Luke 16:9

Luk_16:9

Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness

The right use of unrighteous mammon

By the mammon of unrighteousness we are very clearly to understand money; but why it has been so called by Christ is not so evident.

Perhaps the simplest, as it is certainly the most obvious explanation, is because it is so frequently unrighteously acquired, and so much more frequently as the mans own possession, and not as a trust of which he is merely a steward. But, however the epithet unrighteous may be accounted for, the thing which it characterizes is money. Now, there is a time when that shall fail. Death says to each man, Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward. We can carry with us nothing out of this world. Money cannot-simply and only as money--be transferred into the world beyond; but it may be so used in this world as to add to and intensify a Christians happiness in the next. We are familiar with the fact, in our daily lives here, that money may become the means of procuring that which is better than itself. Thus knowledge is better than wealth; yet by a wise use of wealth we may acquire knowledge. So, by a judicious employment of money as trustees for God, in communicating to the necessities of the saints, we shall secure that those whom we have thus relieved shall receive us into everlasting habitations. This use of money will not purchase our admission into heaven; but it will make friends for us there, whose gratitude will add to our enjoyment, and increase our blessedness. It will not open the gates for our entrance. Only Christ is the door. Through Him alone can we gain ingress. But it will affect what Peter calls the abundance of our entrance, for it will secure the presence there of those who have been benefited by our faithful stewardship; and, chiefest of all, it will be rewarded with the approbation of Him who will say, Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it unto Me. It is of grace alone, through Christ, that we are permitted to enter heaven; but once there, the measure of reward will be graduated according to that of our faithfulness here as good stewards of the manifold bounties of God. Those who have been helped and blessed by our service will lead us up to the throne, and say, This is he of whom we have often spoken, and to whom we were so much beholden in the life below; and He who sitteth thereon will reply, Well done: let it be done unto him as unto the man whom the King delighteth to honour. Thus, though money cannot be taken with us into the future life, we yet may so employ it here, in stewardship for God, as to send on treasure before us into heaven, in the shape of friends, who shall throughout eternity redouble and intensify our happiness. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)

The mammon of unrighteousness

Mammon is just the Syrian word for money, and it is called unrighteous or unjust because those to whom our Lord was speaking had made their money by injustice. It was as little their own as the unjust stewards was. The steward was unjust because he had not regarded himself as a steward; and in so far as we have forgotten this fundamental circumstance, we also are unjust. We may not have consciously wronged any man or defrauded any; but if we have omitted to consider what was due to God and man, the likelihood is we have more money than we have a right to. The name, indeed, unrighteous mammon, is sometimes sweepingly applied to all wealth and material advantages, because there is a feeling that the whole system of trade, commerce, and social life is inextricably permeated with fraudulent practices and iniquitous customs--so permeated that no man can be altogether free, or is at all likely to be altogether free, from all guilt in this matter. Take any coin out of your pocket and make it tell its history, the hands it has been in, the things it has paid for, the transactions it has assisted, and you would be inclined to fling it away as contaminated and filthy. But that coin is a mere emblem of all that comes to you through the ordinary channels of trade, and suggests to you the pollution of the whole social condition. The clothes you wear, the food you eat, the house you live in, the money you are asked to invest, have all a history which will not bear scrutiny. Oppression, greed, and fraud serve you every day. Whether you will or not you are made partakers of other mens sins. You may be thankful if your hands are not soiled by any stain that you have wittingly incurred; but even so, you must ask, What compensation can I make for the unrighteousness which cleaves to mammon? how am I to use it now, seeing I have it? Our Lord says, You are to make friends with it, who may receive you into everlasting habitations. You are so to use your opportunities that when your present stewardship is over you may not be turned out in the cold and to beggary, but may have secured friends who will give you a welcome to the eternal world. It is the same view of the connection of this world and the next which our Lord gives in His picture of the last judgment, when He says, Inasmuch as ye have done it, etc. Those whom we have done most good to are, as a rule, those whom we have most loved; and what better welcome to a new world, what more grateful guidance in its ways, could we desire than that of those whom here on earth we have loved most dearly? Can you promise yourselves any better reward than to meet the loving recognition and welcome of those who have experienced your kindness; to be received by those to whom you have willingly sacrificed money, time, opportunities of serving yourself? (Marcus Dods, D. D.)

A profitable investment

The old Jewish writers tell us of a certain avaricious Rabbi who was very anxious to invest his wealth to the best advantage. A friend undertook to do this for him. One day the Rabbi asked the name of the investment from which he was assured he would receive the highest interest. His friend answered, I have given all your money to the poor. You know, that if you were going to take a journey into some foreign country, you would change your English money for the currency of the place to which you were bound. You would convert your sovereigns, and bank notes, and shillings, into dollars, or roubles, or francs, or what not. Well, remember that we all have to take a journey into a land beyond the grave, where our money, and our pride, and our intellect, and our strength, and our success will not avail us--these will not be the currency of the country. Let us change our currency now, and get such property as faith, love, purity, gentleness, meekness, truth--these alone will pass current in the better country. Consecrate your wealth, or your work, or your influence, or whatever you have to God. (H. J.Wilmot Buxton, M. A.)

