Luke 16:11

Luk 16:11. Ἑν, in the case of) i.e. when so small a matter is at stake.—ἀδικῳ, the unjust [unrighteous] The unjust mammon is opposed to the true [good]: and by a metonymy of the consequent [unjust] for the antecedent [worthless at least], it is used for that which is least and worthless; inasmuch as by reason of its worthlessness, it is committed and given even to unjust and faithless men; nay, to these especially, because they, with their whole soul and body, seize upon it and devote themselves to it, and esteem it as their one and only good, Luk 16:25. [Abraham says to Dives, “Thy good things”]. Every great thing has, through men’s instrumentality either lately or formerly, contracted some stain of injustice. What an amount of injustice must the transference of ownerships throughout so many ages have been liable to impart to the tenures of property, even though at the present time the possessors may hold their property in all good faith?—πιστοὶ, faithful) External goods are given by way of a test to prove them.—οὐκ ἐγένεσθε, ye have not become [Engl. Ver. not so well, “ye have not been”]) having laid aside the faithlessness which was in you. This is the signification of the verb γίνομαι [as distinguished from εἰμι].—τὸ ἀληθινὸν, the true) Jesus speaks according to the heavenly sense [perception of the relative value of things]. The true good is that which is spiritual and eternal. Its preciousness is not equally liable to be exposed to the risk of faithless stewardship (management). No loss is sustained in the case of [this] mammon.—τίς, who) i.e. not I, nor my Father will.—πιστεύσει, will commit) in this life, where the danger is of faithlessness.

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

That is, heavenly and true riches: which are contrary to worldly and flitting substance.

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

unrighteous mammon--To the whole of this He applies the disparaging term "what is least," in contrast with "the true riches."

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

(11) If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon.—Better, if ye were not, or, became not. Here the “true riches” stand in contrast with the vain, deceitful, unrighteous mammon, and answer to the true spiritual wealth of peace, pardon, wisdom, or, in St. Paul’s language, here again coloured by St. Luke’s, the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph_3:8). Our Lord teaches His disciples, what human religious teachers have so often forgotten, that honesty, integrity, and, as implied in faithfulness, benevolence, in the use of this world’s goods, be our portion small or great, is an indispensable condition of all spiritual advancement.

The Greek word for “true” may be noticed as being that which is generally characteristic of St. John. (See Notes on Joh_1:9; Joh_4:23.) This is the only instance of its use in the three first Gospels; St. Paul uses it once (1Th_1:9), and then, after companionship with St. Luke. It is found in three passages of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb_8:2; Heb_9:14; Heb_9:24; Heb_10:22) twenty-three times in the writings of St. John.

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

11. the true riches] Literally, “that which is true,” i.e. real and not evanescent. Earthly riches are neither true, nor ours.

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.

If therefore ye have not been faithful,.... This is the application of the above proverbial expressions, and seems to be directed to the disciples of Christ, though not without a view to the covetous Scribes and Pharisees, who were in hearing of it, and were disturbed at it, Luk 16:14 and the meaning is, that whereas some of them might have been unfaithful, and have acted the unjust part of gathering of riches, as Matthew, and other publicans, that were now become the followers of Christ; if therefore they should be unfaithful

in the unrighteous mammon; in the disposing of it to improper uses, which was either unrighteously gotten, and therefore called, as it sometimes was, , "mammon of ungodliness", or "ungodly mammon" (x); or, which was fallacious, deceitful, vain, and transitory:

who will commit to your trust the true riches; or mammon? that is, how should you expect to be intrusted with the riches of grace, as the blessings and promises of the covenant of grace, the graces of the Spirit of God, which truly enrich persons, and are solid and durable? or the riches of glory, the better and more enduring substance in heaven, signified by a kingdom, and an inheritance that fadeth not away? so the Jews call the good things of another world, and say (y), that

"all the good things of this world are not , "true good things", in comparison of the good things of the world to come.''

