Luke 12:1

We find here, I. A vast auditory that was got together to hear Christ preach. The scribes and Pharisees sought to accuse him, and do him mischief; but the people, who were not under the bias of their prejudices and jealousies, still admired him, attended on him, and did him honour. In the mean time (Luk 12:1), while he was in the Pharisee's house, contending with them that sought to ensnare him, the people got together for an afternoon sermon, a sermon after dinner, after dinner with a Pharisee; and he would not disappoint them. Though in the morning sermon, when they were gathered thickly together (Luk 11:29), he had severely reproved them, as an evil generation that seek a sign, yet they renewed their attendance on him; so much better could the people bear their reproofs than the Pharisees theirs. The more the Pharisees strove to drive the people from Christ, the more flocking there was to him. Here was an innumerable multitude of people gathered together, so that they trade one upon another, in labouring to get foremost, and to come within hearing. It is a good sight to see people thus forward to hear the word, and venture upon inconvenience and danger rather than miss an opportunity for their souls. Who are these that thus fly as the doves to their windows? Isa 60:8. When the net is cast where there is such a multitude of fish, it may be hoped that some will be enclosed.

II. The instructions which he gave his followers, in the hearing of this auditory.

1. He began with a caution against hypocrisy. This he said to his disciples first of all; either to the twelve, or to the seventy. These were his more peculiar charge, his family, his school, and therefore he particularly warned them as his beloved sons; they made more profession of religion than others and hypocrisy in that was the sin they were most in danger of. They were to preach to others; and, if they should prevaricate, corrupt the word, and deal deceitfully, hypocrisy would be worse in them than in others. Besides, there was a Judas among them, who was a hypocrite, and Christ knew it, and would hereby startle him, or leave him inexcusable. Christ's disciples were, for aught we know, the best men then in the world, yet they needed to be cautioned against hypocrisy. Christ said this to the disciples, in the hearing of this great multitude, rather than privately when he had them by themselves, to add the greater weight to the caution, and to let the world know that he would not countenance hypocrisy, no, not in his own disciples. Now observe,

(1.) The description of that sin which he warns them against: It is the leaven of the Pharisees. [1.] It is leaven; it is spreading as leaven, insinuates itself into the whole man, and all that he does; it is swelling and souring as leaven, for it puffs men up with pride, embitters them with malice, and makes their service unacceptable to God. [2.] It is the leaven of the Pharisees: "It is the sin they are most of them found in. Take heed of imitating them; be not you of their spirit; do not dissemble in Christianity as they do in Judaism; make not your religion a cloak of maliciousness, as they do theirs."

(2.) A good reason against it: "For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, Luk 12:2, Luk 12:3. It is to no purpose to dissemble, for, sooner or later, truth will come out; and a lying tongue is but for a moment. If you speak in darkness that which is unbecoming you, and is inconsistent with your public professions, it shall be heard in the light; some way or other it shall be discovered, a bird of the air shall carry the voice (Ecc 10:20), and your folly and falsehood will be made manifest." The iniquity that is concealed with a show of piety will be discovered, perhaps in this world, as Judas's was, and Simon Magus's, at furthest in the great day, when the secrets of all hearts shall be made manifest, Ecc 12:14; Rom 2:16. If men's religion prevail not to conquer and cure the wickedness of their hearts, it shall not always serve for a cloak. The day is coming when hypocrites will be stripped of their fig-leaves.

2. To this he added a charge to them to be faithful to the trust reposed in them, and not to betray it, through cowardice or base fear. Some make Luk 12:2, Luk 12:3, to be a caution to them not to conceal those things which they had been instructed in, and were employed to publish to the world. "Whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear, tell them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; what has been spoken to you, and you have talked of among yourselves, privately, and in corners, that do you preach publicly, whoever is offended; for, if you please men, you are not Christ's servants, nor can you please him," Gal 1:10. But this was not the worst of it: it was likely to be a suffering cause, though never a sinking one: let them therefore arm themselves with courage; and divers arguments are furnished here to steel them with a holy resolution in their work. Consider,

(1.) "The power of your enemies is a limited power (Luk 12:4): I say unto you, my friends" (Christ's disciples are his friends, he calls them friends, and gives them this friendly advice), "be not afraid, do not disquiet yourselves with tormenting fears of the power and rage of men." Note, Those whom Christ owns for his friends need not be afraid of any enemies. "Be not afraid, no, not of them that kill the body, let it not be in the power of scoffers, not even of murderers, to drive you off from your work, for you that have learned to triumph over death may say, even of them, Let them do their worst, after that there is no more that they can do; the immortal soul lives, and is happy, and enjoys itself and its God, and sets them all at defiance." Note, Those can do Christ's disciples no real harm, and therefore ought not to be dreaded, who can but kill the body; for they only send that to its rest, and the soul to its joy, the sooner.

(2.) God is to be feared more than the most powerful men: "I will forewarn you whom you shall fear (Luk 12:5): that you may fear man less, fear God more. Moses conquers his fear of the wrath of the king, by having an eye to him that is invisible. By owning Christ you may incur the wrath of men, which can reach no further than to put you to death (and without God's permission they cannot do that); but by denying Christ, and disowning him, you will incur the wrath of God, which has power to send you to hell, and there is no resisting it. Now of two evils the less is to be chosen, and the greater is to be dreaded, and therefore I say unto you, Fear him." "It is true," said that blessed martyr, Bishop Hooper, "life is sweet, and death bitter; but eternal life is more sweet, and eternal death more bitter."

(3.) The lives of good Christians and good ministers are the particular care of divine Providence, Luk 12:6, Luk 12:7. To encourage us in times of difficulty and danger, we must have recourse to our first principles, and build upon them. Now a firm belief of the doctrine of God's universal providence, and the extent of it, will be satisfying to us when at any time we are in peril, and will encourage us to trust God in the way of duty. [1.] Providence takes cognizance of the meanest creatures, even of the sparrows. "Though they are of such small account that five of them are sold for two farthings, yet not one of them is forgotten of God, but is provided for, and notice is taken of its death. Now, you are of more value than many sparrows, and therefore you may be sure you are not forgotten, though imprisoned, though banished, though forgotten by your friends; much more precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of saints than the death of sparrows." [2.] Providence takes cognizance of the meanest interest of the disciples of Christ: "Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered (Luk 12:7); much more are your sighs and tears numbered, and the drops of your blood, which you shed for Christ's name's sake. An account is kept of all your losses, that they may be, and without doubt they shall be, recompensed unspeakably to your advantage."

(4.) "You will be owned or disowned by Christ, in the great day, according as you now own or disown him," Luk 12:8, Luk 12:9. [1.] To engage us to confess Christ before men, whatever we may lose or suffer for our constancy to him, and how dear soever it may cost us, we are assured that they who confess Christ now shall be owned by him in the great day before the angels of God, to their everlasting comfort and honour. Jesus Christ will confess, not only that he suffered for them, and that they are to have the benefit of his sufferings, but that they suffered for him, and that his kingdom and interest on earth were advanced by their sufferings; and what greater honour can be done them? [2.] To deter us from denying Christ, and a cowardly deserting of his truths and ways, we are here assured that those who deny Christ, and treacherously depart from him, whatever they may save by it, though it were life itself, and whatever they may gain by it, though it were a kingdom, will be vast losers at last, for they shall be denied before the angels of God; Christ will not know them, will not own them, will not show them any favour, which will turn to their everlasting terror and contempt. By the stress here laid upon their being confessed or denied before the angels of God, it should seem to be a considerable part of the happiness of glorified saints that they will not only stand right, but stand high, in the esteem of the holy angels; they will love them, and honour them, and own them, if they be Christ's servants; they are their fellow-servants, and they will take them for their companions. On the contrary, a considerable part of the misery of damned sinners will be that the holy angels will abandon them, and will be the pleased witnesses, not only of their disgrace, as here, but of their misery, for they shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels (Rev 14:10), who will give them no relief.

(5.) The errand they were shortly to be sent out upon was of the highest and last importance to the children of men, to whom they were sent, Luk 12:10. Let them be bold in preaching the gospel, for a sorer and heavier doom would attend those that rejected them (after the Spirit was poured upon them, which was to be the last method of conviction) than those that now rejected Christ himself, and opposed him: "Greater works than those shall he do, and, consequently, greater will be the punishment of those that blaspheme the gifts and operations of the Holy Ghost in you. Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, shall stumble at the meanness of his appearance, and speak slightly and spitefully of him, it is capable of some excuse: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. But unto him that blasphemes the Holy Ghost, that blasphemes the Christian doctrine, and maliciously opposes it, after the pouring out of the Spirit and his attestation of Christ's being glorified (Act 2:33; Act 5:32), the privilege of the forgiveness of sins shall be denied; he shall have no benefit by Christ and his gospel. You may shake off the dust of your feet against those that do so, and give them over as incurable; they have forfeited that repentance and that remission which Christ was exalted to give, and which you are commissioned to preach." The sin, no doubt, was the more daring, and consequently the case the more desperate, during the continuance of the extraordinary gifts and operations of the Spirit in the church, which were intended for a sign to them who believed not, Co1 14:22. There were hopes of those who, though not convinced by them at first, yet admired them, but those who blasphemed them were given over.

(6.) Whatever trials they should be called out to, they should be sufficiently furnished for them, and honourably brought through them, Luk 12:11, Luk 12:12. The faithful martyr for Christ has not only sufferings to undergo, but a testimony to bear, a good confession to witness, and is concerned to do that well, so that the cause of Christ may not suffer, though he suffer for it; and, if this be his care, let him cast it upon God: "When they bring you into the synagogues, before church-rulers, before the Jewish courts, or before magistrates and powers, Gentile rulers, rulers in the state, to be examined about your doctrine, what it is, and what the proof of it, take no thought what ye shall answer," [1.] "That you may save yourselves. Do not study by what art or rhetoric to mollify your judges, or by what tricks in law to bring yourselves off; if it be the will of God that you should come off, and your time is not yet come, he will bring it about effectually." [2.] "That you may serve your Master; aim at this, but do not perplex yourselves about it, for the Holy Ghost, as a Spirit of wisdom, shall teach you what you ought to say, and how to say it, so that it may be for the honour of God and his cause."

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk_12:1-12. The Duty of bold Sincerity and Trust in God.

1. when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people] Rather, -when the myriads of the multitude had suddenly assembled. It is evident that the noise of this disgraceful attack on our Lord had been heard. This scene was as it were the watershed of our Lord’s ministry in Galilee. At this period He had excited intense opposition among the religious authorities, but was still beloved and revered by the people. They therefore flocked together for His protection, and their arrival hushed the unseemly and hostile vehemence of the Pharisees.

they trode one upon another] Literally, “trod one another down.”

he began to say] The words seem to imply a specially solemn and important discourse.

unto his disciples first of all, Beware] Rather, to His disciples, Beware first of all of, &c.

the leaven of the Pharisees] See for comment Mat_16:12; Mar_8:15.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_12:1

The leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy

Hypocrisy

I.

THE HYPOCRITES CHARACTER.

1. A hypocrite may be known by the fact that his speech and his actions are contrary to one another. As Jesus says, They say and they do not. Talk is easy, but walk is hard; speech any man may attain unto, but act is difficult. We must have grace within to make our life holy; but lip-piety needs no grace.

2. The next mark of a hypocrite is, that whenever he does right it is that he may be seen of men. To him virtue in the dark is almost a vice; he can never detect any beauty in virtue, unless she has a thousand eyes to look upon her, and then she is something indeed. The true Christian, like the nightingale, sings in the night; but the hypocrite has all his songs in the day, when he can be seen and heard of men.

3. Hypocrite, love titles, and honours, and respect from men. There was another evidence of an hypocrite which was equally good, namely, that he strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel. Always suspect yourself when you are more careful about little than about great things.

4. These people neglected all the inward part of religion, and only observed the outward. As our Saviour said, they made clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within they were full of extortion and excess. There are many books which are excellently bound, but there is nothing within them; and there are many persona that have a very fine spiritual exterior, but there is nothing whatever in the heart.

5. You may know a hypocrite by another sign. His religion depends upon the place, or upon the time of day. He rises at seven oclock perhaps, and you will find him religious for a quarter of an hour; for he is, as the boy said, saying his prayers to himself in the first part of the morning. Well, then you find him pretty pious for another half-hour, for there is family prayer; but when the business begins, and he is talking to his men, I wont guarantee that you will be able to admire him. If one of his servants has been doing something a little amiss, you will find him perhaps using angry and unworthy language. You will find him, too, if he gets a customer whom he thinks to be rather green, not quite pious, for he will be taking him in.

6. There is another sign of the hypocrite, and now the lash will fall on my own back, and on most of us too. Hypocrites, and other people besides hypocrites, are generally severe with others, and very lenient with themselves. Have you ever heard a hypocrite describe himself? I describe him thus--You are a mean, beggarly fellow. No, says he, I am not; I am economical. I say to him, You are dishonest, you are a thief. No, says he, I am only cute and sharp for the times. Well, but, I say to him, you are proud and conceited. Oh! says he, I have only a proper and manly respect. Ay, but you are a fawning, cringing fellow. No, says he, I am all things to all men. Somehow or other he will make vice look like a virtue in himself, but he will deal by the reverse rule with others. Show him a Christian who is really humble, and he says, I hate his fawning ways. Tell him there is one who is very courageous for Christ; Oh! he is impudent, says he. Show him one who is liberal, doing what he can for his Masters service, spending, and being spent for Him; Rash and imprudent, says he, extravagant; the man does not know what he is about. You may point out a virtue, and the hypocrite shall at once say it is a vice.

II. And now we are going to CAST UP THE HYPOCRITES ACCOUNT FOR HIM. Now, sir, bring us your ledger, and let us have a look at it. You are a hypocrite. Well, what is on the profit side? A good deal, I must confess. Here is, first of all, credit and honour. The next advantage is the ease which you enjoy. And, besides that, there are the honours you have received. That is the profit side of your account. Now turn to the other, and take note of what there is against you. In the first place, I see a black item down here. Home of the people of the world do not think quite as much of you as you imagine. The poor widow does not give you much of a character. You will have to be very careful, sir, or your base deeds will come out. The very first item I see down here is a fear that your hypocrisy will be discovered. It would take you only half as much trouble to be an honest man as it does to be a deceiver. A man who is in the habit of speaking truth need not mind how he opens his mouth, nor where; but a man who lies should be very careful, and have a very good memory, and recollect all he has ever said before, lest he should trip himself. But I see something worse than this; here is constant disquietude of conscience; hypocrites may seem as if they were at ease, but they cannot really be. The Christian who is true to God, and is really His child, can sometimes say, I know that Jesus has taken away my sin. Assurance, vouchsafed to him by the Spirit, calms his fears, and he can rest in Christ. But the highest presumption to which the hypocrite can attain brings no such calm as that which is breathed upon the Christian by the lips of assurance. He can go to his bed, nay, he can go to his tomb in peace, but the hypocrite is afraid of a shadow, and fleeth when no man pursueth. And last of all, Mr. Hypocrite, I see an item here which you usually forget; it is this--that, despite of your profession, God abhors you, and if there is one man more than another who stinks in the nostrils of Jehovah, it is such as thou art--thou miserable pretender. Death shall find thee out, and hell shall be thy doom, for the hope of the hypocrite is as the spiders web, soon swept away; and where is he when God taketh away his hope? This, then, is the casting up of the hypocrites account, and there is a deficit of an infinite amount.

III. Now for the matter of the CURE OF THE HYPOCRITE. The thought of a present Deity, if it were fully realized, would preserve us from sin; always looking on me, ever regarding me. We think we are doing many things in secret, but there is nothing concealed from Him with whom we have to do. And the day is coming when all the sins that we have committed shall be read and published. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

How is hypocrisy discoverable and curable?

The words naturally yield you this doctrine: Hypocrisy is a dangerous leaven, which ministers and people are chiefly and especially to beware of, and acquit themselves from. Hence you have a chapter of woes against it (Mat_23:1-39.). And it is represented as that which renders odious to the Lord, and defiles, His choicest ordinances, and our best duties, if it cleave to them (Isa_1:11-12; Isa_66:3); and puts God to sad complaints and exprobations of such a people (Hos_6:4).

I. WHAT HYPOCRISY IS. Much of the nature of a thing is many times discovered in its name; the name is a brief description. The word hypocrite properly signifies an actor or stage-player, a personator of other men in their speech, habit, and action. The Hebrew word signifieth both a wicked man and a deceiver. And it is observed that those whom David, the devoutest man, called wicked, Solomon, the wisest man, calls fools, and Job, the most upright man, calls hypocrites: all is but one and the same thing under divers names. Hypocrisy, then, is but a feigning of virtue and piety, which it seems to put on, and vice and impiety, which it conceals and would seem to put off. It is indeed vice in a vizor; the face is vice, but virtue is the vizor. The form and nature of it is imitation: the ends are vainglory, to be seen of men, or some gain or carnal respects.

II. How IS HYPOCRIST RESEMBLED BY LEAVEN? Briefly thus:

1. Leaven is hardly discerned from good dough by the sight. And as hardly is hypocrisy distinguished from piety.

2. Leaven is very spreading. And so hypocrisy does a great deal of mischief; it spreads over all the man, and all his duties, parts, performances: and leavens all.

3. Leaven is of a sour taste and ungrateful smell. So is hypocrisy to Gods man.

4. Leaven is of a swelling nature: it extends and puffs up the dough. So hypocrisy is all for the praise of men.

III. WHY IS IT CALLED THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES? Because they were leavened with it to purpose; they were exact and super-eminent in this devilish art of personating and counterfeiting to the life.

IV. WHEREIN IS THIS LEAVEN OF HYPOCRISY SO DANGEROUS THAT MINISTERS AND PEOPLE OUGHT FIRSTLY, CHIEFLY, TO BEWARE OF IT? There is great danger of it, and great danger by it.

1. There is great danger of it.

(1) For we have the ground of the matter in ourselves. Hearts deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know thy wickedness? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, &c. (Jer_17:9-10). As if none beside the Lord knew the bottomless depths and deceits of the heart!

(2) The devil watcheth night and day to set fire to this tow.

(3) And that we may not be secure, there are before our eyes and in our view dreadful examples. Balaam, a great prophet; Judas, an apostle familiar with Christ; Saul, Jehu, Herod, and Agrippa, famous kings.

2. And there is great danger by it.

(1) The loss of all that,, is done. Christ will say, as to that young man, Yet lackest thou one thing (Luk_18:22), sincerity: wouldest thou have heaven too? Why then didst thou all things for the praise of men? Thou hast thy reward, and art overpaid. Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity (Mat_7:23).

(2) Frustrating of hopes, great hopes, hopes of glory and heaven, and escaping eternal misery. All these hopes must perish to the hypocrite Job_8:13); perish like a ship at the very mouth of the haven; perish while they are crying, Lord, Lord; perish into everlasting horror and eternal despair.

(3) Full detection and manifesting of them in the sight and face of all the world.

(4) And in hell the hypocrite shall be beaten with many stripes. For he knew his Masters will, and pretended he was doing it, and yet did it not. (A. Bromhall.)

The leaven of hypocrisy

I. SOME WAYS IN WHICH THIS HYPOCRISY WORKS AND IS SHOWN.

1. Hypocrisy works in the bias of the mind. There is a secret end and aim with those in whom it works, apart from the glory of God. Self is always uppermost, even in religious acts and outward worship.

2. Hypocrisy shows itself in a resting in duties. Those in whom it thus works are satisfied to please self and others in them; they do not seek Christ in them; they go on in duties, but it is a bondage to them; their duties leave no savour on them; they are strict to a fault whilst engaged in them, and shame some gracious souls, who have not the self-command they show; but out of their duties they are light and frothy; there is nothing resting upon their spirits. View them at home, you see little or no difference between them and those who make no profession.

3. Hypocrisy shows itself in Weariness of religion. Many, with all their outward zeal, are secretly weary of religious duties; they get nothing in them; they go away as they came, unwatered and unrefreshed; their inward spring seems dried up; Christs yoke is often grievous to them. This is a far gone stage of the disease; it is the heart departing from the Lord. They slave and drudge on at duties, but are nothing bettered by them; they rather grow worse; their spiritual appetite seems departing. But for shame, many would give in at this stage, and walk no more as the open followers of Jesus.

4. Once more: hypocrisy works much in prayer, open and private. It regards choice of expression and fitting words mere than the workings of desires in the heart, though the utterances are unconnected and broken. It depends on mental help more than spiritual assistance,

II. THE KINDS OF CHRISTIANS WHO ARE MOST PRONE TO THIS SIN, AND WHO OUGHT, THEREFORE, TO BE MOST ON THEIR GUARD AGAINST IT.

1. Christians whose avocations bring them much into the world should guard against this sin.

2. Persons that are naturally crafty and subtle have great reason to watch against hypocrisy in their religious acts.

3. Those have great reason to guard against this sin who have been brought comfortably and calmly into peace with God, who have not been under great terrors of conscience, nor laid long, if at all, under a broken law--those who have come to Christ on the first motions of godly sorrow, and found peace with God. It too often happens that those who have been so gently dealt with do not value the blessing aright; they do not see what it cost the Son of God to procure.

4. Those who are naturally superstitious have need to be on the watch. It is a great advantage to Satan to meet with a superstitious person under the power of religion; he will improve his advantage, and try to work upon their superstition, to bring them into bondage, and to make them hypocrites in numberless ways. He will try to give them too high an esteem for externals, to deaden, if possible, the power of religion in their souls. He will give them needless torment about little matters which in themselves are of no consequence or value, but he will try and magnify them in their eyes, and seek to persuade them to believe that much depends on them. They will be often led to believe that a scrupulous conscience is a tender one, whereas the two things are totally different; and a man may have a very scrupulous conscience in religious matters that yet never hated sin or loved God.

III. THE DANGER OF GIVING WAY TO THIS SIN, AND LETTING IT GAIN GROUND. This will also lead me to say a few words by way of caution how to prevent this.

1. It is a hateful sin in the sight of God. All hypocrisy is deception; and God is a God of truth, and loves truth, and will have those who worship Him worship Him in spirit and in truth.

2. Hypocrisy is a very deceiving sin. Hypocrites go on in duties, because the most of their religion lies in duties. Thus their duties deceive them. They judge well of themselves, because of their duties: but God judges of them by the state of their hearts.

3. Hypocrisy is a very dangerous sin. It works, as the Saviour says, like leaven; it spreads over and taints, if unresisted and unchecked, all the healthy actings of the soul. It will, in the end, wear out all the sincere principles from which a professor once acted, and make him a confirmed hypocrite. There is danger of God giving up any who go on in this sin to a reprobate mind; not all at once, but little by little, their spiritual strength will wax less and less, till it dries up altogether. They may be given up secretly to some corruption which will eat as a canker. Their souls will wither, because by their sin they cut themselves off from Christ.

4. But now, not to discourage any, it is good to have hypocrisy discovered; the honest soul will be glad to know the worst, and never rest till he does. It is a bad sign to rest satisfied under uneasy feelings, hoping for a change, but without being stirred up to seek it. It is good to be severe with oneself, to sound our own hearts to the bottom, to beg of God and men to search and try us. It is only in this way--and that not now and then, or when pressed in conscience, but habitually--that hypocrisy will be kept under. (H. M. Baker.)

Different kinds of hypocrites

1. The worldly hypocrite, who professes godliness from worldly motives.

2. The legal hypocrite, who resigns his vicious practices to win heaven, but has no love to God.

3. The evangelical hypocrite, whose religion is an acknowledgment of sin, but with no desire to lead a godly life.

4. The enthusiastic hypocrite, who has an imaginary notion of the Saviour, and relies on impulses and feelings, and yet clings to vicious deeds. (Van Doren.)

Hypocrites in all ages

Cain in the first age; Canaan in the second; Ishmael in the third; Esau in the fourth; Saul among the prophets; Judas among the apostles; Nicholas among the deacons; Ananias among the early Christians. (Van Doren.)

Profession without possession

To profess a faith which you have net is to make yourself a deceptive trader, who pretends to be carrying on a very large business, while he has no stock, no capital, and is only obtaining credit on false pretences, and so is a thief. To make a profession, without having a possession, is to be a cloud without rain--a river-bed choked up with dry stones, but utterly without water; it is to be a mere play-actor, strutting about for an hour with the name and garments of a king, to be exchanged, behind the scenes, for the garb of poverty, and the character of shame; it is to be a rotten tree, green on the outside, but inwardly, as John Bunyan pithily puts it, only fit to be tinder for the devils tinder box. Be ye warned against fair pretensions where there is nothing to back them up. Above all things, eschew hypocrisy; stand aside from all mere pretence. Profess not to be what you are not, lest in that day when God comes to search the secrets of all hearts, you shall be condemned as reprobate silver, and consumed like dross. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Hypocrisy a common danger

An old English writer says:--The Emperor Frederick III., when one said unto him he would go and find some place where no hypocrite inhabited, told him he must travel, then, far enough beyond the Sauromatae or the frozen ocean; for yet, when he came there, he should find a hypocrite if he found himself there. And it is true that every man is a hypocrite. Hypocrisy is lesson that every man readily takes in. All are not fit for the wars; learning must have the picked and choicest wits; arts must have leisure and pains; but all sorts are apt enough, and thrive in the mystery of dissimulation.