Making friends of mammon

Probably most of us understand that we are to do what good we can with our goods now, in order that when we die we may receive the reward of our good deeds. But that is a very partial and imperfect reading of the words. It is true that our Lord promises us an eternal reward: but eternity is a word that covers the present and the past as well as the future. It is true He promises that, if we make friends of mammon, then, when mammon fails us, our friends will receive us; and it is also true that mammon will fail us when we die, for it is very certain that we cannot carry it out of the world with us, even in the portable form of a cheque-book. But may not mammon fail us before we die? May we not, even while we are in this life, lose our money, or find that there are other losses for which no money can compensate us? We know very well that we may, some of us know it only too sadly, Riches have wings for use, and not only for show. It is not only the grim face of Death that scares them to flight; they flee before a thousand other alarms. The changes and accidents in which they fail us are innumerable; there are countless wounds which gold will not heal, endless cravings which it will not satisfy. And the very point and gist and value of our Lords promise is that, whenever mammon fails us, in life and its changes and sorrows no less than in death, if we have previously made friends out of it, these friends will open eternal tabernacles in which our stricken spirits may find refuge and consolation. It is this present, this constant, this eternal reward of a wise use of our temporal possessions on which we need most of all to fix our thoughts. And, remember, we all need it, the poor no less than the rich. For we all have some acquaintance with mammon, though for some of us, happily, it is a very distant acquaintance. We all have a little money, or moneys worth, at our control, and may take one of two courses. Well, now, suppose a man has lived long enough to feel his feet and to consider the courses that are open to him, and to be sincerely anxious to take the right course and to make the best use he can of his life. All around him he sees neighbours who are pushing on with the utmost eagerness in the pursuit of fortune, who are sacrificing ease, culture, pleasure, health, and at times conscience itself, in their love for that which St. Paul pronounces to be a root of all evil, a temptation and a snare, and which Christ says makes it very hard for a man to enter the kingdom of God. He has to determine whether or not he will join in this headlong pursuit--whether he, too, will risk health of body, culture of mind, and sensitive purity of conscience, in the endeavour to grow rich, or richer than he is. He sees that the dignity and comfort and peace of human life depend largely on his being able to supply a large circle of wants, without constant anxiety and care; but be also feels that he has many wants, and these the deepest, which mere wealth will not supply. Accordingly, he resolves to work diligently and as wisely as he can, in order to secure an adequate provision for his physical necessities, and to guard his independence; but he resolves also that he will not sacrifice himself, or all that is best and purest and most refined in himself, to the pursuit of money and what it will fetch. Hence, so far as he can, he limits his wants; he keeps his tastes simple and pure; and by labours that do not absorb his whole time and energies he provides for the due gratification of these tastes and wants. Hence also he gives a good deal of his time and energy to reading good books, let us say, or to mastering some natural science, or to developing a taste for music and acquiring skill in it. He expects his neighbour, who had no better start nor opportunities than he, to grow far richer than he himself has done, if his neighbour think only of getting and investing money. And therefore he does not grudge him his greater wealth, nor look on it with an envious eye; he rather rejoices that he himself has given up some wealth in order to acquire a higher culture, and to develop his literary or artistic tastes. Here, then, we have two men, two neighbours, before us. The one has grown very rich, has far more money than he can enjoy, more even perhaps than he quite knows how to spend or invest, but he has hardly anything except what his money will procure for him. The other has only a modest provision for his wants, but he has a mind stored with the best thoughts of ancient and modern wisdom, an eye which finds a thousand miracles of beauty in every scene of Nature, and an ear that trembles under the ecstasy of sweet harmonious sounds. By some sudden turn of fortune, mammon fails them both; they are both reduced to poverty: both, so soon as they recover from the shock, have to make a fresh start in life. Which of the two is better off now? Which of them has made real friends to himself out of the mammon while he had it? Not the wealthier of the two assuredly; for, now that he has lost his wealth, he has lost all that he had: he has lived only to get rich; when his riches went, all went. But the other man, the man who read and thought and cultivated Ins mental faculties, he has not lost all. His money has gone, but it has not taken from him the wise thoughts he had gathered from books, or his insight into the secrets and beauties of Nature, or the power to charm from the concord of sweet sounds. He is simply thrown more absolutely on these inward and inseparable possessions for occupation and enjoyment. While he had it he made friends to himself out of the mammon of unrighteousness; and, now that it has failed him, those friends receive him into tabernacles which are always open, and in which he has long learned to find pleasure and to take rest. Poor and imperfect as this illustration is, for there are losses in which even Science and Art, even Nature and Culture, can give us but cold comfort--it may nevertheless suffice to make our Lords words clear. For, obviously, if a man give a good part of the time he might devote to the acquisition of wealth to religious culture, instead of to merely mental culture; if he take thought and spend time in acquiring habits of prayer and worship and obedience and trust, in acquainting himself with the will of God and doing it; if he expend money, and time which is worth money to him, in helping on the works of the Church and in ministering to the wants of the sorrowful and guilty--he, too, has made to himself friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness, and friends that will not fail him when mammon fails him, but will receive him into tabernacles of rest. However poor he may be, he can still pray, and read his Bible, and put his trust in God, and urge the guilty to penitence, and speak comfort to the sorrowful; and, by his cheerful content and unswerving confidence in the Divine goodness, he may now bear witness, with an eloquence far beyond that of mere words, to the reality and grandeur of a truly religious life. Faith, hope, charity, righteousness and godliness, patience and meekness, will not close their doors against him, because mammon has slammed his door in his face. These are eternal friends, who pitch their tabernacles beside us wherever our path may lead, and who welcome us to the rest and shelter they afford all the more heartily because we have not where to lay our head. (S. Cox.)

The earthly life a heavenly training

It has been observed by an eminent critic, that the words, mammon of unrighteousness might be better rendered, mammon of deceitfulness; for Christ never condemned the possession of wealth as in itself an unrighteous thing. It is very often the righteous reward of praiseworthy toil. But He speaks of it as deceitful, because he who trusts to it will find that its promises are lies, and will fail at last, leaving him miserably alone; and with this failure Christ contrasts the certainty of eternal possessions. We can enter now into the meaning of the parable. If the riches of life--which are only one and a comparatively insignificant circumstance in mans earthly history--may prepare him for eternity, then it follows that every circumstance of life--our wealth or our poverty, our work or our rest--may form a training. Here, then, seems to be the thought which Christ has shadowed forth in this earthly form--Every circumstance of mans life may become a training for immortality. It is obvious that if this be true it is of supreme importance. But how is it possible for all our life to become a training for immortality? or, to use the words of Christ, how may we so make friends of our earthly circumstances, that when they have passed, we may have been prepared by their employment for the everlasting habitations? The tenth and eleventh verses of this chapter imply two great principles on which this possibility is founded--the eternity of Gods law, and the perpetuity of mans character. On the one hand, it is possible to make every circumstance of life part of one grand training, because the law of the immortal life is the law of a blessed life here. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. These words imply that the law of God which guides us here extends over all worlds. The life of time is ruled by no different law from that which prevails in the great life of eternity. The faithfulness which makes men blessed here, is the same law of life which creates their blessedness there. This is obviously the first great principle that renders it possible for us to make our present circumstances an education for the everlasting world. If the law which prevails there were essentially different from that which prevails here, then no present conduct, no employment of the earthly, could prepare for the heavenly; we should have to learn a new rule of life, and every present circumstance would be vain as affording a preparation for the life to come. This is all we need know of the future, as far as regards our present conduct. This thought may perhaps be made clear to every one by taking an illustration with which we are all familiar. We know that in different countries different customs are adopted and different laws prevail. Actions, which in this land would be thought natural, would be considered absurd in another. Deeds, which in one land are common, might else where be regarded as crimes. The man who would travel into other countries must first of all acquaint himself with their social customs, and study the requirements of their laws. He thus prepares himself to enter other lands without danger, and live another life without difficulty. Now we have a journey to make at no distant period into another world. We stand looking at its dim outlines, seeing friend after friend depart, waving us their sad, solemn farewells, and knowing that we must soon set out for that distant region. But the law, whose fulfilment is love, pervades every world of the blessed. The love of God, which forms the Christian blessedness in this low earth, is the source of the highest angels bliss in the great eternity. Therefore we have no new law of life to learn. The other fact requisite to show this is the perpetuity of human character. See verse

