Luke 16

Chap. XVI. ver. 5.—his lord’s debtors] Meaning probably his tenants, who paid their rent not in money, but in kind; being a certain proportion of the produce of their lands. See ver. 6, 7. Bp. Mmm.

— the mammon of unrighteousness; ] Not meaning riches unjustly gotten, but riches in general, the false, uncertain, transitory riches of the present world. Dr. S. Clarke.

Chap. XVII. ver. 1. — It is impossible but that offences &c.] See the occasion of these words of Christ at Matt. xviii. 6, 7. And for further notes on this chapter, see the passages of St. Matthew referred to in the margin.

Luke 16:3

3. — If thy brother trespass] See Matt. xviii. 21. 6. — Increase our faith.] We find the disciples frequently confessing their want of faith: by which they mean, not want of faith to believe any article of religion, but want of a due reliance on the power of God, to enable them to perform miracles, for the great work of converting men to the Christian religion. This seems to be their meaning, from our Saviour’s answer in the next verse. Bp. Mann.

Luke 16:6

6. — sycamine tree.] Undoubtedly Christ meant the sycomore of the ancients, called by the Egyptians Pharaoh’s fig tree. This tree is now found in Judea, and in Galilee, where He then was. Hasselquist.

Luke 16:8

8. And the lord commended &c.] The very lord, at whose expense this fraudulent project took effect, could not but acknowledge the wisdom of him who projected it. The steward is called “unjust,” which is a direct reprehension of his dishonest conduct: but as that part of his character did not fall within our Lord’s design in propounding the parable, He passes it without further notice. Accordingly, He dwells upon the foresight and worldly wisdom of this steward, as a just reproach to the inconsideration and remissness, of which even they who profess to be earnestly seeking the blessings of eternity, are too often guilty, in the pursuit of them. Dean Stanhope.

The steward is not only expressly called “unjust,” but his injustice was branded by his dismissal. What his master praised was his wisdom and foresight, his subtle and ingenious management in securing to himself friends. He punished his dishonesty, but acknowledged his art and cunning. Abp. Newcome.

— because he had done wisely.] That is, discreetly, according to the wisdom of the men of this world, whose concern is only for the good things of the present life. He commends him, not absolutely, as an example fit to be followed, in his injustice, fraud, and waste of his master’s goods; but comparatively, as being so far worthy to be imitated by “the children of light,” that they ought to make it their principal concern here, to provide for their reception into everlasting habitations, when they shall be by death removed from their stewardships. Dr. Whitby.

A parable like this seemed to require an explanation, as many of the hearers might have drawn improper inferences from it: our Lord therefore did not leave it in obscurity as He did some other parables delivered to the multitude, but immediately pointed out Himself the uses and observations which were to be made from it. Dr. Jortin. Indeed, He is unusually large in explaining the uses of this parable, and guarding it from misconstruction. Abp. Newcome.

— for the children of this world &c.] Our Saviour, applying the parable to His disciples, says, Ye see how provident and industrious are the men of the world, to secure to themselves a portion in the fading and uncertain enjoyments of this life. If pious and good men would shew any approach to the same diligence in obtaining the happiness of eternity, which worldly men exert in providing present possessions, they could not possibly miss their reward. Dr. S. Clarke. Our Saviour’s observation here is a mournful one, founded on a thorough knowledge of human nature, and verified by constant experience; but it is very useful and important, a lesson of humility and caution to the good, of reproof and terror to the wicked, whose wisdom serves only to make them the greatest fools, and the greatest sufferers. By “the children of this world,”

are meant they who mind earthly things, and steadily pursue them, disregarding religion and religious concerns: by “the children of light,” those who acknowledge that future happiness is the great end of man, and obedience to God the only way to attain it; who live under this persuasion, and act suitably to it. The point in which these two sorts of persons are compared, is prudence or wisdom, and the preference is given to the children of this world, as pursuing their worldly interest with more dexterity and steadiness, than the others usually exert in securing the end and the recompense they have in view. The children of this world have, for the most part, a steady regard to the end which they pursue, be it wealth, or power, or honours, or pleasure; they are wise in choosing proper means, and finding out the nearest way to compass their end; they are vigilant and active, constant and resolute in their pursuits. On the other hand, the children of light sometimes quite overlook and forget their great concern, have intervals of remissness and indifference, are easily deterred and unsettled, and drawn aside by every impediment and discouragement. Dr. Jortin.

