CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 16:1. And He said also.—This implies that there is a certain, though perhaps not very close, connection between the discourse in this chapter and that which precedes it. The chapter mainly consists of two parables bearing upon the right use of riches in this world with regard to the prospect of another world. This subject was specially appropriate to the two classes of publicans and Pharisees—the one of which amassed ill-gotten gains, and the other of which was covetous (Luke 16:14) To His disciples.—The parable of the Unjust Steward, though of special bearing, perhaps, upon the publicans, was not addressed exclusively to them. A certain rich man.—In the interpretation of the parable the Rich Man can only represent God, who is possessor of all things. A steward.—A man of business, or agent. Such persons were often slaves, but it is evident from Luke 16:3-4 that this man was free. By the steward we are to understand disciples, or every man in Christ’s Church. Accused.—Probably a malicious, but certainly a true, accusation. Had wasted.—Rather, “was wasting” (R.V.).
Luke 16:2. How is it that I hear this of thee?—Or, “What is this that I hear of thee?” (R.V.). Probably the A.V. is to be preferred—i.e., not “What is the nature of this report?” but “What ground is there for the report?—produce books and vouchers.” Thou mayest be.—Rather, “Thou canst be no longer steward” (R.V.). The steward not denying the report, it was impossible to retain him in his office. The dismissal is to be understood of the day of death. I cannot dig.—Rather, “I have not strength to dig” (R.V.). His strength had been enervated by his soft life.
Luke 16:4. I am resolved.—The word in the original implies a sudden plan—an idea that has just dawned upon him. They.—I.e., the debtors. Receive me.—I.e., give me shelter. This is one of the points of comparison on which stress is laid in Luke 16:9.
Luke 16:5. Every one.—Rather, “each one.” Debtors.—It is doubtful in what relation these “debtors” stood to the “lord.” They were either tenants who paid rent in kind, and whose rent was now lowered, or persons who had received advances of food from the Rich Man’s stores, which they had not paid for, and the amounts of which were now fraudulently altered. Probably the latter explanation is the better of the two. The first.—Two specimen cases are given; the varying reduction in the two implies that consideration was paid to the different circumstances of the respective debtors.
Luke 16:6. Bill.—R.V. “bond”; the literal term is “writings.” Quickly.—Evidently a secret and hurried arrangement; the debtors, too, seem to have been dealt with separately and privately.
Luke 16:8. The lord.—Rather, “his lord” (R.V.), and not Christ. Wisely.—I.e., prudently and skilfully. Both the Rich Man and the steward were “children of this world,” and were therefore characteristically inclined to overlook the fraudulent part of the transaction, in view of its cleverness and success. Wiser.—More shrewd. In their generation.—Rather, “for their own generation”—i.e., in their lower sphere; in looking after their own interests. Children of light.—Cf. John 12:36; Ephesians 5:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:5.
Luke 16:9. I say unto you.—“I,” in opposition to “the lord”; “you,” in opposition to “the steward.” Of the mammon.—I.e., “by means of” (R.V.). “Mammon” is an Aramaic word for “wealth”—not for “god of wealth,” as commonly explained. “Mammon of unrighteousness”—i.e., wealth which is so generally regarded as personal property, and squandered accordingly, instead of being considered as a trust committed by God to our charge; unrighteously claimed as one’s own, and unrighteously employed. Make friends.—The imagery is taken from the parable. As the steward procured grateful friends, who received him when dismissed from office, so may we, by charitable deeds, provide friends to welcome us into heaven (to welcome on arrival, not to open heaven to us). When ye fail.—Rather, “when it shall fail”—i.e., mammon. Everlasting habitations.—Rather “the eternal tabernacles” (R.V.)—i.e., as contrasted with the temporary refuge secured by the steward for himself.
Luke 16:10. He that is faithful, etc.—In the spiritual sphere the interests of steward and lord are identical; while in the parable the steward secured his own future welfare by defrauding his master. He was guilty of unfaithfulness; but we may, by showing a foresight like his, and by using what is entrusted to us in deeds of charity, show true faithfulness to our Lord. Our characters are tested in this way, by our taking means for securing our eternal welfare or by our neglecting to do so. The contrast between the “least” (or “a very little,” R.V.) and “much” corresponds to that between “unrighteous mammon” and “true riches” (in Luke 16:11), and between “that which is another man’s” and “that which is your own” (in Luke 16:12).
Luke 16:13. No servant, etc.—“Mammon” and “serving” in this verse show that it is still connected with the preceding section. We are entrusted with the “unrighteous mammon,” but are not to be servants to it. God requires the undivided service of our hearts (cf. James 4:4; Colossians 3:5).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 16:1-13
The Prudent Steward.—There is at first sight a difficulty in the interpretation of this parable; apparently there is a commendation of evil by Christ. We see a bad man held up for Christian imitation. The difficulty passes away when we have learned to distinguish the essential aim of the parable from its ornament or drapery. It is not Christ, but the master, who commended the Unjust Steward. And he did so, not because he had acted honourably, faithfully, gratefully, but because he had acted wisely. He takes the single point of prudence, foresight, forecast. We constantly do this in daily life. We are, perhaps, charmed by a tale of successful robbery; we wonder at its ingenuity, feel even a kind of respect for the man who could so contrive it; but no man who thus relates it is understood to recommend felony. This steward had planned, he had seen difficulties, overcome them, marked out his path, held to it steadily, crowned himself with success. So far he is an example. The way in which he used his power of forecasting may have been bad; but forecast itself is good.
