LUKE 16
The question of responsibility is not raised in chapter 15 — what God has lost is recovered, what is dead comes to life, and God’s own joy in grace dominates the chapter from beginning to end. To the Pharisees and scribes the Lord vindicates the exceeding blessedness of divine grace, for the thought of God is to have sons in nearness and suitability to Himself. But then the Lord turns to His disciples and directly raises the question of responsibility. Sonship and stewardship have to be linked together; we are tested when it comes to stewardship. As we have remarked before, in Luke’s gospel we see the most precious unfoldings of divine grace, and immediately after something comes in of the nature of a test.
This parable applies to man viewed as having the handling of something that he is not entitled to. Faithfulness is largely tested by how we act in regard to the mammon of unrighteousness. It is that to which we have no title; it belongs to another. All material things belong to another, and none of us could establish any righteous title to what is in our hands at the present time. The Lord speaks of mammon here; it is all that which gives man place in the present world. Money does not give man any place with God; it only buys him a place in this world, but it can be rightly taken up in stewardship. The Christian is entitled to view anything he has in the way of material wealth as belonging to God, so that it takes a new character, and it is important that it should not be wasted, but that it should be used with a view to our future advantage. To waste the Lord’s goods could never be commendable, but the Lord says, If you will use it to secure your own future benefit, I shall be well pleased with you.
We have our riches and pleasure in the house. If I know what it is to be a son in the house my wealth is there; my portion, my joy, my all, are there. That is where I live, and in the sense of that I can come out to touch things here in the [p. 208] spirit of a steward. If we knew better what was our own, it would make us wonderfully independent of things here; we should not claim any sort of personal right, but we should touch all in the spirit of stewardship, If we look at things rightly we shall feel that any accession of the mammon of unrighteousness is an increase of responsibility; it is adding to our work, not to our means. The Lord looks at the mammon of unrighteousness as in our hands for the moment, and we are to make friends with it.
The mammon of unrighteousness describes the general character of possessions here. A man has no permanent claim to it; he is put in trust as a steward. He cannot claim it as his own, for it belongs to another, and actually in the world it is used in an unrighteous way. Money in a broad sense is the mammon of unrighteousness, and the love of money is the root of all evil. It is no proof of divine favour to have a lot of money; what we have here is a test. I could not say of any money that I possess that God gave it to me to own permanently, but He entrusts me with the use of it. What God gives me for my own is in the house. I can boast in that as much as I like; what is outside of that is a test of stewardship. God was pleased to entrust Solomon with very great things, and he began by considering for God, but he ended in using all in a vain attempt to gratify himself; he had to prove it was vanity and pursuit of the wind. The whole of this world’s system is carried on by money; nothing can be carried on without it. That is its broad character as the mammon of unrighteousness, but the Christian as a steward is allowed to handle it and make friends with it so that it secures him an entrance to eternal tabernacles. Those people get the true riches who are prepared to use what they have in a natural way in view of the future rather than of the present. God has great regard for persons who use their means in view of their own future advantage. In having to do with God the actual amount does not count: one person may be tested by having £2 a week, and another person by having £1,000 a week, but morally there is no difference. The small steward is tested in his sphere just as the large steward in his — they both have to give an account.
I do not doubt that the widow with the two mites will have a good place in the eternal tabernacles; she has enriched the whole church with the thought of what is true wealth. In God’s account she was far more wealthy than Solomon. Gifts are not measured by pounds, shillings and pence; they are measured by the state of heart. The widow with the two mites was above the level of what is seen here; it was a question of devotedness with her, not prudence; she was devoted and she put her two mites into the treasury. God was worthy of it all in her thoughts. But here it is not a question of devotedness but of prudence. Here the steward is acting so that he might get a benefit later on; he was acting prudently, and the Lord says, I want you to be prudent. He calls attention to the fact that the sons of the world are more prudent than the sons of light — his lord commended the unjust steward’s prudence. The sons of this world are often a rebuke to us; they know what they want and they go in for it. We often hardly know what we are after, and we go in for it so slackly.
Verse 13 is very serious; it shows that if we do not handle the mammon of unrighteousness in the spirit of stewardship, it will become our master — it dominates many. What is it that rules? What we are governed by is a test. The Lord says, “No servant can serve two masters”. It is not possible to serve God and to serve mammon at the same time, so a Christian could not be governed by monetary advantage as a motive. He would have to be exercised as to whether it was God’s way for him; he would be governed by the will of God. If suddenly offered double money, he would have to enquire whether it was of God or whether it was a snare of the devil laid for his feet. The devil would gain his object if he got us to serve mammon. We do not want to contribute to the world’s system; if money becomes our object and our ruling motive we have joined hands with the world and are helping to build up the world’s system, but we can use things as stewards in such a way that it will be to our advantage by and by.
