidelity which he had not, the "harmlessness of the dove, to which the serpent" with all his "wisdom" is a total stranger. Fidelity depends not on the amount entrusted, but on the sense of responsibility. He that feels this in little will feel it in much, and conversely.

11-12. unrighteous mammon--To the whole of this He applies the disparaging term "what is least," in contrast with "the true riches."

13. can serve--be entirely at the command of; and this is true even where the services are not opposed.

hate ... love--showing that the two here intended are in uncompromising hostility to each other: an awfully searching principle!

14-18. covetous ... derided him--sneered at Him; their master sin being too plainly struck at for them to relish. But it was easier to run down than to refute such teaching.

19. purple and fine linen, &c.--(Compare Es 8:15; Re 18:12); wanting nothing which taste and appetite craved and money could procure.

20-21. laid--having to be carried and put down.

full of sores--open, running, "not closed, nor bound up, nor mollified with ointment" (Is 1:6).

22. died--His burial was too unimportant to mention; while "the rich man died and was buried"--his carcass carried in pomp to its earthly resting-place.

in to Abraham's bosom--as if seen reclining next to Him at the heavenly feast (Mt 8:11).

23. in hell--not the final place of the lost (for which another word is used), but as we say "the unseen world." But as the object here is certainly to depict the whole torment of the one and the perfect bliss of the other, it comes in this case to much the same.

seeth Abraham--not God, to whom therefore he cannot cry [Bengel].

24. Father Abraham--a well-founded, but unavailing, claim of natural descent (Lu 3:8; Joh 8:37).

mercy on me--who never showed any (Jas 2:3).

send Lazarus--the pining victim of his merciless neglect.

that he may--take me hence? No; that he dares not to ask.

dip ... tongue--that is the least conceivable and the most momentary abatement of his torment; that is all. But even this he is told is (1) unreasonable.

25-26. Son--stinging acknowledgment of the claimed relationship.

thou ... Lazarus, &c.--As it is a great law of God's kingdom, that the nature of our present desires shall rule that of our future bliss, so by that law, he whose "good things," craved and enjoyed, were all bounded by time, could look for none after his connection with time had come to an end (Lu 6:24). But by this law, he whose "evil things," all crowded into the present life, drove him to seek, and find, consolation in a life beyond the grave, is by death released from all evil and ushered into unmixed and uninterrupted good (Lu 6:21). (2) It is impossible.

27-31. Then he said--now abandoning all hope for himself.

send him to my father's house, &c.--no waking up of good in the heart of the lost, but bitter reproach against God and the old economy, as not warning him sufficiently [Trench]. The answer of Abraham is, They are sufficiently warned.