I. Wisdom of this world.—There are three classes of men: those who believe that one thing is needful, and choose the better part, who believe in and live for eternity—these are not mentioned here; those who believe in the world and live for it; and those who believe in eternity, and half live for the world. “What shall I do?” Here is the thoughtful, contriving, sagacious man of the world. In the affairs of this world the man who does not provide for self, soon finds himself thrust aside. It becomes necessary to jostle and struggle in the great crowd if he would thrive. Note the kind of superiority in this character that is commended. There are certain qualities which really do elevate a man in the scale of being. He who pursues a plan steadily is higher than he who lives by the hour. There may be nothing very exalted in his aim, but there is something very marvellous in the enduring, steady, patient pursuit of his object. You see energies of the highest order brought into play. It is not a being of mean powers that the world has beguiled, but a mind far-reaching, vast, throwing immortal powers on things of time. Such is the wisdom of this world, wise in its contriving selfishness, wise in its masterly superiority, wise in its adaptation of means to ends, wise in its entire success. But the success is only in their generation, and their wisdom is only for their generation. If this world be all, it is wise to contrive for it and live for it. But if not, then consider the words, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be that thou hast gotten?”
II. The inconsistencies of the children of light.—“The children of this world are wiser,” etc. This is evidently not true of all. There have been men who have given their bodies to be burned for the truth’s sake; men who have freely sacrificed this present world for the next. To say that the wisest of the sons of this world are half as wise as they, were an insult to the sanctifying Spirit. But “children of light” is a wide term. There is a difference between life and light. To have light is to perceive truth and know duty. To have life is to be able to live out truth and to perform duty. Many a man has clear light who has not taken hold of life. So far as a man believes the body nothing in comparison with the soul, the present in comparison with the future; so far as he has felt the power of sin and the sanctifying power of the death of Christ; so far as he comprehends the character of God as exhibited in Jesus Christ;—he is a child of light. The accusation is that in his generation he does not walk so wisely as the child of the world does in his. The children of the world believe that this world is of vast importance. They are consistent with their belief, and live for it. Out of it they manage to extract happiness. In it they contrive to find a home. To be a child of light implies duty as well as privilege. It is not enough to have the light, if we do not “walk in the light.” To hold high principles and live on low ones is Christian inconsistency. If a man say that “it is more blessed to give than to receive,” and is for ever receiving, scarcely ever giving, he is inconsistent. If he profess that to please God is the only thing worth living for, and his plans and aims and contrivances are all to please men, he is wise for the generation of the children of the world; for the generation of the “children of light” he is not wise. The wisdom of the steward consisted in forecasting. He felt that his time was short, and he lost not a moment. The want of Christian wisdom consists in this, that our stewardship is drawing to a close, and no provision is made for an eternal future. “Make to yourself friends.” Goodness done in Christ secures blessedness. A cup of cold water given in the name of Christ shall not lose its reward. Wise acts, holy and unselfish deeds, secure rewards. “Everlasting habitations.” Nothing is eternal but that which is done for God and others. That which is done for self dies. Perhaps it is not wrong, but it perishes. You say it is pleasure; well, enjoy it. But joyous recollection is no longer joy. That which ends in self is mortal; that alone which goes out of self, into God, lasts for ever.—Robertson.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 16:1-13
Luke 16:1-9. The Unjust Steward.
I. The steward dismissed.
II. The steward providing for the future.
III. The steward commended.
IV. The lessons for disciples.—
1. Every one is a steward.
2. Be like this steward in prudence, and use of opportunity.
3. Be unlike him in dishonesty. In this he is a warning.—Taylor.
Christian Prudence.
I. The stewardship of the unjust steward.—
1. Careless.
2. Dishonest.
3. Commended.
II. Our stewardship.—
1. We are all stewards.
2. We shall have to give account. We must keep our eye on the future.—Watson.
I. Wisdom’s eye.—
1. Looks far forward.
2. Looks also around.
II. Wisdom’s hand.—Is quick to do whatever needs to be done. The wisdom of the steward’s plan would have been folly, if it had not been carried out at once.—Wells.
Special Reference to the Publicans.—Apparently, though not certainly, these parables were spoken that the publicans might distinctly understand how their ill-gotten gains were to be used. They were to be taught that, though their past is forgiven, they have a duty to do with the gains they have made. And they are addressed as men thoroughly versed in all the ways of monied men, wide awake to appreciate hard work, vigilance, enterprise, and promptitude. And the aim of this first parable is to impress on them the necessity of carrying over with them into the kingdom of God the qualities which had made them successful in the kingdom of mammon.—Dods.
The Two Parables in this Chapter.—Note the connection between the two parables in this chapter: the one supplements the other. The idea common to them both is the connection between employment of earthly goods and life beyond the grave. The Unjust Steward represents the man who secures his future lot by a wise use of fleeting wealth; the Rich Man is a representative of those who ruin their future by a neglect of present opportunities of preparing happiness in the world to come.
General Teaching of this Parable.—The sum of this parable is that we should deal humanely and benignantly with our neighbours, that when we come to the tribunal of God the fruit of our liberality may return to us.—Calvin.
The Parable Teaches Two Lessons:
I. The general one a lesson of prudence in the use of temporal possessions with a view to eternal interests.
II. The special one a lesson as to the way of using these possessions which most directly and surely tends to promote our eternal interests—viz., by the practice of kindness towards those who are destitute of this world’s goods.—Bruce.
To Use the World for God.—The parable teaches Christian prudence, Christ exhorting us to use the world and the world’s goods, so to speak, against the world and for God.—Trench.