11: If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon,who will commit to your trust the true riches? In their deepest meaning these words involve this principle--Unfaithful in time, unfaithful in eternity. Some illustration of this perpetuity of human character is afforded us by the difficulty of changing mens characters in this world. How, for instance, can you change the character of a hard, selfish, worldly man? You cannot do it by reasoning. We know not what state may await us after death, but as far as we can gather from the teachings of the Bible, death immortalizes character. All lifes affections, and fellowships, and friendships--all the revelations we have of human nobleness and grandeur--if they teach us more of God by revealing the Godlike, become adiscipline for eternity. Every glory in nature--the pomp of autumn, the rejoicing beauty of the spring, the splendour of the sunset, or the majesty of the starry hosts--everything, in fact, in the outer world which raises our thoughts to the Divine, becomes a training for the immortal. Every dark temptation that makes us strong in resistive might; every gloomy doubt that by its conquest helps to strengthen our faith, every sorrow that drives us to repose more utterly on the eternal love, becomes a schooling for the higher world, where the presence of the Father is boundless joy. In conclusion, let us observe the practical application of the words of our text. They are a call to action. The duty to which Christ here summons us is to watch the formation of character. They contain also a lesson of encouragement. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)

The Christians farewell to business

I. A FAREWELL IMPORTS A LOOK BEHIND. What is there in the Christians last look at the world? It is a fact that that look must be taken. We may avoid many things, but not that. Of the end of business we can have no doubt. If it end not before death, it will at death. When the end comes, there will be a tenderness in the adieu. Of course, there will be much to make a farewell pleasant. Business will be an object of not unmingled regret.

1. But still, we say, there must be tenderness in the adieu. It is an adieu.

2. But there are other sources of regret. Business has been a source of positive enjoyment. It has supplied a wholesome excitement. It has exercised the active powers.

3. Nor can we omit to remark that when the Christian fails in death, he leaves, in business, that which has been the channel and scene of spiritual things. It is in business he has exercised himself to godliness. The place of work has been the place of prayer.

II. Let us now contemplate the Christian IN THAT BRIGHT PROSPECT WHICH IS BEFORE HIM WHEN HE LEAVES THE WORLD, as he looks forward to the everlasting habitations to which he will be received at his failure in death. That ground is Christ. It is not because we are by good works entitled to it, that we can obtain an inheritance above.

1. And, therefore, I remark, first, that though secular life closes at death, the Christian retains all that made that life holy and noble. With many, business was an end; with him, it was a means. With many, the thought, the care, the aim, the ambition, were all comprised in this outward world with him the outward world was but a glass, a tool, a stepping-stone.

2. And while the Christian retains his principles, which made his business good and holy and happy, those principles are transferred to a better sphere at death.

3. The Christian, in failing at death, will be able not only to expect the continuance of holy activity in a better sphere, but to connect his past with his future activity. (J. A. Morris.)

Wealth changed into the coin of heaven

Every rich man who is growing selfish and using all his money for earthly uses only should study this parable. It would surely cure him. Money may be made a grand thing both now and hereafter; for by liberality you can change it into the current coin of heaven. You are like an orphan maid I read of, whose kind master allowed her to give away the fruit of his garden, that she might raise up friends for herself among the neighbours. Wealth thus used is worthy of its name, which is just weal writ large. (J. Wells.)

Mammon

Mammon, the world--ah, is it not adverse to the interests of our souls? What then? Believer, adversary though it be, you may make it your friend. A skilful seaman, when once fairly out to sea, can make a wind from the west carry him westward! he can make the wind that blows right in his face bear him onward to the very point from which it blows. When he arrives at home, he is able to say, the wind from the west impelled me westward, and led me into my desired haven. Thus if we were skilful, and watchful, and earnest, we might make the unrighteous mammon our friend; we might so turn our side to each of its tortuous impulses, that, willing or unwilling, conscious or unconscious, it should from day to day drive us nearer home. (W. Arnot.)

The everlasting dwellings

I. WHAT KIND OF DWELLINGS ARE THESE?

1. The sweetest peace reigns m them, as regards the body.

(1) There is no earthly burden.

(2) There are no afflictions or tribulations.

2. The sweetest peace, as regards the soul.

(1) There is no struggle.

(2) There is no peril.

3. The greatest joy reigns in them.

II. FOR WHOM ARE THE EVERLASTING DWELLINGS?

1. Not for sinners (Rev_21:27).

(1) The unjust.

(2) The uncharitable.

(3) The unbelieving.

(4) Drunkards.

(5) The unchaste.

(6) The slothful.

(7) Blasphemers.

2. Only for the just. To heaven we are led--

(1) By unwavering faith.

(2) By childlike humility.

(3) By a strenuous combat.

(4) By true justice. (Joseph Schuen.)

