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B.W. Johnson Commentary on Luke 16:9-18

From The People's New Testament, B.W. Johnson, 1891.

Luke 16

9. And I say unto you. The parable has ended and Christ now makes the application. Mammon of unrighteousness. Mammon is equivalent to money, or wealth; called the "mammon of unrighteousness," not because it is acquired unrighteously, but because most use it unrighteously, treating it as their own, when they are only stewards. What is the use the Lord charges us to put it to? It is: "Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness (riches), that when it shall fail (when you can use it no longer), they shall receive you into eternal tabernacles" (heaven). It is strange that there is any difficulty over this passage, as translated clearly in the Revised Version. The only friends who can receive us into heaven are the Father and the Son. These are, then, the friends we must secure. During life our means must be so used as to please God and to lay up eternal treasure. If we use it as a trust of the Lord we will secure such a friend. Instead of hoarding we must make heavenly friends.

11, 12. If ye have not been faithful. If one is faithless in an earthly trust, how can he expect to receive a heavenly trust? Another's. That which belongs to God. All who have property should understand that it is another's. Your own. The true riches, because they become a part of our being, the inalienable possession of the redeemed.

13. No servant can serve two masters. See note on Matt. 6:24.

14, 15. The Pharisees . . . covetous . . . scoffed. They understood the parable as an attack on covetousness and, like the worldly wise, thought his doctrine foolish. Is an abomination. Man exalts wealth, but the love of wealth, "the root of all evil," is "an abomination in the sight of God."

16. The law and the prophets. See note on Matt. 11:13. [288]

17. Easier for heaven and earth to pass. See note on Matt. 5:18.

18. Every one that putteth away his wife. See note on Matt. 5:31.

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