I. The fault and its punishment (Luke 16:1-2).
II. The sudden resolution (Luke 16:3-4).
III. The execution of the plan (Luke 16:5-7).
IV. The Master’s praise (Luke 16:8).
V. The counsel to disciples as an application of the parable (Luke 16:9).
I. Every human being is simply a trustee.
II. We shall have to answer for our trust.
Luke 16:1. “Accused.”—The accusation may have been prompted by malicious motives, but the sting of it lay in its truth. In like manner it is not so much the malevolence of our great spiritual adversary that we have to fear as the just grounds for accusation which our conduct may afford.
Luke 16:2 “Hear this of thee.”—The steward had abused the trust his master had placed in him, and is called to account. In like manner God has entrusted much to man, and will be strict in requiring from him an account of his stewardship. He is not treated as one who, from the utter corruption of his nature, must inevitably go wrong, but as one who is fully responsible for all his actions.
Luke 16:3. “What shall I do?”—He tacitly admits his guilt, and instantly faces the situation and endeavours to make the best of it. His self-indulgent life has incapacitated him for hard work of an honest kind; his pride forbids him to beg for alms from those who had known his former circumstances of affluence and power.
Luke 16:4. “Receive me.”—Here we come across the great lesson of the parable. The steward, when put out of one home, is anxious to secure another. In like manner the fact that we have to leave our home on earth, when death comes, should make us anxious to provide for ourselves an abiding home in the world to come.
Luke 16:5-7. Beneficence a Passport to Heaven.—The steward acts so as to secure benefits for the debtors, without any pecuniary benefit to himself; and this points the moral of the parable—beneficence is a passport into the eternal habitations.
Luke 16:5. Obligations.
I. The grounds of our obligations.—The gifts of God, the gift of His Son, peace of mind, the society of the good.
II. The discharge of our obligations.—Cherish our blessings, live up to our privileges, scatter our blessings among others.
What we Owe to God.—Man is a debtor to God. He is continually forgetting this. Our indebtedness to God need not paralyse us into a sudden despair. Christ is our ransom for the awful obligation of “ten thousand talents.” But His love should constrain us into His service. There are two things to consider:
1. The cause.
2. The nature of our indebtedness to God.
I. The cause.—Each of us owes an infinite debt to God for creation, redemption, election, and grace. To us, especially, life should be a noble and beautiful thing. But more blessed than the first creation is the second. Another mystery of the Divine love is election—a fact which confronts us everywhere. The sovereign, righteous, loving will of God alone accounts for our privileges. Thank Him, too, for grace—the continual, overshadowing, indwelling, inexhaustible gift of the Holy Spirit.
II. The nature of this debt.—We owe God worship, righteousness, trustfulness, and love. In worship we must render substance, testimony, service. The law of God is to be fulfilled by us in our sanctification. Nothing honours God like trusting Him, or wounds Him like failing to trust Him. This is a service always open to all. Best, and last, and sum of all, we owe God love. Paying this we pay everything, and yet feel that nothing is paid. It is His nature to care for our love. God is not content with loving; He desires to be loved. But it must be a complete love—love of mind, will, and spirit.—Thorold.
Luke 16:6-7. “Write fifty … write fourscore.”—There is nothing of spiritual significance in these amounts. They represent merely the shrewdness with which the steward dealt with each debtor, with sole reference, probably, to the greater or less ability of each to render a grateful return to himself when cast upon the world.—Brown.
Luke 16:8-12. Christian Prudence.
I. Prudence.—Is a shorter form of providence. It has great value in human life. It is needed in our conduct, in relation to our money, in our undertakings, and in our companionships. Christian prudence will show itself in making provision for the future world.
II. Worldly prudence and its teaching.—The prudence of the worldly man is in advance of the spiritual prudence of the religious man, as the aims of the former are all directed to one single end—viz., worldly prosperity. The religious man’s aims are too often divided. Because worldly things are near and visible, they are apt to share the affections which should be wholly centred on “the things which are unseen.”
III. Christian prudence.—Christ not only drew lessons from the dishonest steward, but He proceeded to give us a rule for the wise use of money. Use riches, not as our own, but as the stewards of God. Use them as He directs. We are not to make getting rich our aim. We are not to love riches. We are to use them freely for deeds of charity and mercy. Christ also gives encouragements to prudence. Faithfulness in dealing as God would have us with the “unrighteous mammon” is to be the means of training us for, and proving our fitness for, the true riches. Worldly riches are not “true”; we cannot hold them permanently; they do not satisfy the soul. The knowledge and love of God alone satisfy the soul. These, and all that follows with them, are a sure and lasting possession.—Taylor.
Luke 16:8. The Follies of the Wise.—The world can teach the Church many lessons, and it would be well if the Church lived in the fashion in which men of the world do. There is eulogium here; recognition of splendid qualities, prostituted to low purposes; recognition of wisdom in the adaptation of means to end; and a limitation of the recognition, because it is only “in their generation” that the “children of this world are wiser than the children of light.”
I. Two opposed classes.—Our Lord so orders His words as to suggest a double antithesis, one member of which has to be supplied in each case. He would teach us that the “children of this world” are “children of darkness”; and that the “children of light” are so, just because they are the children of another world than this. Thus He limits His praise, because it is the sons of darkness that, in a certain sense, are wiser than the enlightened ones. And that is what makes the wonder and the inconsistency to which our Lord is pointing. Men whose folly is so dashed and streaked with wisdom, and others whose wisdom is so blurred and spotted with folly, are the extraordinary paradoxes which experience of life presents to us.