Pharisaic hypocrisy

That which was the disease of the Pharisee was the disease of the time. Our Lord calls that disease hypocrisy. We have a reasonable horror of the name. We consider that it is applicable only to the worst men in the worst times. There is good excuse for that opinion; yet it may rob us of the force of our Lords warning--we may put it at a dangerous distance from ourselves. The hypocrite is the man who acts a part; there is no more evil significance in the word than that. And oh! how easy it is to be a hypocrite if that is his characteristic; how difficult it is not to be one! Do you not know with what terrible quickness a child becomes an actor or actress? Do you not know what we do to cultivate the acting talent, the acting habit in them? Do you not know what a number of social influences and contrivances are at work to convince men and women that it is their business to be masquers, that their skill is to be shown in the devising of masks? To strike at the root of this hypocrisy, to point out the remedy, this is the work which we ask from the King of men, from Him who knows what is in man. Jesus struck at the root of all social hypocrisy, of all personal hypocrisy, in Palestine, when He traced it to the religion which prevailed there. Then He pointed out the remedy in this sentence of everlasting might: For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither Lid that shall not be known. The religion of the Pharisees consisted in a series of attempts to please, flatter, and bribe the Ruler of the earth. If He could be persuaded not to look too curiously into the acts of His servants, not to probe the secrets of their hearts; if He could be induced to accept a compensation for this evil, on certain conditions to tolerate that; if His commandments could be shown to bear different constructions for different persons; if cases might be imagined to which they did not apply, or applied with various qualifications and mitigations; if the creature could succeed in keeping the Creator at a distance from him, so that his secrets should not be brought to the light; their religion had realized its highest objects. Such a religion was leavening the chosen people, as it was under other aspects, with the most dissimilar professions under heathen forms of worship, leavening the old Roman Empire. The priests and lawyers in Jerusalem, the Pontifiex and the Augur in Rome, were alike acting a part. They rehearsed their parts in private; they performed them in public. The Pharisees were at once the consummate practisers of the art and the most systematic instructors in it. But what if the Ruler of the earth could not be flattered or bribed? What if everything that is covered must be revealed, if everything that is hidden must be known? What if the very act of the Creator is to reveal, if He is bringing all things to light, if He hates darkness? There is the whole question. Is it a God of light you serve, or a God of darkness? Acting hypocrisy is an impossible kind of service with the first, the only suitable one with the second. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)

Hypocrisy

Grace is the Christians new nature, and hypocrisy is the art that counterfeits it. The hypocrite affects the innocence of the dove to hide the cunning of the serpent. By the hypocrite good men are oft deceived, for Goodness thinks no ill where no ill seems. The hypocrite, like Judas, may salute Christ, but it is to betray Him. The hypocrites life is a falsehood to heaven and to earth. The hypocrite gives his tongue to virtue, but his heart to vice. If there be the head of gold, there are also the feet of miry clay. Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue. The more plausible hypocrisy is before men, the more detestable it is to God. The

hypocrite serves Satan, and from Satan receives his reward. The religious hypocrite is at best a man of dark deeds, though clad in garments of light. He may approach the portals of heaven, but he does not enter. A hypocrite was discovered at a royal supper, but the king rejected him from the banquet. Man esteems him hateful, because he seems not what he is; and God hates him, because he is not what he seems. The Christians heart oft speaks without the tongue, but the hypocrites tongue always speaks without the heart. The hypocrite, like a bird of prey, although his course be towards heaven, yet is always looking and longing for something upon earth. The Christian gives to God the fruit of his labours; the hypocrite gives to God the fruit of his lips. The hypocrite is led by ostentation, and not by a sanctified conscience. Hypocrites may be Christians in the skin, but they are demons in the core; their rhetoric may be pretty, their logic witty, but their practice is naughty. Hypocrisy is insulting to the virtuous, and cruel to the poor and afflicted. For he who hides his vices by hypocrisy, suspects the virtues of others to be hypocrisy. And the poor and afflicted remain poor and afflicted, because the sin of the hypocrite closed the hand of charity, and in consequence thereof genuine sorrow is oft suspected in place of being relieved. An impostor who asks for alms is a hypocrite in the lower grade. Hypocrisy may prevail in morals as well as in creed. Some men are hypocritical in both. Hypocrisy shall be detected, as in the case of Saul (1Sa_15:14), Gehazi (2Ki_5:26), Judas Mat_26:50), Ananias (Act_5:3), Simon Magus (Act_8:20-21). Hypocrisy may be seen in the history of Jacob (Gen_27:20), Pharaoh (Exo_8:28-29), Balaam (Num_23:10), Absalom 2Sa_15:7), Hazael (2Ki_8:12-13). Samaritans (Ezr_4:2), Herod (Mat_2:8), High Priest (Mat_26:65), Pilate Mat_27:24). Let the hypocrite tremble lest he perish by his own hypocrisy, for God is the God of Truth, Christ is the Word of Truth, and the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Truth. The hope of the hypocrite shall be as the spiders web (Job_8:13-14). He is unwise who decries religion because some professing to be religious are hypocrites. None would take the pains to counterfeit pearls, if true ones were not of value. Men would not personate piety were it not of itself a noble quality. We best show our abhorrence of hypocrisy by holding the truth free from hypocrisy. (Van Doren.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 12:1. When there were gathered together an innumerable multitude — Επισυναχθεισων των μυριαδων, literally, myriads (that is, tens of thousands, how many is not said) being gathered together. By this it appears, that though the scribes and Pharisees thought to accuse him, and bring him into disrepute, the people that were not under the influence of their prejudices and jealousies still admired him, attended on him, and did him honour. Nay, it seems the more these learned hypocrites strove to drive them from Christ, the more they flocked to him; which, doubtless, vexed them no little. It is not improbable, however, that this vast assemblage of people might be partly owing to an apprehension, either that Christ might meet with some ill usage among so many of his enemies, or that he would say or do something peculiarly remarkable on the occasion. Be this as it may, it is evident that the people could bear reproof better than the Pharisees; for though, in the morning, when they were gathered thick together, (Luk 11:29,) he had severely reproved them, as an evil generation that sought a sign, yet in the afternoon they renewed their attendance on him. It is pleasing to see people thus forward to hear the word of God, and venture upon inconvenience and danger, rather than miss an opportunity of being instructed in divine things. He began to say unto his disciples, Beware of the leaven, &c. — The caution given in this and the two following verses, and the subsequent exhortations contained in this paragraph, are to the same purpose with others that we have had in Matthew and Mark, upon other the like occasions. See on Mat 16:6; Mat 10:26-32; Mar 8:15. For it is reasonable to suppose, that our blessed Lord preached the same doctrines, and pressed the same duties, at several times; and that some of his evangelists have recorded them as he delivered them at one time, and others as he taught them at another. It is here said, that he addressed his disciples first of all; for they were his peculiar charge, his family, his school, and therefore he particularly warned them as his beloved sons. They made a greater profession of religion than others, and hypocrisy therein was the sin of which they were most in danger. And as they were to preach to others, if they should prevaricate, corrupt the word of God, and deal deceitfully with it, and with the souls of men, their hypocrisy would be more criminal than that of others. Christ’s disciples, Judas excepted, were, we have reason to believe, the best men in the world, and yet we see they needed to be cautioned against hypocrisy. What need, then, have we to be jealous of ourselves lest we should fall into this sin! Christ gave this caution to his disciples in the hearing of this great multitude of people, rather than privately, to add the greater weight to it, and to let the world know that he would not countenance any sin, and especially hypocrisy, even in those he loved best.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

§ 47—THE SERMON TO THE MYRIADS, Luk_12:1-59.

Addressed partly to the disciples and partly to the multitudes, its subject is: The importance, as against the Pharisees, of deciding for Christ; which is urged especially in view of the judgment to come, at his SECOND ADVENT. It contains passages which had been previously delivered in Galilee, especially in his Sermon on the Mount; and passages resembling portions in the discourse on the Mount of Olives, Mat_24:5. This discourse may be considered as an intermediate between those two great discourses; and is scarce less important than either; being thus one of the three most important discourses recorded by the synoptical Evangelists.

I. The warning against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees: the judgment day will expose Luk_2:1-3.

Unto his disciples first of all—The discourse alternates (sometimes doubtfully to those who heard it) between the twelve and the multitudes. But even those parts which were ostensibly addressed to one, had a real application to the other, and were doubtless uttered in the hearing of both.

The leaven—The deceitful and treacherous doctrines spreading and impregnating the lump, like leaven.

Of the Pharisees—With whom the contest is now intense, and against whom, in their own persons, he had lately uttered a solemn denunciation at the close of the last chapter.

Hypocrisy—In holding, from self-interest, to a system which they did not truly believe; in rejecting Christ contrary to their own conscience; in pretending to a ritual purity while indulging in all unrighteousness.

1. In the mean time—The Greek Εν οις signifies, At which times. It refers to the period succeeding the contest with and the denunciation of the Pharisees in the last chapter; but the plural number indicates that the connection is not immediate.

An innumerable multitude—In the original μυριαδων, MYRIADS; that is, tens of thousands; so that, if taken literally, it must indicate at least twenty thousand.

Commentators do not seem to observe that this is an assemblage in PERAEA, scarce paralleled by anything in Galilee. And such an assemblage must have been called together only in expectation that a great discourse, probably as part of the contest with the hierarchy, was to be delivered. In allusion to the numbers said by the Evangelist to be present, we will call it

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

Luk_12:1. An innumerable multitude of people.—“The many thousands of the multitude” (R.V.); lit. “the myriads of the multitude.” The discourse in this chapter is evidently in continuation of what has just been recorded: the cardinal sin of the Pharisees is dealt with, and freedom of speech is commended, in spite of the dangers which it provoked. Unto His disciples first of all.—Opinion is about equally divided as to whether the words should be thus rendered, or “say unto His disciples, First of all, beware ye.” The former is retained in the R.V. So far as internal evidence is concerned, Christ’s words seemed to be addressed to His disciples rather than to the multitude; and this distinction harmonises rather with the rendering of our version than with the other, which some editors prefer. The leaven of the Pharisees.—Cf. Mat_16:6-12. The characteristic spirit of the Pharisees, which issued in a general corruption of the characters of those influenced by it. Leaves is most frequently used in Scripture as a symbol of evil. Hypocrisy.—The word “hypocrite,” in its original sense, means an actor; one who assumes a part and adopts a name, dress, and manner of speaking, in harmony with it. The appropriateness of the figure for those who assumed an austerity and goodness which were foreign to them, for the sake of imposing upon others, is obvious.

Luk_12:2. For there is nothing covered.—Hypocrisy is not only sinful, but useless: all secret words and sayings will one day be made public and open. The words have a different application in Mat_10:26. There the reference is to the public proclamation of what the disciples have learned in secret from the Master.

Luk_12:3. In closets.—“In the inner chambers” (R.V.); “in the store-rooms,” the most secret part of the house. The same word is used in Mat_6:6; Mat_24:26. Upon the house-tops.—So that all in the streets can hear. “These sayings have a strong Syrian colour. The Syrian house-top presents an image which has no sense in Asia Minor, or Greece, or Italy, or even at Antioch. The flat roofs cease at the mouth of the Orontes; Antioch itself has inclined roofs” (Renan).

Luk_12:4. My friends.—An unusual phrase. Cf. Joh_15:13-15.

Luk_12:5. I will forewarn you.—Rather simply “I will warn you” (R.V.). Fear him, which after, etc. Who is the person here referred to? Strangely enough, the words have been interpreted both of God and of Satan. The opinion of the majority of commentators is that God is meant as the “almighty dispenser of life and death, both temporal or eternal.” But, on the other hand, Christ is here speaking of enemies; He warns His disciples not to fear those who can only hurt the body, and says there is reason to fear One who has power to “cast into hell,” or, as St. Matthew says, “to destroy both body and soul in hell.” If Satan is an enemy of the souls of men, and if those who yield to his solicitations share his punishment, there can be no difficulty in understanding this passage as alluding to him. Fear (or terror) of a spiritual enemy of real power and malignancy is evidently meant here. No such emotion is represented in the Scriptures as belonging to man’s relations with God. Alford understands the words as referring to God, and endeavours to draw a distinction between the phrase used in Luk_12:4 and that in Luk_12:5 to denote “fear”—in the one case the preposition ἀπό (fear of something coming from such and such a quarter) being used, and in the other case the simple verb—and understands by the one, “terror,” and by the other the nobler “fear of God” so often commended to us in the Scriptures. But he does not support his argument by adducing any examples of the words being used to denote these varying ideas. Hath power.—Or “authority” (R.V. margin). The word is appropriate for indicating authority which may be used in subordination to a higher rule, and so is in harmony with the above interpretation. Hell.—Lit. “Gehenna,” the place of punishment, as distinguished from Hades, the abode of the dead. Gehenna means simply the Valley of Hinnom, outside Jerusalem, so called apparently from the name of the original inhabitants or owners of it (Jos_15:8). It was polluted by the worship of Moloch (Jer_7:31), and was afterwards used as a receptacle for the rubbish and filth of the city. Large fires were kept burning in it, to prevent pestilence.

Luk_12:6. Are not five sparrows?—St. Matthew speaks of two being sold for one farthing (Luk_10:29). Evidently if four were bought at one time, a fifth was thrown in for nothing; yet not even one of these insignificant creatures is “forgotten before God.”

Luk_12:7. Hairs of your head.—Evidently a proverbial expression. Cf. 1Sa_14:45; 1Ki_1:52; Luk_21:18; Act_27:34.

Luk_12:8. Before the angels of God.—Allusion is here made to the last judgment, at which the angels of God are generally represented as present. The phrase in the parallel passage in St. Matthew is, “Before My Father which is in heaven.”

Luk_12:10. It shall be forgiven.—I.e., on repentance. Blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost.—A wilful and deliberate state of sinning, against the clearest light and knowledge, which, from the very nature of things, must exclude from forgiveness. These words were spoken to encourage the disciples; they give assurance that God will be with them in their work, and that obstinate opposition to it would be severely condemned by Him.

Luk_12:11. Synagogues.—The officials in each local synagogue had certain judicial powers. Magistrates and powers.—I.e., higher tribunals, either Jewish or Gentiles.

Luk_12:12. For the Holy Ghost.—This mention of the Holy Ghost as Paraclete, or Advocate, closely corresponds with Christ’s teaching as recorded in St. John’s Gospel, and is an interesting testimony to the historical character of the latter.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_12:1-12

The Disciples Encouraged.—The hostility manifested towards Christ, as described in the closing paragraph of the preceding chapter, was calculated to intimidate weak and wavering disciples, and even to shake the courage of the bravest amongst them. For it is evident that a large proportion, at any rate, of the crowd now assembled sympathised with the attitude towards Jesus taken up by their leaders. Accordingly our Lord, in the very presence of His enemies, addresses His disciples and encourages them to steadfastness in their allegiance to Him and His cause. By various kinds of inducements Jesus would now lead them to banish their fears.

I. The promise of victory (Luk_12:1-3).—The first encouraging fact on which Jesus laid stress was that in due time the hypocrisy of their enemies would be unveiled and the triumph of the gospel be complete and final. At the present time the teaching of the Pharisees, and the rules of conduct laid down by them, had great weight in Jewish society. But the day would come when the mask would be torn away; the corruption hidden beneath a pretence of piety would be brought to light, and the authority of these present guides and rulers of public opinion would crumble away. On the other hand, the disciples of Jesus, who were now abashed in the presence of their enemies, and who, as it were, scarcely dared to whisper in secret the truth they had learned from Him, would become His heralds, and proclaim to a listening world the teaching which He had entrusted to them. This assurance of future victory was a timely word of encouragement to the followers of Jesus. Just as there is nothing more likely to damp enthusiasm and to diminish activity than a dread of defeat, so the anticipation of winning the day gives fresh spirit and strength to the soldier in the midst of the fight. The same ground of encouragement which Jesus then gave to His disciples, exists still. All who are endeavouring in His name to overcome the ignorance and sin and misery that afflict human society, have reason to believe that the time will come when their efforts will be crowned with complete success.

II. Assurance of Divine protection (Luk_12:4-7).—In the second place Jesus encourages His disciples by assuring them that they were the objects of God’s providential care. All the evil that man could do to them was, even at its worst, but trifling and insignificant. Man had power only to injure the body, and even that power could only be exercised within the limits fixed by the Divine decree. They should, therefore, be freed from all fear. The enemy, whom they had reason to dread, was one who might find an ally in their own hearts. The solicitations of the enemy of their souls to save their lives in the hour of danger, by renouncing their Saviour, were indeed to be dreaded. This was the only fear that they need entertain. Jesus, it is to be noticed, does not promise His disciples that in every time of danger their lives would be preserved. They might be called upon to forfeit life, but not without the consent of Him whom He taught them to regard as their heavenly Father. And in the most forcible terms He assures them that the providence of God extends to the minutest details of human life. The birds of the air are not forgotten by God; how much more will He care for His children! He numbers the hairs of their heads; how much more will He protect their highest interests! Let them banish all fears, therefore; they will not fall without God’s consent, and God will not consent to anything which is not to be for their good.

III. The reward of the faithful disciples; the punishment of the faithless (Luk_12:8-10).—Fidelity to the Saviour and to His cause may entail pains and sufferings upon earth: but if they persevere unto the end, a glorious reward will be bestowed upon them. Their glorified Master will recompense them for confessing Him to be their Lord by acknowledging them to be His own before the assembled hosts of heaven. But denial of Him must inevitably be followed by the loss of His love and favour in the day when all shall appear before Him for judgment. It is for them to decide, by their attitude towards Him, what is to be His attitude towards them. There will be nothing arbitrary or capricious in the rewards He will bestow or the punishments He will impose, but both will commend themselves as just to those who will receive them. For a moment Jesus turns from the disciples to the crowd that surrounds them, and speaks of a worse sin than cowardly denial of Him as Lord and Master, and of the heavier punishment which that sin entails. Faithlessness towards Him, or even misguided antipathy towards Him, are grave offences, but they may be forgiven; but deliberate resistance to the Holy Spirit is a sin that can never be forgiven. The sinner who resolutely banishes from himself the light-giving, sanctifying influences of that Spirit, and who hates goodness, shuts himself out from the possibility of salvation.

IV. The promised aid of the Holy Spirit (Luk_12:11-12).—Well might the disciples fear that they would not be able to bear worthy testimony to their Master when exposed to the dangers of which He now forewarned them. And therefore Jesus reassures them, and promises that in their hour of need they would be sustained by that Spirit whom their enemies blasphemed. Many and various would be the tribunals before which His followers would be called to stand; they would be confronted with the representatives of ecclesiastical and worldly power, but they would receive supernatural help to enable them to endure the trial. Let them not premeditate defence! Words would be given them to speak which their adversaries would not be able to gainsay or resist. They would be taught both what to say and how to say it, and not only to defend themselves, but also to render testimony in favour of their Lord. Thus it was with St. Peter and St. Stephen before the Sanhedrim, and with St. Paul before Felix and Festus; they not only maintained their own integrity, but also proclaimed the gospel of which Christ had appointed them ministers.

In all these ways, therefore, did Jesus seek to strengthen His disciples. He infused into their hearts the hope of victory; He confirmed their faith in the almighty power of their heavenly Father; He spoke of the glorious reward which those faithful to Him might anticipate receiving, and of the penalty which cowardice would draw upon itself; and, finally, gave assurance of a Divine aid which would enable the weakest and most timid to rise to heroism in the day of trial and persecution.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_12:1-12

Luk_12:1-2. Hypocrisy and Truth.

I. The doom of hypocrisy.—Its triumph is short-lived, for the mask that conceals the true character of pretenders to godliness will be torn away.

II. The triumph of truth.—The words now spoken by disciples in secret will resound through the whole world. Evil done in secret, and truth spoken in secret, will both come to light, and men will condemn the one and approve the other.

Luk_12:1. Two Kinds of Hypocrisy.—Hypocrisy is of two kinds:—

I. Pretending to be what we are not.

II. Concealing what we are.—Though these are so closely allied that the one runs into the other, it is the latter form of it against which our Lord here warns His disciples.—Brown.

Self-Deception.—Hypocrisy is not merely for a man to deceive others, knowing all the while that he is deceiving them, but to deceive himself and others at the same time; to aim at their praise by a religious profession, without perceiving that he loves their praise more than God’s, and that he is professing far more than he practises.—Newman.

Luk_12:2-3. The Place and Function of the Lamp.—The disciples are to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, one element of whose hypocrisy it was to withhold from the common people the light of their own better knowledge; neither going into the kingdom of heaven themselves, nor suffering those who would have entered to go in. The disciples, unlike the Pharisees, are not to withhold any light which they possess; for God intends nothing to be concealed from any man. Whatever is covered is to be uncovered. Whatever is hidden from us is hidden, not by God, but by the limitations of our own faculty, and will be disclosed as we train our faculty of perception and outgrow its limitations. So far as we can see, we may see; and what we see not yet we shall see soon. Yes, and, as we are expressly taught here, so far as we can see we may speak, and must speak. For as it is the will of God that nothing should be covered except that it may be uncovered, so also it is the will of Christ that whatever He or His disciples have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; whatever they have spoken in the chamber shall be proclaimed from the house-top. The same rule is to govern their words which governed His words. What He had taught them privately, that they were to teach openly (Mat_10:27); and now He adds that whatever they taught privately, that their successors were to teach openly. They were to have no mysteries, no “economy,” no truths reserved for the initiated.—Cox.

Luk_12:2. A Warning and a Promise.

I. A warning against the hypocrisy which comes from fear of man.

II. A promise and a consoling hope for the faithful.

Luk_12:3. “Shall be heard in the light.”—“All that ye, on account of persecutions shall have taught in secret, will, at the victory of My cause, be proclaimed with the greatest publicity.”—Meyer.

The Course of the Gospel.—St. Luke has described the course of the gospel from the closet of Mary in Nazareth to the house-tops of the city of Rome.

Luk_12:4-9. Three Arguments against Fear.

I. That drawn from the impotence or limited power of the most malicious enemies.—They can “kill the body” and can do no more.

II. That drawn from the providence of God, without whose will not even the slightest injury can befall us.

III. That drawn from the fact that in the day of judgment Christ will acknowledge as His those who have been faithful to Him, and deny those who have denied Him.

Luk_12:4-6. A Mid-Course.—The state of mind Christ here seeks to cultivate is midway between fear and implicit trust.

I. He urges them on to earnestness by pointing out spiritual dangers to which they are exposed.

II. He preserves them from faint-heartedness by speaking of God as their protector.

Luk_12:4-5. The Place of Fear in the Gospel.—There is a place for fear in the gospel. Some readers of the Bible, some preachers of the gospel, have thought that fear was a dangerous, even a forbidden principle, under the dispensation of the fulness of times. They have made this one of the chief points of difference between the law and the gospel. This is a hasty inference. Our Lord says, “Fear Him, which, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell”; says it to His disciples—says it to those whom, in the very same sentence, He calls His “friends.” Paul bids his Philippian converts work out their salvation “with fear and trembling”; Peter commends a “chaste conversation coupled with fear”; and even John, who speaks of “perfect love casting out fear,” yet uses this, in the Revelation, as a characteristic of the faithful—“them that fear Thy name.” Fear has a place in the gospel, may we but find it. But it is not, as some would make it, the whole of religion. But there are three things the proper objects of gospel fear:

1. Sin and wickedness,

2. Our ghostly enemy.

3. Everlasting death.—Vaughan.

Luk_12:5. “Whom ye shall fear.”—The Christian, though having Christ for his friend (Luk_12:4), and God as His protector is not above all “fear.” The great enemy is still near, and his malice is deadly and unsleeping.

Luk_12:6-7. Divine Providence.

I. Christ here teaches that God’s government of the world extends to the minutest detail in the lives of all His creatures.

II. That this is not rule of a blind law, but of a loving Father.—Nothing is left to chance, and we have every encouragement to confidence in Him, and to commit ourselves in prayer to His protecting power.

Luk_12:7. Safety while Work is Unfinished.—The servant of Christ is immortal so long as his work is yet unfinished.

Luk_12:8-9. Confession and Denial of Christ.—The context shows plainly that it is a practical, consistent confession which is meant, and also a practical and enduring denial. The Lord will not confess the confessing Judas, nor deny the denying Peter; the traitor who denied Him in act is denied; the apostle who confessed Him, even to death, will be confessed (cf. 2Ti_2:12).—Alford.

I. Gentle allurement.

II. Grave menace.

Luk_12:8. The Promise.

1. How base, then, to refuse our testimony to Christ, when on His part He offers His testimony to us by way of reward!

2. How much more Christ promises than that which He requires from us! The Threatening.

(1) Not only will the names of the cowardly be blotted out of the book of life, but

(2) He will bear testimony against them and take away all hope of their admission into the heavenly kingdom.

Luk_12:10. The Sin against the Holy Ghost.—St. Luke records the utterance to the disciples of that same dread sentence which St. Matthew and St. Mark give as addressed to the blaspheming Pharisees—showing conclusively that Christians are not out of reach of that danger which in open enemies is blasphemy, and in false friends is a “doing despite.” St. Luke connects this sin with that of denying Christ. His warning is addressed to disciples. They may deny Christ and be forgiven: “to him that blasphemes against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.” Thus he prepares us for later disclosures which shall show how a Christian may blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, and, so doing, sin beyond forgiveness.—Vaughan.

Rejecting the Preaching of the Apostles.—The history of Israel fully proves the truth of this word of warning. That nation did not perish because of the sin of having nailed the Son of man to the cross. Otherwise the day of the crucifixion would have been its day of judgment, and God would not have offered for forty years longer forgiveness of this act of rejection. It is the rejection of the preaching of the apostles—the obstinate resistance offered to the Spirit of Pentecost—that filled up the measure of Jerusalem’s sin.—Godet.

Sins Against the Spirit.—Other forms of sin against the Holy Spirit are referred to in Scripture:—

I. To resist the Spirit (Act_7:51), or to vex the Spirit (Isa_63:10). The action of those who refuse to turn from their evil ways.

II. To grieve the Spirit (Eph_4:30)—as believers do when they allow themselves to be carried away by sin. But to blaspheme is of one’s own free will, with full knowledge to hate and withstand the Holy Spirit. The reason why this sin cannot be forgiven is not that the fountain of God’s pity is closed up, but that the fountain of penitence and faith is dried up in the sinner’s heart.

Luk_12:11. Promised Help.—The disciples are forewarned that they would be cited, not only before Jewish, but also before heathen tribunals, and are promised direct, immediate help from above for all cases in which they would need it. The promise is of a twofold nature.

I. Help would be given them to frame their defence.

II. They would be assisted to deliver their testimony on behalf of Christ. The Acts of the Apostles contains the record of many instances of the fulfilment of this promise.

