19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have a great amount of goods in store, enough for a number of years; be at rest, take food and wine and be happy.
If, after the way of men, I was fighting with beasts at Ephesus, what profit is it to me? If the dead do not come to life again, let us take our pleasure in feasting, for tomorrow we come to an end.
Have joy, O young man, while you are young; and let your heart be glad in the days of your strength, and go in the ways of your heart, and in the desire of your eyes; but be certain that for all these things God will be your judge.
How foolish it is to say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this town, and be there for a year and do business there and get wealth: When you are not certain what will take place tomorrow. What is your life? It is a mist, which is seen for a little time and then is gone. But the right thing to say would be, If it is the Lord's pleasure and if we are still living, we will do this and that.
Do not make a noise about tomorrow, for you are not certain what a day's outcome may be.
For this reason he makes an offering to his net, burning perfume to his fishing-net; because by them he gets much food and his meat is fat.
Because for long enough, in times past, we have been living after the way of the Gentiles, given up to the desires of the flesh, to drinking and feasting and loose behaviour and unclean worship of images;
You have been living delicately on earth and have taken your pleasure; you have made your hearts fat for a day of destruction.
Come now, you men of wealth, give yourselves to weeping and crying because of the bitter troubles which are coming to you. Your wealth is unclean and insects have made holes in your clothing. Your gold and your silver are wasted and their waste will be a witness against you, burning into your flesh. You have put by your store in the last days.
False to their friends, acting without thought, lifted up in mind, loving pleasure more than God;
Give orders to those who have money and goods in this life, not to be lifted up in their minds, or to put their hope in the uncertain chances of wealth, but in God who gives us in full measure all things for our use;
Whose end is destruction, whose god is the stomach, and whose glory is in their shame, whose minds are fixed on the things of the earth.
But give attention to yourselves, for fear that your hearts become over-full of the pleasures of food and wine, and the cares of this life, and that day may come on you suddenly, and take you as in a net:
Make no store of wealth for yourselves on earth, where it may be turned to dust by worms and weather, and where thieves may come in by force and take it away. But make a store for yourselves in heaven, where it will not be turned to dust and where thieves do not come in to take it away: For where your wealth is, there will your heart be.
You who put far away the evil day, causing the rule of the violent to come near; Who are resting on beds of ivory, stretched out on soft seats, feasting on lambs from the flock and young oxen from the cattle-house; Making foolish songs to the sound of corded instruments, and designing for themselves instruments of music, like David; Drinking wine in basins, rubbing themselves with the best oils; but they have no grief for the destruction of Joseph.
But in place of these there was joy and delight, oxen and sheep were being made ready for food, there was feasting and drinking: men said, Now is the time for food and wine, for tomorrow death comes.
Cursed are those who get up early in the morning to give themselves up to strong drink; who keep on drinking far into the night till they are heated with wine!
Are your eyes lifted up to it? it is gone: for wealth takes to itself wings, like an eagle in flight up to heaven.
The property of a man of wealth is his strong town, and it is as a high wall in the thoughts of his heart.
But God will put an end to you for ever; driving you out from your tent, uprooting you from the land of the living. (Selah.) The upright will see it with fear, and will say, laughing at you: See, this is the man who did not make God his strength, but had faith in his goods and his property, and made himself strong in his wealth.
Though he might have pride in his soul in his life-time, and men will give you praise if you do well for yourself,
They send out their young ones like a flock, and their children have pleasure in the dance, They make songs to the instruments of music, and are glad at the sound of the pipe. Their days come to an end without trouble, and suddenly they go down to the underworld.
As for man, the son of woman, his days are short and full of trouble.
And when you have taken food and are full, and have made fair houses for yourselves and are living in them; And when your herds and your flocks are increased, and your stores of silver and gold, and you have wealth of every sort; Take care that your hearts are not lifted up in pride, giving no thought to the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house;
And houses full of good things not stored up by you, and places for storing water which you did not make, and vine-gardens and olive-trees not of your planting; and you have taken food and are full; Then take care that you keep your hearts true to the Lord, who took you out of the land of Egypt, out of the prison-house.
What cause have I for fear in the days of evil, when the evil-doing of those who are working for my downfall is round about me? Even of those whose faith is in their wealth, and whose hearts are lifted up because of their stores. Truly, no man may get back his soul for a price, or give to God the payment for himself; (Because it takes a great price to keep his soul from death, and man is not able to give it.) So that he might have eternal life, and never see the underworld. For he sees that wise men come to their end, and foolish persons of low behaviour come to destruction together, letting their wealth go to others. The place of the dead is their house for ever, and their resting-place through all generations; those who come after them give their names to their lands. But man, like the animals, does not go on for ever; he comes to an end like the beasts. This is the way of the foolish; their silver is for those who come after them, and their children get the pleasure of their gold. (Selah.)
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Luke 12
Commentary on Luke 12 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 12
Lu 12:1-12. Warning against Hypocrisy.
