Luke 15:29,30 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But he answering, said to his father The kindness and respect which his father showed him on this occasion, did not soften him in the least. He stubbornly persisted in his anger, and answered the affectionate speeches of his parent with nothing but loud and haughty accusations of his conduct. These many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time This branch of the parable is finely contrived to express the high opinion which the Pharisees, here represented by the elder brother, entertained of their own righteousness and merit. Yet thou never gavest me a kid, &c. Perhaps God does not usually give much consolation to those who never felt the deep sorrows of repentance. But as soon as this thy son was come The ungracious youth disdained to call him his brother, and at the same time insolently insinuated, that his father seemed to despise all his other children, and to reckon this prodigal only his son; which hath devoured thy living with harlots Hath wasted thy property in a long course of scandalous debaucheries, to his own ruin, and the infamy of the family. Thou hast killed for him the fatted calf And made him as welcome as if he had been the most dutiful child upon earth. And he said With great gentleness, when he might have taken offence at his son's unbecoming reply, Son, thou art ever with me And art every day receiving some token of my kindness. By calling him his son, after the insolent speech he had made, the father insinuated, that he acknowledged him likewise for his son, and that neither the undutifulness of the one, nor the frowardness of the other of his children, had extinguished his affection, or cancelled the relation subsisting between them. All that I have is thine As thou hast formerly lived in my family, and hast had the command of my property, as far as thy exigencies required; so thou art at present heir to the bulk of my estate. This is a material intimation, and suggests a strong reason against murmuring at the indulgence shown to the greatest sinners. As the father's receiving the youngest son did not cause him to disinherit the elder, so God's receiving notorious sinners will be no loss to those who have always served him: neither will he raise these to a state of glory equal to that of those who have always served him, if they have, upon the whole, made a greater progress in inward as well as outward holiness.