And they use the same distinction with respect to "mammon", as here:

"the holy, blessed God, they say (z), gives him, , "mammon of truth", or true mammon; and he makes it "false", or deceitful:''

or rather the rich treasure of the Gospel is meant, called a treasure in earthen vessels, and the unsearchable riches of Christ; and is comparable to, and of more worth than gold, silver, and precious stones. And so the Syriac version renders it, "who will trust you with the truth?" with the truth of the Gospel.

(x) Targum in Hab. ii. 9. (y) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 23. 2. (z) Shemot Rabba, sect. 31. fol. 134. 4.

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

11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

Ver. 11. In the unrighteous mammon] Or the uncertain, vain, deceitful wealth of this world, which yet most rich men trust in, as if simply the better or safer for their abundance. Hence Drusius derives mammon from amans, which signifieth to trust.

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.

Who will commit ... - If you are not faithful in the small matters pertaining to this world, if you do not use aright your property and influence, you cannot expect that God will commit to you the true riches of his grace. Men who are dishonest and worldly, and who do not employ the deceitful mammon as they ought, cannot expect to grow in grace. God does not confer grace upon them, and their being unfaithful in earthly matters is evidence that they “would be” also in much greater affairs, and would likewise “misimprove” the true riches.

True riches - The graces of the gospel; the influences of the Spirit; eternal life, or religion. The riches of this world are false, deceitful, not to be trusted Luk 16:9; the treasures of heaven are “true,” faithful, never-failing, Mat 6:19-20.

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

If then you have not been faithful in the unjust mammon;[2] i.e. in fading and false riches, which are the occasion of unjust and wicked proceedings. --- Who will trust you with that which is the true? i.e. God will not intrust you with the true and spiritual riches of his grace. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

In iniquo mammona, Greek: en to adiko Mammona.

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).

This verse now opposeth the unrighteous mammon to the true riches, which would strongly incline one to think, that by the mammon of unrighteousness, before mentioned, our Saviour meant only false and deceitful riches. By the true riches I cannot think is meant the gospel, which indeed is said to be committed to trust of the ministers, but not of all Christians. I had rather interpret it of special, effectual grace, which is of all other the true riches: and so it teacheth us this great truth, That God is justified in the denial of his special grace to those who do not make a due use of his common gifts and grace; and indeed here will lie men’s damnation, because they do not make a just use of that common grace which they have, and might make a better use of it than they do. If they would be faithful in that, God would not deny them the true riches.

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

11. In the unrighteous mammon… the true—We have here the real definition of the term unrighteous mammon. It is the opposite of the true divine riches; the riches of God’s favour. We may remark that the word riches is here in italics, which intimates that it is supplied by the translators, there being no word for it in the Greek. It is as if our Lord wanted a word which language did not supply. To say in the contrast the unrighteous mammon, and the true mammon) would be to sanctify the word mammon. He gives the word true and leaves us to supply the blank; and so the translators have supplied with the literal word riches.

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

The unrighteous mammon. As above in the parable, "mammon" signifies money. The epithet "unrighteous" is used in the same sense as in ver. 9, where we read of the "mammon of unrighteousness.

The true riches.

We must gain our idea of the sense in which the word "true" is to be taken by our knowledge of Christ"s use of it. And we know that he used it as distinguishing, not the correct from the incorrect, or the existing from the imaginary, but the valuable from the comparatively unimportant, the substantial from the shadowy, the essential from the accidental, the abiding from the transitory. It is in this sense that he says of himself, "I am the true Light;" i.e. "I am not that which renders the smaller service of revealing outward objects and the outward path, but that which renders the supreme service of making clear Divine and heavenly truth, and the way that leads home to God himself." Thus he speaks also of himself as "the true Bread;" i.e. not the food which sustains for a few hours, but that inward and spiritual nourishment which satisfies the soul and makes it strong for ever. Similarly he declares that he is "the true Vine;" i.e. the Divine Author of the soul"s refreshment, strength, and joy. We shall, therefore, find in "the true riches" those treasures which are truly valuable, which permanently endow their possessor, in opposition to those other treasures which are of inferior worth. We glance at