1-3. meantime—in close connection, probably, with the foregoing scene. Our Lord had been speaking out more plainly than ever before, as matters were coming to a head between Him and His enemies, and this seems to have suggested to His own mind the warning here. He had just Himself illustriously exemplified His own precepts.
his disciples first of all—afterwards to "the multitudes" (Lu 12:54).
covered—from the view.
2. hid—from knowledge. "Tis no use concealing anything, for all will one day come out. Give free and fearless utterance then to all the truth." (Compare 1Co 4:3, 5).
4, 5. I say, &c.—You will say, That may cost us our life. Be it so; but, "My friends, there their power ends." He calls them "my friends" here, not in any loose sense, but, as we think, from the feeling He then had that in this "killing of the body" He and they were going to be affectingly one with each other.
5. Fear Him … Fear Him—how striking the repetition here! Only the one fear would effectually expel the other.
after he hath killed, &c.—Learn here—(1) To play false with one's convictions to save one's life, may fail of its end after all, for God can inflict a violent death in some other and equally formidable way. (2) There is a hell, it seems, for the body as well as the soul; consequently, sufferings adapted to the one as well as the other. (3) Fear of hell is a divinely authorized and needed motive of action even to Christ's "friends." (4) As Christ's meekness and gentleness were not compromised by such harsh notes as these, so those servants of Christ lack their Master's spirit who soften down all such language to please ears "polite." (See on Mr 9:43-48).
6, 7. five … for two farthings—In Mt 10:29 it is "two for one farthing"; so if one took two farthings' worth, he got one in addition—of such small value were they.
than many sparrows—not "than millions of sparrows"; the charm and power of our Lord's teaching is very much in this simplicity.
8, 9. confess … deny—The point lies in doing it "before men," because one has to do it "despising the shame." But when done, the Lord holds Himself bound to repay it in kind by confessing such "before the angels of God." For the rest, see on Lu 9:26.
10. Son of man … Holy Ghost—(See on Mt 12:31, 32).
Lu 12:13-53. Covetousness—Watchfulness—Superiority to Earthly Ties.
13. Master, &c.—that is, "Great Preacher of righteousness, help; there is need of Thee in this rapacious world; here am I the victim of injustice, and that from my own brother, who withholds from me my rightful share of the inheritance that has fallen to us." In this most inopportune intrusion upon the solemnities of our Lord's teaching, there is a mixture of the absurd and the irreverent, the one, however, occasioning the other. The man had not the least idea that his case was not of as urgent a nature, and as worthy the attention of our Lord, as anything else He could deal with.
14. Man, &c.—Contrast this style of address with "my friends," (Lu 12:4).
who, &c.—a question literally repudiating the office which Moses assumed (Ex 2:14). The influence of religious teachers in the external relations of life has ever been immense, when only the INDIRECT effect of their teaching; but whenever they intermeddle DIRECTLY with secular and political matters, the spell of that influence is broken.
15. unto them—the multitude around Him (Lu 12:1).
of covetousness—The best copies have "all," that is, "every kind of covetousness"; because as this was one of the more plausible forms of it, so He would strike at once at the root of the evil.
a man's life, &c.—a singularly weighty maxim, and not less so because its meaning and its truth are equally evident.
16-19. a certain rich man, &c.—Why is this man called a "fool?" (Lu 12:20) (1) Because he deemed a life of secure and abundant earthly enjoyment the summit of human felicity. (2) Because, possessing the means of this, through prosperity in his calling, he flattered himself that he had a long lease of such enjoyment, and nothing to do but give himself up to it. Nothing else is laid to his charge.
20, 21. this night, &c.—This sudden cutting short of his career is designed to express not only the folly of building securely upon the future, but of throwing one's whole soul into what may at any moment be gone. "Thy soul shall be required of thee" is put in opposition to his own treatment of it, "I will say to my soul, Soul," &c.
whose shall those things be, &c.—Compare Ps 39:6, "He heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them."
21. So is he, &c.—Such is a picture of his folly here, and of its awful issue.
and is not rich toward God—lives to amass and enjoy riches which terminate on self, but as to the riches of God's favor, which is life (Ps 30:5), of "precious" faith (2Pe 1:1; Jas 2:5), of good works (1Ti 6:18), of wisdom which is better than rubies (Pr 8:11)—lives and dies a beggar!
22-31. (See on Mt 6:25-33).
25, 26. which of you, &c.—Corroding solicitude will not bring you the least of the things ye fret about, though it may double the evil of wanting them. And if not the least, why vex yourselves about things of more consequence?
29. of doubtful, &c.—unsettled mind; put off your balance.
32. little flock, &c.—How sublime and touching a contrast between this tender and pitying appellation, "Little flock" (in the original a double diminutive, which in German can be expressed, but not in English)—and the "good pleasure" of the Father to give them the Kingdom; the one recalling the insignificance and helplessness of that then literal handful of disciples, the other holding up to their view the eternal love that encircled them, the everlasting arms that were underneath them, and the high inheritance awaiting them!—"the kingdom"; grand word; then why not "bread" (Lu 12:31 [Bengel]). Well might He say, "Fear not!"
