Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 26: Saturday
Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near Him to listen to Him. And both the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”Saturday’s Bible reading is Luke 15–16. There are parables in these two chapters. Luke 15 contains three parables about things that are lost: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. Luke 16 is about money.
I want to look at Luke 16 first and Kent Hughes’ insights on the parables in this chapter. The parable of the The Rich Man and Lazarus is straightforward, but I think the parable of The Unrighteous Steward is not quite as clear.
Kent Hughes writes the “Parable of the Dishonest Manager (vv. 1–15) addresses the proper use of money” while the parable about the Rich Man and Lazarus, “confronts the abuse of money, especially by the rich.”1 That’s interesting, isn’t it? Especially because the steward is called unrighteous in the headings in the Legacy Standard Bible and in the NASB, and Hughes labels him as dishonest. This is what Hughes has to say about the first parable.
“The dishonest manager had faced reality. He refused to live with his head in the sand. If he did not do something fast, he would be out on the street. He used all his intelligence, with, and energy to insure his earthly comfort. In contrast, “the people of the light” stand on the edge of eternity, but lack the vision, foresight, and strength of will to do something about it—especially in their relationship with others. If only Christians would give as much attention to the things that concern eternity as they do to their worldly business. . . . If only we would be as spiritually shrewd as the corrupt manager was in temporal pursuits.”2
Hughes is certainly not condoning dishonesty. He’s making the point of being “spiritually shrewd.” He writes:
“What is inescapably clear here is that our wealth and possessions are to be used to win eternal friends. This is the proper use of what we have. We must give generously of our money for the furtherance of the gospel…
“It is not enough to give money—we must devote our personal belongings to making eternal friends as well. The mere giving of money can be so sanitized and insulting, but when we use our homes for others, so that our personal space is loaned to others, when we use our vacation homes to refresh others, or let others borrow our cars, then we have begun to touch upon what Christ says.”3
Hughes brings verses 10–13 into his discussion of this parable.
“…verses 10–12 are a unit, and Jesus is talking about money! Verse 11 means that if you have not been faithful with money, “worldly wealth,” God will not trust you with true spiritual riches — the care of souls, missions, evangelism, the oversight of his church…
“One’s use of money and spirituality are inseparable bound together. The sooner we realize this and do something about it, the better for our souls.”4
On Luke 16:13, he comments:
“It is totally impossible to serve both God and money…This is radical. There is no middle ground. If we are devoted to money, we will “despise” God with our intellect and “hate” him with our emotions—the totality of our being…
“We all go through times when a material focus is required — the purchase of a home, remodeling, redecorating, buying a car, the management of investments, etc. We live in a material world, which requires attention. Also, the possession of wealth, even great wealth, does not make one a materialist, though it dramatically increases the danger. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). I have known rich people who lived very well but were not materialists. Furthermore, as a Ugandan friend observed of us Americans, “You are all wealthy.” So the application is relevant to all of us.”5
Hughes warns we can see our failures in the focus of our conversations. Is it on the material things we have? Do we want to show off our possessions to our friends? He quotes Carl F. H. Henry:
“I don’t think God despises riches; in fact, He gives them to us. What He despises is the misuse of them, and He rewards stewardship. Even Christian missions owe a great debt to the consecrated and ofter sacrificial philanthropy of well-to-do Christian leaders. When we need to do is enlarge the vision and burden of those to whom God has given much so they understand that they have an opportunity that is rare in the history of Christianity to substantially advance the way of Christ.”6
Two biblical examples of Christians of means who used their wealth to care for others and advance the gospel are in the book of Acts. Acts 9:36–43 describes Tabitha (Dorcas) who “was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did,” and was evidently a woman of means because when she became ill and died, the widows wept and showed Peter all the garments she had made. Later in Acts 16:14–40, Luke tells us about Lydia, a Philippian merchant from Thyatira who opened her home to Paul, Silas, Timothy, and Luke, and the church. William Hendriksen says this about Lydia:
“We may think of her as an importer. She was a seller of purple. This should cause no surprise for the place of her birth was located in the heart of the region of the purple-garment industry. Such garments were expensive, for the purple dye was derived from the shellfish in the waters of Thyatira, and the throat of each shellfish produced only one drop of the dye! (A cheaper grade was made by simply crushing the shellfish.) Now since Philippi was a Roman colony it was naturally an excellent market for purple garments. Romans loved the royal color! With it they trimmed togas and tunics. They wove it into their rugs and tapestries. Philippians were eager to copy Rome and its customs. To handle such an expensive product Lydia must have been a woman of means. The account in Acts supports this conclusion, for it imples that she had a spacious mansion in Philippi, perhaps a typical Roman town-house of the better-class, one that had ample room to accomodate several guests.”7
Dorcas and Lydia were both women who had money, but they didn’t serve it. They used the material means God had given to them to serve Him.
Go back now to Luke 15. The point in all three parables in the joy over a sinner who repents. In the parable of The Prodigal Son we see the joy of a father over the return of his repentant son.
One thing that’s always amazing as I read the Bible is the juxtaposition of Scripture to circumstances of my life and to events of the day, and also, in these readings, the way the different parts of Scripture fit together. After reading in Ezekiel of God’s judgment and His call to repentance, the reading for today includes Luke 15, and in this chapter Jesus tells the parable of The Prodigal Son, a son who rebelled and sinned grievously, but who repented and returned to his father.
