Luke 16
EdwardsLuke 16:8
Luke 16:8. “And the Lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” The meaning is, that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light are in theirs - i.e. the children of this world are wiser in the management of their secular affairs to promote their worldly interest, and in contriving and disposing things that appertain to their generation, - that is, to the children of this world, - than the children of light are in the management of special affairs for their special interest. That this is the meaning, and not that the children of this world are wiser in temporal matters than the children of light are in the same matter, is evident by the following, where Christ advises us to be as wise for ourselves in special affairs as the children of this world are in temporal affairs.
Luke 16:12
Luke 16:12 Luke 16:12. “And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” By that which is another man’s is represented this world’s goods. The same with the “unrighteous mammon,” as it is called in the foregoing verse; and by that which is “our own,” is represented the blessings and enjoyments of heaven, the same that is called the “true riches” in the preceding verse. This world’s goods are not our own; they are but lent to us for a little while, and are to be taken from us again presently. We are but stewards of them, according to the foregoing parable that gave occasion to these reflections. So the possessions of the children of Israel in the earthly Canaan are represented as not their own, but only what they improve as God’s tenants and as sojourners with Him, who is their landlord: Leviticus 25:23, “The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me.” So here what we have in this world is represented as not our own, but God’s, and we only as stewards. But heavenly blessings are given to us as our proper inheritance, and that wherein our happiness consists.
They are not lent to us, but given to us, never to be taken from us, but to be ours forever. We are but sojourners with God on earth; but heaven is our proper home. Hence we may see the force of the argument. If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who will give you that which is your own? If you be not fit to have something only committed to your care for a little while, that is quickly to be taken from you again, how much less are you fit to be trusted with things forever; not only to have them lent to you or committed into your hands for a little while, but to have them given finally into your everlasting possession? If you cannot be trusted with something for only a few days, how much less can you be trusted with the eternal possession of a thing?
Luke 16:16
Luke 16:16. “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.” Here I would observe, that when universal terms are used about redemption, they do not prove universal redemption, any more than the universal term here used proves that every man, in a strict and proper sense, did press into the kingdom of heaven since the preaching of John the Baptist. “Every man presseth into it.” Christ is not so much speaking of what had already actually come to pass since John’s time, as giving a description of that new dispensation that John began, and showing wherein it differed from the old dispensation under the Law and the Prophets, as to the much greater numbers that are saved, and the multitudes that, under this dispensation that John’s preaching was the dawning of, flock and press into the kingdom of God. The pouring out of the Spirit in John the Baptist’s time, was the beginning of a glorious harvest of souls, that continued from that time to the end of that age, wherein multitudes of all sorts pressed into the kingdom of God.
Chapters 17-22