II. The limited and relative wisdom of the fools.—The steward would have been a much wiser man if he had been an honester one. But, apart from the moral quality of his action, there was in it what was wise, prudent, and worthy of praise. There was courage, fertility of resource, adaptation of means to end, promptitude in carrying out his plans. Bad the design indeed was, but clever. He was a clever cheat. The lord and the steward belong to the same level of character, and vulpine sagacity, astuteness, and qualities which ensure success in material things, seem to both of them to be of the highest value. The secret of success religiously is precisely the same as the secret of success in ordinary things. Nothing is to be got without working for it, and there is nothing to be got in the Christian life without working for it any more than in any other. The reasons for the contrast are easy to understand. “This world” appeals to sense, “that world” to faith. And so trifles crush out realities.
III. The conclusive folly of the partially wise.—Christ said “in their generation,” and that is all that can be said. Let in the thought of the end, and the position is changed. Two questions—What are you doing it for? And suppose you get it, what then?—reduce all the world’s wisdom to stark, staring insanity. Nothing that cannot pass the barrier of these two questions satisfactorily is other than madness, if it is taken to be the aim of a man’s life. You have to look at the end before you serve out the epithets “wise” and “foolish.” The man who makes anything but God his end and aim is relatively wise and absolutely foolish. Let God be your end. And let there be a correspondence between ends and means.—Maclaren.
Mismanagement of Eternal Interests.—In this verse, Christ, after telling the story of the dishonest steward, speaks on His own behalf. Our Lord adds this comment of His own to the commendation pronounced by the steward’s master.
I. This maxim is literally true.—Worldly people are more quick-sighted than Christians as to worldly interests. The very goodness of the Christian is against him in the business of life. He is unwilling to think evil, and unready to counterwork it. So the world often has its laugh at the Christian.
II. The text is true as a serious reflection on the ordinary management of a Christian life.—Those who profess to be living for eternity do not act so wisely, with a view to that high and glorious end, as those who scarcely aim at anything beyond time, act with a view to that comparatively low and poor ambition. There are only these two classes of men—the “children of this age” and the “children of light.” The former are characterised by the absence of a definite pursuit and well-grounded hope of an immortal life in heaven. But the latter do not always associate this high aim of life with true wisdom in the choice of means. Worldly men, in accuracy of eye, steadiness of hand, and strength of effort, outstrip Christian men. These latter should copy, as regards spiritual realities, the good method of worldly men whose life-aims are purely secular. It is not enough to have a higher aim than worldly men. How does the Christian live, in view of, and in pursuit of, this higher aim? Is he wise? Is he prudent? Or is he languid, indifferent, slothful? How searching such an utterance of rebuke as Christ speaks here is to all who profess to be “children of light”? The Christian should be inventive, resolute. Too often he is living below his privileges and opportunities. Great exertions should accompany great expectations. It is so in things earthly. Give a man hope, and you give him zeal; make success doubtful, and you destroy endeavour. Let not the hope, the zeal, the diligent endeavour of the worldling, rebuke the sloth, the aimlessness, the languor, of a “child of the light”!—Vaughan.
Spiritual Far-Sightedness Commended.—The Unjust Steward showed, even in his dishonesty, a far-sightedness of prudence which it were well if Christian people, while eschewing the dishonesty, could always exercise in reference to their own higher aims and nobler interests. The conduct of this unscrupulous agent is made to furnish a lesson, not of imitation certainly, but yet not wholly of avoidance, to the disciples of Jesus Christ.—Ibid.
The Qualities Exhibited by The Steward.—The steward exhibits various valuable qualities of character well worthy of imitation—decision, self-collectedness, energy, promptitude, and tact.—Bruce.
“Commended.”—“Men will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself” (Psalms 49:18).
“Wisely.”—This quality of wisdom Christ had already commended to His disciples, in the words, “be ye therefore wise as serpents” (Matthew 10:16).
We May Learn from His History—
I. That dismissal, death, will certainly come to us.
II. That some provision should be made for what is beyond.
The Word Reminds Us—
I. How intricately mixed up with each other are virtues and vices, good and evil, in this human world.—In the character of this steward the virtue of prudence lay intimately associated with gross and deliberate fraud.
II. Of the high religious value of prudence. The need and function of prudence in relation to the life and future of the soul.
Points in which Worldly Men often Surpass Christians.—Worldly men prosecute their schemes
(1) with more ingenuity of contrivance;
(2) with more singleness of aim;
(3) with greater earnestness;
(4) with greater perseverance;—than “the children of light” often display.
Luke 16:9-10. Stewardship for the Lord.—These sentences require careful pondering, in themselves and in their connection.
I. We hold all we have as the redeemed subjects and servants of Christ.—The steward has nothing of his own. We are not our own. Christ, as Mediator, makes us His own property. This is the secret of Christian stewardship. You, and all you have, are restored to yourself; but you hold all for Christ henceforth. Your absolute all is His. Your possessions come under the same law. You must give all for all. He will have no divided stewardship.
II. What are the tokens of good stewardship?—
1. That the entrusted property be improved to the utmost.
2. That it be administered strictly according to the owner’s will.
3. That where His will is not certainly known, wisdom or prudence does the very best. Our Lord says, Be wise for Me as the steward in the parable was for himself. This is of the very essence of our trust, that the Master leaves much to our own tact. He gives us the main outlines of His will, and leaves us to fill up details. In nothing is Christian wisdom more needed than in the right employment of our wealth, be it greater or less. Let the steward feeling be well educated and keen, and there will be no error—at least, no error against Christ.
