Luke 6:24,25 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

But wo, &c. Here we see that this discourse differs very materially from the sermon on the mount; there our Lord pronounced blessings only, here he denounces curses; or, to speak more properly, he compassionately bewails the condition of persons of a contrary character to that of those pronounced happy in the preceding verses. For, as Grotius justly observes, the expression, ουαι υμιν, wo unto you, “vox est dolentis, non irâ incensi,” is the expression of one lamenting, [or bewailing the unhappy condition of another,] not of one inflamed with anger. It is like that used by our Lord, Matthew 24:19, wo to them that are with child, &c ., in those days; an expression which no one can understand otherwise than as a declaration of the unhappiness of women in these circumstances, at such a time of general calamity as is referred to. The parallel passage in Luke 23:29 where we have the same prophecy, makes this evident. As our Lord, therefore, in the former sentences, pronounces the poor, the needy, the mournful, and the persecuted happy, so he here pronounces the rich, the jovial, and the applauded, miserable; the circumstances in which such are placed being peculiarly insnaring, and the danger being great lest they should be so taken up with the transient pleasures of time, as to forget and forfeit everlasting happiness. His words may be thus paraphrased: Miserable are ye rich If ye have received or sought your consolation or happiness in your riches. Miserable are you that are full Of meat and drink, and worldly goods, and take up with these things as your portion; for you shall ere long hunger Shall fall into a state of great indigence and misery, aggravated by all the plenty which you enjoyed and abused. Miserable are you that laugh That spend your lives in mirth and gayety, or are of a light, trifling spirit; for you shall mourn and weep You have reason to expect a portion in those doleful regions, where, without intermission and without end, you shall be abandoned to weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. “Our Lord's malediction,” [declaration,] says a modern author, “is not inconsistent with the apostle's precepts, which command Christians always to rejoice. Neither is the mirth against which the wo is here denounced to be understood of that constant cheerfulness of temper, which arises to true Christians from the comfortable and cheerful doctrines with which they are enlightened by the gospel, the assurance they have of reconciliation with God, the hope they have of everlasting life and the pleasure they enjoy in the practice of piety and the other duties of religion. But it is to be understood of that turbulent, carnal mirth, that levity and vanity of spirit, which arises, not from any solid foundation, but from sensual pleasure, or those vain amusements of life by which the giddy and the gay contrive to make away their time; that sort of mirth which dissipates thought, leaves no time for consideration, and gives them an utter aversion to all serious reflections.” Persons who continue to indulge themselves in this sort of mirth through life, shall weep and mourn eternally, when they are excluded from the joys of heaven, and banished for ever from the presence of God, by the light of whose countenance all the blessed are enlightened, and made transcendently happy.