I THE INFERIOR CHARACTER OF EARTHLY TREASURE. NO doubt these riches, which are not entitled to be called the "true riches," have a worth of their own which is far from contemptible. Indeed, they render us services which we cannot help calling valuable; they provide us with shelter, with food, with raiment, with instruction, and even (in the sense of ver. 9) with friendship. But they neither supply to us nor secure for us lasting satisfaction.

1. They do not supply it in themselves. The possession of wealth may give, at first, considerable pleasure to the owner of it; but it may be doubted whether there is not more pleasure found in the pursuit than in the possession of it. And it cannot be doubted that the mere fact of ownership soon ceases to give more than a languid satisfaction, often balanced, often indeed quite outweighed, by the burdensome anxiety of disposing of it.

2. They do not ensure it. They can command a large number of pleasant things; but these are not happiness, much less are they well-being. That life must have been short or that experience narrow which has not supplied many instances in which the riches of this world have been held by those whose homes have been wretched, and whose hearts have been aching with unrest or even bleeding with sorrow.

II THE SUPREME VALUE OF SPIRITUAL GOOD.

1. There are true riches in reverence. To be living in the fear of God; to be worshipping the Holy One; to be walking daily, hourly, continually, with the Divine Father; to have the whole of our life hallowed by sacred intercourse with heaven; this is to be enriched and ennobled indeed.

2. There is real wealth in love. Our best possession at home is not to be found in any furniture; it is in the love we receive, and in the love we have in our own hearts: "The kind heart is more than all our store." And to be receiving the constant loving favour of a Divine Friend, and to be returning his affection; to be also loving with a true and lasting love those for whom he died; this is to be really rich.

3. There are true riches in the peace, the joy, the hope, of the gospel of Christ. The peace that passes understanding; the joy that does not pall, and which no man taketh from us joy in God and in his sacred service; the hope that maketh not ashamed, that is full of immortality; these are the true riches. To be without them is to be destitute indeed; to hold them is to be rich in the sight of God, in the estimate of heavenly wisdom. C.

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

Who will intrust you with the true riches? - How should God intrust you with spiritual and eternal, which alone are true riches?

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

11, 12. If ye have not been faithful. If one is faithless in an earthly trust, how can he expect to receive a heavenly trust?

Another's. That which belongs to God. All who have property should understand that it is another's. Your own. The true riches, because they become a part of our being, the inalienable possession of the redeemed.

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.

11. τὸ ἀληθινόν. The ideally genuine; lit. ‘that which is true,’ i.e. real and not evanescent. Earthly riches are neither true, nor ours.

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.

11. τῷ ἀδίκῳ μαμωνᾷ. Obviously this means the same as the μαμωνᾶ τῇ ἀδικίᾳ, i.e. the wealth which is commonly a snare and tends to promote unrighteousness. Some, however, make τῷ ἀδίκῳ balance τὸ ἀληθινόν, and force ἄδικοͅ to mean “deceitful.” and so “false” wealth, which is impossible.

τὸ ἀληθινόν. That which is a real possession, genuine wealth. We are not to supply μαμωνᾶ, which is masc. Heavenly riches would not be called “mammon.” It is clear that this is parallel to πολλῷ in ver. 10, as ἀδίκῳ μαμωνᾷ to ἐλαχίστῳ, and that this genuine wealth means much the same as the “ten cities” (19:17). The connexion between πιστοί and πιστεύσει, “trusty” and is “entrust,” is perhaps not accidental. Neither Latin nor English Versions preserve it. Cran. has the impossible rendering, “who wyll beleve you in that whych is true.”

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

Faithful. Fidelity is, therefore, possible toward the unrighteous mammon.

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