Luke 16:9

9.—Make to yourselves friends &c.] Imitate this steward’s wisdom in so managing the perishing possessions of this world, that they may secure to you a future subsistence when your present trust shall end. The steward was aware that his life was not to end with his stewardship, and that therefore, when that source of livelihood failed, some other means must be devised. Our case in this respect is the same as his. Death deprives us of all further use of our worldly advantages; but death itself does not close our existence. There is a future and eternal state, for which we are reserved; to which it is our greatest prudence to direct our aims at present, to the end that all which we now have, and all which we now do, may then tend to our blessing. How this is to be done, the Scriptures abundantly inform us. Our wealth is not to be wasted in yearn and vanity, in luxury and excess, but to be expended in works of piety, charity, and publick good. Our talents and learning are to be employed in promoting virtue, religion, and truth; in practices, examples, and persuasions, proportioned to the measure of these advantages. They who use the blessings of this life faithfully for the service of their Lord, will hereafter, according as He has promised, enter into His joys. Dean Stanhope. Our Saviour means to say, Learn from the unjust steward this wisdom at least, the wisdom of consideration and forecast, and of providing for a time of necessity: what he was, that you all are, in one respect; you are in an office of trust. Every man is a steward; he has talents, knowledge, power, worldly possessions, entrusted to his care by the great Lord and Householder. Make to yourselves friends of deceitful riches, that when ye depart hence, ye may be received into everlasting habitations. As the steward in the parable so employed the revenues committed to his care as to purchase friends and protectors, do you the same in an honest way. Use your possessions in such a

P 2 The Pharisees reproved. The parable

Anno DOMINI 33. of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

Luke 16:10

10. — he that is unjust in the least &c.] He that is an unjust steward in the management of a thing so vile as earthly wealth, is not fit to be entrusted with true riches.

Luke 16:11

11. If therefore ye have not been &c.] If ye employ not the transitory and fading riches of this world to those purposes for which God committed them to your charge; ye can never expect that God should bestow upon you a greater and more lasting treasure. Dr. S. Clarke.

— the unrighteous mammon.] See note at ver. 9; the false riches of this world, as placed in opposition to the true riches of the next. Bp. Mann.

Luke 16:12

12. — who shall give you that which is your own?] The meaning of this verse is, You will never obtain the true riches which are to be expected in the next world, unless you make a right use of those advantages with which you are now entrusted: it is your behaviour here that will determine what your state shall be hereafter. Bp. Mann.

Luke 16:13

13. No servant &c.] See notes at Matt. vi. 24.

Luke 16:15

15. — which justify yourselves &c.] Which endeavour to approve yourselves to men, and expect to be owned by them, as righteous persons: but God knoweth the falsehood of your hearts: for that fair outside, which is highly esteemed among men, who see no farther, is an abomination in the sight of God, who seeth the hypocrisy of your hearts. Dr. Whitby.

Luke 16:16

16. — since that time &c.] Since the preaching of

they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

Luke 16:18

18. Whosoever putteth away &c.] See note at Matt. v. 31.

Luke 16:19

19. There was a certain rich man, &c.] Jesus, having rebuked the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and covetousness, returns to His discourse concerning the true use of riches, and the great evil of a worldly and voluptuous life. To which purpose He adds the following parable. Dr. S. Clarke.

As this person was rich, he had leisure hours to spend in the study of religious truths, and of the duties incumbent on a person of his high rank; he had pressing motives to gratitude towards God, had power and opportunity of doing great service to his fellow creatures, of relieving the distressed, of rewarding the meritorious, of encouraging virtue by his example. What use did he make of these advantages? He lived entirely to himself, and did no good to others; his heart was set on worldly objects, and he removed religion far from his thoughts. Dr. Jortin.

— which was clothed in purple, and fine linen, &c.] Observe, that the rich man is not censured by our Saviour for enjoying what he had, for wearing rich apparel, and keeping a great table: his fault was this, that he made every thing subservient to his sensuality and luxury, without any consideration of the wants and necessities of others. Abp. Tillotson.

Luke 16:20

20. — a certain beggar named Lazarus.] As if our Saviour had said, For instance, poor Lazarus, whom ye all knew. He would not name any rich man, because that would have been invidious, and would have given provocation. Abp. Tillotson.

— was laid at his gate, &c.] Here are mentioned three circumstances which aggravate the rich man’s uncharitableness; the object was presented to him at his very gate; such an object as would have moved any one’s pity, a fellow creature reduced to extreme misery and necessity; and a very little relief would have contented him. Abp. Tillotson.

of the rich man and Lazarus. Anno DOMINI 33.

the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

Luke 16:22

22.—was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.] This is expressed according to the Jewish mode of thinking and speaking; and the meaning is in general, that he was received into a state of happiness, and admitted to a place of peculiar honour. The phrase of lying in Abraham’s bosom bears allusion to the custom at Jewish feasts of several guests lying on one couch, the head of one being placed near the bosom of another. See John xiii. 25; and note at chap. vii. 38. Bp. Pearce. The Jews had deservedly a great veneration for Abraham on account of his eminent faith and obedience, and they assigned to him the first place in the state of the blessed. Abp. Tillotson.

Luke 16:23

23.—in hell he lift up his eyes.] As if he had never once considered or bethought himself till that time. But alas! it was then too late for him to consider, and so it will be for us when we are surprised by death: consideration will then do us no good; it will serve no other purpose than to aggravate our misery, and to multiply our stings, and to give new life and rage to those vultures that will perpetually prey upon our hearts. But how much wiser a course would it be to consider these things in time, in order to our eternal peace and comfort; to think of them while we may redress them, and avoid the dismal consequences of them, rather than to delay when our case is desperate and past all remedy. Abp. Tillotson.