Then there is the need for faithfulness, which is a contrast to the steward in the parable. His prudence is commended, but his unfaithfulness is condemned. “If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who shall entrust to you the true? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another’s who shall give to you your own?” It seems to make the enjoyment of what is spiritual depend on how we handle the material. I think we often put the wrong labels on the baskets! Most of us have two baskets and we [p. 210] have labelled them; one is my things and the other is God’s things, but we get the labels wrong. My things are my money, and what I have here. No, these are not my things, they are God’s things entrusted to me. Then in the other basket labelled God’s things are all the spiritual things. No, they are my things; the heavenly things are my things. I have absolute proprietorship, an inalienable title to these things. I could not say that of anything here; my coat has been lent to me for a year or two; I could not say it was mine absolutely. The spirit of all this is so necessary; we have to hold what we have here in stewardship. I believe it is the answer to sonship. If I am a son inside the house, I come into natural things in the spirit of a steward. I have in my affections a whole system of what is my own, and I can retire into that as my own property. If I had a thousand acres of land I could not say it is mine; I am only a steward there, but I have property that is mine for eternity, and I have a genuine title to it through grace. The Lord seems to put it in this way: If you will be faithful in stewardship in earthly things, you will get great increase in eternal things. Do we want spiritual advancement? Then how are we handling the things that are in our hands providentially? Are we handling them for our own present pleasure and enjoyment, or in faithfulness as entrusted with them by Another — by God Himself?
The principle of the eternal tabernacles is surely realised now among the brethren when we get the enjoyment of our own things. We sing sometimes, “Eternity’s begun”. If eternity has begun we are in the eternal tabernacles, and again we sing, “In spirit there already” — that is the eternal tabernacles. The glory has come in; it is not only in prospect but the heart of the saint is filled with it now. Peter, James and John on the mount were allowed for a moment to be filled with the glory. I admit they were not equal to it, but in principle it was there.
I do not think that giving away lavishly all you have is at all in the Lord’s mind. You might be very imprudent in giving away money; nothing is easier than to give it away. You might do that and still be accused of wasting the Lord’s substance. Suppose I gave to a poor person more than he needed at the time; that might lead him into temptation. I believe the kindness and benevolence of the people of God sometimes does harm; the thing is to be prudent and exercise [p. 211] stewardship. But we have to remember what John speaks of: “whoso may have the world’s substance, and see his brother having need, and shut up his bowels from him”, 1 John 3: 17. We must be careful not to do that. It might question our whole spiritual status. John puts it very seriously: “How abides the love of God in him?”
The Pharisees were evidently touched in conscience by the Lord’s words; with all their religiousness they were really serving mammon. They were covetous, we are told, and they derided Him.
Serving God has a supremely blessed character now. There has been a continual increase in the way in which the pleasure of God has been known. The Lord has told us here that the things that are highly thought of amongst men are an abomination in the sight of God. If that is so, we do not want to be governed by those things; we want to know the character of service that is pleasing to God. The character of service that is presented here would be dependent on the kingdom of God being announced. There are progressive stages in which the pleasure of God has come out; first the law, then the prophets, who give an increasing measure of the knowledge of God’s pleasure, and then after John the kingdom of God is announced. The full character of what is pleasing to God came to light when His beloved Son was on earth, and that gives character to the kingdom now — the whole pleasure of God has come to light. It has come out in the way of grace to men, but it has all come out in Jesus; what is supremely pleasurable to God just contrasts with what is abomination in His sight. I want to be exercised as to getting into the kingdom of God; the Lord intimates it is not an easy thing to get into it. He says, “The glad tidings of the kingdom of God are announced, and every one forces his way into it”. It is not an easy thing to get into the kingdom, because the kingdom is the place where God has made known His full pleasure. The law gave a considerable amount of light as to what the pleasure of God was, and the prophets gave more light as to it, because the prophets bring out the feelings of God and what the thoughts of His heart were. In the prophets we find the kingdom distinctly anticipated, but when the Son of God was here as Man on earth He brought in the full measure of God’s pleasure. We could not think of anything more being added to divine pleasure when the Son of God was here. God has no further [p. 212] development; He has reached finality on the line of grace. It is an amazing thought to me that the full pleasure of God is out. Am I set for that, or am I prepared to go on with things that God was pleased to permit in His government? That is a real exercise for every one of us. It is a strenuous thing and calls for violence. A man has to be violent enough to force his way through every obstacle, and the love of money is the greatest obstacle there can be; you have to push your way through it and everything else, no matter what it is.