Luk_12:12. The Authority of the Apostles.—Not unjustly is the Saviour’s promise of the assistance of the Holy Spirit regarded as one of the strongest grounds of the high authority in which the word and writings of the apostles stand. The manner of the Spirit’s working may be incomprehensible, but it is evident that we are to understand an entirely extraordinary immediate influence; for it was to be given them “in that hour.” The promise of this assistance extended as well to the substance as to the form of their language, and this help was to support them so mightily (cf. chap. Luk_21:14-15) that it would be morally impossible for their enemies to persevere in offering them resistance.—Van Oosterzee.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. For what the Disciple of the Saviour has, and for what he has not, to take care (Luk_12:1-34)

1In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude [lit., the myriads] of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which Isaiah 2 hypocrisy. For [But1] there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, 3that shall not be known. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the house-tops. 4And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him [this one, τοῦτον]. 6Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? 7But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. 8Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me [have confessed] before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: 9But he that denieth 10[hath denied] me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be, forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth [hath blasphemed] against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven. 11And when they bring you unto [before] the synagogues, and unto [before] magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer [in your defence], or what ye shall say:2 12For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

13And one of the company said unto him, Master [Teacher], speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. 14And he said unto him, Man, who made [appointed] me a judge or a divider over you? 15And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of [all3] covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. 16And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground 17[estate; lit., place, χώρα] of a certain rich man [had] brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow [deposit] my fruits [or, crops]? 18And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required [lit., they require] of thee: then whose shall those things be, which 21thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

22And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought [Be not anxious] for your [the4] life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23The life is more than meat [food], and the body is more than raiment [apparel]. 24Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls 25[birds]? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature [length of life, ἡλικίαν] one cubit?5 26If ye then be not able to do [even] that thing which is least, why take ye thought [are ye anxious] for the rest? 27Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not [how they neither toil nor spin, V. O.6]; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28If then God so clothe the grass, which is to-day in the field,7 and to-morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or [and8] what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.9 30For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and [or, but] your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. 31But rather seek ye the kingdom of God [seek ye 32his kingdom10]; and all [om., all] these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags [purses] which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth 34[destroyeth]. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

GENERAL REMARKS

1. Although there is no lack of able attempts so to unite the different elements of discourse in Luke 12 that therein a logical connection shall become possible (Olshausen, Stier, Lange, a. o.), yet in our eyes the view is more probable that this whole chapter exhibits a chrestomathic character; in other words, that Luke here places together different admonitions and warnings of the Saviour which actually, according to the other Evangelists, were at least in part delivered on very different occasions. Without doubt the Saviour in this period of His life delivered a detailed discourse before the ears of a numerous multitude, in which He expressly warned against the Pharisaical leaven, Luk_12:1. Yet even Luk_12:3-9 remind us, as respects contents and course of thought, too strongly of Mat_10:26-33 for us to be able to find here anything else than a modified redaction of the sayings given by Matthew in the right place. Luk_12:10 stands here much less congruously than Mat_12:31-32. The promise, Luk_12:11-12, appears also in Luke, Luk_21:14-15, while we have met with it in a very fitting connection in Mat_10:19-20. If we, therefore, will not assume that the Saviour uttered it three times, we shall be obliged to suppose that it does not stand here, Luk_12:11-12, in its right place. We come thus almost to the view of De Wette, in reference to the words of Jesus contained in this chapter, when he, with it is true not wholly fitting expression, declares: “mostly compiled, only Luk_12:13-21 peculiar.” The parable of the Rich Fool belongs exclusively to Luke, and since he does not give an intimation that it was originally delivered in another historical connection, we are at full liberty to connect it with this course of thought. In reference to Luk_12:22-24, on the other hand, we cannot regard it as very probable that the Saviour should have twice adduced the very same example from the realm of nature, in warning His disciples against unprofitable care (comp. Mat_6:22-34), while besides this it appears that the thoughts in Matthew are rendered much more naturally and correctly than in Luke. Much more simple is the view that of such words of the Saviour more than one redaction has been preserved by the Evangelists, who certainly in the statement and transcription of His utterances were no more destitute of the guidance of the Holy Spirit than in the delineation of His deeds and destiny. Luk_12:32 again is to be found only in Luke, as well as also—to speak here of the contents of the second half of this chapter—Luk_12:35-38; Luk_12:47-48, in this form is only communicated by him. Luk_12:39-46 have again so manifest a coincidence with Mat_24:42-51 that in all probability it belongs originally to the last eschatological discourse of the Saviour. To a similar result do we come if we compare Luk_12:49-53 with Mat_10:34-36 (comp. Luke 20, 22), Luk_12:54-56 with Mat_16:2-3, and Luk_12:58-59 with Mat_5:25-26. It is certainly conceivable that the Saviour uttered all this twice or oftener before different hearers, and not impossible, if one places this hypothesis in the foreground, to find then the leading thread also which more or less closely joins together all these heterogeneous elements of discourse: but is it not much more simple to assume that the same saying of the Lord has been given by each of the different Evangelists under higher guidance in his own way, in which case it must be left to a discerning criticism in particular cases to investigate which form is most original? In each particular case so to decide the matter that not the least uncertainty shall remain, will perhaps, and probably, always remain impossible. In the lack of trustworthy historical data, subjective opinion always has more or less play, and dogmatics exercises even unconsciously its influence upon harmonistics. Commonly, however, at least as respects this our chief point, a consideration free of prejudice will lead to the conclusion that the most of the here-cited sayings are given by Matthew in a connection which has the greater probability for itself. This, however, does not hinder us from acknowledging that the way in which they are communicated and arranged by Luke, gives us sometimes a deeper view into the unspeakable riches of the words of the Eternal Word. Therefore, without every time inquiring as to the connection in which they have been preserved elsewhere, we take them up simply as Luke communicates them to us.

2. As respects now Luk_12:1-34 in particular, we will, in order to be able better to survey the rich matter contained in this portion of the discourse, divide it into three parts. In the first, Luk_12:1-12, the tone of warning predominates; in the second, Luk_12:13-21, we perceive a tone of instruction, while in the third, Luk_12:22-34, a tone of encouragement and comfort becomes evident.

a. Warning Against The Temper Of The Pharisees, And Commendation Of The Opposite Character (Luk_12:1-12)

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_12:1. In the mean time, ἐν οἷς.—Manifestly we have so to conceive the matter that while the Pharisees were occupying themselves with ensnaring questions and plotting, the throng around the Saviour was increasing with every moment. There is no actual ground to consider even the mention of the myriads as hyperbolical (Meyer), although undoubtedly it was still farther from being a strictly arithmetical computation. Comp. Mat_4:23-25; Mar_3:20; Mar_4:1. We have here manifestly arrived at a point of the history in which the extremes of love and hatred towards the Saviour extensively and intensively have reached the highest pitch.

First of all.—Thus does the Saviour begin to speak to His disciples, and exhibits hereby His forbearance and self-control, in that He at this moment, when the Pharisees are inflamed with blind rage against Him, does not turn Himself directly to the masses with His warning. ΙΙρῶτον not to be joined with τοῖς μαθητ. (Luther, Bengel, Knapp, a. o.), which would be partly obscure, partly purposeless, partly also without example; but with προσέχετε=Luk_9:61. After that which had just taken place, the Saviour has no warning so much at heart as just this.

Of the leaven.—Comp. Mat_16:6. As appears from the conversation after the second miracle of the Loaves, the Saviour designated by the leaven of the Pharisees their doctrine, and this not in general, for then it would have contained also pure Mosaic elements, but so far as it had been disfigured by the spirit of their sect. It is thus probable, even a priori, that He, inasmuch as He was at a former time zealous against this ζύμη, now also has this doctrine in mind. On this ground we must fully subscribe to the penetrating remark of Meyer: “Here also it is not hypocrisy that is meant (as commonly explained), because otherwise afterward ἡ ὑπόκρισις (with an article) would have to stand, but the pernicious doctrines and ordinances of the Pharisees upon which Jesus but just before had been debating at table. Of this He says: ‘Their essence is hypocrisy,’ which gives an element of the warning with the ground on which it rests.”

Luk_12:2. There is nothing covered.—Comp. Mat_10:26. As hypocrisy in itself is not permitted, Luk_12:1, so is it besides fruitless, since the truth sooner or later comes to light.—Concealed—hidden (with entire generality of meaning), both from God and man. Nothing,—Good as well as Evil; that which is greatest as well as that which is least.

Luk_12:3 : Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness.—A singular statement, if we bring it exclusively into connection with the apostolic κήρυγμα, for we read indeed of the Saviour that He preached to His disciples in the ear (Mat_10:27), but their preaching was from the beginning destined to the greatest publicity. Therefore the opinions (De Wette: “an incongruous expression.” Bengel: cum timore aliquo. Meyer: “All that ye—on account of persecutions—shall have taught in secret, will—at the victory of My cause—be proclaimed with the greatest publicity.”). This whole antithesis of persecution and victory is, however, plainly gratuitous. But why, moreover, is it necessary to understand here so decidedly the apostolic κήρυγμα? It is much more simple if we understand in general all which, whether by the apostles or by the people, Luk_12:1, has been spoken in secret and is hereafter to be brought to the light. Luk_12:2, it is said of everything hidden that it shall come to the light; Luk_12:3, more definitely of the hidden words of each one. By this reminder hypocrisy is opposed in its deepest grounds, and even before the apostles could come into the temptation of concealing truth from the fear of man, it is indicated to them in Luk_12:4-5, whom they must not fear, and whom they must beyond question fear.

Luk_12:4. Be not afraid.—Comp. Mat_10:28. We have here the question, who is meant by the name: τὸν—ἐξουσίαν ἕχοντα ἔμβαλεῖν εἰς τὴν γέενναν, God or Satan? The majority of commentators have, in agreement with the exegetical tradition, decided in favor of the former view; some voices have been raised for the latter (Olshausen, Stier, Lange, L. J. ad loc., Besser, Arndt, Riechel, Van Oosterzee, L. J.). After the retractation of Lange, also, on Matthew ad loc., we cannot but assusme that the truth is on the side of the minority. Grounds: 1. Fear can only be here interpreted in one sense, in that of being afraid of, being on one’s guard; for this certainly the word denotes in the first part of the admonition, and he whom man has to fear, δὲ μᾶλλον, cannot be the Supreme Love, but must necessarily be Satan. It is true, there is a distinction in the construction. We have first: μὴ φοβηθῆτε ἀπὸ τῶν, κ.τ.λ., then: φοβήθητε δὲ τὸν ἔχοντα, κ.τ.λ. Bengel already remarked: Plus est, timeo illum, quam timeo ab illo. But the Saviour uses in the connection of the parallel passage, Mat_10:26, φοβήθητε with the accusative also in the sense of being afraid, and the μᾶλλον (in Matthew) plainly intimates that here an increase of fear (of being afraid) unto yet much greater fear takes place; that the Saviour, therefore, does not give His disciples the admonition in order, instead of the first named feeling, to awaken another within them, but on the other hand to cherish the same fear in yet much higher degree.

2. Besides, Satan is the proper soul-murderer, even as men are murderers of the body: but of God it is never said that He destroys the soul. To the objection that the devil nowhere appears in Scripture as the one who damns to hell (Olshausen), we must answer that he appears here not as judge, but as executor of the retributive judgment of God, under His special permission. [Where in the New Testament is the mediæval notion of the devil as God’s bailiff, or executioner, countenanced?—C. C. S.] The body he kills through men who are his instruments, Joh_8:40-41; the soul he destroys through the deadly destruction of sin. From among the many foes who could do them great harm, the Saviour brings one forward who was capable of inflicting the greatest of all upon them, and whom they accordingly must fear much more. Therefore He adds, according to Luke, with visible intensity: “Yea, I say unto you, fear him.” “Whoever can think of the Heavenly Father, we understand not how his ear can hear.” Stier.

3. Least of all does such a designation of the Father belong to a discourse in which the Saviour speaks to His friends, for their encouragement, of a special Providence, which has numbered even the hairs of their head. On all these grounds we here understand “the fearful unnamed and yet well-known One, whose kingdom is hell, who here already beguiles the soul and there forever tortures body and soul.” Besser. [Hell is described as the place of Satan’s punishment; where is it described as the place of his dominion?—C. C. S.] The Saviour wishes to fill His disciples with holy fear: “That the evil enemy may not beyond deliverance devour their soul to destruction.” Lange, Bibl. Gedichte. Or, if any one, perchance, finds a difficulty in this that He addresses such a warning to His disciples, then may we remark with Chrysostom: τί γεέννης χαλεπώτερον; ἀλλ̓ οὐδὲν τοῦ ταύτης χρησιμώτερον φόβοι.Ὁ γὰρ τῆς γεέννης φόβος τὸν τῆς βασιλείας ἡμῖνκομίζει στέφανον. Ἔνθα φόβος ἐστίν, οὐκ ἔστι φθόνος. ἔνθα φόβος ἐστί, χρημάτων ἔρως οὐκ ἐνόχλει. έ̓νθα φόβος ἐστίν, ἔσβεσται θυμός, ἐπιθυμία κατέσταλται πονηρά, ἅπαν ἀλόγιστον ἐξώρισται πάθος. Homil. VI. ad popul. Antioch., tom. vi., p. 560. Yet enough already to justify our doubt that here the friends of Jesus are required to fear God, who in the immediately following verse is, on the other hand, represented as the object of their child-like trust, Ab utraque parte saltem disputari potest.

[The following remarks on the parallel passage in Matthew appear to me to present in a clear light the inadmissibleness of the author’s interpretation.—C. C. S.

“Stier designates it as ‘the only passage of Scripture whose words may equally apply to God and the enemy of souls.’ He himself is strongly in favor of the latter interpretation, and defends it at much length; but I am quite unable to assent to his opinion. It seems to me at variance with the connection of the discourse, and with the universal tone of Scripture regarding Satan. If such a phrase as φοβεῖσθαι τὸν διάβολον could be instanced as=φυλάξασθαι τὸν δ., or if it could be shown that anywhere power is attributed to Satan analogous to that indicated by ὁ δυνάμενος κ. ψ. κ. σ. ἀπολέσαι ἐν γ., I should then be open to the doubt whether he might not here be intended; but seeing that φοβεῖσθαι ἀπό, indicating terror, is changed into φοβεῖσθαι, so usually followed by τὸν θεόν in a higher and holier sense (there is no such contrast in Luk_12:26, and therefore that verse cannot be cited as ruling the meaning of this), and that God Alone is throughout the Scripture the Almighty dispenser of life and death, both temporal and eternal, seeing also that Satan is ever represented as the condemned of God, not ὁ δυν. ἀπολέσαι, I must hold by the general interpretation, and believe that, both here and in Luk_12:3-7, our Heavenly Father is intended as the right object of our fear. As to this being inconsistent with the character in which He is brought before us in the next verse, the very change of construction in φοβεῖσθαι would lead the mind on out of the terror before spoken of, into that better kind of fear always indicated by that expression when applied to God, and so prepare the way for the next verse. Besides, this sense is excellently in keeping with Luk_12:29 in another way… The parallel passage, Jam_4:12, even in the absence of other considerations, would be decisive. Full as his epistle is of our Lord’s words from this Gospel, it is hardly to be doubted that in εἷς ἐστιν ὁ νομοθέτης ὁδυνάμενος σῶσαι καὶ ἀπολέσαι, he has this very verse before him. This Stier endeavors to escape by saying that ἀπολέσαι, barely, as the opposite to σῶσαι, is far from being = ψυχὴνἀπολέσαι in a context like this. But as connected with νομοθέτης, what meaning can ἀπολέσαι bear except that of eternal destruction?”—Alford.]

Luk_12:6. Five sparrows.—A beautiful version of the same saying, Mat_10:29. So insignificant is the worth of sparrows in daily life, that whoever buys them for twopence gets one into the bargain, and yet what is regarded among men as almost worthless is with God in heaven not forgotten. To the disciples it is left to calculate how far they excel such sparrows in value.

Luk_12:8. Also I say unto you.—The repetition several times of this announcement is also to the attentive hearer a proof that here different sayings of the Saviour, originally belonging in an entirely different connection, are chrestomathically put together. With this also the anxious inquiry after the connection between this and the immediately preceding admonition falls away. Respecting the matter itself, the courageous confession of Christ, see the remark on Mat_10:32, and on Luk_9:26. Here it is especially the reward of a confession coram angelis; in the parallel passage in Matthew, on the other hand, that of a confession coram Patre.

Luk_12:10. But unto him that hath blasphemed against the Holy Ghost.—Respecting the sin against the Holy Spirit, comp. Lange on Mat_12:31-32, and the authors there stated. As entirely inadequate we may consider the view that this sin is nothing else than “the ascribing those miracles to the power of the devil which Christ wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Wesley. It must be placed entirely in one line with the sin which cannot be forgiven, and of which the Scriptures speak also in other places, Heb_10:26; 1Jn_5:16. Only then, however, can we speak of the sin against the Holy Spirit where a high measure of religious enlightenment and development exists; and in opposition to the not knowing of that which one does, Luk_23:34, we have here to understand fully conscious and stubborn hatred against God and that which is Divine as it exists in its highest development. The highest grace alone makes the deepest apostasy possible, and only he who has reached an important height can plunge into such a depth. Before his conversion Paul blasphemed the Son of Man and it was forgiven him; had he kicked against the pricks, suppressed with all his might the impression received, then would he have committed the sin which cannot be forgiven. Of Judas we might perhaps say that he committed this sin, and refer to the judgment which, Mat_26:24, is uttered concerning him.—As respects the punishment for this sin, we have to bear in mind the word of Augustine (De Civit. Dei. xxi. 24): “neque enim de quibusdam veraciter diceretur, quod eis non remittetur, neque in hoc sœculo, neque in futuro, nisi essent, quibus, etsi non in isto, tamen remittatur in futuro.” A brief but good description of the nature of this sin is given by Stier, ii. p. 44. Respecting the distinction between the Reformed and Lutheran expositors, of whom the former believe that no regenerate person, the latter that such alone, can fall into this sin, we cannot here speak. The grounds for the opinion of the latter are found in Stier and Olshausen; those of the opposite views in J. Muller, Christ. Lehre von der Sünde, ii. p. 566.

Luk_12:11. Before the synagogues.—One may not unjustly doubt whether the former warning against the sin against the Holy Spirit was wholly congruous for the faithful, devoted disciples of the Saviour; this promise, on the other hand, is very definitely given with reference to their future calling as preachers of the Gospel. The accumulation of expressions is especially adapted to indicate to them that they would be cited not only before Jewish but also before heathen tribunals, and the here-given promise of the Holy Spirit is of such a kind that it promises to them a direct immediate help from above for all cases in which they could need it. Although, however, this help is here limited to that which they should say in their defence, it is understood without doubt that this defence of the apostles was at the same time a testimony, κήρυγμα, in the most exalted sense of the word, and that the assistance already promised them for the lesser should be far less still withheld for the higher. The Book of Acts is an uninterrupted and continuous exposition of the significance and force of this saying. Comp. especially the apologetic discourses of Peter and Paul. Therefore, with right, Bengel: “aut quid dicatis etiam prœter apologiœ necessitatem.”

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. It is by no means accidental that in one of the discourses of the Lord the warning against the ζύμητῶν φαρισαίων, ἥτις ἐστὶν ὑπόκρισις stands in the foreground. Hypocrisy is only one of the many sins which He rebukes and opposes in those called to His kingdom; but it is the sin which exceeds all others in meanness, and is in the most irreconcilable conflict with the fundamental law of the kingdom of truth. In the Christian sphere also the Old Testament declaration holds good, Deu_18:13; Psa_51:10.

2. It is well known how high a rank the mysteries occupy in the heathen religions of antiquity. Those initiated into them believed themselves to have attained a higher degree of piety; from the familiar they mounted up into the region of the unfamiliar, which no uninitiated foot ever dared tread, no indiscreet tongue betray. But in the Christian sphere precisely the opposite is the case. Here the κεκαλυμμένον is not the higher but the lower degree, and not into the chambers but upon the housetops are His followers directed; a proof at the same time of the fact that the restoration of the heathen mysteries in the bosom of the Catholic Church is in principle against the original spirit of Christianity, and that secret orders, that do not venture to come to the light with that which they actually profess or do, have to fear His veto who demanded publicity in the noblest sense of the word, and whose cause more than any other is worthy to face the brightest light.

3. There are words of the Saviour which are best understood and estimated when they are read in the light of a clear starry heaven. To this belongs also the saying of the sparrows and the hairs of the head. “When I consider Thy heavens the work of Thy fingers, the moon and stars which Thou hast ordained: what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that Thou hast numbered the hairs of his head?” In order, however, rightly to estimate the whole comfort of this doctrine of a providentia specialissima, we must never forget that the Saviour here speaks to His friends, who precisely as such were the objects of the special providence of God.

4. The immortality of the soul in the philosophical sense of the word is as far from being expressly taught and proved by the Saviour as the being and the unity of God; ordinarily He presupposes what indeed cannot be doubted. Not the purely negative conception of immortality, but the positive conception of resurrection and eternal life, stands in the Scriptures of the New Covenant in the foreground. But for this reason we may the less fail to notice that He at least once has in so many words declared that the soul, which is definitely distinguished from the body, can in no case be destroyed. The New Testament Demonology also receives by this saying an important degree of light, and the admonition which He gives to His disciples, that they should be perpetually on their guard against Satan’s craft and might, they in their turn hold up before their fellow-believers, Eph_6:10; 1Pe_5:8; Jam_4:7, et alibi.

5. The sin against the Holy Spirit may in no wise (as e.g. Colani does) be made equivalent to the sin against one’s own conscience. Conscience speaks even in the breast of the rudest heathen; against the Holy Spirit, however, no one can sin who does not already possess more than usual knowledge and experience of the power of Christian truth.

6. Not unjustly is the Saviour’s promise of the assistance of the Holy Spirit regarded as one of the strongest grounds of the high authority in which the word and writings of the apostles stand. Especially according to the parallel in Mat_10:19-20, is that which this Spirit speaks in them definitely distinguished from the utterances of their own individual consciousness. The manner of the Spirit’s working may be incomprehensible; but so much we see at once, that we have here to understand an entirely extraordinary immediate influence; for it was to be given them ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ὥρᾳ. The promise of this assistance extended as well to the substance as to the form of their language (πῶς ἤ τί), and this help was to support them so mightily (comp. Luk_21:14-15) that it would be morally impossible for their enemies to persevere in offering them resistance. At the same time this help is promised them for everything which they had to say, not alone respecting their own persons, but also concerning the cause of their Lord. Their writings also, in which this apology of their faith is stated according to the varying necessities of the time, are entirely the faithful expression of that which the Spirit gave them in such moments to ponder, to speak, to write; and this whole promise, communicated by all the Synoptics, is only the brief summary of all that which the Saviour in His parting discourse in John has brought into view in greater detail in reference to the Paraclete.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The opposition in principle between Pharisaism and Christianity.—How the hypocrite stands related to the Saviour and the Saviour to the hypocrite.—Mysteries whose distinction it is to remain concealed to eternity, the kingdom of heaven does not contain.—Secret speaking and acting must be an exception; sincerity and publicity must be the rule with the disciples of the Saviour.—No fear before many enemies, but only before an adversary fearful beyond measure.—The might of Satan: 1. Its extent; 2. its ground; 3. its limits.—Watchfulness against the enemy of souls united with child-like confidence in the Father of spirits.—The rule of God in little things.—The arithmetic of the Saviour’s disciple.—The least is great, the greatest is little before God.—The life of the Christian is invaluable.—The comfort which a look at sparrows and at the hair of the head can give to the disciple of Christ. How much higher do we stand as: 1. Rational beings; 2. as immortal beings; 3. as purchased by the blood of the Son of God; 4. as called to likeness with God. Therefore is it impossible that He who numbers the sparrows should forget the man, the Christian.—The holy function of the Christian to confess his Lord. This function has: 1. A broad extent; 2. unquestionable right; 3. incomparable importance.—According to that which we are here before the Lord can we already judge what hereafter to expect from Him.—How far does even the disciple of the Saviour still need a warning like the Pharisees (Mat_12:31-32) against the sin against the Holy Spirit?—The sin which cannot be forgiven: 1. There is only one sin which absolutely cannot be forgiven; 2. it is now as ever possible to commit this sin; 3. the judgment upon it is perfectly righteous; 4. the mention of it is now as ever fitting: a. in order to give a salutary disquiet to individuals; b. in order to give a settled composure to troubled souls.—The Holy Spirit the best apologist of the threatened cause of the Saviour: 1. How far this promise regards exclusively the apostles and has been fulfilled in them; 2. how far it holds good of all believers and may be used also for their advantage.

Starke:—Who does not teach aright, he also lives not aright; and who does not live aright, he also does not teach aright.—Quesnel:—The saints avoid not the light, and do nothing of which they must be ashamed before God’s judgment.—Hedinger:—God’s proclamation of grace is no secret of alchemy, but every one is to know and understand it.—The marvellous simplicity which is found in the Gospel, Psa_19:9.—Brentius:—If servants and children of God have much of the suffering of Christ, they are also richly comforted through Christ.—The soul has its own individual existence; therefore it may fare well or ill with it when it is separated from the body.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—It is impossible that God should leave those that trust in Him.—Everything, even the least of things, that happens to man is God’s ruling.—It is not enough to believe with the heart on Jesus, but we must also resolutely and joy fully confess Him with the mouth before the world.—There is a sin greater than others, and also worthy of heavier punishment.—Majus:—Every Christian must be ready to give account of his hope, 1Pe_3:15.—The great ones of the earth have been from the beginning for the most part great enemies to Christ and His Gospel.—The inner ministry of the Holy Ghost is very closely connected with the outer, and must not remain separated from it, 1Ti_6:3-5.

Palmer (on the parallel, Mat_10:26-33):—The Lord’s might and men’s impotency: 1. His work He accomplishes, and man cannot hinder it; 2. His faithful ones He protects, and man cannot hinder it; 3. the unfaithful He overthrows, and man cannot hinder it.—Van Oosterzee:—The government of God takes note of trifles. This is truth: 1. Too sure for doubt; 2. too glorious to be slighted; 3. too instructive to be forgotten.—Beck:—Whence comes true courage?

b. the parable of the rich fool (Luk_12:13-21)

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_12:14. And He said.—Entirely without reason has the historicalness of the occasion for this parable of the Rich Fool been brought in doubt by De Wette; to us, on the other hand, this trait appears to be probable, and to have been taken from life. But certainly the speaker here appearing is no familiar friend of Jesus (Kuinoel), but a stranger, who perhaps among the myriads, Luk_12:1, had heard the Saviour for the first time, and while He was speaking of heavenly things had been brooding over earthly. Struck by the might of the personality of the Nazarene, he had considered within himself whether His influence might not perhaps best bring to a happy conclusion the existing family strife. At the same time, this instance shows in a peculiar manner how parties were continually defining themselves more and more sharply for and against the Saviour, inasmuch as in the very place where they had embittered even His meal (Luk_11:37), there is given Him a special proof, undoubtedly of strong cleaving to earthly things, but quite as much of personal confidence. From the warning against avarice which the Saviour, Luk_12:15, subjoins, we have not necessarily to draw the conclusion that the petitioner had in mind a thing in and of itself unrighteous.

Man.—The answer exhibits no personal displeasure of the Saviour against the bearer of the unseemly request, but only shows that the Saviour was by no means minded to enter upon a sphere which could not possibly be His own. His answer involuntarily reminds us of the language which once an Egyptian uttered to Moses, Exo_2:14.

Luk_12:15. Take heed and beware of covetousness.—Not only of covetousness which has just before appeared in the definite form of cleaving to a disputed inheritance, but of all exaggerated love of earthly possession. If the petitioner (Luk_12:13) still remained in the circle of the hearers, the Saviour here renders him a better service than if He had made him rich; He will heal him of his chief malady. To this end serves the parable of the Rich Fool, which Luke alone has preserved, and of which it is not unjustly affirmed, “It is scarcely to be called a parable, so distinctly does it of itself and without any diversion of thought set forth the relation to God” (Riggenbach).

