Luke 15:31

15:31 you have always stayed by me: The parable is open-ended: it does not record the older brother’s response. The religious leaders still had a chance to respond to Jesus’ offer of the Kingdom.

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

Luk 15:31. Εἶπεν, He said) He makes a twofold reply to the elder son’s twofold complaint.—τέκνον, son) He addresses him by a loving title [Being filled with joy to overflowing on account of the return of His once-lost son.—V. g.]; nor does the Father immediately put away from Him (cast off) the envious brother.—πάντοτε, always) and it is not therefore necessary to rejoice with peculiar joy, as if something extraordinary had occurred: see Luk 15:7, at the end of the verse.—μετʼ ἐμοῦ, with Me) It is better to rejoice (enjoy one’s self) with the Father, than with a company of friends. See Luk 15:29 [ἵνα μετὰ τῶν φίλων μου εὐφρανθῶ].—πάντα, all things) This expresses the pre-eminent and peculiar privilege of the Jewish people.—τὰ ἐμὰ, which belong to Me) There is therefore no need that thou shouldest seek external friendships.—σά ἐστι, are thine) For the younger brother had received his share; and the elder-born had the priority of succession to the Father’s goods. Many things may possibly belong to the children of God, of which they are not privileged to have now the full enjoyment (usufructus). Therefore the elder brother ought not to have complained that a kid had never yet been given to him.

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

Luk 15:31-32 . The father answers meekly, apologetically, as if conscious that the elder son had some right to complain, and content to justify himself for celebrating the younger son’s return with a feast; not a word of retaliation. This is natural in the story, and it also fits well into the aim of the parable, which is to illustrate the joy of finding the lost. It would serve no purpose in that connection to disparage the object of the lesser joy. There is peculiar joy over one sinner repenting even though the ninety-nine be truly righteous, and over a prodigal returned even though the elder brother be a most exemplary, blameless, dutiful son.

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

Son, &c.--The father resents not the insult--how could he, after the largeness of heart which had kissed the returning prodigal? He calmly expostulates with him, "Son, listen to reason. What need for special, exuberant joy over thee? Didst thou say, 'Lo, these many years do I serve thee?' In that saidst thou truly; but just for that reason do I not set the whole household a-rejoicing over thee. For thee is reserved what is higher still--a tranquil lifelong satisfaction in thee, as a true-hearted faithful son in thy father's house, nor of the inheritance reserved for thee is aught alienated by this festive and fitting joy over the once foolish but now wise and newly recovered one."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 31. All that I have is thine.] See Clarke on Lu 15:28.

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

(31) Son, thou art ever with me.—As applied to the Pharisees in its primary bearing, or to others like the Pharisees in its secondary, it appears at first sight as if the words were spoken from their own point of view, their own self-appreciation, and were therefore ironical. We need not, however, so take them. The words were literally true of the Pharisees, of Israel as a nation, of all who reproduce the Pharisee temper. All outward gifts that God could bestow, the covenants and the law, and the promises, outward ordinances of worship, and the instruction of wise men and scribes—these had all been given to Israel, as like blessings are offered now to all members of the visible Church of Christ, the great family of God. All that was wanted was the power to use these things rightly, as the Father wills, and therefore to enjoy them.

All that I have is thine.—More literally, all mine is thine.

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

31. Son] Rather, Child.

thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine] Literally, “all mine are thine” “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the Shechinah, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom after the flesh Christ came who is God over all, blessed for ever,” Rom_9:4-5. Religionists of the Elder-brother type cannot realize the truth that they are not impoverished by the extension to others of God’s riches (Mat_20:14). Let us hope that after this appeal the elder son also went in.

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.

And he said to him, son,.... For so he was, as before observed, by creation, national adoption, and profession:

thou art ever with me; not in such a sense as Christ the Son of God was: nor can it design the gracious presence of God, or communion with him; for this man did not walk with God; and besides, this is more frequently expressed by God's being with his people, than by their being with him; nor are good men always with God, or God with them, in this sense; sometimes the phrase designs the saints being with God, or Christ, in heaven; but here it intends only attendance on public worship, in the place where the symbol of God's presence was, the temple; and the "ever" denotes the term of the legal dispensation, which in many branches of it, as circumcision, the passover, and other ordinances and statutes, is said to be for ever.

