Worthy.Bible » DARBY » Luke » Chapter 16 » Verse 12

Luke 16:12 Darby English Bible (DARBY)

12 and if ye have not been faithful in that which is another's, who shall give to you your own?

Cross Reference

Luke 19:13-26 DARBY

And having called his own ten bondmen, he gave to them ten minas, and said to them, Trade while I am coming. But his citizens hated him, and sent an embassy after him, saying, We will not that this [man] should reign over us. And it came to pass on his arrival back again, having received the kingdom, that he desired these bondmen to whom he gave the money to be called to him, in order that he might know what every one had gained by trading. And the first came up, saying, [My] Lord, thy mina has produced ten minas. And he said to him, Well [done], thou good bondman; because thou hast been faithful in that which is least, be thou in authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, [My] Lord, thy mina has made five minas. And he said also to this one, And *thou*, be over five cities. And another came, saying, [My] Lord, lo, [there is] thy mina, which I have kept laid up in a towel. For I feared thee because thou art a harsh man: thou takest up what thou hast not laid down, and thou reapest what thou hast not sowed. He says to him, Out of thy mouth will I judge thee, wicked bondman: thou knewest that *I* am a harsh man, taking up what I have not laid down and reaping what I have not sowed. And why didst thou not give my money to [the] bank; and *I* should have received it, at my coming, with interest? And he said to those that stood by, Take from him the mina and give [it] to him who has the ten minas. And they said to him, Lord, he has ten minas. For I say unto you, that to every one that has shall be given; but from him that has not, that even which he has shall be taken from him.

1 Chronicles 29:14-16 DARBY

But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer willingly after this manner? for all is of thee, and of that which is from thy hand have we given thee. For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no hope [of life]. Jehovah our God, all this store that we have prepared to build thee a house to thy holy name, is of thy hand, and is all thine own.

Job 1:21 DARBY

and he said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: Jehovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah!

Ezekiel 16:16-21 DARBY

And of thy garments thou didst take, and madest for thyself high places decked with divers colours, and didst play the harlot thereupon: [the like] hath not come to pass, and shall be no more. And thou didst take thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of males, and didst commit fornication with them. And thou tookest thine embroidered garments, and coveredst them; and thou didst set mine oil and mine incense before them. And my bread which I had given thee, the fine flour and the oil and the honey wherewith I fed thee, thou didst even set it before them for a sweet savour: thus it was, saith the Lord Jehovah. And thou didst take thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hadst borne unto me, and these didst thou sacrifice unto them, to be devoured. Were thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou didst slay my children and give them up in passing them over to them?

Hosea 2:8 DARBY

And she did not know that I had given her the corn and the new wine and the oil, and had multiplied to her the silver and gold, which they employed for Baal.

Matthew 25:14-29 DARBY

For [it is] as [if] a man going away out of a country called his own bondmen and delivered to them his substance. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to each according to his particular ability, and immediately went away out of the country. And he that had received the five talents went and trafficked with them, and made five other talents. In like manner also he that [had received] the two, [he also] gained two others. But he that had received the one went and dug in the earth, and hid the money of his lord. And after a long time the lord of those bondmen comes and reckons with them. And he that had received the five talents came to [him] and brought five other talents, saying, [My] lord, thou deliveredst me five talents; behold, I have gained five other talents besides them. His lord said to him, Well, good and faithful bondman, thou wast faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things: enter into the joy of thy lord. And he also that had received the two talents came to [him] and said, [My] lord, thou deliveredst me two talents; behold, I have gained two other talents besides them. His lord said to him, Well, good and faithful bondman, thou wast faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. And he also that had received the one talent coming to [him] said, [My] lord, I knew thee that thou art a hard man, reaping where thou hadst not sowed, and gathering from where thou hadst not scattered, and being afraid I went away and hid thy talent in the earth; behold, thou hast that which is thine. And his lord answering said to him, Wicked and slothful bondman, thou knewest that I reap where I had not sowed, and gather from where I had not scattered; thou oughtest then to have put my money to the money-changers, and when I came I should have got what is mine with interest. Take therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that has the ten talents: for to every one that has shall be given, and he shall be in abundance; but from him that has not, that even which he has shall be taken from him.

Commentary on Luke 16 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible


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."