For a man’s life … which he possesseth.—A difficult sentence, in which however the reading of Tischendorf, αὐτῷ, appears to deserve the preference above that of Lachmann, αὐτοῦ. The best construction, on the whole, appears to be this: “ὅτι ἡζωὴ αὐτῷ οὐκ ἐστίν τινι ἐν τῷ περισσεύειν (infinitive for the substantive) ἐκ τῶν ὑπαρχόντων αὐτοῦ.—Ζωή is not here to be taken in the sense of the happiness of life but = ψυχή, as Schott paraphrases: “siquidem quando quis bonis abundat, tamen vita ejus a bonis minime pendet.” Not from the possession of many goods, but from the will of God, who lengthens or shortens the thread of life, does it depend whether one remains long and quietly here in life or not. One may be preserved in life without possessing goods, and also remain in the possession of goods and unexpectedly lose life. That riches in and of themselves do not give happiness is undoubtedly true, yet not the chief thought of this parable.

Luk_12:17. The estate of a certain rich man.—Probably a quite considerable space of ground, not χωρίον, but χώρα. Not without intention does the Saviour choose as His example a man who gathers his riches in a customary, legitimate, apparently innocent way. “Modus hic ditescendi innocentissimus et tamen periculosus.” Bengel. The first thing which is lacking to this fortunate rich man is complete contentment.

What shall I do?—With discontent is joined anxiety and perplexity, since he does not know how he shall manage with his treasures. A similar perplexity to that which is related, Mar_16:3, in which, however, God does not come into the midst and give help. That his increased prosperity offers him opportunity to do something for his poor brethren, does not even come into his mind; selfishness strikes the key-note, even in the four times recurring μου: τοὺς καρπούς μου, κ.τ.λ.

Luk_12:18. I will pull down my barns.—By a forcible tearing down, therefore, he believes he shall open the way to his happiness. The ἀποθῆκαι were for the most part subterraneous dry vaults. It is possible that the Rich Fool is thinking of enlarging them, but also that he is of a mind to build up greater ἀποθῆκαι from the foundation. Here also there is not the least mention of the poor, but, on the other hand, an emphatic exaltation of his γεννήματα as his highest earthly ἀγαθά.

Luk_12:19. Soul.—To the continuing discontent and rising care of the rich man is added now the self-deceit of the falsest hope. Unconsciously he confesses that he has hitherto not yet found the long sighed-for rest, but expects it, and that for a long time, when the intended work shall have been entirely completed. Very finely, Meyer: “to my soul, not exactly mihi, but to my soul, the seat of the sensibilities, here of the desire of enjoyment.” Not only idleness, no, revelling, is the ideal that this fool mirrors to himself. The reference to the passage, Sir_11:17-19, is in this whole representation almost impossible to mistake.

Luk_12:20. Thou fool.—The searching contrast between the soliloquy of the fool and the judgment of God, belongs to the greatest beauties of the parable. This beauty, however, is lost if we think here merely of a decretum Dei (Kuinoel) instead of the invisible King of Heaven appearing in speech and action, and suddenly causing him to feel that not even so many hours are allotted him as he had been dreaming of years—ἀπαιτοῦσιν. Who now is to fulfil this sentence? God Himself (Meyer); the death-angels to whom I have committed the power (Von Gerlach); robbers and murderers (Bornemann, Paulus)? The latter is perhaps the most agreeable to the concrete character of the parable; neither is there any ground whatever for understanding the verb impersonally. If we understand burglars demanding his life of him, the requirement has then double emphasis. There is thereby the image of terror held up before the rich man, to him especially in the highest degree frightful; and the question immediately following thereon, “Whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” acquires still higher significance if we assume that the murderers, unknown to him and already approaching, shall be at the same time the robbers of his goods. Nor does Luk_12:21 offer any difficulty to this explanation if we only keep the tertium comparationis in mind.

Luk_12:21. So is he that.—He dreams as illusively as this fool, in order sooner or later to awake in a similarly terrible manner. Θησαυρίζων ἑαυτῷ, in suum commodum, so that in his enjoyment consists the chief end which he in the augmentation of his treasures has in mind. To this restless and fruitless θησαυρίζειν is opposed the still and abiding πλουτεῖν εἰς Θεόν which is directed towards God and Divine things, and in another passage is called “laying up treasures in heaven,” Mat_6:20.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. That the Saviour does not meditate even an instant the composing of the controversy respecting the inheritance in any way whatever, is worthy of note. Had such a strife arisen among His own, He would then without doubt have composed it, so that undoubtedly the later precept of His apostle (1Co_6:1-6) was entirely in the spirit of the Master. But here, where it concerned a matter entirely foreign, standing in no relation to the kingdom of God, His answer could only be one of refusal, and accordingly He decidedly repels the temptation to enter upon a sphere which lay so far from that which the Father had appointed Him. Although he had appeared as Israel’s King, He mingles as little with the controversies of the Jews as with the political affairs of the Romans, but on the other hand remains faithful to His subsequently uttered principle (Joh_18:36). And as He gives in this relation also an example to all His disciples, who are to be no ἀλλοτριοεπίσκοποι (1Pe_4:15), so is His conduct also of importance for the regulation of the principle of the relation of the Church to the State. Not without reason, at least, has the Augsburg Confession, in its 28th article, adduced this declaration of the Saviour (Luk_12:14) as a proof that the two jurisdictions, the spiritual and the secular, should not be confounded with one another.

2. Not as a judge concerning inheritances, but as a Redeemer from sins, and from avarice among them, not less than from hypocrisy, will the Saviour exhibit Himself on this occasion. Such a consideration is wholly in the spirit of the third, the Pauline Gospel (comp. 1Ti_6:6-10), and deserves the more to be laid to heart, inasmuch as avarice is not seldom especially the sin of the saints, who have already died to the lusts of the flesh, and are made free from the natural pride of the heart. As to the rest, the parable of the Rich Fool is also full of allusions to Old Testament utterances. See, e.g., Job_22:25; Psa_39:7; Psa_49:12 seq.; Jer_17:11; Psa_72:10-11.

3. If we consider that the parable of the Rich Fool was uttered in the presence of the disciples of Jesus, and also, therefore, of Judas, we find new occasion to admire the Saviour’s wisdom in teaching which so indirectly but powerfully attacks the darling sin of the future traitor.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Even under the preaching of Jesus there are unreceptive and inattentive listeners.—Care for the earthly inheritance instead of the longing for the heavenly.—The Saviour will not work with force, but renewingly and regeneratingly upon earthly relations.—Avarice the root of all evil.—Let every one abide in that whereunto he is called.—How poor a rich man and how rich a poor man may be.—If riches fall to any one, let him not set his heart thereon.—Even earthly blessing may become a snare.—Cares of earthly riches opposed to the holy unanxiousness of the children of God.—The rich man’s self-enjoyment of life in its full beggarliness.—Augmenting disquiet with augmenting wealth.—Delusive hope of rest in later years.—God’s thoughts other than the thoughts of men.—The unlooked-for death of the child of the world.—The mournful fate of the man who gathers treasures to himself and is not rich toward God: 1. Painful discontent; 2. increasing anxiety; 3. delusive hope; 4. irreparable loss.—Riches in God: 1. The only true; 2. the inalienable; 3. the universally accessible riches.

For homiletical treatment, either the 15th verse or the 21st verse offers the point of departure. For a harvest-sermon also this parable is especially adapted.

Starke:—Quesnel:—The goods of this world give often occasion for discord, disquiet, and offence.—Canstein:—It is not great wealth that preserves the temporal life of man, but God’s power and blessing.—God’s blessing reaches even over the fields of the ungodly, Mat_5:45.—They who receive the richest blessing are wont often to forget their benefactor.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—Earthly souls have ever earthly thoughts and purposes.—Majus:—Epicurean men soon have their everlasting reward.—The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men that they are vain.—Bibl. Wirt.:—The avaricious are unhappy in this world and that to come.—Majus:—Whoever is rich in God, like Abraham, David, and Solomon, whom earthly riches hurt not, he uses them according to the Lord’s will. [Grave exception may be taken to the last-named of these three examples.—C. C. S.]

Heubner:—Even the strictest bands of consanguinity do not protect selfish hearts against discord.—How great is the self-love of the vain-minded?—Cleaving to earthly good a folly.—The poor Rich Fool comes before God’s judgment with a lost name, with a lost soul, with a lost world, with a lost heaven (Rieger).—The true wealth of man.—Comp. two homilies of Basil, Opp. ii. p. 43, Edit. Garner.—Arndt:—Fleshly security: 1. Its form; 2. God’s judgment upon it.—Lisco:—Concerning the misleading of many citizens of the kingdom by earthly wealth.—Avarice considered as the destroyer of all the harvest-blessing.—Krummacher:—How faith keeps harvest-home and how unbelief. The two classes of men diverge essentially: 1. In their view of the Divine blessing received; 2. in the use that they make of the same; 3. in the relation of dependence in which they place themselves to the blessing.—Gerok:—The rich man—a poor man; see how one can miscalculate.—Couard:—What is requisite if our earthly care is not to be a sinful one.—Kliefoth:—What shall we take with us through the gates of the grave?

c. The Freedom From Anxiety Of The Disciples Of The Saviour (Luk_12:22-34)

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk_12:22. Therefore I say unto you.—If we presuppose that this admonition to tranquil freedom from care was delivered on the same occasion (see however above, and comp. Mat_6:22-34), then it is not difficult to give the connection of this part of the Saviour’s discourse with the former one. The source of the avarice which He has just been combating is nothing else than the excessive anxiety and fear that we might in some way suffer lack, and this fear certainly becomes no one less than the disciple of the Saviour. Earthly care now is directed first of all to nourishment and clothing. Both forms the Saviour opposes, inasmuch as He points those that are anxious to what they see in the realm of nature, but above all to the truth that He who has already given the higher, will certainly not let them lack the lesser.

Luk_12:23. The life is more than food.—“You turn it exactly round; food is meant to serve life, but life forsooth serves food; clothes are to serve the body, but the body forsooth must serve the clothing, and so blind is the world that it sees not this.” Luther. If God bestows the higher, He by that very fact already gives a pledge that He will not withhold the lesser. Rom_8:32.

Luk_12:24. Consider the ravens.—Psa_147:9. Perhaps also an indirect reminiscence of the miraculous history of Elijah, 1Ki_17:6. By κατανοήσατε there is more meant than a superficial view, rather an observing and studying, of the ravens. Matthew, using more general terms, has only πετεινά. Perhaps at this particular moment birds or lilies had in His immediate vicinity drawn the attention of the Saviour to this, and given Him occasion to this figurative mode of speech.

Luk_12:25. To his length of life.—See Lange on Mat_6:27.

Luk_12:27. Consider the lilies.—The plural designates the κρίνα not necessarily as a mass but also as individuals.—ΙΙῶς οὔτε νήθει, κ.τ.λ., an indirect question, whose more complete form is found in Matthew. See the notes on the text.

In all his glory.—When he showed himself in his full royal magnificence. See 2Ch_9:15.

Luk_12:29. Neither be ye of doubtful mind, or, do not exalt yourselves, ιὴ μετεωρίζεσθε.—The usage of this word is familiar, which echoes also in our “Meteor.” See the rich collection of examples in Kuinoel, ad loc. Μετεωρίζεσθαι can signify nothing else than: To lift one’s self so far on high that one shines like an aerial phenomenon, but must also share the fate of so many wandering lights. Comp. the familiar: “Tolluntur in altum, ut lapsu graviore ruant.” Especially does the high flight of fancy appear here to be meant, when one creates imagined necessities for himself, and for this reason is doubly ill-content with reality, and for this very reason allows himself so much the more to be seduced into unbelieving anxiety. The more modest the wishes, the more easily is the heart contented.

Luk_12:31. Seek ye His kingdom.—There is no sufficient ground for transferring hither from Mat_6:33, the adverb πρῶτον. According to Luke it is the Saviour’s will that we should seek absolutely after God’s kingdom; in which case the precept is only apparently different from that given in Mat_6:33. The πρῶτον ζητεῖτε which is there enjoined is also a seeking that excludes every further anxiety. In the sense in which they are to seek the kingdom of God, the Saviour’s disciples have nothing more to strive after. See Lange on the passage in Matthew.

Luk_12:32. Fear not, little flock.—In the first place, here, without doubt, allusion is made to the fear combated in the foregoing verses, but then also further, fear which might hinder them in the seeking of the kingdom of God. This seeking should in no case be fruitless: for it was the Father’s good pleasure to give them what they desired above everything.

Little flock.—Perhaps the intentional contrast of the little circle of disciples with the myriads of the people, Luk_12:1. At the same time a word of the Good Shepherd. Comp. Mat_26:31; Joh_10:11.—Your Father’s good pleasure.—Eph_1:4-6. Not only a divinum arbitrium, cui stat pro ratione voluntas, but also a beneplacitum amoris divini.

Luk_12:33. Sell that ye have.—A strengthening of the admonition which in Mat_6:19-21 appears in another form. Undoubtedly this precept may be applied in a very sound sense as addressed to every Christian: comp. Mat_19:21. Here, however, it is a definite command to the apostles, who, in order to live entirely for the kingdom of God, were to be fettered by no earthly care.

And give alms.—This commandment also must, like several precepts of the Sermon on the Mount, not be interpreted κατὰ ῥητόν but in the spirit of wisdom, which is quite as far from egoistic limitations as from communistic extravagances. In caring in this way for others they would make to themselves (ἑαυτοῖς) purses that wax not old. To take with them this kind of βαλάντια was not forbidden, as it was to take the other sort, Luk_22:35; and in these purses they laid up for themselves a treasure that faileth not. This treasure in heaven, of which the Synoptics speak, is already laid up in this life, as also ζεὴ σὶώνιος, according to John, begins even before death. Even because the treasure in heaven is of spiritual origin, of heavenly kind, it is also of absolutely imperishable duration.

Luk_12:34. For where your treasure is.—A word of the deepest knowledge of men, and capable of the most manifold explication. The human heart little by little appropriates to itself the style and nature of the treasure to which its whole thought is directed. Whoever constitutes his god of gold, his heart becomes as cold and hard as metal; whoever takes flesh for his arm or makes it his idol, becomes more and more sensual, and takes on the properties of that which he loves above everything; but whoever has invisible treasures keeps spontaneously eye and heart directed upon the invisible world, and whoever has no higher good than God, accords to Him in his love also the first place. This is the key to the unspeakably rich patristic word: “Domine, quia nos fecisti ad te, cor nostrum inquietum in nobis, donec requiescat in te..”

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. See Exegetical and Critical.

2. In order to feel the high value of this instruction of the Saviour, we have only to place ourselves in the condition of the apostles, who for His sake left all. Not only were the Eleven by the force of this beyond doubt often preserved from discouragement and anxiety, but also in the soul of a Paul, who did not as yet sit here at the feet of the Saviour, echoes the tone of this encouraging word, which he without doubt afterwards heard. See Php_4:6-7, and comp. 1Pe_5:7.

8. The holy freedom from care which the Saviour here commenda to His disciples has nothing in common with the light-minded carelessness of those who do not think of the morrow; for there is also Christian care, which impels to prayer and also at the same time to labor. Only that anxiety docs the Saviour censure which acts as if all in the last resort was dependent on this care alone, instead of thinking on the admirable rule: “Mit Sorgen und mit Grämen, Lasst Gott rich gar nichts nehmen, es will erbeten sein.” [Anxiety procures nothing from God, but Only prayer]. Very justly does Luther distinguish: “The care mat comes from love is bidden, but that which is separate from faith is forbidden.”

4. This part also of the Saviour’s discourse affords the complete proof how He, the Friend of man, was at the same time the friend of glorious nature. Ravens and lilies does He make for His disciples preachers of the most consolatory truth. But if we will feel the whole power and beauty of this imagery, we must regard Him who used it with the eye of a John, and recognize in Him the Eternal Word without which nothing was made that is made—that has created also the ravens and lilies of the field. The symbols of the fatherly care of God to rhich He points are not only His own discovery, fe t what is more, are also His own creation.

5. The encouraging word to the little lock contains the rich germs of the Evangelical and especially of the Pauline doctrine of Predestinaticii At the same time we obtain here an important in mation in reference to the point of view from whidl this doctrine must, according to the will of the Saviour, be considered and represented, namely, as a consolation to troubled believers and not as an occas: in of idle questions. The comfort here given rem ins moreover the same, although the number of the disciples of Christ has enlarged itself to many millions. Still, as ever, contrasted with the majority of the unbelieving world, this number is a very small one, and of the friends of the Saviour it may still as ever be said, “Behold I send you as sheep in the midst f wolves” (Mat_10:16). But these little and defenceless ones have for themselves so much the surer pound of reckoning on the defence and help of the Heavenly Father.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

How far the disciple of the Saviour Iks to care for his temporal support and how far not.—The distinction between the care of the blind heathen, the God-fearing Israelite, and the believing (Christian.—The preaching of the ravens and lilies.—Excessive anxiety for earthly things is: 1. In part needless; 2. in part fruitless; 3. in part injurious to higher interests.—If thou wilt be raised above the care for the lesser good that is yet wanting to thee, look upon the higher that has already been bestowed upon thee.—The impotency of all our caring to alter anything against the will of God in our on ward fate.—God clothes: 1. Solomon with glory; 2. the lilies far more gloriously than Solomon; 3. the believer far more richly than Solomon and the lilies s together.—Seek not for high things, but condescend to the humble, Rom_12:16.—“In quietness and confidence shall be your strength,” Isa_30:15.—Your Father knows that ye have need of all these things. 1. There is One who knows what we need; 2. this One is our Father; 3. to this Father Jesus leads us.—Fear not, little flock, a word of comfort: 1. For the circle of apostles over against the unbelieving world; 2. for the evangelical church in the mids other numerous enemies; 3. for every believing ecclesiola over against a degenerate hierarchical church.—Those that buy, that they be as though tl ij possessed not, 1Co_7:29-31.—Christian con munism in opposition to its caricature in our century.—The art of so giving that we become not poorer but richer.—The security of the treasure that , is laid up in heaven.—Where the treasure there the heart, either, 1. On earth, or 2. in heaven.

Starke:—Between anxious care and over-negligence Christians must keep the middle path .—Arhdt:—Let us by all means study diligently the book of nature together with the Holy Scripture.—Quesnel:—The experience of our impotency even in lesser matters should serve to this, that we surrender ourselves wholly to God in the weightier.—Canstein:—Beautiful attire and boastful glory of other things are wholly vain and come not once near tthe beauty of a field-flower.—Christ forbids not the labor of the body, but the disquiet and mistrustfulness of the soul—Children of princes and kings need not to torment themselves with anxious care, and Christians even much less.—Canstein:—As God means to give us Heaven, why plague we ourselves then anxiously on account of sustenance on earth?—True believers have been at all times few compared with the great mass of the ungodly, Psa_12:1.

Cramer:—To do good to the poor is every Christian’s duty, Isa_58:7.—Whoever will be benevolent, let it be from his own means, not from other people’s.—Nova Bibl. Tub.:—No funds are better and more safely invested than alms.—Examine thyself, O Soul, where is thy treasure and thy heart?

Heubner:—The right precedence among cares.—The miserable folly of earthly cares.—The chief care of the Christian.—Care not how long, but how thou livest.—Couard:—Concerning earthly care, how it, 1. Is unworthy of us; 2. most dangerous; 3. beyond measure foolish; 4. utterly profitless.—Westermeyer:—The care forbidden by God: 1. How far forbidden; 2. why.—Claus Harms:—A Harvest sermon in the Sommerpostille, 6th ed. p. 349.

Footnotes:

[1][Luk_12:2.—Γάρ rests only on the authority of D. Cod. Sin. omits even δέ.—C. C. S.]

[2][Luk_12:11.—We find no sufficient grounds for the opinion that the words ἢ τί εἴπητε are taken from the parallel passage in Matthew.]

[3][Luk_12:15.—The insertion of πάσης instead of τῆς is supported by convincing agreement of critics and manuscripts, including A., B., D., and Cod. Sin.—C. C. S.]

[4][Luk_12:22.—The decided weight of authority (including A., B., D., Cod. Sin.) is for the omission of ὑμῶν.—C. C. S.]

[5]Luk_12:25.—The words μεριμνῶν and πῆχυν ἓνα are not sufficiently well attested critically, to avoid the supposition that they are borrowed from Matthew. [Μεριμνῶν is read by Lachmann, Meyer, Tregelles with A., B., Cod. Sin., with 17 other uncials, and πῆχυν by Tischendorf also, with all the manuscripts. Van Oosterzee must have meant to say that ἕνα was weakly supported, as it is omitted by B., D., Cod. Sin.—C. C. S.]

[6]Luk_12:27.—Rec.: πῶς αὐξάνει οὐ κοπιᾷ οὐδὲ νήθει. D., on the other hand, as also Versions and Clem.: πῶς οὔτε νήθει οὔτε ὑφαίνει. So Tischendorf. [Also Meyer, Alford.] Although the reading has no preponderance of external authorities, it is nevertheless internally more probable, as the Recepta, on the other hand, is taken from the parallel passage in Matthew.

[7][Luk_12:28.—Lit.: If God so clothe in the field the grass which is to-day, and to-morrow, &c. Εἰ δὲ ἐν ἀγρῷ τὸν χόρτον ὄντα σήμερον, κ.τ.λ. B., L., Sin. The field is represented as the theatre of God’s activity.—C. C. S.]

[8][Luk_12:29.—Καί, B., L., Cod. Sin., 2 other uncials.—C. C. S.]

[9][Luk_12:29.—Van Oosterzee translates this: Erhebt [verfliegt] euch nicht in euren Wünschen. “Be not too high-raised in your expectations.” Vulgate: Nolite in sublime tolli. This meaning is defended by De Wette and Meyer, agrees with the more usual meaning of μετεωρίζεσθαι, but, as Bleek remarks, and Alford also, is much less congruous with the context than the signification: “to fluctuate in doubt,” which is also an undisputed sense of the word.—C. C. S.]

[10]Luk_12:31.—Αὐτοῦ has the authority of B., D., [Cod. Sin.,] Copt., Sahid., Æth., and others, for itself, while, on the other hand, the Recepta, τοῦ Θεοῦ, has against it the suspicion of being transferred from Mat_6:33, as also, probably, the superfluous πάντα after ταῦτα.

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 12

1. Warning Against Hypocrisy. (Luk 12:1-3)

2. Encouragements. (Luk 12:4-14)

3. Warning Against Covetousness. (Luk 12:15-21)

4. Warning Against Anxiety. (Luk 12:22-31)

5. The Disciples Comfort and Hope. (Luk 12:32-40)

6. The Parable of the Steward. (Luk 12:41-48)

7. The Purpose of God and the Resulting Division. (Luk 12:49-53)

8. Concerning signs. (Luk 12:54-57)

9. The Failure of Israel. (Luk 12:58-59.)

Luk 12:1-31

Nearly all of the entire twelfth chapter is not found in the other Gospels. Perhaps the largest multitude, which ever gathered to hear the Lord, is seen here. He speaks to His disciples first of all and warns of the leaven of the Pharisees. But the warning was also meant for all who heard Him. He declares a coming day, when the hidden things shall be uncovered. Then He gives encouragement to His friends, “Be not afraid.” What meaning these words have, coming from such lips! The entire first half of the chapter is taken up with warnings and encouragements to those who heed the warnings and are His friends.

Luk 12:32-48

He speaks of His own coming again. The little flock is assured of the kingdom. Everything else is uncertain, insecure and passing away. He is coming again and His return will bring the reward to His friends, who are obedient to His Word. They are to wait for Him. “From the wedding” is better rendered by “because of the wedding.” The wedding, the marriage-feast does not precede His return, but follows that event. “He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.” This is a wonderful statement. What service that will be, when He has His faithful people with Him! The Romans divided the night into four watches. The Lord speaks of the second and third watches, but does not mention the fourth. However in Mat 14:1-36 we read that He came to His toiling servants in the fourth watch.

“He says nothing of the fourth, simply for the reason that the disciples, from that, should note that His return was by no means to be expected as late as possible; even as He does not name the first, because it would weaken the whole representation of the watchful servants. The Parousia does not come so quickly as impatience, nor yet so late as carelessness supposes, but in the very middle of the night, when the temptation to fall asleep is great and therefore must be most vigorously combated. It may even tarry longer than the servants think; but, grant that it should not take place even till the third, or should come even in the second watch of the night, whosoever perseveres faithfully at his post shall in no wise lose his reward.”--Van Oosterzee.

He assures them that He will come “at an hour when ye think not.” The parable of the Steward is closely linked with all this. A solemn declaration is made, found only in Luke, concerning the penalties. (Luk 12:47-48.) The punishment is according to the knowledge of the Lord’s will. His rejection by Israel has brought for the world the results of which He speaks next.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 12:1

Profession without Practice.

I. That even decently conducted Christians are most extensively and fearfully ruled by the opinion of society about them, instead of living by faith in the unseen God, is proved to my mind by the following circumstance: that, according as their rank in life makes men independent of the judgment of others, so the profession of regularity and strictness is given up. The great mass of men are protected from gross sin by the forms of society. The received laws of propriety and decency, the prospect of a loss of character, stand as sentinels, giving the alarm, long before their Christian principles have time to act. The question is, whether, in spite of our greater apparent virtue, we should not fall like others, if the restraints of society were withdrawn i.e. whether we are not in the main hypocrites like the Pharisees, professing to honour God, while we honour Him only so far as men require it of us.

II. Another test of being like or unlike the Pharisees may be mentioned. Our Lord warns us against hypocrisy in three respects—in doing our alms, in praying, and in fasting. (1) Doubtless much of our charity must be public, but is much of our charity also private?—is it as much private as public? (2) Are we as regular in praying in our closet to our Father which is in secret as in public? (3) We have dropped the show of fasting, which it so happens the world at the present day derides. Are we quite sure that, if fasting were in honour, we should not begin to hold fasts as the Pharisees? Thus we seek the praise of men. We see, then, how seasonable is our Lord’s warning to us, His disciples, first of all to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy—professing without practising. He warns us against it as leaven, as a subtle, insinuating evil which will silently spread itself through the whole character, if we suffer it. He warns us that the pretence of religion never deceives beyond a little time, and that sooner or later, "whatsoever we have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light, and that which we have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops."

J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. i., p. 124.