And all that I have is thine: which must be understood with a limitation; for it cannot mean, that he had all the perfections of God, as Christ the Son of God has; nor all spiritual blessings, as the adopted sons of God have; nor indeed any of them, but all the outward ordinances of the legal dispensation, which belonged to the Jews; particularly those that are enumerated in Rom 9:4 as the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, the promises, their descent from the fathers, and the Messiah's descent from them; they had him in person among them, and his personal ministry, the word and ordinances of the Gospel; and had as much as they could have, or desire to have, in an external way.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

31 And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

Ver. 31. All that I have is thine] In thy conceit at least. Thou holdest thyself happy howsoever, and seemeth to have one foot already in the porch of paradise. Self-deceivers will needlessly set up their counter for a thousand pounds, and will not believe but their penny is very good silver. They lay claim to all, as the madman of Athens did to all the ships that came into that harbour, as his.

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.

All I have is thine - The property was divided. What remained was in reality the older son’s. He was heir to it all, and had a right, if he chose, to use it. He had, therefore, no right to complain.

This instructive and beautiful parable was designed to vindicate the conduct of Jesus to show that it was right to receive sinners, and that the conduct of the Pharisees was unreasonable. The older son represents the Pharisees; the younger, the returning sinner, whether Jew or Gentile; and the father, God, who is willing to receive them. The parable had the designed effect. It silenced the adversaries of Jesus and vindicated his own conduct. There is not, perhaps, anywhere to be found a more beautiful and touching narrative than this. Every circumstance is tender and happily chosen; every word has a meaning; every image is beautiful; and the narrative closes just where it is fitted to make the deepest impression. In addition to what has been suggested, we may learn from this parable the following lessons:

1. That the disposition of a sinner is selfish. He desires to get all that he can, and is impatient of delay, Luk 15:12.

2. Sinners waste their blessings, and reduce themselves to a state of want and wretchedness, Luk 15:13. A life of sin brings on spiritual want and misery. It destroys the faculties, benumbs the mind, hardens the heart, abuses the beneficence of God, and makes us careless of him who gave us all that we have, and indifferent to the consequences of our own conduct.

3. Sinners disregard the future woes that will come upon them. The young man cared not for any calamities that might be the result of his conduct. He went on heedlessly - like every sinner to enjoy himself, and to squander what the toils of his father had procured for him.

4. Afflictions are often the means of bringing sinners to reflection, Luk 15:14. While his property lasted the prodigal cared little about his father. When that was gone, and he was in the midst of a famine, he thought of his ways. When sinners are in prosperity they think little about God. When he takes away their mercies, and they are called to pass through afflictions, then they think of their ways, and remember that God can give them comfort.

5. We have here an impressive exhibition of the wants and woes of a sinner.

(1)He had spent all. He had nothing. So the sinner. He has no righteousness, no comfort.

(2)He was far from God, away from his father, and in a land of strangers. The sinner has wandered, and has no friend. His miseries came upon him “because” he was so far away from God.

(3)His condition was wretched. He was needy, in famine, and without a friend. So the sinner. His condition is aptly denoted by that of the prodigal, who would gladly have partaken of the food of the swine. The sinner has taken the world for his portion, and it neither supplies the wants of his soul, nor gives him comfort when he is far away from his Father’s home and from God.

6. The sinner in this situation often applies to the wrong source for comfort, Luk 15:15. The prodigal should at once have returned to his father, but he rather chose to become a servant of a citizen of that region. The sinner, when sensible of his sins, should return at once to God; but he often continues still to wander. He tries new objects. He seeks new pleasures and new friends, and finds them equally unsatisfactory. He engages in new pursuits, but all in vain. He is still comfortless, and in a strange, a famished land,

7. The repentance required in the gospel is a return to a right mind, Luk 15:17. Before his conversion the sinner was alienated from God. He was spiritually deranged. He saw not things as they are. Now he looks on the world as vain and unsatisfactory, and comes to himself. He thinks “aright” of God, of heaven, of eternity, and resolves to seek his happiness there. No man regards things as they are but he who sees the world to be vain, and eternity to be near and awful; and none acts with a “sane mind” but he who acts on the belief that he must soon die; that there is a God and a Saviour - a heaven and a hell.

8. When the sinner returns he becomes sensible of the following things:

That he is in danger of perishing, and must soon die but for relief - “I perish with hunger.”

(2)That God is willing and able to save him - “How and to spare.” There is abundance of mercy for all, and all may come.

(3)He begins to cherish a hope that this may be his. God is willing, and he feels that all that is needful is for him to go to him.

(4)He resolves to go to God - “I will arise and go.”

(5)He comes to him willing to confess all his sins, and desirous of concealing none - “I will say, Father, I have sinned.”

