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THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO
LUKE
Commentary by DAVID BROWN
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CHAPTER 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 @Ps
17:14 ("their portion in this life"); @Php
3:19 ("mind earthly things"); @Ps
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 Eph 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."
12. another man's . . . your own--an
important turn to the subject. Here all we have is on
trust as stewards, who have an account to render.
Hereafter, what the faithful have will be their own
property, being no longer on probation, but in secure,
undisturbed, rightful, everlasting possession and
enjoyment of all that is graciously bestowed on us. Thus
money is neither to be idolized nor despised:
we must sit loose to it and use it for God's glory.
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.
15. justify yourselves--make a show of
righteousness.
highly esteemed among
men--generally carried away by plausible appearances.
(See @1Sa
16:7; and @Lu
14:11).
16. The law, &c.--(See @Mt
11:13).
and every man presseth,
&c.--Publicans and sinners, all indiscriminately, are
eagerly pressing into it; and ye, interested adherents of
the mere forms of an economy which is passing away,
"discerning not the signs of this time," will
allow the tide to go past you and be found a stranded
monument of blindness and obstinacy.
17. it is easier, &c.--(See on Mt 5:17,18)
18. putteth away his wife, &c.--(See on Mt
19:3-9). Far from intending to weaken the force of the
law, in these allusions to a new economy, our Lord, in
this unexpected way, sends home its high requirements with
a pungency which the Pharisees would not fail to feel.
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" (@Isa
1:6).
21. desiring to be fed with--but was not [GROTIUS,
BENGEL, MEYER, TRENCH, &c.]. The words may mean indeed
"was fain to feed on," or "gladly fed
on," as in @Lu
15:16 [ALFORD, WEBSTER and WILKINSON, &c.]. But
the context rather favors the former.
licked, &c.--a
touching act of brute pity, in the absence of human
relief. It is a case of heartless indifference, amidst
luxuries of every kind, to one of God's poorest and most
afflicted ones, presented daily before the eye.
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.
26. besides all this--independently of this
consideration.
a great gulf fixed--By
an irrevocable decree there has been placed a vast
impassable abyss between the two states, and the occupants
of each.
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.
30. Nay--giving the lie to Abraham.
but if one went unto
them from the dead, they will repent--a principle of
awful magnitude and importance. The greatest miracle will
have no effect on those who are determined not to believe.
A real Lazarus soon "rose from the dead,"
but the sight of him by crowds of people, inclined thereby
to Christ, only crowned the unbelief and hastened the
murderous plots of the Pharisees against the Lord of
glory; nor has His own resurrection, far more
overpowering, yet won over that "crooked and perverse
nation."
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