III. He who habitually remembers his stewardship will be saved from the deadly evil which besets the possession of property, the making it into a god.—Christ makes mammon the possible rival of the Supreme. Undue love of this world’s goods is inconsistent with the single minded fidelity of the steward sentiment. Of the love of wealth, pre-eminently, it may be said that it cannot co-exist with the worship of God. The only safeguard is the habitual remembrance that what we have is not our own. Faithful steward service will alone protect us from becoming idolaters of this world’s good. He who serves not God with His money makes money itself His only god. This warning is not addressed to the rich alone, though specially needful for them. But the warning is to all. Every one has some property, and therefore some stewardship.
IV. To all stewards there is approaching the day of reckoning.—The day of judgment throws its shadow over every life. We are all hasting to the one last audit. Our salvation, indeed, will depend on the presence or absence of our faith in Christ, but the kind of salvation, the measure of it, and the degree of future reward assigned hereafter, will be regulated by the faithfulness of the life in all its boundless variety of works. If we have proved unjust to our Master in this life, He will not trust us in the next.—Pope.
Luke 16:9. Christ’s Teaching on Wealth.
I. Riches are not necessarily to be repudiated.—Our Lord teaches that, rightly used, they may add intensity to the joy of our future condition. Out of the mammon, whose characteristic is injustice and untruth, we may form friendships which will not terminate with life. “I say unto you”—not repudiate your riches, but “make to yourselves friends out of them.”
II. These friends do not purchase or gain for us an entrance.—They simply receive us when we enter. Our names must be graven, not on the hearts of the poor saints, but on the hands of the Redeemer with the very nails of the crucifixion. “Friends.” With money alone you can buy slaves, tools, flatterers. But with money alone we cannot buy a friend. Only he who has a heart can win a heart. Only a heart-winner can be a friend-winner. Riches rightly used may therefore be profitable for our higher interests.—Alexander.
“Make to yourselves friends.”—No thought can be better fitted than that of this parable, on the one hand to overthrow the idea of any kind of merit attached to almsgiving (for what merit can there be in giving of that which is another’s?), and on the other to encourage us to the practice of that excellence which assures us of friends and protectors for so grave a crisis as that of our entrance into the world to come.
“Receive you.”—In the journey of life, as in other journeys, it is a pleasing reflection that we have friends who are thinking of us and who will receive us with joy when our journey is at an end.
Luke 16:10-12. How the Little may be Used to Get the Great.
I. The strange new standard of value which is set up here.—Outward good and inward riches are compared
(1) as to their intrinsic magnitude;
(2) as to their quality;
(3) as to their ownership.
II. The broad principle here laid down as to the highest use of the lower good.
III. The faithfulness which utilises the lowest as a means of possessing more fully the highest.—Earthly possessions administered according to the principle
(1) of stewardship;
(2) of self-sacrifice;
(3) of brotherhood.—Maclaren
Luke 16:10. “He that is faithful.”—Which is as much as if He had said: The use which men make of the goods of this present world, which are comparatively of small value, shows the use they would make of such as are far greater, were the same committed to them, and which belong to the children of God in heaven. If they have used these aright, so would they use those; and if they have abused these, they would abuse those likewise. Faithfulness and injustice are properly applied to the use and abuse of things not our own, but committed to us for the honour and purposes of the owner. For to apply them to our own uses and purposes, and not His, would be a breach of trust, and therefore unfaithful and unjust in a very high degree.’—Palmer.
“Least … much.”
I. This verse suggests that we are in this world merely on, trial, and serving our apprenticeship.
II. That it is our fidelity to the interests entrusted to us that is tried, and not so much whether we have done little or great things.
Faithful in Little, Faithful in Much.
I. True faithfulness knows no distinction between great and small duties.
II. Faithfulness in small duties is even greater than faithfulness in great.
III. Faithfulness in that which is least is the preparation for, and secures our having, a wider sphere in which to obey God.—Maclaren.
Faithfulness.—Put to the mind alone, as if that were all there is of us, the mind might ask doubtfully how it can be true. It looks as if one might be upright in large transactions, and yet careless in trifles; tell the truth commonly, but not always; keep the law of the school under the teacher’s eye, but break it out of sight; meet emergencies handsomely, but in the commonplaces of everyday affairs come short. We have seen such lives. What, then, does Christ mean? He says that faithful men and faithful women are faithful everywhere, under all conditions, in all places alike. “Faithful,” full of faith. This chosen word is the key to the sentence. Faithfulness is not a single virtue, or a separate trait. It runs through the whole character, as blood through the body. The root of it is faith in God, and itself is the root of all excellencies and all moralities. Faithfulness is not a thing of more or less, of seasons or opportunities, of ornament or convenience. Principles never are, and faithfulness is a principle. Duty is universal because God is universal. Duty is unchangeable because God is unchangeable. The “least things” in which each of us is faithful or faithless, are not only the beginnings of what seems great in the eyes of men, they are great already by what they come out of; they are discharges of a life within us; they signify a principle in the working and springs of character; they uncover and they prove the inward frame and habit of soul on which eternal life depends.—Huntington.
Luke 16:11-12. Stewardship for Self.—In this whole section there is a quiet undertone of reference to the true wisdom of life in extracting as much good as possible from all the elements of this world’s evil, especially from what we call its possessions.
I. Extracting it for self, and not only for our Master.—There is, indeed, a sense in which self may be entirely suppressed, self as a final end, self as the director of life. But, on the other hand, it is the will of God that the benefit of self shall, as subordinate, never be lost sight of. There is a Christian care for self which is at once the supremest wisdom and the supremest unselfishness. We must think and act in the midst of the dangers of time, and the snares of earthly wealth, for the interests of our immortal souls when time and the wealth of time are ended and gone.
