8 `And the lord commended the unrighteous steward that he did prudently, because the sons of this age are more prudent than the sons of the light, in respect to their generation.
all ye are sons of light, and sons of day; we are not of night, nor of darkness,
for ye were once darkness, and now light in the Lord; as children of light walk ye,
And Jesus answering said to them, `The sons of this age do marry and are given in marriage,
From men, Thy hand, O Jehovah, From men of the world, their portion `is' in life, And `with' Thy hidden things Thou fillest their belly, They are satisfied `with' sons; And have left their abundance to their sucklings.
In this manifest are the children of God, and the children of the devil; every one who is not doing righteousness, is not of God, and he who is not loving his brother,
and ye `are' a choice race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people acquired, that the excellences ye may shew forth of Him who out of darkness did call you to His wondrous light;
Let no one deceive himself; if any one doth seem to be wise among you in this age -- let him become a fool, that he may become wise,
And the serpent hath been subtile above every beast of the field which Jehovah God hath made, and he saith unto the woman, `Is it true that God hath said, Ye do not eat of every tree of the garden?'
I have known what I shall do, that, when I may be removed from the stewardship, they may receive me to their houses.
Peter saith to him, `From the strangers.' Jesus said to him, `Then are the sons free;
For he seeth wise men die, Together the foolish and brutish perish, And have left to others their wealth. Their heart `is': Their houses `are' to the age, Their tabernacles to all generations. They proclaimed their names over the lands. And man in honour doth not remain, He hath been like the beasts, they have been cut off. This their way `is' folly for them, And their posterity with their sayings are pleased. Selah. As sheep for Sheol they have set themselves, Death doth afflict them, And the upright rule over them in the morning, And their form `is' for consumption. Sheol `is' a dwelling for him. Only, God doth ransom my soul from the hand of Sheol, For He doth receive me. Selah. Fear not, when one maketh wealth, When the honour of his house is abundant, For at his death he receiveth nothing, His honour goeth not down after him. For his soul in his life he blesseth, (And they praise thee when thou dost well for thyself.) It cometh to the generation of his fathers, For ever they see not the light.
and now, all the prophets of Baal, all his servants, and all his priests, call ye unto me; let not a man be lacking, for a great sacrifice I have for Baal; every one who is lacking -- he doth not live;' and Jehu hath done `it' in subtilty, in order to destroy the servants of Baal.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Luke 16
Commentary on Luke 16 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 16
The scope of Christ's discourse in this chapter is to awaken and quicken us all so to use this world as not to abuse it, so to manage all our possessions and enjoyments here as that they may make for us, and may not make against us in the other world; for they will do either the one or the other, according as we use them now.
Luk 16:1-18
We mistake if we imagine that the design of Christ's doctrine and holy religion was either to amuse us with notions of divine mysteries or to entertain us with notions of divine mercies. No, the divine revelation of both these in the gospel is intended to engage and quicken us to the practice of Christian duties, and, as much as any one thing, to the duty of beneficence and doing good to those who stand in need of any thing that either we have or can do for them. This our Saviour is here pressing us to, by reminding us that we are but stewards of the manifold grace of God; and since we have in divers instances been unfaithful, and have forfeited the favour of our Lord, it is our wisdom to think how we may, some other way, make what we have in the world turn to a good account. Parables must not be forced beyond their primary intention, and therefore we must not hence infer that any one can befriend us if we lie under the displeasure of our Lord, but that, in the general, we must so lay out what we have in works of piety and charity as that we may meet it again with comfort on the other side death and the grave. If we would act wisely, we must be diligent and industrious to employ our riches in the acts of piety and charity, in order to promote our future and eternal welfare, as worldly men are in laying them out to the greatest temporal profit, in making to themselves friends with them, and securing other secular interests. So Dr. Clarke. Now let us consider,
Luk 16:19-31
As the parable of the prodigal son set before us the grace of the gospel, which is encouraging to us all, so this sets before us the wrath to come, and is designed for our awakening; and very fast asleep those are in sin that will not be awakened by it. The Pharisees made a jest of Christ's sermon against worldliness; now this parable was intended to make those mockers serious. The tendency of the gospel of Christ is both to reconcile us to poverty and affliction and to arm us against temptations to worldliness and sensuality. Now this parable, by drawing the curtain, and letting us see what will be the end of both in the other world, goes very far in prosecuting those two great intentions. This parable is not like Christ's other parables, in which spiritual things are represented by similitudes borrowed from worldly things, as those of the sower and the seed (except that of the sheep and goats), the prodigal son, and indeed all the rest but this. But here the spiritual things themselves are represented in a narrative or description of the different state of good and bad in this world and the other. Yet we need not call it a history of a particular occurrence, but it is matter of fact that is true every day, that poor godly people, whom men neglect and trample upon, die away out of their miseries, and go to heavenly bliss and joy, which is made the more pleasant to them by their preceding sorrows; and that rich epicures, who live in luxury, and are unmerciful to the poor, die, and go into a state of insupportable torment, which is the more grievous and terrible to them because of the sensual lives they lived: and that there is no gaining any relief from their torments. Is this a parable? What similitude is there in this? The discourse indeed between Abraham and the rich man is only an illustration of the description, to make it the more affecting, like that between God and Satan in the story of Job. Our Saviour came to bring us acquainted with another world, and to show us the reference which this world has to that; and here is does it. In this description (for so I shall choose to call it) we may observe,