He who before dwelt at his ease is delivered over to remorse, sorrow, and pain. The remembrance of his former happiness makes his present state more wretched; and his misery is aggravated by the bitter reflection, that he had brought himself into this sad state entirely by his own fault. Dr. Jorlin.

—seeth Abraham afar off.] Our Saviour here conforms to the popular notion of the Jews, that the places where the good were to remain in happiness, and the wicked in torment, were adjoining to each other. Le Clerc.

—and Lazarus in his bosom.] Since the rich man is here described as seeing Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom, we are taught that the wicked will in the next world be so far informed of the state of the good, as to perceive and bewail, with unutterable anguish and regret, their own sad fate in being refused and rejected; when, had they acted differently, they would have been admitted to it. This is, strictly speaking, losing a man’s soul; it is losing that happiness which his soul might have attained, and for which it was made. Archdeacon Paley.

Luke 16:24

24.—for I am tormented in this flame.] The torments of wicked men in hell are usually described to us in Scripture by one of the sharpest and quickest pains with which human nature is acquainted; namely, that of burning. All that we need infer from these descriptions

is, that the sufferings of wicked men will be as great and severe, and probably greater than can possibly be described to us by any thing we know: for who knows the power of God’s anger, and the utmost of what Omnipotent justice can do to sinners? Abp. Tillotson.

Luke 16:25

25.—remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things.] These things last only with our life, and how short is that! Did men seriously lay this to heart, they would not set such a price on any of the transient enjoyments of life, as for the sake of them to neglect the great concernments of another world. We are apt to be dazzled with the present glitterings of worldly glory and prosperity; but, if we would look upon these things as certainly soon to be gone from us, how little would they signify! The rich man here, no doubt, thought himself a much happier man than poor Lazarus at his door; and yet, after a very little while, how glad would he have been to change conditions with this poor man: when he was in torments, then no doubt he wished that he had suffered all the misery and want in this world which Lazarus did, provided he might have been comforted as he was, and “carried by angels into Abraham’s bosom.” Abp. Tillotson.

From this and other parts of the parable it is plain that our Lord’s principal view in this whole discourse was, to warn men of the danger of that worldly-mindedness, of that heedlessness respecting matters of religion, of that total intentness on present pleasure and profit, which is not so much itself a particular vice, as the foundation of all vices. It is this which makes men regardless of futurity, and without God in all their thoughts. It is this deceitfulness of riches, and the care of other things, of ambition and voluptuousness, which, our Lord tells us in another parable, “chokes the word:” that is, stifles all notions of religion, “and it becomes unfruitful.” It is this which exposes men to temptations of every kind, and makes them continually sacrifice the interests of truth and virtue whenever they come in competition with the good things of this life, on which alone their heart is set. Dr. S. Clarke.

—receivedst thy good things.] This is brought to the rich man’s remembrance, that he might recollect and see and justify God’s providence in all his dispensations, and that he might see how little cause he had for complaint, when even so bad a man as he was had shared so largely in the Divine bounty. Dean Stanhope.

—thy good things.] That is, such as thou didst esteem good, and prefer to all other. Dean Stanhope.

Luke 16:26

26.—there is a great gulph fixed.] God has determined your state by an irreversible sentence; and, however earnestly we might desire it, yet it is absolutely impossible for us to relieve you. Dr. S. Clarke.

Through the whole of this parable, the invisible state The rich man and Lazarus. Christ teacheth to avoid offences. Anno DOMINI 33.

Luke 16:29

29. — They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.] They have Moses and the Prophets, Abraham says, whom God, for my sake, and in virtue of the covenant made with me and my seed, sent to their forefathers, and by whom He reveals His own will, and their duty, in a more ample manner than it had been declared to any of my descendants before them. This standing revelation, which they, and which none but they, and the rest of my seed enjoy, was attested in the most solemn, authentick, and credible manner; and is sufficient to influence their faith and practice, if they do but attend to it. Bp. Atterbury.

Luke 16:31

31. — If they hear not Moses &c.] His answer is, God has already given them all the means of conviction, which it is reasonable either for Him to give, or for them to expect. If they be not blinded by an unreasonable perverseness of mind, and an habitual love of sin, they cannot avoid being influenced by the Law and the Prophets. But, if they lie under these prejudices, then no other means, how extraordinary soever, will probably have any lasting or effectual influence upon them. And the unbelieving Jews themselves became a signal instance of this; who withstood all the miracles of Christ, and even that greatest of all, His resurrection from the dead, no less than they had done the ordinary preaching of the Prophets. Dr. S. Clarke.

“They have Moses and the Prophets.” They have the books of Moses and the Prophets, written by men divinely inspired: these sufficiently declare to them the will of God and their duty: and it is unreasonable to demand or expect that God should do more for their conviction and satisfaction. Abp. Tillotson.

The rich man in torment could think of no better

THEN said he unto the disciples, a It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!