How the little may be used to get the great

I. First, then, I desire to consider briefly that strange, new standard of value which is set up here. On the one side is placed the whole glittering heap of all material good that man can touch or handle, all that wealth can buy of this perishable world; and on the other hand there are the modest and unseen riches of pure thoughts and high desires, of a noble heart, of a life assimilated to Jesus Christ. The two are compared in three points--as to their intrinsic magnitude, as to their quality, as to our ownership of them. Of the great glittering heap our Lord says: It is nothing, at its greatest it is small; and of the other our Lord says: At its smallest it is great. All the wealth of all the Rothschilds is too little to fill the soul of the poorest beggar that stands by their carriage door with hungry eyes. The least degree of truth, of love, of goodness, is bigger in its power to fill the heart than all the externals that human avarice can gather about it. Can we thus enter into the understanding of Christs scale and standard, and think of all the external as that which is least, and of all the inward as that which is much? The world looks at worldly wealth through a microscope which magnifies the infinitesimally small, and then it looks at the land that is very far off through a telescope turned the wrong way, which diminishes all that is great. But if we can get up by the side of Jesus Christ and see things with His eyes and from His station, it will be as when a man climbs a mountain, and the little black line, as it seemed to him when looked at from the plain, has risen up into a giant cliff; and all the big things down below, as they seemed when he was among them, have dwindled. That white speck is a palace; that bit of a green patch there, over which the skylark flies in a minute, is a great lords estate. Oh, dear brethren, we do not need to wait to get to heaven to learn heavens tables of weights and measures! One grain of true love to God is greater in its power to enrich than a California of gold. Take, again, the second antithesis, the unrighteous mammon and the true riches. That word, unrighteous in its application to material good, is somewhat difficult. If we keep strictly to the antithesis unrighteous must be the opposite of true. The word would then come to mean very nearly the same as deceitful--that which betrays. And so we have presented to us the old familiar thought that external good of all sorts looks to be a great deal better than it is. It promises a great many things that it never fulfils, tempting us as a fish is tempted to the hook by a bait which hides the hook. But the inward riches of faith, true holiness, lofty aspirations, Christ-directed purposes, all these are true. They promise no more than they perform. They bring more than they said they would. No man ever said, I have tasted Thy love, and lo! it does not satisfy me! I have realized Thy help, and lo! it has not been enough! And then the last contrast is between anothers and your own. Anothers? Well, that may mean Gods; and therefore you are stewards, as the whole parable that precedes the text has been teaching. But I am not sure that that is the only, nor indeed the principal reference of the word here. And I think when our Lord speaks of all outward possessions as being, even whilst mine, anothers, He means to point there, not only to the fact of stewardship, but also to the fact of the limitations and defects of all outward possessions of outward good. That is to say, there is no real contact between the outward things that a man has and himself. The only things that you really have, paradox as it sounds, are the things that you are. All the rest you hold by a very slight tie, like the pearls that are sewn upon some half-barbarous Eastern magnates jacket, which he shakes off as he walks. So men say, This is mine! and it only means It is not yours. There is no real possession, even while there is an apparent one, and just because there is no real contact, because there is always a gap between the man and his goods, because he has not, as it were, gathered them into himself, therefore the possession is transient as well as incomplete. It slips away from the hand even whilst you hold it. And just as we may say, There is no present, but everything is past or future, and what we call the present is only the meeting point of these two times, so we may say, there is no possession, because everything is either coming into my hands or going out of them, and my apparent ownership is only for a moment. I simply transmit.

Twas mine, tis his, and has been slave to thousands.

And so it passes. And then consider the common accidents of life which rob men of their goods, and the waste by the very act of use, which gnaws them away as the sea does the cliffs; and, last of all, deaths separation. What can be taken out of a mans hands by death has no right to be called his.

II. Notice for a moment the other broad principle that is laid down in these three verses, as to THE HIGHEST USE OF THE LOWER GOOD. Whether you are a Christian man or whether you are not, this is true about you, that the way in which you deal with your outward goods, your wealth, your capacity of all sorts, may become a barrier to your possessing the higher, or it may become a mighty help. There are plenty of people, and some of them listening to me now, who are kept from being Christians because they love the world so much. The world thinks that the highest use of the highest things is to gain possession of the lowest thereby, and that truth and genius and poetry are given to select spirits and are wasted unless they make money out of them. Christs notion of the relationship is exactly the opposite, that all the out ward is then lifted to its noblest purpose when it is made rigidly subordinate to the highest; and that the best thing that any man can do with his money is so to spend it as to purchase for himself a good degree, laying up for himself in store a good foundation that he may lay hold on eternal life.

III. And now let me say one last word as to THE FAITHFULNESS WHICH THUS UTILIZES THE LOWEST AS A MEANS OF POSSESSING MORE FULLY THE HIGHEST. You will be faithful if, through all your administrations of your possessions, there runs, first, the principle of stewardship; you will be faithful if, through all your administration of your earthly possessions, there runs, second, the principle of sacrifice; you will be faithful if, through all your administration of your earthly possessions, there runs, third, the principle of brotherhood. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Wise expenditure

Christ here tells us plainly which is the path of wisdom. When we see a man making ducks and drakes of his money, we call him a fool--and so he is, from our point of view, because he might be acquiring solid advantages with what he is wasting. But, from the point of view of the gospel, we are just as great fools ourselves, for those solid advantages of which we speak are probably as far from being eternal as the others; keeping our eyes fixed upon the everlasting future, we must admit that every penny spent upon ourselves is as much wasted as if we had chucked it into the river. Do not then ask me, May I allow myself this luxury? or May I not indulge this taste? Of course you may, as long as it is harmless, but you will be wiser if you dont, for you might with the same money be making friends for eternity. This saying of our Lord, then, is, in its fulness, for those that can receive it, and they are, perhaps, as few as they are happy; when we get to heaven and behold the richness of their reward, the overflowing happiness of those who have spent and been spent in making others happy, we shall wonder how we could have been so stupid as to waste our money on ourselves. For the rest of us, it is a principle which we must acknowledge humbly, even if we have not strength of mind to act upon it much at present. We may still decide, perhaps, to live up to our income, to live according to our rank, to maintain a certain style, and so on, but we will not be such contemptible hypocrites as to pretend that this is the path of Christian wisdom. The principle which Christ lays down we shall keep before our eyes, and we shall pray that it may sink little by little into our hearts, until it begin to bear fruit in our lives--the principle, I mean, that every penny spent on self is wasted, every penny we can learn to part with is saved because laid up with Him. (R. Winterbotham, M. A.)