This sentence about a man putting away his wife and marrying another seems to be unconnected, but I believe the Lord is attracting attention by it to the difference between what God permitted in His government and what is according to His pleasure. He permitted divorce on very broad grounds under the law, but this is not according to His pleasure and has no place in His kingdom. The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We are in another sphere now, the sphere of divine pleasure. I feel how little I know of it; I long to know more. For this we need power, but if I get on to the line of God’s pleasure I can assuredly count on His power. The violence is not natural, but spiritual violence that is prepared to break through everything. There are things which God permits governmentally, many things not really according to His mind; He permits them and goes on with those who do them, but we do not want to be on that line. On that line we shall never reach Colossians or Ephesians, the heavenly side, and the great lesson of this chapter is that we reach the heavenly side — that is how I understand the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. It is open to us if we have courage; it means pressing into the kingdom.
Abraham represents the heavenly side; he is the father of the heavenly family. What would Abraham think of me if he were living on earth now? Would he say, My son, you are just after my own heart, come and lie in my bosom? The rich man is not presented at all as a wicked man according to human standards. So in chapter 14 the people who refused to come to the feast were not wicked; it was not their sins that prevented them from coming; it was a question of land and oxen and a wife that hindered them. The poor man here was outside; the rich man was having the best of it on earth and he had no interest in the heavenly; it is a continuation of the teaching of [p. 213] the gospel. Abraham was a man who was called to separation; God had called him to leave country, and kindred, and father’s house. He obeyed, he believed God, and took up the place of a stranger and sojourner; he had his altar and his tent, he waited for his city, and looked out for a heavenly country.
The Lord presents Abraham as the one who receives into his bosom every one of his sons; the angels know where to carry them. It suggests that the angels had recognised in Lazarus an heir of salvation, and though outwardly his only ministers were the dogs that licked his sores, yet in reality the angels looked after him and ministered to him; but even the ministry of angels did not alter his circumstances here. The angels recognised Lazarus as a proper subject of their attention, and they knew where to take him when he died; they took him to his father’s bosom. The Lord is lifting the veil; He wants us to be intensely occupied with the unseen world. He would bring it before us very distinctly, and give us to see that the poorest man in this world can have supreme blessing of a heavenly character, and the richest man in the world may pass when he dies into unending torment. The Lord would have us to think of the seriousness of it so that we might live as Lazarus lived; this poor man full of sores lived in the light of the heavenly. The rich man does not appear to have any interest in him except in allowing him to be fed with the crumbs that fell from his table. There is none of the spirit of the covenant with him; he had covenant blessings outwardly but he had none of the spirit of the covenant.
There is a peculiar importance about this scripture; it is as if the Lord Himself lifts the veil. We might say no one has come back to tell us, but the Lord of glory has lifted the veil; no one knows about the unseen world as He does, and He has told us what is there. It is a gross blasphemy against the Lord to think it is necessary for anyone to come back when the Lord has told the truth — we have not only Moses and the prophets, but the testimony of the Lord of glory. This is the Lord’s own description of the unseen world. The conditions are fixed; why should persons pray for the dead? If they are in Abraham’s bosom, or, as we can now say, with Christ, we cannot add to them, and if they are in torment there is no getting them out, so the whole idea of prayers for the dead is of Satan. The Lord suggests to us here that in the unseen world there is the recognition on the part of the lost of all that [p. 214] was once available; it is terrible to think of it. This man, as we should say, lost for eternity, recognises Abraham. He recognises that principle of separation from the world and faith in God of which Abraham was the eternal witness. It is solemn to think that those who have never recognised the ways of God in grace in this world will have to recognise them in the unseen world.
Professedly this man was a Jew, and according to the flesh he was of the seed of Abraham, but spiritually he was not a son, and though in the parable Abraham called him Child, Abraham was not his father. It will form part of the torment of the lost to be able to recognise what God has made available and to feel that it will never be available again. It will be the most bitter ingredient in the cup of sorrow that will be drunk by the lost, It is striking that this man does not question the justice of what he is suffering and does not ask that Lazarus might be sent to get him out; he only asks for some alleviation of his misery and that cannot be granted. The cause of his being there was that he was content with the good things of this life. He is not presented as a wicked man, but he had been content with good things and enjoyed them to the full, and had had no interest in what was of faith. He had been a complete stranger to the heavenly and therefore no companion for Abraham. It is a voice to us as believers that we should not be living in things of this life, but cultivating heavenly hopes and anticipations, and moving in the faith of our father Abraham. Paul speaks of those “who walk in the steps of the faith ... of our father Abraham”, Romans 4: 12.
The Lord is showing all through this gospel that He is bringing in what is heavenly. He was introduced by a messenger from heaven, and when He was born there was a multitude of the heavenly host; it is heaven come down in grace. It is not improving man’s circumstances here, not making him more respectable or better off, but bringing in heavenly joy. Chapter 15 shows the character of the heavenly joys that are brought in. Do they so attract our hearts that we are prepared to give up earth so as to go in for what is heavenly? Abraham and the patriarchs declared plainly that they sought a heavenly country.