II. For this is the true secret, that we have no self apart from our Master.—We never reach the height of our Lord’s teaching, nor rise to the grandeur of our relation to Him, until we so identify ourselves with Him and His universal cause on earth that we know no difference between His and ours. This is the true evangelical glorification of the steward principle. The more we have of earthly goods the more are our graces tested, and, if we are wise enough to sustain the test, the more confirmed becomes our renunciation of this world, and our preference of heaven. The wisdom of a man who has the dangerous trust of possessions is not only to keep himself from the special peril that besets him, but to turn the danger to good account. That is the lesson of the chapter, and of our whole life.
III. After all, we must go beyond this world for the Saviour’s most impressive illustration of His meaning.—We cannot disconnect the stewardship of time from the issues of eternity. All that we possess is ours for a season, that through our prudent use of it we may advance our own interests for ever. In two ways the Divine Teacher impresses this upon us:
1. We may make to ourselves friends by the mammon of unrighteousness, who shall welcome us to everlasting habitations.
2. By fidelity below in that which is least we may prepare ourselves for larger trusts, and for a jurisdiction hereafter for which the stewardship of time furnishes but a slight analogy. Christ’s emphatic preface, “I say unto you,” introduces the lesson that we must in our better and holier cunning create for ourselves friends by the charitable use of our substance. What the poor worldling in the parable did for the poor self of this generation, you must do for the higher and nobler self of the world to come. But that is not all. Our Lord teaches that our stewardship here may be so administered as to prepare us for larger trust hereafter. The Unjust Steward does not teach us this, save by contrast. He so failed that he could never be trusted again. We are to be trusted hereafter according to the measure of our capacity for trust acquired here. There will be stewardships in the other world, without probation, and without fear of failure, proportioned and accommodated to the character we have acquired here. The general principle of fidelity is to be trained in this life, and this prepares for independence in the coming life.—Pope.
Luke 16:11. “The unrighteous mammon.”—Unrighteous because
(1) it is so often used and enjoyed without any thought of God;
(2) because it is so often acquired in unlawful ways;
(3) because it is the source of manifold temptations (1 Timothy 6:9-10), which make it difficult for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God (chap. Luke 18:24-25).
Luke 16:12. “Another man’s.”—Wealth is here described as belonging to another, because it is not absolutely our own, but may at any moment be recalled, and must at the hour of death be resigned. In opposition to it are those spiritual benefits which are truly “our own,” because, once obtained through faith, they constitute an inalienable property.
God’s Faithful Steward.—The last inference from the most difficult of all Christ’s parables. It is a retrospect from the other side of death, when the earthly life lies all behind, shrunk to a single point and act. “If in that which was another’s ye were not faithful, who shall give you—I appeal to yourselves, to your common-sense, to your first principles of reason and equity—who shall give you that which shall be your own?”
I. “That which is another’s” is the whole of this life’s possession.—Even while we have it, it is another’s. Not only a trust, a stewardship. No idea of personal ownership can for a moment enter into it. It is so precarious in its tenure that we cannot reckon on it for a day; we brought it not into the world, and we cannot take it with us when we leave the world. It is not part of us—it is an adjunct, an accessory, an accident; it may go any day—it must go one day. It is another’s, even while we have it.
II. “That which is your own.”—The sound is pleasant to the ear. The lust of possessing is an instinct of nature. It waits not for the developed covetings of manhood. Even our own souls are not yet our own. They are “our own” only at last, as the prize of the lifelong conflict, the stake of the game in which the man and the man’s enemy are at play. This makes life so serious, so momentous. The risk of not “gaining” as “our own,” our own souls! The soul itself is not yet our own; it depends on the life, the life earthward and heavenward, the life towards man, and the life towards God. To the good steward, when all fails him, and the stewardship of the long past must be accounted for, he shall find himself for the first time as an owner, the soul, the self, the redeemed and sanctified nature, being at last given him for his own. This is the gospel for which we can never be too thankful, of the new ideal of life as Jesus Christ taught, exemplified, and inspires it in His people. Life a trust; all that life has for us, another’s; we ourselves stewards, not owners, required, aroused, and enabled to be faithful! Our Lord appeals to this very lust of possessing. We must wish to possess. Only the fool and the mammon-worshipper can be indifferent to the question, “Who will give you that which is your own?”—Vaughan.
“That which is another man’s … that which is your own.”—The parable of the Unjust Steward is admittedly hard to be understood. No other of our Lord’s parables has called forth so many and such a variety of comments as this. The words of Luke 16:12 supply the key to the mystery of this parable; they are the solution of its difficulties. What are the difficulties of interpretation which the parable presents? How very harsh and unusual appear such words as “And the lord commended the unjust steward.” What sort of a lord could he have been, to do thus? It relieves us to find that it was not our Lord, but the lord of the steward, who commended him for acting wisely, though dishonestly. The fact that he did so simply proves that the master was as bad as the man. They are “children of this world,” governed by the same principles, actuated by the same motives. The lord had suffered by the roguery of his servant, but could not withhold a tribute of admiration at the display of the same qualities which he himself possessed. This explanation removes some of the difficulties, but not all. Our Lord holds up something here as an example for us. What is there shown us in this picture which we may imitate? Not the principles governing the conduct of the Unjust Steward. They were wholly detestable. But the transaction itself is to be imitated, having respect to the relationship between our Master and His stewards. Here we have a man entrusted with the goods of another so using them as to obtain an advantage for himself. Are there any conceivable circumstances in which we might use goods entrusted to us by another for personal profit? Only under one condition, and that condition exists here. If that other person entrusted us with his property, with the express purpose, intent, command, so to use it as to get increase for ourselves, then, and only then, would this be right. While there are similarities between the relations of the lord and the steward in the parable and our Lord and His stewards, there are also differences; for the parable teaches by dissimilarities as well as by similarities. The lord entrusted his goods to the steward that he might trade with them for the master’s benefit, and the steward’s fidelity would consist in so doing. The relation between our Lord and His stewards is the reverse of this. He entrusts us with His goods to be used, not in enriching Him; that is impossible,—no conceivable trafficking of ours can increase His wealth,—but the use is to be for our own profit. “I say unto you”—I who am the Lord of all you possess—“make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” Faithfulness in that which is least will secure for us that which is much.