Charity the road to wealth

You want to double your riches, and without gambling or stock-jobbing. Share it. Whether it be material or intellectual, its rapid increase will amaze you. What would the sun have been, had he folded himself up in darkness? Surely he would have gone out. So would Socrates. This road to wealth seems to have been discovered some three thousand years ago; at least it was known to Hesiod, and has been recommended by him in the one precious line he has left us. But even he complains of the fools who did not know that half is more than the whole. And ever since, though mankind have always been in full chase after riches, though they have not feared to follow Columbus and Gama in chase of it, though they have waded through blood, and crept through falsehood, and trampled on their own hearts, and been ready to ride on a broomstick, in chase of it, very few have ever taken the road, albeit the easiest, the shortest, and the surest. (J. C. Hare.)

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

16:9 worldly resources: This is a better translation than the traditional “mammon of unrighteousness” (KJV). Believers are to use their resources wisely for spiritual benefit. • they will welcome you to an eternal home: They are probably the friends. Just as the manager’s friends would give him security, the friends we win to the Kingdom will warmly welcome us for eternity.

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

Luk 16:9. Ποιήσατε—ἵνα ἵταν—δέξωνται, make—that when—they may be about to receive you) All these words are repeated from Luk 16:4 [ποιήσω—ἵνα ὅταν—δέξωνται].—φίλους, friends) Not merely are you to make single friends, each making one friend, but each should make more friends than one. See note on Luk 16:5. [A result which you will not truly be able to effect with gifts of mere pence or farthings.—V. g.] In this case, a thing which seldom happens, the debtor [the ‘friends’] loves the creditor [‘you’]. But, alas! what shall we say of the case of those, who not only are destitute of such friends, but who, by rapine and frauds, etc., make for themselves enemies, who sigh and cry to heaven against their oppressors.—ἐκ τοῦ μαμωνᾶ, out of [by means of] the mammon) not merely by the restoration of what has been [unjustly] taken away, but also by acts of beneficence, almsgiving, kindliness, indulgence, as Job did, Job 31:20.—ἵνα, that) Liberality alone is not sufficient: but yet this removes a great impediment in the way of entrance into the everlasting habitations [tabernacles].—ἐκλίπητε, ye shall have failed) viz. at death, when our stewardship is required of us [Ecc 9:10]. גרע LXX. render by ἐκλείπω, even in the case of the just. But in this passage He implies by the word, according to the force of the parable, such an ending of one’s office (as steward) and of one’s life, as would be wretched, if there were not friends already made, who should be ready to receive us.—δέξωνταί, they may be ready to receive) viz. the friends [may be ready to receive], either in this life, or in that which is to come.[173] The heirs of heavenly good things will say, The Father hath ordered that these good things should be ours (Luk 16:12, τὸ ὑμέτερον, “that which is your own”); we wish that these should belong to you also, seeing that ye have benefited us. The Divine judgment hath both many interceders for averting punishment, and many approvers of the sentence of condemnation passed (et deprecatores et subscriptores). See 1Co 6:2. [No doubt, it is not those only upon whom one may have conferred a benefit, that are indicated here, but all, without exception, who, before one dies, have already passed to everlasting habitations, or else who (though not having yet entered them) have their own appointed place there. For the cause of all these is a common cause. And benefits are laid out to the best account when bestowed on the sons and servants of GOD.—V. g.] If the friends had no part to play in this instance viz. in receiving their benefactors to everlasting habitations], what need would there be to make friends?—ΑἸΩΝΊΟΥς, everlasting) This is put in antithesis to the failure implied in ὅταν ἐκλίπητε.—ΣΚΗΝᾺς, tabernacles, or habitations) They are so called on account of their security, pleasantness, and the convenience of dwelling together, as it were, in one common mansion. There is not added their own [viz. habitations], as in Luk 16:4 [τοὺς οἴκους αὐτῶν], their own houses, because the σκηναὶ, habitations, belong to God.

[173] Some of the friends you have made may be still in this life when your stewardship shall come to its close, others may be in the world above. Both alike shall wish your eternal salvation.—E. and T.

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

Luk_16:9, giving the application of the whole parable for His disciples who were present

κἀγὼ ὑμῖν λέγω, not: κἀγὼ λέγω ὑμῖν comp. on Luk_11:9. κἀγώ corresponds to the preceding ὁ κύριος, and ὑμῖν to τὸν οἰκον. τῆς ἀδικ. As the master praised that steward on account of his prudence, so also must I commend to you an analogous prudent course of conduct,[194] but in how much higher a sense!

ποιήσατε ἑαυτοῖς φίλους κ.τ.λ.] provide for yourselves friends, etc. It is evident whom Jesus means by these friends from the final sentence, ἵνα δέξωνται ὑμᾶς κ.τ.λ. Those who receive you, to wit, are the angels (Mat_24:31; Mar_13:27); and these are made friends of by the beneficent application of riches (comp. Luk_15:10; Mat_18:10; Mat_25:31; Mat_24:31). Thus they correspond to the χρεωφειλεταῖς of the parable, but indirectly. Ambrose, at so early a period, has this true interpretation, and very recently Ewald. The reference to God (Wolf, Kuinoel, Niedner, and others) or to Christ (Olshausen), either alone or with the addition of the angels (see also Bleek), is not appropriate, since the reception into the Messiahs kingdom is the duty of the ministering spirits, accompanied by whom the Lord appears in His glory (Luk_9:26). According to the usual interpretation, those to whom deeds of love have been done, the poor, etc., are meant (so also Wieseler, Meuss, Lahmeyer), whose gratitude is earned as the steward has earned the gratitude of the debtors. But in this case ἵνα δέξωνται ὑμᾶς must be subjected to a strained interpretation. See below. The ἑαυτοῖς, to yourselves, standing emphatically even before ποιής. in B L R א* Tisch., corresponds to the idea that the (higher) analogy of an application for their own use, as in the case of that steward, is to be admitted.

ἘΚ ΤΟῦ ΜΑΜ. Τῆς ἈΔΙΚ] ἘΚ denotes that the result proceeds from making use of Mammon, Matthiae, p. 1333; Bernhardy, p. 230; Ellendt, Lex Soph. I. p. 550 f. But Mammon, the idea of which is, moreover, in no way to be extended to the totality of the earthly life (Eylau), is not to be taken in this place as at Luk_16:13, personally (comp. on Mat_6:24), but as neuter, as at Luk_16:11, wealth.

