Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.
Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery. See the notes at Matthew 19:3-9. Far from intending to weaken the force of the law, by these allusions to a new economy, our Lord only sends home, in this unexpected way, its high requirements with a pungency which the Pharisees would not fail to feel.
This parable, being precisely the converse of the former, was evidently spoken immediately after it, and designed to complete the lesson of The Right Use of Riches. As the steward made himself friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness, so this rich man made himself, out of the same mammon, an enemy-in the person of Lazarus-of a kind to make the ears of every one that heareth it to tingle. As, by acting for eternity, in the spirit of this steward for time, the friends we thus make will on our removal from this scene "receive us into everlasting habitations," so by acting, even while professing to be Christians, in the spirit of this rich man, the enemies we thus make will rise up to shut us out for ever from the mansions of the blest. Such is the striking connection between these two parables. This last one, however, is altogether of a higher order and deeper significance than the former. The thin veil-of exclusion from one earthly home only to be followed by admission into others equally earthly-is thrown off; and the awful bearing of the use we now make of the mammon of unrighteousness upon our eternal state is presented before the eye in the light of the eternal flames, insomuch that the lurid glare of the scene abides with even the most cursory reader.