The Prodigal Son is probably the best known and the best loved of all of the parables told by Jesus. It’s one of the three parables Jesus tells in response to the Pharisees’ grumbling that He receives and eats with sinners.
This story depicts the kind of father we would all like to have. Some of us may have been blessed with a father similar to the one in the story, but I would guess many of us have a deep longing for a father who loves and forgives us as this son’s father did. We all want a father who loves us with an unfailing love. With this parable Jesus tells us that all those who repent and return to God have this kind of Father in Him.
Look at James Tissot’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son. The compassion and love of this father pales in comparison with the love that God has for us who are his children.
In Romans 8, Paul wrote that those who have believed in Christ are now children of God. Calling God, Father, is easily done by some Christians, but for others it is a struggle because it brings painful memories of their earthly father. There is confusion in our understanding of God as our emotions connected to those men who have failed us overlays the truth of who God is. Sometimes we don’t comprehend the difference the Gospel makes in our lives.
This isn’t new to our generation. In the 1600s, John Owen wrote a wonderful book, Communion With God, in which he provides truth after truth from the Bible to give us clarity and assurance. His pastor’s heart is evident within the pages. I have found such help that I want to share with you a little of what he wrote.
The word usage is unfamiliar, but work through it. This is balm to the heart. I think the word peculiarly here means “characteristic of one only; distinctive or special.”8 Communion is “not merely the interchange of feeling between God in his gracious character and a soul in a gracious state, but the gracious relationship upon which this holy interchange is based.”9
The emphasis is Owen’s.
“I come now to declare what it is wherein peculiarly and eminently the saints have communion with the Father; and this is LOVE,—free, undeserved, and eternal love. This the Father peculiarly fixes upon the saints; this they are immediately to eye in him, to receive of him, and to make such returns thereof as he is delighted withal. This is the great discovery of the gospel: for whereas the Father, as the fountain of the Deity, is not known any other way but as full of wrath, anger, and indignation against sin, nor can the sons of men have any other thoughts of him (Rom. i. 18; Isa. xxxiii. 13, 14; Hab. i. 13; Ps. v. 4–6; Eph. ii. 3),—here he is now revealed peculiarly as love, as full of it unto us; the manifestation whereof is the peculiar work of the gospel, Tit. iii. 4.”10
“This is the great discovery of the gospel.” God the Father loves His children with a “free, undeserved, and eternal love.” Owen writes that love is distinctive to our communion with God the Father.
“When I assign any thing as peculiar wherein we distinctly hold communion with any person [of the Trinity], I do not exclude the other persons from communion with the soul in the very same thing. Only this, I say, principally, immediately, and by the way of eminency, we have, in such a thing, or in such a way, communion with some one person [of the Trinity]; and therein with the others secondarily.”11
These are only a few of the verses Owen uses to make his case:
“1 John iv. 8, “God is love.” . . . So the apostle sets it forth in the following verses: “This is love,” verse 9; — “This is that which I would have you take notice of in him, that he makes out love unto you, in ‘sending his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.’ ” So also, verse 10, “He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins…
“2 Cor. xiii. 14, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, THE LOVE OF GOD, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.” Ascribing sundry things unto the distinct persons, it is love that he peculiarly assigns to the Father…
“John xvi. 26, 27, saith our Saviour, “I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father himself loveth you.”…
“Rom. v. 5, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.” God, whose love this is, is plainly distinguished from the Holy Ghost, who sheds abroad that love of his; and, verse 8, he is also distinguished from the Son, for it is from that love of his that the Son is sent.”12
Owen later writes:
“When by and through Christ we have an access unto the Father, we then behold his glory also, and see his love that he peculiarly bears unto us, and act faith thereon. We are then, I say, to eye it, to believe it, to receive it, as in him; the issues and fruits thereof being made out unto us through Christ alone.”13
There may be times we know great affliction in this world or times we undergo God’s discipline, but do not doubt the Father’s love. God the Father welcomes Prodigals home.14
Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
The Return of the Prodigal Son: James Tissot, Public Domain.
1,2,3,4,5,6R. Kent Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth, vol. 2 (Crossway Books, Wheaton IL: 1998) 155, 149–150, 150, 151–152, 152, 153.
7Williams Hendriksen, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids MI: 1962) 9–10.
8Peculiar: The common meaning today is odd, but it also means: “characteristic of one only; distinctive or special”. Princeton University “Peculiar.” WordNet. Princeton University. 2010. Retrieved July 2, 2011. <http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn>
9Communion: ‘The term “Communion,” as used by Owen, is used in a wider sense than is consistent with that which is now generally attached to it in religious phraseology. It denotes not merely the interchange of feeling between God in his gracious character and a soul in a gracious state, but the gracious relationship upon which this holy interchange is based. On the part of Christ, for example, all his work and its results are described, from the atonement till it takes effect in the actual justification of the sinner.’ William H. Goold, ed., “Prefatory Note,” John Owen, The Works of John Owen William H. Goold, ed., Vol. II, Communion with God (Reprinted by The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, Scotland: 2004) 2.
10,11,12,13John Owen, The Works of John Owen, William H. Goold, ed., Vol. II, Communion with God (Reprinted by The Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, Scotland: 2004) 19, 18, 19–21, 23.
14John MacArthur has a wonderful sermon on The Prodigal Son, “The Loving Father.” At Grace to You, you’ll find a number of sermons on this parable.
See also: “The Love That Will Not Let Go” and Unfailing Love.
I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.
Copyright ©2011–2023 Iwana Carpenter
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