Τῆς ἈΔΙΚΊΑς] Genitivus qualitatis, as at Luk_16:8 : of the unrighteous Mammon. As at Luk_16:8 this predicate is attached to the steward, because he had acted unrighteously towards his lord, so here it is attached to wealth, because it, as in the case of that steward, serves, according to usual experience (comp. Luk_18:24 f.), as an instrument of unrighteous dealing. The moral characteristic of the use of it is represented as adhering to itself. Other explanations, instead of being suggested by the context, are read into the passage isolated from the context, to wit, that of Jerome, Augustine,[195] Calvin, Olearius, Maldonatus, Lightfoot, Bertholdt, Rosenmüller, Möller, Bornemann, and others: opes injuste partae (comp. Euthymius Zigabenus: ὡς ἐξ ἀδικίας θησαυρισθέντα, τῆς ἐκ τοῦ μὴ διαμερίζεσθαι τὰ περιττὰ τούτου τοῖς πένησιν); that of Drusius, Michaelis, Schreiter, Kuinoel, Wieseler, and others (comp. Dettinger and H. Bauer): opes fallaces, or wealth which allures (Löffler, Köster); that of Paulus (Exeg. Handb.): that Mammon is designated as unrighteous towards the disciples, to whom he has communicated little; that of Schulz and Olshausen: opes impias (Olshausen: the bond by which every individual is linked to the αἰὼν οὗτος and its princes); that of Heppe: that wealth is so designated as being no true actual possession (Luk_16:11); and others. Moreover, a hidden irony (Eylau) against an Ebionitic error of the disciples, as if they had imputed to what is earthly in itself the character of ἀδικία, is remote from the words, since the predicate is taken from the conduct of the steward. There are analogous expressions of the Targumists, in which the characteristic peculiarity of Mammon is given by means of a superadded substantive (as ממון דשקר, דרשע ממון); see in Lightfoot, p. 844. The value of the predicate Τῆς ἈΔΙΚ., so far as the structure of the discourse is concerned, seems to be, that this application of wealth for selfish advantage is entirely conformable to the improba indoles thereof, according to which it allows itself to be used, instead of only for the purpose of serving the interest of its possessor (Mammon), for the selfish advantage of those who have it to administer. The epithet is contemptuous. Ye cannot, considering its nature, better make use of so worthless a thing! Bornemann, Schol. p. 98 ff., and in the Stud. u. Krit. 1843, p. 116 ff., finds the whole precept ΠΟΙΉΣΑΤΕ Κ.Τ.Λ. to be in contradiction with the moral teaching of Christ, and conjectures: Οὐ ΠΟΙΉΣΕΤΕ Κ.Τ.Λ., non facietis (nolite facere) vobis amicos ex opibus injuste collectis, etc.,[196] without any trace in the evidence for the text. And the doubt of Bornemann is solved by the consideration that (1) Jesus does not bid the disciples provide themselves with Mammon in a similar way to the steward (the steward did not provide himself with wealth at all, rather he bestowed it on the debtors, but for his own advantage), but to apply the riches which they, as having hitherto been οἰκονόμοι of Mammon, still had at their disposal, in a similar way to that steward, to make themselves friends; (2) that Jesus requires of His disciples to forsake all (Luk_5:27, Luk_18:22 ff., comp. Luk_12:33) is the less in conflict with the passage before us, that at that time there were around Him so many publicans and sinners who had previously entered into His service (out of the service of Mammon), and for these the words of Jesus contained the command to forsake all just in the special form appropriate to the relations in which they stood. In respect of μαθητάς, Luk_16:1, we are not to conceive exclusively only of the Twelve, and of such as already had forsaken all; (3) our text does not conflict with the context (Luk_16:13), as it rather claims in substance the giving up of the service of Mammon, and its claim corresponds to the μὴ θησαυρίζετε ὑμῖν κ.τ.λ., besides allowing the idea of laying up treasure in heaven (see ἵνα ὅταν ἐκλ. κ.τ.λ.) to appear in a concrete form.

ὅταν ἐκλείπῃ] (see the critical remarks) when it fails, i.e. when it ceases. Comp. Luk_22:32; Heb_1:12; Xen. Hell. Luk_1:5. 2 : ἐχων δὲ ἥκειν τάλαντα πεντακόσια· ἐὰν δὲ ταῦτα ἑκλίπῃ κ.τ.λ.; 1Sa_9:7; 1Ma_3:29; 1Ma_3:45; Sir_14:19; Sir_42:24; and frequently in the LXX. and in the Apocrypha. This ὅταν ἐκλ. indeed corresponds to the point of the parable: ὅταν μετασταθῶ, Luk_16:4, but signifies in the application intended to be madethe catastrophe of the Parousia, at the appearance of which, in the σχῆμα τοῦ κοσμου τούτου which precedes it, the temporal riches come to an end and cease to exist (Luk_6:24; Jam_5:1 ff.; Luk_17:26 ff.), whereas then the treasures laid up in heaven (Mat_6:20; Luk_12:33; Luk_18:22) occupy their place (comp. also 1Ti_6:19), and the complete ἀπάτη of riches (Mat_13:22) is revealed. This reference to the Parousia is required in the context by the αἰωνίους σκηνάς, whereby the setting up of the kingdom (here also conceived of as near) is referred to. The Recepta ἐκλίπητε[197] would mean: when ye shall have died (Plat. Legg. 6. p. 759 E, 9. p. 836 E; Xen. Cyr. 8:7. 26; Isa_11:10, LXX; Gen_25:8; Gen_49:33; Tob_14:11; Test. XII. Patr. p. 529). But after death that which is first to be expected is not the kingdom of Messiah, or the life in heaven to which reference is usually made (even by Bleek), but the paradise in Sheol (Luk_16:22), to which, however, the predicate αἰωνίους is not appropriate (in opposition to Engelhardt). Moreover, Jesus could not refer His disciples to the condition after their death, since, according to the synoptic Gospels (and see also on Joh_14:3), He had placed the Parousia and the setting up of the kingdom in the lifetime even of that generation[198] (Luk_21:32; Luk_9:27). Hence the Recepta is to be rejected even on these internal grounds, and to be traced to the idea of the later eschatology. The everlasting tabernacles correspond to the εἰς τοὺς οἴκους αὐτῶν in the parable, Luk_16:4, and typically denote, probably in reference to the moveable tabernacles in the wilderness (comp. Hos_12:10; Zec_14:16; Psa_118:15), the kingdom of Messiah in respect of its everlasting duration. Thus God promises in 4 Esdr. Luk_2:11 : Et dabo eis tabernacula aeterna, quae praeparaveram illis, where, in accordance with the context, doubtless the kingdom of Messiah is meant.