9. True repentance is a voluntary act. It is not forced. It is the resolution of the sinner to go, and he cheerfully and cordially arises and goes, Luk 15:18.

10. A real penitent feels that his sins have been committed against God, Luk 15:18.

11. A true penitent also is willing to acknowledge his offences against his parents, brothers, friends, and all people, Luk 15:18.

12. A real penitent is humble, Luk 15:18. He has no wish to conceal anything, or to be thought more highly of than he “ought” to be.

13. God is willing to receive the true penitent, and has made the richest provision for his return and for his comfort. None need to hesitate to go. All who go, feeling that they are poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked, will find God willing to receive them, and none will be sent empty away.

14. The joy at the return of sinners is great. Angels rejoice over it, and all holy beings are glad.

15. We should not be envious at any favors that God may be pleased to bestow on others, Luk 15:32. He has given “us” more than we deserve; and if, by the sovereignty of his grace, he is pleased to endow others with more grace, or to give them greater talents, or to make them more useful, “we” have no cause to complain. We should rather rejoice that he is pleased to give such mercies to any of our race, and should praise him for the manifestation of his goodness, whether made to us or to other people.

16. The sensible joy when the sinner returns to God is often greater than that which may be felt “after” the return, and yet the real “cause” of rejoicing be no greater. In times of revival, the sensible joy of Christians may be greater than in ordinary seasons. Their graces are quickened, their zeal kindled, and their hopes strengthened.

17. If God is willing to receive sinners, if all holy beings rejoice, then how should Christians strive for their conversion, and seek for their return!

18. If God is willing to receive sinners “now,” then all should at once return. There “will” be a time when he will not be willing to receive them. The day of mercy will be ended; and from the misery and want of this wretched world, they will go down to the deeper miseries and wants of a world of despair where hope never comes; from whence the sinner can never return; and where the cheering thought can never enter the mind that in his Father’s house there is bread enough and to spare, or where he must feel that if there “is,” it will be forever untasted by the wretched prodigal in the land of eternal famine and death.

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

31. All I have is thine—Thou art still my son; thou hast not been disinherited; what I have is still within my reach as ever. The captious Scribes and Pharisees were still in Church relations ever with God. Yet they were forfeiting their organic sonship by being, like this sons angry because Jesus was calling the wanderers home. And mark that the son in the parable stays without; and without the parable leaves him. After the parable has thus fulfilled its immediate object, it may be applied to a great variety of equivalent cases. We may truly, then, say that the elder son is the Jews, and the younger the Gentiles; and that the return of the prodigal is the restoration of the Gentiles to the Church of God. The elder son, the Jews, is still angry and without; but he, too, may ultimately re-enter his father’s house in joy. The true lesson for these Pharisees is, that it is a poor and pitiful piety which wraps itself in a cold and selfish sanctity, and never smiles in gladness when sinners come home to God. And yet we must guard against the error of supposing that the repentant are dearer to God than the life-long Christian. For, as Philo the Jew says, “there ever remain in the souls of the repentant the scars and traces of ancient sins.”

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

Ungrateful recipiency and ample heritage.

The "elder brother" is by no means so unpopular out of the parable as he is in it. As he is seen in the picture every one is ready to throw a stone at him. In actual life there are many Christian people who pay him the high compliment of a very close imitation. We are in danger of setting up a certain type of Christian character as a model, and if one of our neighbours should show any serious departure from that type, we are disposed to be shy of him and to shun him. Is the returned penitent whom Christ has received into his love always cordially welcomed into our society and made to feel at home with us? But let us look at this young man as

I A TYPE OF THE UNGRATEFUL RECIPIENTS OF THE CONSTANT KINDNESS OF GOD. He complained of his father"s partiality in that for his brother there had been killed a fatted calf, while not even a kid had been slain for himself and his friends. But the reply was that, without any intermission, he had been enjoying the comfort of the parental hearth and the bounty of the parental table; that one extraordinary feast granted to his brother was nothing in comparison with the constant and continued manifestations of fatherly love and care he had been receiving day by day for many years. "Thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." It is for us to remember that our Divine Father"s continual loving-kindnesses are much more valuable than one interposition on our behalf. A miracle is a much more brilliant and imposing thing than an ordinary gift, but one miracle is not such evidence of fatherly love as we have in an innumerable series of daily and hourly blessings. A greater gift than the manna in the wilderness were the annual harvests which fed many generations of the people of God. A more valuable gift than the water that issued from the rock in the desert were the rains, the streams, and the rivers that fertilized the soil from year to year. Kinder than the providential rescue from threatening embarrassment or impending death is the goodness which preserves in peaceful competence and unbroken health through long periods of human life. It is a sad and serious mistake; it is indeed more and worse than a mistake when we allow the very constancy of God"s kindness, the very regularity of his gifts, to hide from our hearts the fact that he is blessing us in largest measure and in fullest parental love. He is saying to us the while, "Children, ye are ever with me, and all that I have is yours.