References: Luk 12:1.—Parker, Christian Commonwealth, vol. vii., p. 287; D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels, p. 135; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 271. Luk 12:1-3.—S. Cox, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 372. Luk 12:1-5.—F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, p. 187. Luk 12:2.—Homilist, vol. vi., p. 352. Luk 12:4, Luk 12:5.—G. E. L. Cotton. Sermons to English Congregations in India, p. 12. Luk 12:5.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 53; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 237; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 3rd series, p. 90.

Luk 12:6-7

These words occur in a discourse of the Lord to His disciples, in which He is instructing and preparing them for their future work as the heralds and preachers of His kingdom. He tells them that He has no esoteric doctrine to be cherished by a favoured few, but on the contrary, doctrines of light to be proclaimed everywhere for the healing and salvation of men. "In preaching My words to men," He says, "you will meet with dangers not a few, with enemies, some of whom will not stop short, if their power will reach so far, of deadly issues. But fear not; you are watched and protected at every step; and come life, come death, you are safe." Hence here we have two things for thought—our human fears and the Divine dissuasive from them.

I. Our fears may be divided into two kinds: those which respect this world—the temporalities of life, as we call them—and those which respect the world to come and our spiritual state and relation to that. (1) Now as regards this world and its affairs, I think many of us know that a good deal depends upon a man’s temperament as to the way in which he will take things. You see that some go through life much more anxiously than others, as a matter of fact. The burden of life is to many not an easy one. They chafe and fret and groan under it, it is so heavy. (2) And then if we add to the fears about the temporalities of life, the deeper fears of the soul in regard to the spiritual state and the eternal prospect—you will see what ample scope there is for this Divine dissuasive, "Fear not."

II. We now come to the second point—the Divine dissuasive of this passage—and we see how it is supported and commended by our blessed Lord by these several arguments or supportings, as, for instance: (1) The limited character of human power and of the power of circumstances. That, where it is vividly apprehended, is a great dissuasive from fear. Fear not, for although men can say and do a great deal which may be very unpleasant to you—that may be even injurious to you—yet you always come to the limits of their power "after that." After that there is nothing more that they can do. Just so much unfriendliness or hostility or annoyances of any kind, and then, after that, there is no more that they can do. Exactly so you will find it with the things we call circumstances, although they may not be animated at all by any human feeling against you. They may arrange themselves in a malign manner, this or that way. They may vary, fluctuate, frown, threaten, sweep away property, bring in trouble; and after that there is no more that they can do. Other circumstances of a different kind will be sure to arise to soften, to assuage to improve. (2) "Fear not," for again, with God is unlimited power—the unlimited power which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. The argument has in the heart of it this—that God is good—that God is unchangeably good, and that He will use all that infinite power that He possesses in so far as it is needed, to protect, to defend, to cherish, to save, His trusting, loving children. (3) The closing thought in the dissuasive is, that although, in one way, there is nothing great to God and nothing little, yet, in another sense, quite a true one, there is a gradation to God just as to us; for it is the doctrine of this passage—it is the teaching of our Lord here—that there is a special care, a higher care, about us. We are of more value than many sparrows. The argument is from the less to the greater. If God provides for the inferior creatures, will He be likely to neglect the superior—the unspeakably superior? That is the doctrine: "Ye are of more value than many sparrows."

A. Raleigh, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 844.

References: Luk 12:6, Luk 12:7.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 189; Todd, Lectures to Children, p. 193. Luk 12:8.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 281. Luk 12:8, Luk 12:9.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxi., p. 340; E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. ii., p. 412. Luk 12:10.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 207.

Luk 12:13-21

The folly of the rich fool appears:—

I. In the fact that he completely ignored his responsibility to God in the matter of his possessions. He speaks of "my fruits," and "my goods," and the Lord describes him as laying up treasure "for himself" Are we not all too sadly in the same condemnation with him? Are we not all too prone to take to ourselves the sole credit for any property we have acquired, or for any eminence we have reached? Yet it is just as true in every department of life, though perhaps not quite so apparent as it is in agriculture, that the chief factor of success in it is God. He gave the original aptitude and ability to the man; and it will commonly be found that the critical turning-points of life, which led directly to the results over which we felicitate ourselves, were due entirely to Him, and came altogether irrespective of our own arrangement.

II. In the fact that he ignored the claims of other men upon him for his help. He had no idea apparently that there was any other possible way of bestowing his goods than by storing them in his barns. As Augustine, quoted by Trench, has replied to his soliloquy, "Thou hast barns,—the bosoms of the needy, the houses of widows, the mouths of orphans and of infants;" these are the true storehouses for surplus wealth. It is right to provide for those who are dependent on us; it is prudent to lay up something in store against a possible evil day; but after that, the storehouse of wealth should be benevolence.

III. The folly of this man is seen in the fact that he imagined that material things were proper food for his soul. The mere animal life of the body may be supported by such goods as this man was about to lay up, but the soul needs something better than these. Its true food is God Himself; and hence Jesus, in the moral of the parable, calls the man who has that rich towards God.

IV. The folly of the rich man is apparent from the fact that he had entirely ignored the truth that his material possessions were not to be his for ever. Let these two things stand out in lurid distinctness on this subject; wealth cannot buy off death, and when we die we can take none of it with us, and then you will understand how supremely foolish it is for a man to live simply and only for its accumulation.

W. M. Taylor, The Parables of Our Saviour, p. 259.

References: Luk 12:13, Luk 12:14.—J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 235. Luk 12:13-15.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 270; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xv., p. 37. Luk 12:13-21.—Ibid., vol. xiii., p. 16; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 131.

Luk 12:15

Business—its Dangers and Safeguards.

I. There can be no doubt at all that the average business man’s temptation must chiefly lie in this direction: to exaggerate the relative value of the thing he deals with—that is money; and in consequence, to under-estimate whatever cannot be appraised by that conventional standard of the market. To be safe, therefore, the young man embarking on a commercial life is bound to keep this risk of his calling before his eyes. He must refuse to fall down and worship any plutocracy, keeping his reverence for the good rather than for the opulent or successful; in a word, he must save himself from coming to think or act as if a man’s life consisted in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

II. The safeguards. There are secondary safeguards, such as the pursuit of literature and the cultivation of a sympathising contact with men and women in other than mere business relationships. But the only primary and sufficient safeguard for any one of us is the religion of Jesus Christ. (1) Religion opens the widest, freest outlook for the mind into the eternal truth, enlarging a man’s range of spiritual sight, and enabling him to judge of all things in both worlds in their due proportion. (2) It supplies us for that reason with the only true and perfect standard by which to test the value of things, and so corrects the one-sided materialistic standard of business. (3) It transforms business itself from an ignoble to a noble calling, because it substitutes for the principle of mere profit the ideal of service.

J. Oswald Dykes, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 209.

References: Luk 12:15.—J. W. Gleadall, Church Sermons, vol. i., p. 331; Burrows, Church of England Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 237; J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 235. Luk 12:15-21.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 17. Luk 12:16.—Homilist, new series, vol. i., p. 620. Luk 12:16-20.—Ibid., vol. vi., p. 84; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 234. Luk 12:16-21.—H. W. Beecher, Sermons, 1870, p. 631; Ibid., Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 218; Ibid., vol. xxi., p. 156; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 316; Ibid., vol. iii., p. 306; R. C. Trench, Notes on the Parables p., 337; R. Winterbotham, Sermons and Expositions, p. 180.

Luk 12:19

The Privileges of Youth.

I. The spirit of the boast contained in the text is nowhere more common than in the hearts of the young. They say to themselves, as much as persons at any age, "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years." If we consider a little we shall see what these goods are. (1) There is the great good of time. A young person thinks that he has this in plenty. (2) Another good, which youth feels no less sure of, is health and strength. (3) Belonging to these two feelings, and yet in some way to be distinguished from them, is the sense of having ample liberty; by which, I mean, that our time of heavy responsibility is not yet come; that there is, and ought to be, large allowance for what we do; that we may, in short, give the reins to ourselves, our fancies, and our inclinations, because we are not yet old enough to be serious.

II. If the rich man in the parable, whilst his riches were flowing in upon him so largely, had wished and resolved to be rich towards God also, what would have been his language to his soul then? Or if any of you, so rich in the good things of youth, were also to resolve with God’s grace to be rich towards God, what would be your language, the language of your hearts, whether it shapes itself into words or not? It would be a language which older men, I might almost say, would hear with envy. But, speaking more truly, it is not a sight for envy, but for the deepest joy and thankfulness, joy both of men and angels. We feel the charm of youth naturally, it cannot but awaken our interest even in itself; but when this natural interest is sanctioned by our soberest reason, when natural youth assumes, so to speak, the beauty of the spring of an eternal and a heavenly year, then it does fill us with the deepest joy; and this work of God’s Spirit, far more than all those natural works of creation, is, indeed, very good. There is no more beautiful, no more blessed, sight upon this earth than a youth that is rich toward God.

T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. v., p. 75.

References: Luk 12:20.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vi., p. 357; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 94; E. Blencowe, Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. i., p. 328.

Luk 12:21

I. Consider the sinfulness of the rich man, as gathered from his address to his soul. The rich man addressed his soul when forming his plan for a long course of selfishness. "I will say to my soul, Soul thou has much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry." And what had the soul to do with the indulgences and enjoyments which he thus thought that his riches would procure? Had he addressed his body, and thus seemed forgetful or ignorant of its being immortal, we must have wondered at him less, and have thought him less degraded; but to confess that he had a soul, and then to speak to that soul as though it were material, a mere animal thing, with fleshly appetites and passions, this marked him at the very outset as being at the lowest point of sensuality; as though he knew no higher use of faculties, which distinguished him from the brute, than to give a zest to gratifications which he had in common with the brute. But, nevertheless, there was truth in the address of the sensualist; he was not so mistaken as at first he might appear. True, indeed, the soul could not literally eat, the soul could not literally drink; but the soul might have no taste, no relish, for spiritual things, the whole man might be given up to carnal indulgences, and the soul might be in such subjection, such slavery to the flesh, as to think of nothing but how to multiply its gratifications or to increase their intenseness. The very essence of idolatry is discoverable in this address of the rich man to his soul. It may be justly said that the rich man substituted his stores for God, put them in the place of God, or looked to them to do for him what God alone could do. Do you wonder, then, that his conduct was especially offensive to God, as offensive as though, in spite of the very letter of the Second Commandment, he had fashioned an image and bowed down before it?

II. It ought to be received by us as a very impressive warning, that it was nothing but a practical forgetfulness of the uncertainty of life, which brought down a sudden judgment on the rich worldling whose history is before us. There is evidently a peculiar invasion as it were of the prerogatives of God whensoever a man calculates that death is yet distant. Every man who is not labouring earnestly to save the soul is reckoning on long life. And the fearful thing is, that this very reckoning upon life, which men would perhaps hardly think of counting amongst their sins, may be the most offensive part of their conduct in the eye of the Almighty, and draw upon them the abbreviation of that life, and thus the loss of the expected opportunities of repentance and amendment.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2,544.

References: Luk 12:21.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 123. Luk 12:22-35.—Ibid., vol. xx., p. 372. Luk 12:22-40.—R. S. Candlish, Sermons, p. 139.

Luk 12:23-24

Man’s Future Destiny.

I. Since the Resurrection, since Jesus came out of the sepulchre with the same or like body with which He entered into it, with the same faculties and senses, the future has ceased to be a practical question to discuss; both because of what we know and of what we do not know. We know enough to know that the changes which death makes will not be so very considerable. As the man is at night, so shall he be in the morning, although when the sun set he was living in a mortal body, and when it rose he had left the mortal body, and was living in an immortal body. But the going out of a house gives no right of inference that the man who goes out is affected in the least by the act; and the body can seem to no one who discerns between flesh and spirit anything more than a house in which a man lives.

II. The annihilation of life is (1) against the analogies of the universe. There is no evidence, even, that the lowest grade of matter is perishable. But if the base and low cannot be destroyed, on what have you to build an inference that the high and noble shall perish? If matter holds itself secure against duration, what friction of continued existence shall touch the lofty permanence of the soul? (2) Against the affections of the universe. The universe is affectionate. All orders of existence are blood-relations one to another. The grief at death, based on the apprehension of a subtle relationship existent between all orders of life, is felt everywhere, and by all, and for all bright things. (3) Graveyards are not for spirits. God does not smother life in sepulchres. All creatures shall live because He loves them, loves them as a parent loves his own. All creatures shall live, because His heart requires their life. The parent’s joy is found in the possession of children, and who is to suggest that He, the Infinite Father, shall destroy His own felicity?

III. Upon the subject of the future life Jesus did not teach fully. Of the few things which He revealed plainly, these may be enumerated: (1) That men continue to live on; (2) that the moral natures they have in the mortal body they retain in the immortal boy; (3) that God alone has their destiny in charge. In His hands we may therefore reverently, prayerfully, hopefully, leave the destinies of our race.

W. H. Murray, The Fruits of the Spirit, p. 463.

References: Luk 12:24.—Sermons for Boys and Girls, p. 197. Luk 12:25, Luk 12:26.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 95. Luk 12:29.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. i., p. 249. Luk 12:31.—J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 29.

Luk 12:32

The Kingdom for the Children.

It is to comfort and assure "the little flock" that our Lord means when He says these words. And you will observe that His argument is twofold—one in the nature of their Father, and the other in the character of the Father’s gift.

I. You cannot observe the workings of any mind without seeing that there is a strong tendency to treat God as if He were anything else rather than a Father, as if He were a God unwilling to love us and save us. Because we are—or at least, were once—unwilling to come to God, by a strange confusion of ideas we begin to speak and act as if God were the reluctant party. As if to meet and contradict that, Christ says, "It is your Father’s good pleasure." You will never have got the secret of Christ’s teaching till you take more loving views of God the Father. In the original, this is a very full expression, "Your Father’s good pleasure." It means this: He has considered it, He has approved it, and it is now His delight. All the forgiving and kind and fond thoughts that ever were in the world to sweeten life, they are only drops out of that deep spring of the Father’s breast. What must the Fountain be? Therefore, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

II. Turn next from the Giver to the gift. Our Saviour evidently intends it to be a reasoning from the whole to the part. Shall the heir of an empire, the child of a King, nurtured in his Father’s court, be anxious every day about little crumbs? What is the kingdom which the Father loves to give? That kingdom is inward. It lies in deep, secret places: it has no pageant. Its condition is humility; its gold, good works; its royalties, the chaste and simple services and sacraments of the Church; its diadem, love. It is "not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost"—righteousness its throne, peace its diadem, joy its dazzling crown. And that kingdom in a man’s heart is what it is, a kingdom, because self-government is begun. In the heart, which is a kingdom, feelings are in their proper place, affections are subordinated, there is a harmony. Christ is in His right place; His pleasure is at the top, and all things are in subjection and dominion to Him.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 7th series, p. 72.

References: Luk 12:32.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 20; R. B. Isaac, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 227; J. Vaughan, Children’s Sermons (1875), p. 290; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ix., p. 122. Luk 12:35-37.—G. Macdonald, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 149. Luk 12:35-38.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. viii., p. 44. Luk 12:35-40.—S. Greg, A Layman’s Legacy, p. 176.

Luk 12:40

What is the problem about Advent? You hear of the Son of Man coming. Sometimes you hear of His coming as a thief in the night: sometimes you hear of His returning as a bridegroom from the wedding. In the passage from which my text is taken both these forms of speech are combined. What do they signify; are they merely figures which point to the necessity of preparation for death?

I. The first coming of Christ in great humility imports a continual lordship of His over the being and faculties of man. His purpose, the Apostles teach us, was not accomplished till He rose from the dead, and ascended on high, till He had claimed the glory which He had had with His Father before the worlds were. That was the vindication of His title to be Lord. That was the beginning of a society which could be nothing but universal, because it stood in the Name of the Son of God and Son of Man. That was necessary that the promise might be thoroughly accomplished, "The Lord God shall dwell among you, and He shall be your Father, and ye shall be His children." By this language we are able to understand that other language which refers to the coming, or to the appearing and unveiling of the Son of Man after His Ascension. We may very well admit that when our Lord says, "In such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh," He gives us all and more than all the warning respecting the hour of death which preachers have ever drawn out of His words. Assuredly it is no contradiction of His other teaching to say that, though on earth we may fancy ourselves under a law of selfishness, though here we may act as if we had no ties and relationships to those who surround us, when we close our eyes on the things with which they have been familiar, we pass into a region where we shall know assuredly that the Son of Man is reigning, where it will be impossible any longer to think that we are out of His Presence, or to escape from that Divine law of love which binds man to man, which binds earth and heaven together. The lie upon which we have acted must then be laid bare, the whole scheme of our existence must be exposed and broken in pieces; we must confess Him who gave Himself for men to be the Lord of all.

II. If this be the idea of Christ’s coming, whether to the world or to individuals, which the New Testament sets before us, what is to make us ready for his coming? What is to save us from that sleep into which our Lord warns us that we may fall? What is to arouse us if it has overtaken us? Surely we must be reminded of His Presence with us. The natural notion that what is invisible is unreal; that He does not govern us because our eyes do not see Him; that He does not govern the world because the world fancies that it governs itself, this must be set at nought. We must have an assurance that the senses are as little judges of what is true in morals as they are in physics; that self, which appears to be the centre round which everything here revolves; is no more really the centre than our earth is the centre round which the heavenly bodies revolve. What shall give us this assurance? In the Eucharist we declare that our hope is in a Lamb of God which has taken away the sin of the world by the sacrifice of Himself: therefore, we ask that we may be ready when the Son of Man comes to claim us as sacrifices to God; and that we may not be found choosing another master for ourselves, and shutting ourselves up in a hell of selfishness and despair. In the Eucharist we give thanks for a death not for ourselves only, but for the whole world, therefore in it we look forward to a redemption, which shall be not for ourselves only, but for the world, when Christ shall appear without sin, unto salvation.

F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. i., p. 1.

References: Luk 12:40.—R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 2nd series, p. 110. Luk 12:41-48.—A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 340. Luk 12:42.—Parker, Christian Commonwealth, vol. viii., p. 3. Luk 12:43.—H. M. Gunn, Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 245. Luk 12:47, Luk 12:48.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 18. Luk 12:48.—H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, p. 332; Ibid., Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 312; J. M. Neale, Sermons for Children, p. 214; H. Scott Holland, Church of England Pulpit, vol. v., p. 152.

Luk 12:49

There are three main elements, three ruling and inspiring convictions, at the root of missionary enthusiasm.

I. Of these, the first is a deep sense of the certainty and importance of the truths of the Gospel.

II. The second conviction is a sense of the need which man has of revealed truth.

III. The third conviction is a belief in the capacity of every man for the highest good—for salvation through Christ.

H. P. Liddon, Penny Pulpit, No. 630.

References: Luk 12:49.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 854; J. R. Woodford, The Anglican Pulpit of Today, p. 63; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 97.

Luk 12:50

I. Most persons know something of the feeling of suspens and anxious curiosity, when they are looking forward to anything very serious, anything which they think will greatly affect their happiness; especially when they have been a long time kept in expectation of it. The hours, days, months, years, of waiting appear to them more and more tedious; they are more and more alive and awake with curiosity to know what sort of a thing it will be when present, which now at a distance occupies their mind so much. Now, our Blessed Lord, as one of us in all things, sin only excepted, had His share of this feeling so far as it is natural and innocent; at least, so we may understand His saying in the text. Instead of shrinking from His death He was the more eager to begin; so high, so courageous was His love for us, and His zeal for His Father’s glory; so complete the condescension with which He entered into this and all other innocent feelings of ours.

II. Thus, as He in His merciful and infinite condescension, limited Himself as His creatures are limited—He who is the God of Eternity limited Himself to a certain time—so He set us an example, who are all of us so limited, which way our thoughts should tend. Men are apt to think they shall die contented when they have satisfied this or that wish, when they have done this or that work, when they have made so much money, when they have obtained such and such an advantage for those whom they leave behind them; and that favourite object, whatever it be, haunts them night and day, and colours in a manner almost all their thoughts and words. So were our blessed Master’s sayings tinged all over with the longing expectation of the Cross. And when the Cross itself came, His disciples, and we after them, might see the meaning of very many words and deeds which could not be understood at the first. As Christ was straitened, until His painful baptism of blood and sorrow was accomplished, so St. Paul, and all who resemble Him, are straitened, until they can find some way of giving themselves up more entirely, body and soul, life and death, to Him who thought nothing at all, not even heavenly and Divine glory, too dear to give up for them. Instead of planning restlessly and wearily what we have to do next, and what after that, in some pursuit which happens just now to be interesting, we shall be straitened and anxious, thinking how little we have done yet, and what we may and ought to do, for Christ and the Church’s sake.

Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. vi., p. 66.

Christ’s Baptism of Suffering.

I. The whole structure of this sentence is in exact keeping with the common notion of baptism, seeing that a condition of greater freedom is evidently looked forward to by Christ as certain to result from those waves of fire through which He had to pass. He laboured under a species of bondage prior to His agony and death; and the consequence of the agony and death would, He knew, be deliverance from this bondage. There is, therefore, peculiar fitness in His describing that agony and death as a baptism with which He should be baptized. A change was to take place, and for the bringing about of that change immersion in a deep ocean of trouble was absolutely indispensable. Baptism denotes what is both temporary and refreshing. In respect to our blessed Saviour, both as to the time of endurance—for He was but plunged in the raging waters and then quickly withdrawn—and as to the undoubted change; for He went down with transgression and came up having made full expiation—in both particulars the imagery is most perfect.

II. "How am I straitened till it be accomplished!" (1) It was one consequence of our Saviour’s sufferings and death that the gift of the Holy Spirit should be poured forth on His disciples. Until, therefore, the baptism was accomplished there could be little or none of that preparation of heart on the part of His followers which was indispensable to the reception of the spiritual magnificence and majesty of the Gospel. Thus our Lord was brought into the position of a constant restraint, like a man charged with news that would gladden an empire, while the rocks were the only audience to which he could have access. (2) Although the Spirit was given without measure to the Saviour, He was nevertheless hemmed round by spiritual adversaries, and He had continually before Him a task overwhelming in its difficulties—the keeping our nature free from every taint of corruption, the contending therein against the assaults of the devil. Is not the contrast of the state which preceded, and that which succeeded, the baptism of agony sufficient in itself to account for expressions even more sternly descriptive of bondage than that of our text? (3) Christ had not yet won the headship over all things, and therefore He was straitened by being circumscribed in Himself, in place of expanding into myriads. These, with like reason, serve to explain, in a degree, the expression of our text; though we frankly confess that so awful and inscrutable is everything connected with the anguish of the Mediator that we can only be said to catch glimmerings of a fulness which would overwhelm us, we may suppose, with amazement and dread.

H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2,047.

In this awful utterance of our Substitute, as He looked forward to the Cross, we have,—

I. A longing for the baptism. He desired its accomplishment. He knew the results depending on it, and these were so Divinely glorious, so eternally blessed, that He could not but long for it—He could not but be straitened until it was accomplished.

II. The consciousness of fear and bitter anguish in contemplating it. He was truly man both in body and soul. As man He shrank from pain, He was weighed down with burdens, He was subject to sorrow; He looked on death as His enemy, and He made supplication with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death. His Divine nature did not relieve Him of one grief, or make His sufferings mere shadows.

III. The straitening in regard to its accomplishment. Like St. Paul, He was in a strait between things which pressed in opposite ways, and which must continue to press till the work was done. (1) He was straitened between the anticipated pain, and the thought of the result of that pain. (2) He was straitened between grace and righteousness. Between His love to the sinner and His love to the Father there was conflict; between His desire to save the former and His zeal to glorify the latter there was something wanting to produce harmony. He knew that this something was at hand, that His baptism of suffering was to be the reconciliation; and He pressed forward to the Cross as one that could not rest till the discordance were removed,—as one straitened in spirit till the great reconciliation should be effected. "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!"

H. Bonar, Short Sermons, p. 96.

I. What was the secret of the Saviour’s earnestness? (1) His belief in a Divine commission. (2) His belief in the solemnity of time.

II. If these convictions possessed our souls—(1) they would dispel the delusions of time; (2) they would overcome the hindrances to submission; (3) they would break down the impediments of fear.

E. L. Hull, Sermons, 3rd series, p. 70.

References: Luk 12:50.—J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 24; G. Davis, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 88. Luk 12:51.—Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. iv., p. 217. Luk 12:52.—R. Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 235. Luk 12:54-57.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1135.

The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPTER 25

LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES

Luk 12:1. “Meanwhile myriads of the multitude, having come together, so that they were treading on one another, He began to speak first to His disciples, Take heed to yourselves from the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” Leaven always means corruption, something superinducing fermentation, decomposition, and putrefaction. Here our Savior certifies that the leaven of the Pharisees is hypocrisy. Now, remember, the Pharisees were the most orthodox, strict, and zealous denomination of the Jewish Church. As hypocrisy means playing the part of an assumed character on the theatrical stage, hence it means playing religion; i.e., externally assuming and conforming to it, while destitute of the inward reality. These Pharisees were sincere and candid, believing that the rites, ceremonies, and external obedience constituted the essence of real and true religion. O how the present age is inundated with the leaven of hypocrisy, “having the form” without the power, and some even denying the power!

LODGERY

Luk 12:2. “There is nothing which has been covered up which shall not be revealed, and hidden which shall not be made known. Therefore so many things as ye spoke in darkness, shall be heard in the light; and whatsoever ye talked about in the ear in secret chambers, shall be revealed upon the housetops.” The connection here follows that all the hidden things of hypocrisy mentioned in the preceding verse shall erelong be brought to light and exposed. When the Lord sanctified me, thirty-one years ago, I was a Free Mason and an Odd Fellow. All those things spontaneously evanesced when the Prince of Glory moved in. From that day my heart and life have been open to the inspection of men, angels, and God, and I have had no secrets. The incoming of the Holy Ghost expels all darkness and reveals all secrets.

ALL SHOULD FEAR SATAN

Luk 12:4. “But I say unto you, My friends, Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after these things have no power to do anything more; but I will show you whom you should fear: you should fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell. I say unto you, Fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? and one of them is not forgotten before God. But even the hairs of your head are numbered. Fear not, for you are more valuable than many sparrows.” All the unregenerate are in Satan’s kingdom, destined, not only to perish, but to be cast into hell, as he has no other place to put them when they are forced to leave this world at the expiration of this fleeting probation. In connection with these momentous realities, we should here remember the Divine cognizance, taking notice of the smallest matters, even numbering the hairs of the head. Now what is the conclusion from all this? If you are in Satan’s kingdom, be sure you get out quickly as possible, and then be sure that you stay out, as you are liable any moment, soul and body, to be cast into hell.