δέξωνται] not impersonal (Köster and others), but in respect of ΦΊΛΟΥς, and according to the analogy of Luk_16:4, the friends provided are to be understood, consequently the angels (see above); comp. Ambrose. If φίλους be explained as denoting men, the poor and the like, since the text hints nothing of a future elevation of these to the dignity of stewards (in opposition to Meuss), δέξωνται must be understood of the thankful and welcoming reception; but in this interpretation it would be strangely presupposed that the φίλοι would be already in the everlasting habitations when the benefactors come thither, or there must somehow be understood a mediate δέχεσθαι (Grotius: efficiant ut recipiamini), wherein there would be especial reference to the meritoriousness of alms (Luk_11:41, see especially Maldonatus and Hilgenfeld, the latter of whom recalls the prayer of the poor in the Pastor of Hermas); but for an interpretation of that kind there is, according to Luk_16:4, absolutely no justification, and as little for an explanation according to the idea contained in Mat_25:40 (Beza, Calvin, and others, including Wieseler); comp. Luther (Pred.): Men shall not do it, but they shall be witnessses of our faith which is proved to them, for the sake of which God receives us into the everlasting habitations. Luther, however, further adds appropriately that in this there is taught no merit of works.

[194] An argument a minori ad majus (si laudari potuit ille … quanto amplius placent Domino, etc. Augustine, comp. Euthymius Zigabenus, Grotius, Cornelius a Lapide, Maldonatus, and others, including Ebrard, p. 424) is a pure importation.

[195] Still Augustine admits (Comment in Psalms 48) even the communistic interpretation: quia ea ipsa iniquitas est, quod tu habes, alter non habet, tu abundas et alter eget. This is foreign to the context.

[196] Bornemann assumes as the meaning of the parable: Pharisaeos Christus ait de alienis bonis liberales ease, idque sui commodi causa, atque eorum praefectos (ἄνθρωπος πλούσισς, ver. 1) non modo hanc in subditis perversitatem et vitiositatem non vituperare et punire, sed etiam laudare prudentiam eorum et calliditatem. At suos id nunquam imitaturos esse Christus certo confidit, etc. This interpretation is erroneous, if only for the reason, that the steward is liberal with the property of his own master. Consequently the Pharisees would be represented as liberal, not do bonis alienis, but with the property of their own chiefs. In general, however, it is decisive against Bornemann that no parable is intended to teach the opposite of itself.

[197] Luther translates: when ye faint, but explains this of dying, when ye must leave all behind you. Comp. Ewald (reading ἐκλείπητε): when ye can no longer help yourselves, i.e. when ye die. Contextually Meuss refers (ἐκλείπητε) it to the last judgment; but with what far-fetched and artificial interpretation: quando emigratis, scil. e mammone iniquitatis, qui adhuc refugio vobis fuit!

[198] Hence also the reading which gives the singular ἐκλείπῃ (Wieseler ἐκλίπῃ) is not to be understood, with Wieseler: if he leaves you in the lurch (in death); which, apart from there being no ὑμᾶς expressed, would be very harsh.

REMARK.

The circumstance that Jesus sets before His disciples the prudence of a dishonest proceeding as an example, would not have been the occasion of such unspeakable misrepresentations and such unrighteous judgments (most contemptibly in Eichthal) if the principle: οὐ δύνασθε θεῷ δουλεύειν καὶ μαμωνᾷ, Luk_16:13, had been kept in view, and it had been considered accordingly that even the μαθηταί, in fact, by beneficent application of their property, must have acted unfaithfully towards Mammon in order to be faithful towards their contrasted Master, towards God[199] In this unfaithfulness their prudence was to consist, because that was the way to attain for themselves the Messianic provision. If further objection has been taken on the ground that in the expedient of the steward no special prudence is contained, it is to be considered that the doctrinal precept intended at Luk_16:9 claimed to set forth just such or a similar manifestation of prudence as the parable contains. On the other hand, the device of a more complicated and refined subtlety would not have corresponded with that simple doctrine which was to be rendered palpable, to make to themselves friends of the unrighteous Mammon, etc.

[199] Hence also the expedient which many have adopted of maintaining that attention is not directed to the morality of the stewards conduct, but only to the prudence in itself worthy of imitation (see Luther, Calvin, Grotius, Michaelis, Löffler, Bleek, and many others) must be regarded as mistaken, as on general grounds it is unworthy of Christ. The unfaithfulness which is represented is manifested towards Mammon, and this was intended to appear to the disciples not merely as prudence, but also as duty. Hence also there was no need for attempting to prevent the misunderstanding, that for a good end an evil means was commended (which Köster finds in vv. 1013). Ebrard (on Olshausen, p. 678 f.) says: that the dishonest steward is not so much a symbol as an instance of a man who, in the sphere of unrighteousness and sin, practises the virtue of prudence; that from him the Christian was to learn the practice of prudence, but in the sphere of righteousness. But thus the contrast in which the point would lie is first of all put into the passage.

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 16:9 . ἐγὼ : the use of the emphatic pronoun seems to involve that here begins the comment of Jesus on the parable, Luk 16:8 being spoken by the master and a part of the parable. But J. Weiss (in Meyer) views this verse as a second application put into the mouth of Jesus, but not spoken by Him, having for its author the compiler from whom Lk. borrowed (Feine’s Vork. Lukas ). He finds in Luk 16:8-13 three distinct applications, one by Jesus, Luk 16:8 ; one by the compiler of precanonical Lk., Luk 16:9 ; and one by Lk. himself, Luk 16:10-13 . This analysis is plausible, and tempting as superseding the difficult problem of finding a connection between these sentences, viewed as the utterance of one Speaker, the Author of the parable. Luk 16:9 explicitly states what Luk 16:8 implies, that the prudence is to be shown in the way of making friends . φίλους : the friends are not named, but the next parable throws light on that point. They are the poor , the Lazaruses whom Dives did not make friends of to his loss. The counsel is to use wealth in doing kindness to the poor, and the implied doctrine that doing so will be to our eternal benefit. Both counsel and doctrine are held to apply even when wealth has been ill-gotten. Friends of value for the eternal world can be gained even by the mammon of unrighteousness . The more ill-gotten the more need to be redeemed by beneficent use; only care must be taken not to continue to get money by unrighteousness in order to have wherewith to do charitable deeds, a not uncommon form of counterfeit philanthropy, which will not count in the Kingdom of Heaven. The name for wealth here is very repulsive, seeming almost to imply that wealth per se is evil, though that Jesus did not teach. ἐκλίπῃ , when it (wealth) fails, as it must at death. The other reading, ἐκλίπητε (T.R.), means “when ye die,” so used in Gen 25:8 . αἰωνίους σκηνάς , eternal tents, a poetic paradox = Paradise, the poor ye treated kindly there to welcome you! Believing it to be impossible that Jesus could give advice practically suggesting the doing of evil that good might come, Bornemann conjectures that an οὐ has fallen out before ποιήσετε (fut.), giving as the real counsel: do not make, etc.