II A TYPE OF OUR COMMON SONSHIP. In the parable the father says to his son, "My property is thine thine to use and to enjoy; there is nothing I have made that is within your view and your reach which you are not free to partake of and employ; all that I have is thine." Is not that our goodly estate as the sons of God? This world is God"s property, and he shares it with us. He interdicts, indeed, that which would do us harm or do injury to others. Otherwise he says to us, "Take and partake, enrich your hearts with all that is before you.

1. And this applies not only to all material gifts, but to all spiritual good to knowledge, wisdom, truth, love, goodness; to those great spiritual qualities which are the best and most precious of the Divine possessions.

2. It has also a far-reaching application, it is a promise as well as a declaration. Of" all that God has" we only see and touch a very small part now and here. Soon and yonder we shall know far more of what is included in his glorious estate, and still and ever will it be true that what is his is ours; for he lives to share with his children the blessedness and the bounty of his heavenly home. C.

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

Thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine - This suggests a strong reason against murmuring at the indulgence shown to the greatest of sinners. As the father's receiving the younger son did not cause him to disinherit the elder; so God's receiving notorious sinners will be no loss to those who have always served him; neither will he raise these to a state of glory equal to that of those who have always served him, if they have, upon the whole, made a greater progress in inward as well as outward holiness.

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

The father said to him

The word "him" refers to the older son.

this brother of yours

The father was reminding the older son that the one who just came home was his brother.

this brother of yours was dead, and is now alive

This metaphor speaks of the brother being gone as if he were dead. See how you translated this phrase in Luke 15:24. AT: "it was as if this brother of yours were dead and became alive again" or "this brother of yours had died, but he is now alive" (See: Metaphor)

he was lost, and has now been found

This metaphor speaks of the son being gone as if he were lost. See how you translated this phrase in Luke 15:24. AT: "it is as if he were lost and now I found him" or "he was lost and has returned home" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

die

life

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

31. τέκνον. Child. The elder brother is still a ‘child’ of his father, however erring.

σὺ πάντοτε μετ’ ἐμοῦ εἶ. ‘Thou (emphatic) always art with me.’

πάντα τὰ ἐμὰ σά ἐστιν. So far as the elder son is sincerely “a doer of the law” he is “justified,” Rom 2:13. All that his father had was his. To him belonged “the adoption, and the glory, and the Shechinah, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom after the flesh Christ came, who is God over all, blessed for ever,” Rom 9:4-5. Religionists of the Elder-brother type cannot realize the truth that they are not impoverished by the extension to others of God’s riches (Mat 20:14). Let us hope that after this appeal the elder son also went in.

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.

31.] πάντοτε μ. ἐμ. εἶ, as a reason why no extraordinary joy should be shewn over him; other reasons might be assigned, and lie indeed in the background, suggested by his tone and words: but this is the soft answer to turn away wrath.

πάντα τὰ ἑμὰ σά ἐσ., because the portion of goods which remained was his.

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

31. Τέκνον. More affectionate than υἱέ, although the son had not said, “Father.” Comp. 2:48, 16:25; Mat 21:28; Mar 10:24; 2Ti 2:1.

σύ πάντοτε. In emphatic contrast to the one who has been so long absent, and perhaps in answer to his own emphatic ἐμοί (ver. 29). “What he is enjoying for this one day, thou hast always been able to command.” But, like the Pharisees, this elder son had not understood or appreciated his own privileges. Moreover, like the first labourers in the vineyard, he supposed that he was being wronged because others were treated with generosity.

πάντα τὰ ἐμὰ σά ἐστιν. If he wanted entertainments he could always have them; the property had been apportioned: διεῖλεν αὐτοῖͅ τὸν βίον (ver. 12).

Thus the first reproach is gently rebutted. So far from the elder son’s service never having met with recognition, the recognition has been constant; so constant that he had failed to take note of it. The father now passes to the second reproach,—the unfair recompense given to the prodigal. It is not a question of recompense at all; it is a question of joy. Can a family do otherwise than rejoice, when a lost member is restored to it?

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