CONFESSION

Luk 12:8. “But I say unto you, That every one who may confess Me before men, the Son of man will truly confess him before the angels of God; but every one denying Me in the presence of men, shall be denied in the presence of the angels of God.” Confess is homologeo, from homos,

“like,” and logos, “speech.” Hence it means to speak like God. The Holy Spirit speaks to the sinner, and tells him his awful condition. He should tell it right out, and cry for mercy. Then He speaks to the broken-hearted penitent, and tells him his sins, which were many, are all forgiven; he should tell it out with a free heart. Then He speaks to the regenerated soul, revealing the remains of the carnal mind; this he should confess, going down at the altar for a clean heart. Then He reveals to him the wonderful efficacy of the cleansing blood; this he should freely proclaim to the ends of the earth. Every soul in all the world either occupies the attitude of confession or denial, with the momentous issues pending, involving the destinies of eternity.

UNPARDONABLE BLASPHEMY OF THE SPIRIT

Luk 12:10. “Whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but to the one blaspheming against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven.” Since the Holy Ghost is the Executive of the Trinity on the earth, the Successor of the risen and glorified Savior, administering light to the blind, conviction to the wicked, regeneration to the penitent, and sanctification to the believer, if we speak against Him, or treat His office with contempt, thus grieving Him away, we seal our doom for endless woe, having thus prematurely wound up our probation, and settled our destiny in the regions of rayless night. “When they may lead you before synagogues, tribunals, and authorities, be not solicitous how or as to what you may defend yourselves, or what you may say; for the Holy Ghost will teach you in that hour what it behooves you to speak.” Jesus saw a wicked world and a fallen Church rising up to persecute His followers, hence the pertinency of this consolatory admonition. We should all profit by it in every case of persecution for Christ’s sake. Let the Holy Ghost manage it in His own way, patiently and joyfully accepting results.

THE RICH FOOL

Luk 12:13-21. “And a certain one of the crowd said to Him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. And He said to him, Man, who has made Me a judge or a divider over you? And He said to them, See and beware of covetousness, because his life is not in that which aboundeth to any one of the things belonging to him.” This was a case of financial trouble between two brothers, disagreeing about the division of their patrimony. Hence our Lord turns His discourse to the exposition of avarice. “And He spoke a parable to them, saying, The farm of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly. He reasoned within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no place where I shall store my fruits? And he said, I will do this: I will take down my barns and build greater, and I will gather there all my fruits and my goods, and will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast many good things laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry. God said to him, Thou fool, this night they shall require thy soul from thee; and to whom shall these things be which you have prepared? So is every one laying up treasure for himself, and not rich toward God.” This parable is plain and practical, having myriads of verifications in all ages and nations. Would you see examples? Look around you. They are numerous on all sides, people living simply for this world, with no reference to eternity. Where E.V. says, “Thy soul shall be required of thee this night,” the correct reading is, “They [i.e., the demons all around you] require thy soul of thee this night.” All wicked people are encompassed, and even occupied, by these evil demons, whose determination is to precipitate them into hell. In the providence of God, the probation of that rich fool ran out at that time; so the demons, who had pursued him all his life, took him at once to the bottomless pit.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12:1 Yeast permeates dough until it is entirely leavened. Leaven became a symbol for the permeating power of sin (Exod 12:14-20; 1 Cor 5:6). Like yeast, the hypocrisy of the Pharisees would spread until it affected all the people.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 12:1. Ἐν οἷς) [“in the meantime”] during these things.—τῶν) of those who were wont to be present.—μυριάδων, myriads) Not merely the adjective μύριοι, but this substantive μυρίαδες, is wont to be used of a large indefinite number.—πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς, unto His disciples) The rest were not yet able to comprehend this doctrine.—πρῶτον, first of all) To the disciples first: then, after one or two interruptions and questions, to the multitude of people also: Luk 12:54.—ὑπόκρισις, hypocrisy) This charge is afterwards brought also in the case of the people: Luk 12:56. Hypocrisy, like a leaven, infects the whole man, and through the one man infects many. Hypocrisy is either when evil is covered over with a good veil by evil men, or when good is in an evil manner (improperly) covered by good men. This latter kind of hypocrisy is what is denoted in the present instance. Comp. the following verses.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_12:1. During what was narrated in Luk_11:53-54 (ἐν οἷς), therefore while the scribes and Pharisees are pressing the Lord after He has left the house with captious questions, the crowd, without number, had gathered together (ἐπισυναχθ.), and now at various intervals He holds the following discourse, primarily indeed addressing His disciples (πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ, Luk_12:22), yet turning at times expressly to the people (Luk_12:15 ff., Luk_12:54 ff.), and in general in such a manner (Luk_12:41) that the multitude also was intended to hear the whole, and in its more general reference to apply it to themselves. With the exception of the interlude, Luk_12:13-21, the discourse is original only in this way, that very diverse, certainly in themselves original, fragments of the Logia are put together; but when the result is compared with the analogous procedure of Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew is found to be the more original of the two. Among the longer discourses in Luke none is so much of a mosaic as the present. Although the historical situation of Luk_12:1 is not invented, yet by the designed and plainly exaggerated bringing together of a great multitude of people it is confused. It would be too disproportioned an apparatus merely to illustrate the contents of Luk_12:2 f. (Weizsäcker).

τῶν μυριάδων] The article denotes the innumerable assembled mass of the people (very hyperbolically, comp. Act_21:20).

ὥστε καταπατ. ἀλλήλ.] οὕτως ἐφιέμενοι ἕκαστος πλησιάζειν αὐτῷ, Theophylact.

ἤρξατο] He began, pictorial style.

πρῶτον] before all, is to be taken with προσέχετε, comp. Luk_9:61, Luk_10:5; Gersdorf, p. 107. It does not belong to what precedes (Luther, Bengel, Knapp, Schulz, Scholz, Paulus, Lachmann, Tischendorf), in connection with which it would be absolutely superfluous, although A C D א, etc., do take it thus. Ewald well says, As a first duty.

τῆς ζύμης] see on Mat_16:6; Mar_8:15. Here also is not meant the vice of hypocrisy (the usual interpretation), because in that case the next clause would have ἡ ὑπόκρισις (with the article); but it glances back to the subject of the previous conversation at the table,[152] and means: the pernicious doctrines and principles. Of these He says: their nature is hypocrisy; therein lies what constitutes the reason of the warning (ἥτις, quippe quae).

[152] Therefore not to be interpreted of the Judaizers of the apostolic times (Weizsäcker, p. 364); just as little is Luk_16:14.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 12:1-12 . Exhortation to fearless utterance , addressed to the disciples ( cf. Mat 10:17-33 ). ἐν οἷς , in these circumstances, i.e. , while the assaults of the Pharisees and scribes on Jesus were going on (Luk 11:53 ). μυριάδων : a hyperbolical expression for an “innumerable multitude,” pointing, if the words are to be taken in earnest, to the largest crowd mentioned anywhere in the Gospels. Yet this immense gathering is not accounted for: it does not appear where or why it collected, but the ἐν οἶς suggests that the people had been drawn together by the encounter between Jesus and His foes. πρῶτον from its position naturally qualifies προσέχετε , implying that hypocrisy was the first topic of discourse (Meyer). But it may also be taken with μαθητὰς , as implying that, while Jesus meant to speak to the crowd, He addressed Himself in the first place to His disciples (Schanz, J. Weiss, Holtzmann). Bornemann points out that while Mt. places τρῶτον after imperatives, Lk. places it also before, as in Luk 9:61 , Luk 10:5 . ἀπὸ τῆς ζύμης τ . φ .: this is the logion reported in Mat 16:6 and Mar 8:15 , connected there with the demand for a sign; here to be viewed in the light of the discourse in the Pharisee’s house (Luk 11:37 f.). In the two first Gospels the warning expresses rather Christ’s sense of the deadly character of the Pharisaic leaven; here it is a didactic utterance for the guidance of disciples as witnesses of the truth. ἥτις ἐστὶν ὑπόκρισις : not in Mt. and Mk.; might be taken as an explanatory gloss, but probably to be viewed as part of the logion . Hypocrisy, the leading Pharisaic vice = wearing a mask of sanctity to hide an evil heart; but from what follows apparently here to be taken in a wider sense so as to include dissimulation, hiding conviction from fear of man as in Gal 2:13 (so J. Weiss in Meyer). In Lk.’s reports our Lord’s sayings assume a form adapted to the circumstances of the writer’s time. Hypocrisy in the sense of Gal 2:13 was the temptation of the apostolic age, when truth could not be spoken and acted without risk.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CHAPS. Luk 9:51 to Luk 18:31

This section forms a great episode in St Luke, which may be called the departure for the final conflict, and is identical with the journey (probably to the Feast of the Dedication, Joh 10:22) which is partially touched upon in Mat 18:1 to Mat 20:16 and Mar 10:1-31. It contains many incidents recorded by this Evangelist alone, and though the recorded identifications of time and place are vague, yet they all point (Luk 9:51, Luk 13:22, Luk 17:11, Luk 10:38) to a slow, solemn, and public progress from Galilee to Jerusalem, of which the events themselves are often grouped by subjective considerations. So little certain is the order of the separate incidents, that one writer (Rev. W. Stewart) has made an ingenious attempt to shew that it is determined by the alphabetic arrangement of the leading Greek verbs (ἀγαπᾶν, Luk 10:25-42; αἰτεῖν, Luk 11:1-5; Luk 11:8-13, &c.). Canon Westcott arranges the order thus: The Rejection of the Jews foreshewn; Preparation, Luk 9:43 to Luk 11:13; Lessons of Warning, Luk 11:14 to Luk 13:9; Lessons of Progress, Luk 13:10 to Luk 14:24; Lessons of Discipleship, Luk 14:25 to Luk 17:10; the Coming End, Luk 17:10 to Luk 18:30.

The order of events after ‘the Galilaean spring’ of our Lord’s ministry on the plain of Gennesareth seems to have been this: After the period of flight among the heathen or in countries which were only semi-Jewish, of which almost the sole recorded incident is the healing of the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman (Mat 15:21-28) He returned to Peraea and fed the four thousand. He then sailed back to Gennesareth, but left it in deep sorrow on being met by the Pharisees with insolent demands for a sign from heaven. Turning His back once more on Galilee, He again travelled northwards; healed a blind man at Bethsaida Julias; received St Peter’s great confession on the way to Caesarea Philippi; was transfigured; healed the demoniac boy; rebuked the ambition of the disciples by the example of the little child; returned for a brief rest in Capernaum, during which occurred the incident of the Temple Tax; then journeyed to the Feast of Tabernacles, in the course of which journey occurred the incidents so fully narrated by St John (Joh 7:1 to Joh 10:21). The events and teachings in this great section of St Luke seem to belong mainly, if not entirely, to the two months between the hasty return of Jesus to Galilee and His arrival in Jerusalem, two months afterwards, at the Feast of Dedication;—a period respecting which St Luke must have had access to special sources of information.

For fuller discussion of the question I must refer to my Life of Christ, II. 89–150.

Luk 12:1-12. THE DUTY OF BOLD SINCERITY AND TRUST IN GOD

1. ἐν οἷς ἐπισυναχθεισῶν τῶν μυριάδων τοῦ ὄχλου. ‘Meanwhile (i.e. during the troubled scene inside the Pharisee’s house), when the myriads of the multitude had suddenly assembled.’ It is evident that the noise of this disgraceful attack on our Lord had been heard. This scene was as it were the watershed of our Lord’s ministry in Galilee. At this period He had excited intense opposition among the religious authorities, but was still beloved and revered by the people. They therefore flocked together for His protection, and their arrival hushed the unseemly and hostile vehemence of the Pharisees. The expression ‘myriads’ is obviously an hyperbole, as in Act 21:20 (Vulg[260] multis turbis).

[260] Vulg. Vulgate.

ὥστε καταπατεῖν ἀλλήλους. Literally, ‘trod one another down.’

ἤρξατο λέγειν. The words seem to imply a specially solemn and important discourse.

πρὸς τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ, Πρῶτον προσέχετε ἑαυτοῖς. ‘To His disciples, Beware first of all of,’ &c. Though the Greek text is punctuated otherwise, it seems best to take the πρῶτον with the following verb as in Luk 9:61, Luk 10:5. ‘As your first duty beware,’ &c. The construction προσέχετε ἀπὸ is unclassical and is only found in Matthew and Luke.

τῆς ζύμης. See for comment Mat 16:12; Mar 8:15.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chap.

12:1-12.] Warning against hypocrisy. A discourse spoken immediately or very soon after the former, and in connexion with it;—consisting for the most part of sayings repeated from other occasions, and found nearly verbatim in Matt. It is impossible that there should be any reasonable doubt of this view, when we remember that some of them have appeared before, or appear again, in this very Gospel.

While our Lord was in the house of the Pharisee, the multitudes appear to have assembled together again. If so, ἐν οἷς will mean, during which things, viz. those related above.

He comes forth to them (ch. 11:53) in the spirit of the discourse which He has just completed, and cautions his disciples against that part of the character of the Pharisees which was most dangerous to them. The connexion of these twelve verses may be thus enunciated:—Beware of hypocrisy (ver. 1), for all shall be made evident in the end (ver. 2), and ye are witnesses and sharers in this unfolding of the truth (ver. 3). In this your work, ye need not fear men; for your Father has you in His keeping (vv. 4-7)—and the confession of my name is a glorious thing (ver. 8), but the rejection of it (ver. 9), and especially the ascription of my works to the evil one (ver. 10), a fearful one. And in this confession ye shall be helped by the Holy Spirit in the hour of need (vv. 11, 12).

1. πρῶτον] I am not convinced by Olsh., De Wette, and Meyer, that this belongs to προσέχ.… Every instance which they quote of πρῶτον being thus used, is where some definite matter is subsequent to the thing said or done; e.g. Mat 6:33. But here is no such matter:—πρ. would only mean, ‘earnestly,’—‘be sure that you’ … which meaning I do not think it bears. I have therefore coupled it with τοὺς μ. αὐτ., as distinguishing this section from what follows spoken to the crowd, ver. 13 ff. On the rest, see on Mat 16:6.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3 d. To the Disciples: Luk 12:1-12.

This violent scene had found its echo outside; a considerable crowd had flocked together. Excited by the animosity of their chiefs, the multitude showed a disposition hostile to Jesus and His disciples. Jesus feels the need of turning to His own, and giving them, in presence of all, those encouragements which their situation demands. Besides, He has uttered a word which must have gone to their inmost heart, some of you they will slay and persecute, and He feels the need of supplying some counterpoise. Thus is explained the exhortation which follows, and which has for its object to raise their courage and give them boldness in testifying. Must not one be very hard to please, to challenge, as Holtzmann does, the reality of a situation so simple?

Jesus encourages His apostles: 1 st. By the certainty of the success of their cause (Luk 12:1-3); 2 d. By the assurance which He gives them as to their persons (Luk 12:4-7); 3 d. By the promise of a glorious recompense, which He contrasts with the punishment of the timid, and of their adversaries (Luk 12:8-10); finally, By the assurance of powerful aid (Luk 12:11-12).

Vers. 1-3: The assured Success of their Ministry, and the Fall of their Adversaries.—“In the meantime, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, He began to say unto His disciples first of all: Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. 3. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the house-tops.” The words ἐν οἷς, on which, establish a close connection between the following scene and that which precedes. This gathering, which is formed as in the previous scene (Luk 11:29), is readily explained by the general circumstances—those of a journey. When Jesus had arrived at a village, some time was needed to make the population aware of it; and soon it flocked to Him en masse. ῎Ηρξατο, He began, imparts a solemn character to the words which follow. Jesus, after having spoken severely to His adversaries, now addresses the little company of His disciples, lost among that immense throng, in language full of boldness. It is the cry onwards, with the promise of victory. The words, to the disciples, are thus the key to the discourse following. The word πρῶτον, before all, should evidently be connected with the verb which follows, beware ye. Comp. Luk 9:61, Luk 10:5.

Meyer concludes, from the absence of the article before ὑπόκρισις, that the leaven is not hypocrisy itself, but a style of teaching which has the character of hypocrisy. This is a very forced meaning. The absence of the article is very common before terms which denote virtues and vices. (Winer, Gramm. des N. T. Sprachidioms, § 19. 1.) Leaven is the emblem of every active principle, good or bad, which possesses the power of assimilation. The devotion of the Pharisees had given a false direction to the whole of Israelitish piety (Luk 12:39; Luk 12:44). This warning may have been repeated several times (Mar 8:13; Mat 16:6).

The δέ adversative of Luk 12:2 determines the sense of the verse: “But all this pharisaic hypocrisy shall be unveiled. The impure foundation of this so vaunted holiness shall come fully to the light, and then the whole authority of those masters of opinion shall crumble away; but, in place thereof (ἀνθ᾿ ὧν, Luk 12:3), those whose voice cannot now find a hearing, save within limited and obscure circles, shall become the teachers of the world.” The Hillels and Gamaliels will give place to new teachers, who shall fill the world with their doctrine, and those masters shall be Peter, John, Matthew, here present! This substitution of a new doctorate for the old is announced in like manner to Nicodemus (Joh 3:10-11). Here, as there, the poetical rhythm of the parallelism indicates that elevation of feeling which arises from so great and transporting a thought. Comp. the magnificent apostrophe of St. Paul, 1Co 1:20: “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe...?” By St. Paul’s time the substitution had been fully effected.—Ταμεῖον, the larder (from τέμνω); and hence the locked chamber, the innermost apartment, in opposition to the public room.

The roofs of houses in the East are terraces, from which one can speak with those who are in the street. This is the emblem of the greatest possible publicity. The mouth of the scribes shall be stopped, and the teaching of the poor disciples shall be heard over the whole universe. The apophthegms of Luk 12:2-3 may be applied in many ways, and Jesus seems to have repeated them often with varied applications. Comp. Luk 8:17. In the parallel passage (Mat 10:27), the matter in question is the teaching of Jesus, not that of the apostles; and this saying appears in the form of an exhortation addressed to the latter: “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light.” Naturally the maxim which precedes (Luk 12:2 of Luke) should also receive a different application in Matthew (Mat 10:26): “Everything that is true must come to the light. Publish, therefore, without fear whatsoever I have told you.”

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Word for word, ten thousands of people, a certain number for an uncertain.

The faithful teachers of God’s word, which are appointed by him for his people, must both take good heed of them, which corrupt the purity of doctrine with goodly glosses, and also take pains through the help of God, to set forth sincere doctrine, openly and without fear.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

CHAPTER XII.

Christ preaches to his disciples against hypocrisy; and against

timidity in publishing the Gospel, 1-5.

Excites them to have confidence in Divine providence, 6, 7.

Warns them against denying him, or betraying his cause, 8, 9.

Of the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, 10.

Promises direction and support in persecution, 11, 12.

Warns the people against covetousness, 13-15.

Parable of the rich man who pulled down his granaries to build

greater, 16-21.

Cautions against carking cares and anxieties, 22-32.

The necessity of living to God, and in reference to eternity,

33-40.

At the request of Peter, he farther explains the preceding

discourse, 41-48.

The effects that should be produced by the preaching of the

Gospel, 49-53.

The signs of the times, 54-57.

The necessity of being prepared to appear before the judgment

seat of God, 58, 59.

NOTES ON CHAP. XII.

Verse 1. An innumerable multitude of people] Των μυριαδων του οχλου, myriads of people. A myriad is ten thousand, and myriads must, at the very lowest, mean twenty thousand. But the word is often used to signify a crowd or multitude which cannot be readily numbered. There was doubtless a vast crowd assembled on this occasion, and many of them were deeply instructed by the very important discourse which our Lord delivered.

Leaven of the Pharisees] See Mt 16:1-12.

Which is hypocrisy.] These words are supposed by some to be an addition to the text, because it does not appear that it is their hypocrisy which Christ alludes to, but their false doctrines. They had, however, a large proportion of both.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

XII.

(1) In the mean time.—More literally, When the myriads of the multitude were gathered together. The words must be taken in immediate sequence with the close of the previous chapter. The dispute that had begun in the Pharisee’s house, and had been carried on by the lawyers and scribes as they followed Jesus from it, attracted notice. As on the occasion of the “unwashed hands” (Mat_15:10), He appeals from the scribes to the people, or rather to His own disciples, scattered among the people. The scene may be compared, in the vividness of its description, with the picture of the crowd at Capernaum (Mar_2:1-2).

Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees.—This again was obviously an expression that had become almost proverbial in our Lord’s lips (Mat_16:6). Here, however, the leaven is more definitely specified as “hypocrisy”—i.e., unreality, the simulation, conscious or unconscious, of a holiness which we do not possess. It does not follow that the Pharisees were deliberate impostors of the Tartuffe type. With them, as with other forms of religionism, it was doubtless true that the worst hypocrisy was that which did not know itself to be hypocritical. (See Note on Mat_6:2.)

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Ver. 1. Beware of the leaven] Which our eyes cannot discern from dough by the colour, but only our palate, by the taste. Such is hypocrisy, which also, as leaven, is: 1. spreading; 2. swelling; 3. souring the meal; 4. impuring and defiling the house where it is, though it be but as much as a man’s fist.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In the mean time - While he was discoursing with the scribes and Pharisees, as recorded in the last chapter.

An innumerable multitude - The original word is “myriad’s,” or ten thousands. It is used here to signify that there was a great crowd or collection of people, who were anxious to hear him. Multitudes were attracted to the Saviour’s ministry, and it is worthy of remark that he never had more to hear him than when he was most faithful and severe in his reproofs of sinners. Men’s consciences are on the side of the faithful reprover of their sins; and though they deeply feel the reproof, yet they will still respect and hear him that reproves.

To his disciples first of all - This does not mean that his disciples were, before all others, to avoid hypocrisy, but that this was the “first” or chief thing of which they were to beware. The meaning is this: “He said to his disciples, “Above all things beware,” etc.

The leaven - See the notes at Mat 16:6.

Which is hypocrisy - See the notes at Mat 7:5. Hypocrisy is like leaven or yeast, because:

It may exist without being immediately detected. Leaven mixed in flour is not known until it produces its effects. It is insinuating. Leaven will soon pervade the whole mass. So hypocrisy will, if undetected and unremoved, soon pervade all our exercises and feelings. It is swelling. It puffs us up, and fills us with pride and vanity. No man is more proud than the hypocrite, and none is more odious to God. When Jesus cautions them to beware of “the leaven of the Pharisees,” he means that they should be cautious about imbibing their spirit and becoming like them. The religion of Jesus is one of sincerity, of humility, of an entire want of disguise. The humblest man is the best Christian, and he who has the least disguise is most like his Master.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Beware ye of the leaven, &c. Christ calls the hypocrisy of the Pharisees heaven, which changes and corrupts the best intentions of men; for nothing is more destructive than hypocrisy to such as give way to it. (Theophylactus)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

We read of such a caution given to the disciples, Mat 16:6. But that is not the same caution with this; there he compared their doctrine to leaven, for the aptness of it to infect others; here he compares their lives to the same thing, and for the same reason: this appeareth to be the same sense of our Saviour here, because he saith their leaven is hypocrisy. There are none so like to do mischief to the better sort of people, as those that, under a mask and exterior disguise of severity and strictness, indulge themselves in corrupt affections and vicious inclinations.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Leaven of the Pharisees. The Rich Fool

1-12. Jesus warns His followers against Pharisaic hypocrisy, and exhorts them to be courageous in face of opposition. This speech is not unsuitable to the context in St. Luke, but the whole of the sayings are found also in St. Matthew's Gospel, generally in a more natural connexion (mostly in the charge to the Twelve, Luk_10:5-42). Perhaps St. Luke here groups together savings spoken at different times.

1. When there were] RV 'when the many thousands of the multitude were gathered together.' They were attracted by the dispute between our Lord and the Pharisees recorded in the last chapter Since our Lord begins by addressing His disciples, and warns them of coming persecutions, it may be inferred that the multitude was at first inclined to side with the Pharisees; yet see Luk_12:13, where the authority of Jesus is plainly recognised. The leaven] see on Mat_16:6, Mat_16:11, Mat_16:12.

2-9. See on Mat_10:26-33.

2, 3. These vv. have a different connexion and meaning in Mt.

2. Hypocrisy, like that of the Pharisees, is useless and foolish, for in the Judgment Day there will be a merciless exposure of it.

3. For in that day the most secret words and thoughts of hypocrites will be proclaimed to the whole creation. Therefore (RV 'Where-fore')] is better translated 'for,' 'because '(cp. Luk_1:20; Luk_19:44; Act_12:23).

10. See on Mat_12:31, Mat_12:32.

11, 12. See on Mat_10:17-20.

13-21. Parable of the rich fool (peculiar to Lk). The parable teaches that since death and judgment are inevitable, men ought to devote their attention to laying up treasure in heaven, not on earth.

13. Divide the inheritance] Such questions were decided by the 'bench of three 'of the local synagogues. Christ, as usual, refuses to be drawn into any political or semi-political action. The unseasonable request of the man (he appears to have interrupted our Lord's discourse to make it), showed that his mind was too much set upon worldly things.

14. Who made me?] Cp. Exo_2:14.

15. For a man's life] The Gk. is difficult and the translation doubtful, but the sense seems to be that neither a man's physical nor his spiritual life is dependent upon great possessions. A healthy and happy human life can be lived in a state of comparative poverty, and spiritual life is rather hindered than aided by great possessions. Others understand it to mean that a man's life is not like a possession, but infinitely more valuable. Cp. below (Luk_12:23), 'the life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.'

16. Brought forth] The man's wealth was honestly and justly acquired. His fault was not injustice, but covetousness.

17. I have no room] 'Thou hast barns, the mouths of the poor which can hold much; barns which can never be pulled down or destroyed, for they are heavenly and divine, if indeed it be true that he who feeds the poor, feeds God' (Theophylact).

19. To my soul] The fool speaks as if earthly wealth could supply the needs of an immortal soul.

20. This night, etc.] lit. 'this night do they (i.e. the angels of vengeance) require thy soul of thee.' The righteous man willingly and joyfully commits his soul to God; but from the wicked man it is exacted with stern terror.

21. Rich toward God] On laying up treasure in heaven, which is here meant, see on Mat_6:19-21.

There is an interesting rabbinical parallel to this parable: 'Once Rabbi Simeon went to a certain circumcision and there feasted. The father gave them old wine, seven years old, to drink, saying, “With this wine will I grow old, rejoicing in my son.” They feasted together till midnight. At midnight Rabbi Simeon, trusting to his own virtue, went out to go into the city, and on the way met the angel of death, who, he perceived, was very sad. He asked therefore, “Why art thou so sad?” He replied, “I am sad for the speeches of those who say, I will do this or that ere long, though they know not how quickly they may be called away by death. The man who just boasted, 'With this wine I will grow old, rejoicing in my son,' behold his time draws near. Within thirty days he must be snatched away.” The rabbi said to him, “Do thou let me know my time.” The angel answered, “Over thee and such as thou art, we have no power; for God, being delighted with good works, prolongeth your lives.”'