I. The further exposition, therefore, of this saying of our Lord’s depends on the interpretation put upon two of its phrases: “That which is another man’s,” and “That which is your own.” What are we to understand by these? No sooner do we begin to think about them than we find a great confusion of ideas. There is a very general reversal of the order of truth in the interpretation of these two phrases. What is “your own”? Most people, when they contemplate their own, fasten at once upon worldly possessions—houses, lands, businesses, accumulations, investments, worldly position, honours in society, dignities achieved. “These are my own,” say they, and in this territory they walk, imagining that here they are supreme. But these are the very things which are not your own. “Where,” say you, “is the man who can successfully question the validity of my title-deeds? Who is he that will challenge my right to these things? They were bequeathed by my ancestors, or they have been gotten by my own industry, or accumulated by my thrift. Surely these are my own!” And yet it is of precisely such things as these that Christ speaks when He uses the phrase “that which is another man’s.” But whose are they? Where is the other who can claim proprietorship in them? There is One whose presence fills eternity, in whose hands our breath is, and whose are all our ways. The Lord of Life and Being has endowed us with being and with all we possess. We ourselves are His. “The silver and the gold are His, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.” If I tell the truth as to all the things I “own,” I shall say, “The Lord Jehovah, all are His.” But you will say, “Oh yes, we admit all that. That is Theology.” Yet there are very few who are influenced by the considerations arising out of this admitted truth. But there are other men in question. It is not possible to acquire any earthly things of which we can say that we have the absolute proprietorship. Other men have claims and rights in them. We are but trustees for the common good. Worldly possessions are not “our own.” Surely to-day men are learning that property has its responsibilities as well as its rights, its obligations as well as its privileges. No man has the right to say, “This is for myself, and myself only.” He holds for his brethren in general. The solution of the social problems which perplex society lies in the recognition of this great Christian doctrine of trusteeship. Because these things are not our own is no reason for seeking, by an equal division of property, to adjust the rival claims of different classes in society. Nothing could be more absurd or unfaithful. Not in absolute proprietorship, nor by arbitrary divisions, nor by attempted communism, but by the doctrine that all we have we hold as trustees for the good of those by whom we are surrounded, shall we fulfil the Divine purpose in committing to our keeping “that which is another man’s.” I almost hear you say again, “Yes, we admit all this.” But how much unfaithful trusteeship there is, nevertheless! To bring the truth home to us we must reflect upon the fact that, in the most literal and absolute sense, these worldly things are not our own—they are “another man’s.” How soon the day will come to all of us when, willingly or reluctantly, we shall be compelled to part with earthly goods! In prospect of that hour we may already ask ourselves, in the words of the prophet, “Where will ye leave your glory?” It must be left. Where can it be left that we shall ever find it again? Then, when we are confronted with the death-summons, whose shall these things be which we have fondly imagined were “our own”? What wonderful ingenuity men display in their testamentary arrangements, in order to declare whose those things shall be. Alas! how futile their endeavours. Not for long in any case—often not even for a short period—can they say whose those things shall be, but into the hands of another, or of others, all must be surrendered. That inevitable “other man”; how he dogs our footsteps in life, ever following on our track!—a few short days or years and he will overtake us. Most certainly these things are not “our own.” They are “another man’s.” Ere long that other man will be examining our papers, operating upon our balance at the bank, and dividing our property—perhaps in the manner we should least desire. What, then, is our own? Is there in this changeful world anything we can so appropriate that it shall become in very deed our own? God, in His infinite goodness and mercy through Jesus Christ our Saviour, has made it possible for us to become possessed of true riches which shall be our heavenly portion, our eternal inheritance. Nothing external is really our own. But the moral qualities we possess, as the result of dealing with earthly things—these are our own: love of justice, mercifulness, truthfulness, humility, benevolence—these are the patrimony of man, made after the image of God, and in His likeness. Inwoven daily into the very texture of our spiritual being are qualities which become a part of ourselves. God sees, not only what we are, but what we may become. He sees the loftiest ideal for every human being, what we might be if the utmost possibilities were reached. This He has willed shall be our own, and has bidden us reach out to and obtain as much of these highest possibilities as we choose. In the formation of character we are acquiring that which shall be ours for ever. Unhappily, many make their own what God never intended should be theirs. The contrary qualities to those I have mentioned—the carnal, the sensual, even the devilish—may become ours. It is possible for men to become untruthful, unjust, unmerciful.