33, 34. Sell, &c.—This is but a more vivid expression of Mt 6:19-21 (see on Mt 6:19-21).
35-40. loins … girded—to fasten up the long outer garment, always done before travel and work (2Ki 4:29; Ac 12:8). The meaning is, Be in readiness.
lights, &c.—(See on Mt 25:1).
36. return from the wedding—not come to it, as in the parable of the virgins. Both have their spiritual significance; but preparedness for Christ's coming is the prominent idea.
37. gird himself, &c.—"a promise the most august of all: Thus will the Bridegroom entertain his friends (nay, servants) on the solemn Nuptial Day" [Bengel].
38. second … third watch—To find them ready to receive Him at any hour of day or night, when one might least of all expect Him, is peculiarly blessed. A servant may be truly faithful, even though taken so far unawares that he has not everything in such order and readiness for his master's return as he thinks is due to him, and both could and would have had if he had had notice of the time of his coming, and so may not be willing to open to him "immediately," but fly to preparation, and let his master knock again ere he admit him, and even then not with full joy. A too common case this with Christians. But if the servant have himself and all under his charge in such a state that at any hour when his master knocks, he can open to him "immediately," and hail his "return"—that is the most enviable, "blessed" servant of all.
41-48. unto us or even to all?—us the Twelve, or all this vast audience?
42. Who then, &c.—answering the question indirectly by another question, from which they were left to gather what it would be:—To you certainly in the first instance, representing the "stewards" of the "household" I am about to collect, but generally to all "servants" in My house.
faithful and wise—Fidelity is the first requisite in a servant, wisdom (discretion and judgment in the exercise of his functions), the next.
steward—house steward, whose it was to distribute to the servants their allotted portion of food.
shall make—will deem fit to be made.
44. make him ruler over all he hath—will advance him to the highest post, referring to the world to come. (See Mt 25:21, 23).
45. begin to beat, &c.—In the confidence that his Lord's return will not be speedy, he throws off the role of servant and plays the master, maltreating those faithful servants who refuse to join him, seizing on and revelling in the fulness of his master's board; intending, when he has got his fill, to resume the mask of fidelity ere his master appear.
46. cut him in sunder—a punishment not unknown in the East; compare Heb 11:37, "sawn asunder" (1Sa 15:33; Da 2:5).
the unbelievers—the unfaithful, those unworthy of trust (Mt 24:51), "the hypocrites," falsely calling themselves "servants."
48. knew not—that is knew but partially; for some knowledge is presupposed both in the name "servant" of Christ, and his being liable to punishment at all.
many … few stripes—degrees of future punishment proportioned to the knowledge sinned against. Even heathens are not without knowledge enough for future judgment; but the reference here is not to such. It is a solemn truth, and though general, like all other revelations of the future world, discloses a tangible and momentous principle in its awards.
49-53. to send—cast.
fire—"the higher spiritual element of life which Jesus came to introduce into this earth (compare Mt 3:11), with reference to its mighty effects in quickening all that is akin to it and destroying all that is opposed. To cause this element of life to take up its abode on earth, and wholly to pervade human hearts with its warmth, was the lofty destiny of the Redeemer" [Olshausen: so Calvin, Stier, Alford, &c.].
what will I, &c.—an obscure expression, uttered under deep and half-smothered emotion. In its general import all are agreed; but the nearest to the precise meaning seems to be, "And what should I have to desire if it were once already kindled?" [Bengel and Bloomfield].
50. But … a baptism, &c.—clearly, His own bloody baptism, first to take place.
how … straitened—not, "how do I long for its accomplishment," as many understand it, thus making it but a repetition of Lu 12:49; but "what a pressure of spirit is upon Me."
till it be accomplished—till it be over. Before a promiscuous audience, such obscure language was fit on a theme like this; but oh, what surges of mysterious emotion in the view of what was now so near at hand does it reveal!
51. peace … ? Nay, &c.—the reverse of peace, in the first instance. (See on Mt 10:34-36.) The connection of all this with the foregoing warnings about hypocrisy, covetousness, and watchfulness, is deeply solemn: "My conflict hasten apace; Mine over, yours begins; and then, let the servants tread in their Master's steps, uttering their testimony entire and fearless, neither loving nor dreading the world, anticipating awful wrenches of the dearest ties in life, but looking forward, as I do, to the completion of their testimony, when, reaching the haven after the tempest, they shall enter into the joy of their Lord."
Lu 12:54-59. Not Discerning the Signs of the Time.
54. to the people—"the multitude," a word of special warning to the thoughtless crowd, before dismissing them. (See on Mt 16:2, 3).
56. how … not discern, &c.—unable to perceive what a critical period that was for the Jewish Church.
57. why even of yourselves, &c.—They might say, To do this requires more knowledge of Scripture and providence than we possess; but He sends them to their own conscience, as enough to show them who He was, and win them to immediate discipleship.
58. When thou goest, &c.—(See on Mt 5:25, 26). The urgency of the case with them, and the necessity, for their own safety, of immediate decision, was the object of these striking words.