22-34. Against anxiety about wealth and worldly things. Almost the whole of this section occurs in St. Matthew's Sermon on the Mount. The present context, however, is very suitable, and is perhaps correct.

22-31. See on Mat_6:25-33.

29. Neither be ye of doubtful mind] or, 'neither be ye high-minded.'

32. Fear not, little flock] A beautiful and tender saying peculiar to Lk, intended to encourage the disciples who would be for so long in so hopeless a minority. The sense is, 'If God is willing to give you the kingdom, much more will He give you food and raiment, therefore you need not be afraid (Luk_12:33) to sell that ye have and give alms.'

33. See on Mat_19:21; Mat_6:20. Sell that ye have, etc.] Christ addresses not all the disciples, but those who, like the apostles, had received a call to leave all, and devote themselves to the work of the ministry.

Bags (RV 'purses') which wax not old] The purses which will keep your money safely are not your own, but those of the poor on whom you bestow your charity. Placed in those purses, your earthly treasure will become 'treasure in the heavens that faileth not.'

34. See on Mat_6:21.

35-48. Exhortation to vigilance. The greater part of it appears also (and most appropriately) in Matthew 24. The apostles and other ministers of the word are chiefly addressed, though there is a lesson for all (Luk_12:41.). The question of Peter (Luk_12:41) is peculiar to Lk.

35, 36. A little parable peculiar to Luke, warning the apostles to be ready for Christ's second coming, which will be sudden. The apostles are compared to slaves left to watch the house (the Church) while the master (Christ) goes to a wedding feast (i. e. ascends into heaven). Their loins are girded because they have housework to do (preaching the gospel and ruling the Church), and they have lighted lamps, because their task is to enlighten a dark and sinful world by their shining example. Christ's return from the marriage feast is His Second Advent, or it may mean His judgment of each individual soul at death. The 'marriage feast' here is not the final joy of the blessed, as in the. parable of the Ten Virgins, but Christ's session at the right hand of God between the Ascension and Second Advent.

The parable, though primarily intended for the rulers of the Church, is applicable to all Christians, for all have received some kind of commission from Christ.

37, 38. See on Mat_24:46. These vv. continue the parable. Those whom Christ shall find watching at His Second Coming, He will invite to share in the final feast (the joy of heaven); when He Himself will serve them, supplying them with all blessedness, and wiping away all tears from their eyes. The second and third watches are the second and third of the Roman four watches (Mat_14:25). They thus represent the dead of night, and by metaphor the unexpectedness of the Second Advent. The Jews reckoned only three night watches.

39, 40. See on Mat_24:43-44; Another parable in which, by a curious inversion, the goodman (master) of the house means the apostles, and the thief Christ. Christ is so called from the secrecy and unexpectedness of His coming.

41. (Peculiar to Lk.) Christ does not answer Peter's question directly, but His answer shows that He is speaking mainly of the apostles and those in authority.

42-46. See on Mat_24:45-50.

47. 48. (Peculiar to Lk.) Christ here seems to assert (cp. Luk_10:12, Luk_10:14) that there will be degrees of future punishment.

48. He that knew not] 'The reference is to the future pastors of the Church. “He that knew not,” will still be punished, for he could have known; but not punished so much as the other, for the other was presumptuous, but this one was slothful; and presumption is a greater sin than sloth' (Euthymius). They will ask the more] Christ through His angels will demand 'His own with usury,' i.e. will demand that the talents entrusted to each man shall have been improved, and turned to good use. In the case of the Apostles He will demand what souls they have gained besides their own.

49-53. The strife that the gospel will produce. In different connexions in Mt.

49. A paradox. The Prince of Peace comes to bring strife and bloodshed, fire and sword, into the world, because only through war can lasting peace be attained. Some, however, understand by fire, the fire of Christian love.

What will I, etc.] i.e. 'how much I wish that it were already kindled!' (Theophylact). Other translations: 'What more have I to desire, if it be already kindled? '(Plummer).' What do I desire? Would that it were already kindled!' (Origen).

50. See on Mat_20:22 = Mar_10:38. A baptism] i.e. Christ's Passion. Straitened] i.e. afflicted, oppressed.

51-53. See on Mat_10:34-36.

54-59. Ignorance of the signs of the times.

54-56. See on Mat_16:1-3.

57. Peculiar to Lk. Of yourselves] Why, even without signs, do you not judge rightly of Me and My doctrine by the natural light of reason and conscience?

58, 59. See on Mat_5:25, Mat_5:26.

J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 1-59. The Lord, after leaving the Pharisee"s house, speaks at great length to a numerous crowd waiting for him, addressing his words principally to his own disciples. The foregoing scene, (Lu 11) when the Master addressed his bitter reproaches to the learned and cultivated of the great Pharisee party, took place in a private house belonging to an apparently wealthy member of this, the dominant class. The name of the large village or provincial town where all this happened is unknown. The crowd who had been listening to the great Teacher before he accepted the Pharisee"s invitation still lingered around the house. Many from the adjoining villages, hearing that Jesus was in this place and was publicly teaching, had arrived; so, when the Lord came out from the guest-chamber into the street or market-place, he found a vast crowd literally, myriads of the multitude waiting for him. The words descriptive of the crowd in ver. 1 indicate that a vast concourse was gathered together. His fame then was very great, though his popularity was on the wane.

Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. In dwelling on this and similar expressions used by our Lord in respect to the life and work of this famous section of the people who were generally so bitterly hostile to him and his teaching, we must not condemn their whole character with a condemnation more sweeping than the Master"s. Utterly mistaken in their views of life and in their estimate of God, whom they professed to know, our Lord here scarcely charges them with dell-berate hypocrisy. These mistaken men dreamed that they possessed a holiness which was never theirs; unconscious hypocrites they doubtless were, without possibly even suspecting it themselves.

Vers. 1-12. An evil to be shunned, and a virtue to be cultivated.

Jesus had been partaking of the light forenoon meal with a Pharisee. In this Pharisee"s house he proclaimed war to the death with the bigots who had been dogging his steps. A small fire may kindle much wood. For some reason unknown to us, he had omitted the washing of hands before sitting down to meat. Instantly the whole company turned on him with scowl and sneer and shrug. And the action of the Truth incarnate, in reply to this, was the utterance of the six "woes scathing thunderbolts which St. Luke has recorded between vers. 42 and 52 of the previous chapter. His utterance was the signal for something like a riot (vers. 53, 54). Ah! thou Son of Mary, thou Meekest and Lowliest, the column has turned. Hitherto thy progress has been, not without contradiction of sinners, but for the most part one of sweet poetries unbounded the wonder and generous the admiration of the people. Thine enemies have been kept back; they have been held in restraint by the lightning which has flashed from thee.

But now thou must enter on a new phase of thy ministry; henceforth the issues towards which thou hast been looking will be hastened. "Ride on, ride on in majesty! The winged squadrons of the sky Look down with sad and wondering eyes To see the approaching sacrifice.

"In the mean time," whilst the dinner with its tumultuous conversation is proceeding, the crowd has so accumulated that "many thousands are gathered together." They are so eager to hear the Prophet that some persons are trodden down. To this seething mass Christ comes forth, his heart stirred by the controversy, vehement and provocative, which single-handed he had sustained. Most natural, in view of the circumstances related, is the discourse which follows, addressed immediately to his followers, but reaching the ear of "the many thousands.

1. First, there is the word as to "the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy" (vers. 1-3). Hypocrisy was the evil which permeated and vitiated their action. What is meant by hypocrisy? The hypocrite is "the man who has to play a part, to maintain a reputation, to keep up a respectable position, to act consistently with the maxims of the party to which he is allied, or the profession to which he belongs." As thus interpreted, is not the "beware! "of the afternoon long ago, a "beware!" for this day as well? "Pharisee" and "Sadducee" are words which no longer distinguish classes; but when the classes which they once designated are studied, it is found that, for what was most characteristic of each, there are correspondents among us. Let it not be supposed that the Pharisee was nothing else than a sanctimonious charlatan, a mere pretentious formalist. He was the representative of the more earnest religious spirit. The Sadducee was generally a wealthy man, one belonging to the ruling order.

Content with easy and low standards, the worldly or rationalistic Jews belonged to the party comprehended by the name. The Pharisee disowned such a conception of religion. He would not have any fellowship with such latitudinarianism. To him the Law was the Law of God, and he was bent on keeping it to its minutest point. In over-zeal he even added, to the observances enjoined, observances which might be inferred or which had been added by rabbins. The traditions of the elders were, in his view, a supplement to the Law and the prophets. "It is needless," as has well been observed, "to show that there was something in Pharisaism worthy of admiration, for this is implied in the charge brought against the Pharisees of our Lord"s time. They were accused of being hypocrites, of not being what they pretended to be; in which it is implied that, if they had really been what they seemed, they would have deserved the praise they claimed. And doubtless there were some whose goodness was more than outside show, both in the first original of the sect, and in those later times when Pharisaic culture prepared the soil on which the seeds of the gospel most readily flourished; for to this sect belonged the majority of the first converts, and the many thousands who believed are all described as " zealous for the Law. Any one playing the hypocrite will prefer the Pharisee type. The scanty clothing of the Sadducee will not suit; the fitting dress is the long robe and the well-phylacteried garment of the Pharisee. The devil"s homage to truth, which hypocrisy has been declared to be, is more becomingly rendered in such a garb. A part-actor! Ah! we need to be reminded that this is a character still to be found in the religious world. Bunyan introduces us to persons who are not mere fictions My Lord Turnabout, my Lord Fair-speech, Mr. Smooth-man, Facing-both-ways, the parson Mr. Two-tongues; the points in which all agree being "that they never strive against wind and tide, and that they are always most zealous when religion goes in his silver slippers." A part-actor! Almost unconsciously, we play a part which marks an excess of what we have ourselves verified a part beyond, if not covering, the very thought of the soul. "Beware of the leaven!" Milton describes hypocrisy as "the only evil that walks invisible except to God alone." To be real, not to be a Mr. Facing-both-ways, is one of the great lessons of the life of Christ. In any diagnosis of human nature, we must remember the mixture to be found in character. Few persons intend, deliberately and systematically, to lie to God and man. The Pharisees whom our Lord condemned were not at least we may in charity so suppose intentionally false. If they prayed to be seen of men, we need not imagine that they secretly mocked at and disbelieved in the duty of prayer. The leaven was the endeavor to maintain a reputation with which they were credited; so much had this endeavor gained on them, that they were far more anxious about it than about their possession of truth in the inward parts. And thus they became part-actors. Now, so with regard to ourselves and our fellow-men. A person is observed doing, in some directions or at some times, what is inconsistent with his conduct at other times or in other directions And worldly minded people, always eager to scent blemishes, cry out, "Hypocrite!" This is a harsh, and may be a wrong, judgment. A lapse from the standard aimed at does not evidence insincerity. Nay, those who observe most closely the facts of life, can often trace what seems a twofoldness of self. The Apostle Paul in a most striking passage (Romans 7) has described the struggle in his own heart, the contending laws, the spiritual and the carnal, the oppositions and thwartings of the sin that dwelt in him oppositions so fierce that it seemed as if he were sold under sin. "O wretched man that I am!" he cries. His hope, his triumph, is, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Looking up to Jesus Christ, he saw his right and higher self; looking down on the evil ever present with him, on the body of death in which he appeared to be enslaved, he saw the lower and the wrong self. "I myself with the mind serve the Law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." The one feature in this portrait is the determination of the will. That was God"s; the deflections from it were the signs of an alien force from which he wished to be free. So long as this feature is predominant, the sanctification may be imperfect, but the life is true. What constitutes hypocrisy is appearing to be what one is not; concealing the want of piety in the heart under the cloke of piety in the action; such a study of outward effect that the conduct gradually becomes a tissue of dishonesties. This posing to be something and this anxiety about the pose rather than the truth constitute the leaven of hypocrisy. "Be no part-actor," says Christ (vers. 2, 3); no whisperer in darkness, be no mutterer in the ear in inner chambers. Be not one thing in secret, and another thing in public. Keep clear of pretences of all sorts. Remember, concealment cannot avail. Walls have ears. The universe has its libraries on which all that is whispered is written. And there is an Eternal Truth to whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.

2. Next, there is the word as to courage. Is it not the word which we might expect from him who had defied the most compact order in the land? Listen to the Christian"s "Fear not," and the Christian"s "Fear "Fear not man, having power only over the body" (ver. 4). Have the courage of your convictions. Trust in God and do the right. Fear God (ver. 5). Fear not to speak the truth; fear to tell the lie. "Yea, I say unto you, fear the Eternal Righteousness." The lesson is enforced by three considerations.

(1) The value to God of every true and honest life (vers. 6, 7). Not one sparrow is forgotten, not one of the tiniest and least valued of God"s creatures is outside his care. Every hair on your head is numbered You are dear to God. He is waiting for you to work with him. The life of each of you is of value to him. Fear not.

(2) The danger of trifling with conviction (vers. 8-10). Do not refuse, for some fear of man, to give effect to it. You may possibly, says the Lord, quench the Holy Spirit This was the sin of the Pharisees This is the unpardonable sin. A word against Jesus may be spoken "ignorantly in unbelief;" and the Redeemer says, "Father, forgive for they Know not what they do" But to shut the eye to the light, to refuse to see light as light, to sophisticate the voice of God"s Spirit speaking through reason and conscience, this is to destroy the possibility of spiritual health. Christ says to the disciples, "To confess me before men, no matter what the consequences to yourselves, is to deliver your souls, is to realize the confession in heaven; to deny me is to lose the fellowship of the holy angels, is to approach the confines of the sin which shall not be forgiven.

(3) The support assured for all testimony to him (vers. 11, 12). God is ever on the side of the true. Christ bids these who confess him dismiss anxiety when brought to "synagogues, magistrates, and powers" They are never alone. Moses the stammering, had his Aaron with him when he went in unto Pharaoh. A Mightier than Aaron is with the most timid and stammering of the confessors of the kingdom of God. "The Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Vers. 1-12. A call to courage.

The commotion between the scribes and Pharisees and our Lord seems to have increased his audiences, as we find "an innumerable multitude," as the Authorized Version has it, or "the many thousands of the multitude," as the Revised has it, treading on one another in eagerness to hear him. And his subject at this time is important a denunciation of Pharisaic hypocrisy and a call to courage under their certain opposition. And here we have to notice

I THE CURE FOR HYPOCRISY. (Vers. 1-3) Our Lord brings this out in a distinct revelation that everything is yet to be dragged into the light of day. These are his words: "There is nothing covered "covered up," Revised Version, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known." There is nothing in nature which would lead us to such a wonderful truth; it is a matter of distinct revelation. Everything, it appears, is constructed on the public principle. We are all living public lives if we only knew it. All attempts at secrecy are destined to prove failures; consequently, hypocrisy is a mistake. It can impose only for a time; sooner or later it will be exposed and despised. Hence our Lord recommends the people to speak, if they have to do so, in the darkness only what they are willing should be heard in the light, and to whisper in closets only such things as may be proclaimed on the housetops. By God"s arrangement secrecy is impossible, and publicity the inevitable destiny of all and of everything. It is consequently this persuasion of ultimate publicity which constitutes the Divine remedy for hypocrisy. All hypocrisy proceeds from forgetfulness or disbelief of this.

II THE EXPULSIVE POWER OF GODLY FEAR. (Vers. 4, 5) Our Lord wishes to guard the people from the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, and also from cowardly fear of Pharisaic opposition. Accordingly, he points out that the Pharisees could at the very most kill the body; they have, after that, "no more that they can do." But there is another One who can cast into "Gehenna" after he hath killed, and him they should fear. We discard the idea suggested by Stier and others that this is the devil; especially as courage is not likely to be created by substituting, for fear of diabolical men, the fear of the devil himself. This would be a poor basis for the martyr-spirit. We believe that the fear of man is to be expelled and supplanted by the fear of God, who can consign the soul to Gehenna after death. And our Lord shows here that the fear of God begins in dread of his infinite power. No soul, we suppose, ever turns to God without passing through this stage, however brier" may be the sojourn in it. God"s vaster power makes the hostile power of mere men appear trifling, and we wisely resolve to have men for our enemies rather than God. But once this sense of God"s great power has overcome our craven fear of man, we begin to realize that we may have all his power on our side. He will pardon us and take us under his protection, and enable us to fear no evil. Godly fear, consequently, gets modified in our experience, and passes from slavish fear and dread into reverential and filial/bar of God as an almighty Father.

III GOD"S MICROSCOPIC AND PRESENT PROVIDENCE. (Vers. 6, 7) The sparrows may be cheap in man"s estimation five for two farthings but "not one of them is forgotten before God." He caters for them. His providence is minute enough to take them under his wings. Men ought, therefore, to take courage from the assurance that, in God"s sight, they "are of more value than many sparrows." And God"s oversight is so microscopic that he counts the very hairs of our head. Hence the contest with their Pharisaic and worldly foes is to be conducted under the sweet assurance that greater is he who is for them than all who are against them, and that his care is so minute as to extend to the numbering of the hairs of their head. A great Being on our side, so minute and careful in his interest, is fit to inspire with dauntless courage every one who realizes his presence by faith and trusts him.

IV THE IMPORTANCE OF CONFESSING CHRIST. (Vers. 8, 9) Our Lord further shows how important it is to confess him; but in the other life there is to be another confession the confession before the angels of the courageous souls who have confessed Christ here. On the other hand, there is to be a denial of the cowards who denied Christ here. Out of the publicity of the future life, therefore, our Lord draws such considerations as are fitted to rally souls around him in courageous confession. And there can be no doubt that this great publicity which our Lord locates in the future life is a fountain-head of courage for souls struggling with opposition. The highest type of courage can undoubtedly be produced through the doctrine of a future life with its rewards and punishments.

V THE DANGER OF BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST. (Ver. 10) The introduction of the Holy Ghost in connection with the Pharisaic opposition seems to have been suggested in this way: the Pharisees, not content with libelling and defaming Christ, professed to trace his power over demons to its source. This, they asserted, was not the Holy Ghost, but Beelzebub within him. That is to say, they attributed spiritual results to a diabolic origin. In this way they blasphemed the Holy Ghost. Now, our Lord, in his meekness and lowliness of mind, declares that there is forgiveness for unfair words against him, but warns those who are misinterpreting the Spirit"s work, that blasphemy against him if continued cannot be forgiven. Now, this subject of the unpardonable sin has given rise to much discussion, but, perhaps, the best view is that adopted by such men as Stier, Tholuck, Olshausen, Hahn, Julius Muller, and Hoffmann internal state of the highest sinfulness which cannot be changed, and shows itself in speech or action, resisting or deliberately setting the soul against the influences of the Holy Ghost." Its practical value is immense. It should lead every thoughtful soul to guard against all trifling with or grieving of the good Spirit whose agency within us alone secures the victory over evil. The Pharisees were treading on the confines of the terrible sin in their denunciation of Christ, and the multitude Christ was addressing and all who have the offer of spiritual help should guard against all offense offered to the all-important Spirit.

VI THE INSPIRATIONS TO BE EXPECTED FROM THE GOOD SPIRIT, (Vers. 11, 12) The calumniated Spirit would sustain the confessors of Christ before their enemies, so that all the tried men had got to do was to rely on his inspirations, and they would never fail them. The Holy Ghost would prompt such words and thoughts as would secure on their part a good confession. And a similar aid is to be expected by all Christ"s witnesses as they confront the world. If we but rely on his help, he will never fail us. Of course, this does not encourage idleness and want of preparation for the emergencies of life. The Spirit is more likely to inspire a studious, careful, prayerful man than a self-reliant idler. But reliance on the Spirit"s inspirations must never be rendered needless or doubtful by any prudent forethought we entertain. We are to be organs of the Spirit, and ought to act worthy of our high calling. R.M.E.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He said to his disciples first - But afterward ver. 54 to all the people. Matt. xvi, 6.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Warning against Hypocrisy and Covetousness.

The leaven of the. Pharisees:

v. 1. In the meantime, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch, that they trod one upon another, He began to say unto His disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

v. 2. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known.

v. 3. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

While the assaults of the Pharisees and scribes were going on, while they were attempting everything in their power to discredit Jesus and find some ground for accusing Him, the people, on the whole, came together to Him in greater multitudes than ever before, by the thousands, the largest gathering that had ever assembled about Him. So violently did they surge forward to come near the Lord that they literally trod one another down. Jesus, after His custom, took this opportunity to address the people on some subjects which were needful to them. His remarks were addressed chiefly to His disciples, but could easily be understood as far as His voice reached. The first topic of His discourse was that of hypocrisy. Note: The fact that many sayings of this chapter resemble, or are identical with, some of those in the Sermon on the Mount need cause no uneasiness. Jesus undoubtedly said many things which He wanted the people to know again and again, in order to impress it upon their minds. Here He warns His hearers to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which He explains as hypocrisy, while at other times He refers to their false doctrine, Mat 16:11-12. Hypocrisy is like leaven; if it is given room in the heart, it begins to work and extend its influence, until finally the effects will show on the outside. A hypocrite may wear the mask of sanctity for some time and dissimulate before the eyes of men; but it will putrefy the heart and soul to such an extent that it may be revealed at a most unexpected time. For though a thing may be very carefully covered, it will come to light some time; and though it be hidden, it will be made known. The Lord now makes the application of the saying in a good sense. Instead of trying to cover up and hide their convictions, the believers in Christ should take note. They should not resort to whispering in secret, in darkness, in the inner chambers, with the object of keeping their Christian convictions from the knowledge of the people, for that is a species of hypocrisy, but should be open and fearless before all men about speaking the truth and proclaiming the Gospel. Note: The warning is needed also in our days, when church-members are going to the extent of hiding even their churchgoing from their neighbors and of removing every evidence of Christianity from their rooms, Bibles, prayer-books, religious pictures, and papers, lest some of their "friends" may smile in a pitying fashion over their time-worn superstitions! Such hypocrisy is tantamount to an open denial of Christ.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In this chapter our blessed Saviour furnishes his diciples with many instructions for the worthy discharge of their function in preaching the gospel; particularly he recommends unto them two gracious qualifications, namely, uprightness and sincerity, verses 1,2,3. Secondly, courage and magnanimity, verses 4,5.

1. He recommends unto them the grace and virtue of sincerity: Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Learn hence, that hypocrisy is a dangerous leaven, which ministers and people are chiefly to beware of, and to preserve themselves from. Hypocrisy is a vice in vizor; the face is vice, the vizor is virtue: God is pretended, self intended: hupocrisy is resembled to leaven; partly for its sourness, partly for its diffusiveness. Leaven is a piece of sour dough, that diffuses itself into the whole mass or lump of bread with which it is mixed. Thus hypocrisy spreads over all the man; all his duties, parts and performances, are leavened with it.

Again, leaven is of a swelling, as well as of a spreading nature; it puffs up the dough, and so does hypocrisy the heart. The Pharisees were a sour and proud sort of people; they were all for pre-eminence, chief places, chief seats, chief titles, to be called Rabbi, Rabbi; In a word, as leaven is hardly discerned from good dough at first sight, so is hypocrisy hardly discerned and distinguished from sincerity. The Pharisees outwardly appeared righteous unto men, but within were full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Observe next, the argument which Christ uses to dissuade men from hypocrisy: There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed. As if he had said, the day is coming, when a rotten and corrupt heart shall no longer pass under the vizor and disguise of a demure look. In the day of judgment hypocritical sinners shall walk naked; God, angels and men, shall see their shame.

Learn hence, that God will certainly, however long, wash off all the varnish and paint which the hypocrite has put upon the face of his profession, and lay him open to the terror of himself, and the astonishment of the world.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LII. Concerning Hypocrisy, Etc.].