II. If we thus clearly understand what is “another man’s” and what is “our own,” then the teaching of the text becomes at once apparent. Only by faithfulness in the use of another’s can we become possessed of that which God intended should be ours. By our use of the things of earth we are obtaining the higher things that appertain to our character and destiny. Possessions in themselves base and carnal may be so employed that out of them we shall secure the spiritual and the heavenly. From the “unrighteous mammon” we may extract the “true riches”—from that which is least, that which is much; from the fleeting treasures of this life, the enduring wealth of eternity; from that which is “another man’s,” that which is “our own.” All the relations of our life here become thus invested with a vast importance. We cannot afford to despise the earthly: we cannot neglect its proper use, or fail in righteous dealing with it, but we beggar our real selves. Many scarcely reflect that their daily trafficking with worldly matters—their business, their gains, their losses, their ambitions, and their plans—are leaving indelible traces on their spiritual being. The material things they handle will perish in the using, but the noble qualities—the generosity, the unselfishness, the truthfulness, the mercifulness, the God-likeness—they have acquired in the sphere of worldly duty will abide with them for ever. The great truth thus inculcated has many applications. It is true of every temporal possession, of every earthly relationship, and of all talents, of whatsoever kind, with which we are entrusted. Its immediate and obvious application is to the use of money—and this was the application primarily intended by our Lord. It may be supposed that such a use of this great lesson will at once lead us to a discussion of the duty of Christian giving. We may come to this ultimately, but there are several other aspects of our dealing with that which is “another man’s” to be first considered. The mischief to some men’s characters is done before they come to the claims of charity; it is done in the process of getting and accumulating. They have already acquired a nature so sordid that they are “past feeling.” They cannot give because they have so much, or because they have got it by means dishonourable or destructive of their nobler nature. Years ago, when they were poorer and purer, if they had been told of some of the things they now do and say, they would have been ready to cry, “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?” Nothing more surely corrodes and destroys the lofty nature that God intends should be our own than ill-gotten gain and the love of hoarding for its own sake. It cannot be too urgently impressed upon us that in our modes of getting money, and plans and purposes in accumulating it, we are moulding our characters. Men who would secure “their own” must sometimes be content to stand by with hands off when other people are eagerly gathering—they must allow some things to go past them, for the price of taking them is the sacrifice of their highest, truest manhood. The truth holds good, not merely in relation to great wealth and large transactions in business; it finds its illustration in all spheres—even the lowliest. The merchant or trader who leaves his counting-house or his shop when the day’s work is done leaves behind that which is “another man’s.” He leaves the interests, the claims, the rights of others which have been within his power, but inevitably he carries away something vastly more important to himself: insensibly, but continuously, he has been acquiring “his own,” and he goes from the manufactory or the warehouse morally a better or baser man. During every hour of the day he has been silently appropriating “his own” whilst handling that which is “another man’s.” And even so the workman, in his common tasks, is fashioning his own character and moulding his inner life. He builds into the unseen parts of an edifice with honesty, with truth and fidelity, and these qualities are at the same time strengthened and built up in his own being. Let there be base and false work at the forge and the loom, and he who has done it may suppose the transaction is ended when the fraud has passed undetected. Not so; the falseness he has perpetrated has become part of himself—he has made that “his own” which he supposed he had inflicted on “another man.” Nor is it merely in the modes of getting money, but in the purposes for which it is retained and used, that men mould their characters and destiny. For there are circumstances in which it is right, and indeed our duty, to retain wealth, that it may be wisely used as a fund for the good of others. God has given some men, not only large capital, but ability and opportunity so to lay it out that they may provide work and wages for others. In such cases the first duty of a capitalist is to take care of his capital. It is not “his own”; it belongs to others, and is entrusted to him that he may employ it for the common weal. We are all of us familiar with the spectacle of the miserable millionaire who has treated the great fund entrusted to him as if it were “his own.” He has employed it in great gambling speculations, that he might have the unhallowed excitements that have ended in a moral and, perhaps, mental and bodily paralysis. Instead of light and love and truth, he has for his own a great curse, extracted from his great capital. There is the opposite picture sometimes to be looked upon—the man who has so wisely and generously used his means that he has blessed thousands, and has himself grown more and more unselfish. He has cultivated the best things in his own spirit and character, whilst he has worked in the use of wealth for the good of others. But it is not given to all of us to find “our own” or lose “our own” in these larger spheres of duty. It is, however, certain that all of us are determining “our own” by the use we make of “another man’s” in the matter of Christian giving. Whether we have less or more of this world’s goods, in our response to the calls of charity we affect for good or evil our dispositions and our characters. And as to financial arrangements, let us look at our support of missionary and kindred institutions in the light of our Lord’s teaching in this parable. The call for money to carry on Christ’s work in distant fields is one of the tests—and one of the best tests—of our wisdom and fidelity in the use of “that which is another man’s.” In no other way can we more surely exchange the carnal things of earth into the currency of the heavenly world. Pounds, shillings, and pence will have no currency there—they will have lost their purchasing and commanding power; but ere we pass hence the treasures of earth may be exchanged for the true riches, the fleeting things of this world for the enduring wealth of eternity. The mammon of unrighteousness may be so used that at length they shall receive us to the everlasting habitations. Let us learn habitually to deal with the things of earth in the light of eternity.—Pope.
Luke 16:13. “No servant.”—In this verse Christ states what the fidelity is, which in this stewardship is required; it is a choosing of God instead of mammon for our lord. For in this world we are in the condition of servants from whom two masters are claiming allegiance. One is God, man’s rightful lord; the other is the unrighteous mammon, which was given to be our servant, to be wielded by us in God’s interests, and itself to be considered by us as something slight, transient, and another’s—but which has, in a sinful world, erected itself into a lord, and now demands allegiance from us, which if we yield, we can be no longer faithful servants and stewards of God. Therefore, these two lords have characters so opposite, it will be impossible to reconcile their service (James 4:4): one must be despised if the other is held to; the only faithfulness to the one is to break with the other, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”—Trench.