LII. CONCERNING HYPOCRISY, WORLDLY ANXIETY, WATCHFULNESS, AND HIS APPROACHING PASSION. (Galilee.) cLUKE XII. 1-59.

c1 In the meantime [that is, while these things were occurring in the Pharisee's house], when the many thousands of the multitude were gathered together, insomuch that they trod one upon another [in their eagerness to get near enough to Jesus to see and hear], he began to say unto his disciples first of all [that is, as the first or most appropriate lesson], Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. [This admonition is the key to the understanding of the principal part of the sermon which follows. The spirit of Phariseeism was one which sought the honor of men, and feared men rather than God. It was a spirit which yielded to public opinion, and, though seemingly very religious, was really devoid of all true loyalty to God. There were trials and persecutions ahead of Christ's followers in which no Pharisaic spirit could survive. The spirit of hypocrisy works in two ways: it causes the bad man to hide his badness for fear of the good man, and the good man to hide his goodness for fear of the bad man. It is this latter operation against which Jesus warns, and the folly of [316] which he shows.] 2 But there is nothing covered up, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. 3 Wherefore whatsoever ye have said in the darkness shall be heard in the light; and what ye have spoken in the ear in the inner chambers shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. [Many fearing the storm of persecution which was soon to come upon the disciples would attempt to conceal their faith, but the attempt would be vain, for one could not even trust his own family ( Luk_12:51-53) to keep silent about what was said even in the inner chambers of the home. Bold speech would be best. The flat tops of Eastern houses were places from whence public proclamations were made.] 4 And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him. [It would be a time of fear, but the fear of God must dominate the fear of man. The fear of God should cause them to speak out, though the fear of man bade them be silent-- Act_4:18-21.] 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pence? and not one of them is forgotten in the sight of God? [The Roman as here rendered penny, was worth about four-fifths of a cent. Two sparrows were sold for a penny ( Mat_10:29). For two pennies, an extra one was thrown into the bargain, yet even it, so valueless, was not forgotten of God.] 7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not: ye are of more value than many sparrows. [These words assured them that whatever they might be called upon to undergo they would be at all times the objects of God's special care and providence.] 8 Also I say unto you, Every one who shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God: 9 but he that denieth me in the presence of men shall be denied in the presence of the angels of God. [These words were intended to strengthen those who loved honor or [317] feared disgrace. If the disgrace of being cast out of the synagogue tempted them to deny Christ, or the honors given by their fellow-men seemed too precious to be sanctified for Christ's sake, they were to remember that the confession or denial of Jesus involved eternal honor or disgrace in the presence of the angelic host.] 10 And every one who shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven. [Persecution would urge them to blasphemy ( Act_26:11). In his hour of trial a disciple must remember the tender compassion of the Master against whom he is urged to speak, and the extreme danger of passing beyond the line of forgiveness in his blasphemy. For blasphemy against the Holy Spirit see Joh_14:15). If love toward Jesus did not move this brother to rightly divide the inheritance, the injured party must look to the state and not to Jesus for [318] assistance.] 15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness [Jesus made the incident the text for an admonition. Covetousness made one brother say, "Divide," and the other one say, "No, I will not;" so Jesus warned against covetousness]: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. [A man's goods are no part of his life, and so they can not preserve it. It is lengthened or shortened, blessed or cursed, at the decree of God. Covetousness is an inordinate desire for earthly possession. Though all ages have committed it, it is the besetting sin of our time. A clear view of the limitations of the power of property quenches covetousness; and Jesus gives such a view in the following parable.] 16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully [This man's sin was not theft or extortion. His wealth came to him honestly as a blessing from God]: 17 and he reasoned within himself, saying [his words betray his sin--his covetousness], What shall I do, because I have not where to bestow my fruits? 18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods [ Pro_1:32] laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry. [It is a short speech, but it reveals character. The man's selfishness is shown in that he uses the pronoun "I" six times, and says nothing of anyone else. His covetous love of possessions is shown by the word "my," which he uses five times. Compare his words with those of Nabal at 1Sa_25:11. In his speech to his soul he asserts his trust that his "abundance" is a guarantee of "many years" of happy life; but it did not guarantee one day. The Eastern barn is a pit or dry cistern built underground with an opening at the top. These the man proposed to enlarge by pulling down the walls or sides and extending them.] 20 But God said unto him [God may be represented as saying what he does], Thou foolish [319] one [His folly was shown in several ways: 1. He hoarded his goods instead of using them for his fellow-men; 2. Ownership of goods deceived him into thinking that he owned time also; 3. He thought to satisfy the hunger of the soul with the food of the body; 4. In commanding his soul in such a way as to show that he forgot that God could command it also], this night is thy soul required of thee [the man said "many years," but God said "this night"]; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be? [Death generally scatters possessions broadcast ( Psa_39:6, Ecc_2:18, Ecc_2:19). For an echo of these words see Jam_4:13-15.] 21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God. [To be rich in character is to be rich toward God. But we may be rich towards him by making him the repository of our hopes and expectations.] 22 And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for i your life, what ye shall eat; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. 23 For the life is more than the food, and the body than the raiment. 24 Consider the ravens, that they sow not, neither reap; which have no store-chamber nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more value are ye than the birds! 25 And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit unto the measure of his life? 26 If then ye are not able to do even that which is least, why are ye anxious concerning the rest? [If you can not add one little moment to your life, why should you be anxious about the smaller concerns of property?] 27 Consider the lilies, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; yet I saw unto you, Even Solomon in all his glory [ Sol_3:6-11] was not arrayed like one of these. 28 But if God doth so clothe the grass in the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; how much more i shall he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, and what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30 For all these things do the nations of the [320] world seek after: but your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. 31 Yet seek ye his kingdom, and these things shall be added unto you. [This passage from Luk_12:22-31 (excepting verse 26) will be found almost verbatim at Mat_6:25-33. See Mat_6:20, Mat_6:21. See 1Co_7:36. Purses were bound to the girdles, so that if a hole wore in them, their contents were lost. Having discussed the folly of amassing and trusting in earthly riches, and the wisdom of trusting in God, and amassing heavenly riches, Jesus passes to a new theme; viz.: a watchful service and its rewards. He may have been led into this theme by some interruption, such as that given at Luk_12:13 or that at Luk_12:41, or it may have been suggested to him by his own words about the little flock and the kingdom. The kingdom was not to come in a day, and the little flock must watch patiently and serve faithfully before his coming-- Luk_19:11-13.] 35 Let your loins be girded about [the long Oriental robe had to be lifted up and girded at the waist before the feet could step quickly-- 1Ki_18:46], and your lamps burning [this was needful; for Oriental weddings take place at night]; 36 and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord, when he will return from the marriage feast; that [321] when he cometh and knocketh, they may straightway open unto him. [Thus honoring him by a speedy welcome.] 37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them. [The apostles had a foretaste of this honor on the evening of the last Passover-- Joh_13:4, Joh_13:5.] 38 And if he shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find them so, blessed are those i servants. [Originally the Jews had three watches ( Lam_2:19, Jdg_7:19, 1Sa_11:11); but, following the Romans, they now had four watches. The second and third watches lasted from 9 P. M. to 3 A. M. The first watch is not mentioned because the marriage took place in it, and the fourth is not mentioned because in the latter part of it the day dawns and the virtue of watching was over-- Luk_13:35.] 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not have left his house to be broken through. [Jesus here illustrates watchfulness by a second figure. To some the coming of Jesus will be like that of a master whom they have served more or less faithfully. To others his coming will seem like that of a plunderer who comes in suddenly and deprives them of all they have. The Oriental houses were mostly made of mud or sun-dried bricks. Hence it was so easy to dig a hole in the wall than that the thief preferred to enter that way rather than to break open the door.] 40 Be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh. [These words of warning confront every generation.] 41 And Peter said, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even unto all? [Peter wished to know if the exhortation to watchfulness applied merely to the apostles or to all who heard.] 42 And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall set over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? 43 Blessed is that servant, whom his [322] lord when he cometh shall find so doing. [The answer of Jesus shows that he especially addressed the disciples, for a steward is distinct from the household. On him the whole burden and care of the domestic establishment rested. Thus Jesus showed that he meant the disciples, yet did not exclude any who heard from profiting by his discourse. Fidelity is the first requisite in a steward, and wisdom is the second. All Christians are stewards; preachers, elders, Sunday-school teachers, etc., are stewards of place and office. Rich men, fathers, etc., are stewards of influence and possessions.] 44 Of a truth I say unto you, that he will set him over all that he hath. [As Pharaoh exalted Joseph-- Gen_39:4, Gen_41:39-41.] 45 But if that servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; 46 the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the unfaithful. [Cutting asunder was a punishment prevalent among ancient nations ( 2Sa_12:31, Dan_2:5, Heb_11:37). The definite punishment is part of the drapery of the parable, and does not necessarily indicate the exact nature of the punishment which will be inflicted upon the wicked.] 47 And that servant, who knew his lord's will, and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many i stripes. 48 but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required: and to whom they commit much, of him will they ask the more. [The greater the powers and opportunities entrusted to us, the larger the service which the Lord requires of us. Ignorance does not entirely excuse, for we are stewards, and it is the steward's duty to know his master's will. There is a guilt of ignorance as well as of transgression. The parable pointed to those who listened with delight to Jesus, but were careless about [323] knowing his meaning. With the Luk_12:49 Jesus passes on to set forth the severe tests to which the fidelity and vigilance of his disciples would be subjected in the times upon which they were about to enter.] 49 I came to cast fire [a firebrand] upon the earth; and what do I desire, if it is already kindled? [The object of Christ's coming was to rouse men to spiritual conflict, to kindle a fire in the public mind which would purify the better part and destroy the worse. But the burning of this fire would excite men and stir up their passions and cause division and discord. The opposition of the Pharisees showed that this fire was already kindled. What therefore was left for Jesus to desire? His work as a teacher was practically accomplished. But there remained for him yet his duty as priest to offer himself as a sacrifice for the world's sin. To this work, therefore, he glances briefly forward.] 50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with [a flood of suffering; that is, the agony of the cross]; and how am I straitened [distressed, perplexed] till it be accomplished! [The language here is broken, indicating the strong emotion of him who spoke it.] 51 Think ye that I am come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: 52 for there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. 53 They shall be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother; mother in law against her daughter in law, and daughter in law against her mother in law. [Jesus here shows the hard plight of the disciple. If he were the young son he would find his father against him, and if he were the aged father he would be persecuted by the boy whom he had raised. Jesus came to conquer a peace by overcoming evil with good; a conflict in which the good must always suffer. His warfare was not, as the people supposed, a struggle against the heathen, but against the evil within them and around them. So long as evil abounded, these unhappy divisions would last.] 54 And he said to the [324] multitudes also, When ye see a cloud rising in the west [the Mediterranean Sea lay in that quarter, and rains came from thence], straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it cometh to pass. 55 And when i ye see a south wind blowing, ye say, There will be a scorching heat; and it cometh to pass. [The south winds of Palestine blew from the equator, crossed the intervening deserts and wildernesses, and were distressingly hot.] 56 Ye hypocrites, ye know how to interpret the face of the earth and of the heaven; but how is it that ye know not how to interpret this time? [That is, this period which began with the ministry of John the Baptist. They could at once read the signs of nature so as to declare what kind of storm was coming. But with the political storm arising out of conflict with Rome impending over them, and with the spiritual storm which the teaching of Christ was bringing upon them, about to burst, they stood still in ignorant indifference, and made no provision for the times of trouble.] 57 And why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? [They had the warnings of both John and Jesus about matters and conditions which were so plain that they should have been able to see them without any warning whatever.] 58 For as thou art going with thine adversary before the magistrate, on the way, give diligence to be quit of him; lest haply he drag thee unto the judge, and the judge shall deliver thee to the officer, and the officer shall cast thee into prison. 59 I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou have paid the very last mite. [A mite (lepton,) was their smallest coin, being worth about two mills. For notes on this passage, see Matt. v. 25, 26, pages 239, 240. The passage here is an appeal to the people to avert the coming disasters. The Jewish rulers looked upon Jesus as their adversary. Accepting their valuation of him, Jesus counseled them to come to terms with him before it is too late.] [325]

[FFG 316-325]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Luke Chapter 12

Chapter 12 puts the disciples into this place of testimony by the power of the Holy Ghost, and with the world opposed to them, after the Lord’s departure. It is the word and the Holy Ghost, instead of the Messiah on the earth. They were neither to fear opposition, nor to trust in themselves, but to fear God and trust to His help; and the Holy Ghost would teach them what to say. All things should be revealed. God reaches the soul: man can only touch the body. Here that which goes beyond present promises, the connection of the soul with God, is put forward. It is coming out from Judaism to be before God. Their calling was to manifest God in the world at all costs-to manifest Him to faith before all things were made manifest. It might cost them dear before men: Jesus would confess them before angels. It is bringing the disciples into the light as God is in it, and the fear of God by the word and faith when the power of evil was present; all that evil, however secret, would be brought to light.

Nor this only. Blasphemy against the witness given would, in their case, be worse than blaspheming Christ. This might be forgiven (it has been indeed, and will be at the end to the Jews as a nation); but whosoever spoke in blasphemy against the testimony of the disciples blasphemed against the Holy Ghost. It should not be forgiven. But the Lord deals with their heart as well as with their conscience. He encourages them by three things: 1st, the protection of Him who counted the hairs of their head, whatever might be the trials of their faith; 2nd, the fact that, in heaven and before the angels, their faithfulness to Christ in this painful mission should be acknowledged by Him; and 3rd, the importance of their mission, its rejection being more fatally condemning than the rejection of Christ Himself. God had taken a step, and a final step, in His grace and in His testimony. The bringing to light of all things, the care of God, their being confessed by Christ in heaven, the power of the Holy Ghost with them-these are the motives and the encouragements here given to the disciples for their mission after the Lord’s departure.

That which follows brings out yet more distinctly the position in which the disciples were placed, according to the counsels of God, by the rejection of Christ (Luk 12:13). The Lord formally refuses to execute justice in Israel. This was not His place. He deals with souls, and directs their attention to another life which outlasts the present; and, instead of dividing the inheritance between the brothers, He warns the multitude to beware of covetousness, instructing them by the parable of the rich man who was suddenly called hence in the midst of his projects. What became of his soul?

But, having established this general basis, He turns to His disciples and teaches them the great practical principles that were to guide their walk. They were not to think of the morrow, but to trust in God. Moreover they had no power over it Let them seek the kingdom of God, and all that they needed should be added. This was their position in the world that rejected Him. But besides the Father’s heart was interested in them: they were to fear nothing. It was the Father’s good pleasure to give them the kingdom. Strangers and pilgrims here, their treasure was to be in heaven; and thus their heart would be there also. [33] Besides this, they were to wait for the Lord. Three things were to influence their souls: the Father would give them the kingdom, their heart’s treasure in heaven, and the expectation of the Lord’s return. Until the Lord should come, they were required to watch-to have their lamps burning; their whole position should manifest the effect of the continual expectation of the Lord-should express this expectation. They were to be as men who waited for Him with their loins girded; and in that case, when all should be according to the Lord’s own heart, re-established by His power, and they brought into His Father’s house, He would make them sit down, and, in His turn, gird Himself to serve them.

It is of all importance to fix the attention of the reader on the point, that what the Lord looks for here is not the holding, however clearly, the Lord’s coming at the end of the age, but that the Christian should be waiting for Him, in a full profession of Christ, and his heart in spiritual order. Such, the Lord will make to sit down as guests, but such for ever, in His Father’s house where He has brought them, and will Himself in love minister the blessing. This love will make the blessings ten thousand fold more precious, all received from His hand. Love likes to serve, selfishness to be served. But He did not come to be ministered to. This love He will never give up.

Nothing can be more exquisite than the grace expressed in these verses, Luk 12:35 and Luk 12:37. [34] On the inquiry of Peter, desirous of knowing to whom Jesus addressed these instructions, the Lord refers him to the responsibility of those to whom He committed duties during His absence. Thus we have the two things that characterise the disciples after the rejection of Christ-the expectation of His return, and service. The expectation, the vigilance that watches with girded loins to receive Him, finds its reward in rest, and in the feast (happiness ministered by Him) at which Jesus girds Himself to serve them; faithfulness in service, by having rule over all that belongs to the Lord of glory. We have seen, besides these special relationships between the walk of the disciples and their position in the world to come, the general truth of the renunciation of the world in which the Saviour had been rejected, and the possession of the kingdom by the gift of the Father.

In that which He says afterwards of the service of those who bear His name during His absence, the Lord also points out those who will be in this position, but unfaithful; thus characterising those who, while publicly exercising ministry in the church, should have their portion with the unbelievers. The secret of the evil that characterises their unbelief would be found in this, that their hearts would put off the return of Jesus, instead of desiring it and hastening it by their aspirations, and serving with humility in the desire of being found faithful. They will say, He is not coming immediately; and, in consequence, they will do their own will, accommodate themselves to the spirit of the world, and assume authority over their fellow-servants. What a picture of that which has taken place! But their Master (for He was so, although they had not truly served Him) would come at a moment whenthey did not expect Him, as a thief in the night; and, although professing to be His servants, they should have their portion with unbelievers. Nevertheless there would be a difference between the two; for the servant who knew his own Master’s will and did not make ready for Him, as the fruit of his expectations, and did not perform his Master’s will, should be severely punished; whilst he who had not the knowledge of His will should be punished less severely. I have added “own” to the word “Master,” according to the original, which signifies a recognised relationship with the Lord, and its consequent obligation. The other was ignorant of the explicit will of the Lord, but he committed the evil which in any case he ought not to have done. It is the history of true and false servants of Christ, of the professing church, and of the world in general. But there cannot be a more solemn testimony as to what brought unfaithfulness into the church, and led to its ruin and approaching judgment, namely, the giving up the present expectation of the Lord’s coming.

If it shall be required of persons according to their advantages, who will be so guilty as those that call themselves the ministers of the Lord, if they do not serve Him as in expectation of His return?

Nevertheless the Lord, thus rejected, was come to bring conflict and fire on the earth. His presence kindled it even before His rejection, in the baptism of death through which He was to pass, was accomplished. It was not, however, till after this that His love would have full liberty to develop itself in power. Thus His heart, which was love even according to the infinitude of the Godhead, was straitened until the atonement gave free course to it, and to the accomplishment of all the purposes of God, in which His power should be manifested according to that love, and to which this atonement was absolutely necessary as the basis of the reconciliation of all things in heaven and earth. [35] Luk 12:51-53. He shews in detail the divisions that would be the result of His mission. The world would no more endure faith in the Saviour than it did the Saviour Himself, who was its object and whom it confessed. It is well to note how the presence of the Saviour draws out the evil of the human heart. The state described here is in Micah, the description of the most dreadful state of evil conceivable (Mic 7:1-7).

He then addresses Himself to the people, to warn them of the existing signs of the times in which they lived. He puts this testimony on a twofold ground: the evident signs which God gave; and the moral proofs which, even without the signs, conscience ought to acknowledge, and which thus oblige them to receive the testimony.

Be they ever so blind, they are in the way to the judge. Once delivered up, they should not come out till the chastisement of God was fully executed upon them. [36] (compare Isa 40:2).

Footnotes for Luke Chapter 12

33: Observe here, that the heart follows the treasure. It is not, as men say, where your heart is, your treasure is-my heart is not in it; but “where your treasure is, there win your heart be also.”

34: Here we have the heavenly portion of those who wait for the Lord during His absence. It is the character of the we disciple in his heavenly aspect, as service in his place on earth. Observe also that the Lord was a servant down here. According to Joh 13:1-38 He becomes a servant on ascending to heaven, an Advocate, to wash our feet. In this place He makes Himself a servant for our blessing in heaven. In Exo 21:1-36, if the servant who had fulfilled his service did not wish to go out free, he was brought to the judges, and was fastened to the door by an awl which bored his ear in token of perpetual bondage. Jesus had perfectly accomplished His service to His Father at the end of His life on earth. In Psa 40:1-17 His “ears were digged” (that is, a body prepared, which is the position of obedience: compare Php 2:1-30). This is the incarnation. Now His service was finished in His life on earth as man, but He loved us too much-He loved His Father too much in the character of servant-to give it up; and at His death His ear, according to Exo 21:1-36, was bored, and He became servant for ever-a man for ever-now to wash our feet; hereafter in heaven, when He shall take us to Himself according to the passage we are considering. What a glorious picture of the love of Christ.

35: It is blessed to see here how, let evil in man be what it may, it after all leads to the accomplishment of the counsels of His grace. The unbelief of man drove back divine love into the heart of Christ, unweakened surely, but unable to flow forth and express itself; but its full effect on the cross made it flow forth unhindered, in grace that reigns through righteousness, to the vilest. It is a singularly interesting and blessed passage.

36: Let us here, in a note, sum up the contents of these two chapters, that we may better understand the instruction they contain. In the first (12) the Lord speaks, in order to detach the thoughts of all from this world-to the disciples, by directing them to Him who had power over the soul as well as the body, and encouraging them with the knowledge of their Father’s faithful care, and His purposes to give them the kingdom; meanwhile they were to be strangers and pilgrims, without anxiety as to all that happened around them-to the multitude, by shewing them that the most prosperous man could not secure one day of life. But He adds something positive. His disciples were to expect Him from day to day, constantly. Not only should heaven be their portion, but there they should possess all things. They shall sit at meat, and He Will Himself serve them. This is the heavenly portion of the church at the Lord’s return. In service until He comes-service that requires incessant watchfulness; it will then be His turn to serve them. We next have their inheritance, and the judgment of the professing church and of the world. His teaching produced division, instead of establishing the kingdom in power. But He must die. This leads to another subject-the present judgment of the Jews. They were on the road, with God, towards judgment (chap. 13). The government of God would not manifest itself by distinguishing the wicked in Israel through partial judgments. All should perish, unless they repented. The Lord was cultivating the fig-tree for the final year; if the people of God did not bring forth fruit, it spoilt His garden. To make a pretence of the law in opposition to a God present with them (even He who had given them the law) was hypocrisy. The kingdom was not to be established by the manifestation on earth of the King’s power. It should grow from a little seed until it became an immense system of power in the earth, and a doctrine which, as a system, should penetrate the whole mass. On inquiry being made whether the remnant was numerous, He insists upon entrance by the narrow gate of conversion, and of faith in Himself; for many would seek to enter into the kingdom and not be able: when once the Master of the house had risen up and shut the door (that is, Christ being rejected of Israel), in vain should they say that He had been in their cities. Workers of iniquity should not enter into the kingdom. The Lord is speaking here entirely of the Jews. They shall see the patriarchs, the prophets-Gentiles even from all parts-in the kingdom, and themselves outside. Nevertheless the accomplishment of the rejection of Christ did not depend on the will of man, of the false king who sought, by the Pharisees’ account, to get rid of Him. The purposes of God, and alas! the iniquity of man, were fulfilled together. Jerusalem was to fill up the measure of her iniquity. It could not be that a prophet should perish except at Jerusalem. But then the putting man to the proof in his responsibility closes in the rejection of Jesus. He speaks, in touching and magnificent language, as Jehovah Himself. How many times this God of goodness would have gathered the children of Zion under His wings, and they would not! As far as depended on the will of man, it was complete separation and desolation. And in fact it was so. All was over now for Israel with Jehovah, but not for Jehovah with Israel. It was the prophet’s part to reckon on the faithfulness of his God and-assured that this could not fail, and that, if judgments came, it would only be for a time-to say, “How long?” (Isa 6:11; Psa 79:5). Distress is complete when there is no faith, no one to say, “How long?” (Psa 74:9). But here the great Prophet Himself is rejected. Nevertheless asserting His rights of grace, as Jehovah, He declares to them, unasked, the end of their desolation. “Ye shall not see me until ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” This sudden manifestation of the rights of His divinity, and of His divinity itself, in grace, when as to their responsibility all was lost in spite of His gracious culture, is surpassingly beautiful. It is God Himself who appears at the end of all His dealings. We see from this recapitulation that chapter 12 gives us the heavenly portion of the church, heaven, and the life to come; chapter 13 adding to it (with Luke 17:54-59) the government of Israel and of the earth, with the outward form of that which should replace it here below.

John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1–5. Many thousands of the multitude. This is one of the passages that show the great impression produced at that time by Christ's teaching. See also Mark 1:33; 2:2; 3:9; 6:31, etc. The discourse that follows is found almost verbatim in Matthew. Beware of the leaven. The spirit of the Pharisees. There is great danger of religion becoming formal and hypocritical. See note on Matt. 16:6.

There is nothing covered. For notes on verses 2–5 see Matt. 10:26–28. The flat tops of Eastern houses were the places from whence public proclamations were made.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

Jesus begins to teach his disciples in front of thousands of people.

In the meantime

This is probably while the scribes and Pharisees were looking for a way to trap him. The author uses these words to mark the beginning of a new event. (See: Introduction of a New Event)

when many thousands of the people ... they trampled on each other

This is background information that tells the setting of the story. (See: Background Information)

many thousands of the people

"a very great crowd"

they trampled on each other

This is probably an exaggeration to emphasize that so many people were crowded close together that they would step on each other. AT: "they were stepping on each other" or "they were stepping on one another's feet" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)

he began to say to his disciples first of all

"Jesus first started speaking to his disciples, and said to them"

Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy

Just as yeast spreads through a whole lump of bread dough, their hypocrisy was spreading through the whole community. AT: "Guard yourself against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, which is like yeast" or "Be careful that you do not become hypocrites like the Pharisees. Their evil behavior influences everyone just as yeast affects a lump of dough" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

disciple

yeast

Pharisee

hypocrite

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

1-12. Exhortation to Courageous Sincerity. This is closely connected with what precedes. The commotion inside and outside the Pharisee’s house had attracted an immense crowd, which was divided in its sympathy, some siding with the Pharisees, others disposed to support Christ. His addressing His words to His disciples rather than to the multitude indicates that the latter were in the main not friendly. But the appeal made to Him by one of them (ver. 13) respecting a purely private matter shows that is authority is recognized by many. The man would not have asked Him to give a decision in the face of a wholly hostile assembly. But this warning to His followers of the necessity far courageous testimony to the truth in the face of bitter opposition implies present hostility. The connexion with the preceding scene is proved by the opening words, Ἐν οἶς, “In the midst of which, in the meantime.”

1. τωσν μυριάδων τους ὄχλου. Hyperbolical, as in Act 21:20. The article points to what is usual; “the people in their myriads.” Comp. οὐ φοβηθήσομαι ἀπὸ μυριάδων λαους τωσν κύκλῳ ἐπιτιθεμένων μοι (Psa 3:7).

ἤρξατο λέγειν. The ἤρξατο gives a solemn emphasis to what follows: see on 4:21, and comp. 14:18 and Act 2:4. It may possibly refer to πρωστον; He began to address the disciples, and then turned to the people. The πρωστον means that His wor were addressed primarily to the disciples, although the people were meant to hear them. After the interruption He addresses the people directly (ver. 15). It makes poor sense to take πρωστον with προσέχετε, “First of all beware” (Tyn. Cr an. Gen.), for to beware of Pharisaic hypocrisy cannot be considered the first of all duties. For other amphibolous constructions see on 2:22.

Προσέχετε ἑαυτοισς ἀπό. “Take heed to yourselves and avoid; beware of.” The warning phrase προσέχετε ἑαυτοῖς is peculiar to Lk. (17:3, 21:34; Act 5:35, Act 20:28); but in LXX πρόσεχεσεαυτωσͅ is common (Gen 24:6; Exo 10:28, 34:12; Deu 4:9, etc.). For the reflexive see on 21:30.

ἀπὸ τησς ζύμης. This constr. is common after verbs of avoiding, ceasing from, guarding against, and the like; παύω, κωλύω, φυλάσσομαι, κ.τ.λ. Comp. πρόσεχε σεαυτωσͅ ἀπὸ πάσης πορνείας (Tobit 4:12). The pronoun is often omitted 20:46; Mat 7:15, Mat 7:10:17, Mat 7:16:6, Mat 7:11; Deu 4:23 ?.

This warning seems to have been given more than once (Mar 8:15). Leaven in Scripture is generally a type of evil which corrupts and spreads, disturbing, puffing up and souring that which it influences. The parable of the Leaven (13:20, 21; Mat 13:33) is almost the only exception. Ignatius (Magnes. 10.) uses it in both a good and a bad sense. In profane literature its associations are commonly bad. The Flamen Dialis was not allowed to touch leaven or leaven bread (Aulus Genius, 10:15): comp. Juv. 3:188. The proverb μικρὰ ζύμη ἅλον τὸ φύραμα ζυμοις, is used of pernicious influence (1Co 5:6; Gal 5:9). Fermentation is corruption.

If τωσν φαρισαίων is rightly placed last (B L), it b epexegetic. “Beware of the leaven which is hypocrisy,—I mean the Pharisees’ leaven.” In Mat 16:12 “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” is interpreted as meaning their doctrine.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

An innumerable multitude [των μυριαδων του οχλου] . The word muriav strictly means a number of ten thousand. It is our word myriad. Hence, generally, of any countless number.

First of all. Many connect this with what follows : "first of all beware," etc.

Leaven. See on Mt 13:33.

Which [ητις] . Classifying the leaven : which belongs to the category of hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy. See on hypocrites, Mt 23:13.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.