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

This is not spoken of goods that are evil gotten, for God will have our bountifulness to the poor, proceed and come from a good fountain: but he calleth those riches of iniquity, which men use naughtily.

To wit, the poor Christians: for they are the inheritors of these Tabernacles, Theophylact.

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

Make . . . friends of--Turn to your advantage; that is, as the steward did, "by showing mercy to the poor" (Dan 4:27; compare Luk 12:33; Luk 14:13-14).

mammon of unrighteousness--treacherous, precarious. (See on Mat 6:24).

ye fail--in respect of life.

they may receive you--not generally, "ye may be received" (as Luk 6:38, "shall men give"), but "those ye have relieved may rise up as witnesses for you" at the great day. Then, like the steward, when turned out of one home shall ye secure another; but better than he, a heavenly for an earthly, an everlasting for a temporary habitation. Money is not here made the key to heaven, more than "the deeds done in the body" in general, according to which, as a test of character--but not by the merit of which--men are to be judged (Co2 5:10, and see Mat 25:34-40).

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 9. The mammon of unrighteousness] μαμωνα της αδικιας - literally, the mammon, or riches, of injustice. Riches promise MUCH, and perform NOTHING: they excite hope and confidence, and deceive both: in making a man depend on them for happiness, they rob him of the salvation of God and of eternal glory. For these reasons, they are represented as unjust and deceitful. See Clarke on Mt 6:24, where this is more particularly explained. It is evident that this must be the meaning of the words, because the false or deceitful riches, here, are put in opposition to the true riches, Lu 16:11; i.e. those Divine graces and blessings which promise all good, and give what they promise; never deceiving the expectation of any man. To insinuate that, if a man have acquired riches by unjust means, he is to sanctify them, and provide himself a passport to the kingdom of God, by giving them to the poor, is a most horrid and blasphemous perversion of our Lord's words. Ill gotten gain must be restored to the proper owners: if they are dead, then to their successors.

When ye fail] That is, when ye die. The Septuagint use the word εκλειπειν in this very sense, Jer 42:17; Jer 42:22. See Clarke on Ge 25:8. So does Josephus, War, chap. iv. 1, 9.

They may receive you] That is, say some, the angels. Others, the poor whom ye have relieved will welcome you into glory. It does not appear that the poor are meant:

1. Because those who have relieved them may die a long time before them; and therefore they could not be in heaven to receive them on their arrival.

2. Many poor persons may be relieved, who will live and die in their sins, and consequently never enter into heaven themselves.

The expression seems to be a mere Hebraism: - they may receive you, for ye shall be received; i.e. God shall admit you, if you make a faithful use of his gifts and graces. He who does not make a faithful use of what he has received from his Maker has no reason to hope for eternal felicity. See Mt 25:33; and, for similar Hebraisms, consult in the original, Lu 6:38; Lu 12:20; Re 12:6; Re 16:15.

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

(9) And I say unto you.—The pronoun is emphatic, and stands, as in Mat_5:22; Mat_5:28; Mat_5:32, in contrast with what had gone before.

Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness.—On “mammon,” comp. Note on Mat_6:24. The word was Syriac in its origin, and was found also, as Augustine testifies, in Punic. It was in common use in the Targums or Paraphrases of the Old Testament, in our Lord’s time, for “wealth” or “riches,” and possibly, as stated by Tertullian, whose authority, as a Carthaginian, may be admitted as of some weight, was applied to some Syrian deity who, like the Greek Plutus, was worshipped as wealth personified. If we admit this view, it explains, what otherwise it is not easy to explain, St. Luke’s introduction of the Syriac word instead of its Greek equivalent. “The mammon of unrighteousness,” the genitive having the same force as in Luk_16:8, is the wealth to which that character for the most part attaches, wealth wrongly gained and wrongly spent. And yet “of that mammon”—or better, out of, or with, the mammon—men are to make friends. The right use of wealth in helping the poor, making men happier and better, leading them to repentance and to God, will gain for us friends, perhaps the very persons whom we have helped, perhaps the angels of God who rejoice over one sinner that repenteth, perhaps even Christ and the Father, who will receive us into “everlasting habitations.”

That, when ye fail, . . .—The better MSS. give “that when it fails,” so the “mammon,” or riches, on which men set their hearts.

Into everlasting habitations.—Literally, everlasting tabernacles. The word seems chosen, in contrast to the “houses” of Luk_16:4, perhaps in contrast to the “booths” of leaves or branches, transitory and withering in a few days, which entered into the ritual of the Feast of Tabernacles (Lev_23:40, Neh_8:15), or with the “tents” which were the symbol of the transitory promises of the older Patriarchs (Heb_11:9.)

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

9. Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness] The Greek may mean either Make the unrighteous mammon your friend; or make yourselves friends by your use of the unrighteous mammon. There is no proof that Mammon is the Hebrew equivalent to Plutus, the Greek god of wealth (Mat_6:24). Mammon simply means wealth and is called ‘unrighteous’ by metonymy (i.e. the ethical character of the use is represented as cleaving to the thing itself) because the abuse of riches is more common than their right use (1Ti_6:10).

It is not therefore necessary to give to the word ‘unrighteous’ the sense of ‘false’ or ‘unreal,’ though sometimes in the LXX. it has almost that meaning. We turn mammon into a friend, and make ourselves friends by its means, when we use riches not as our own to squander, but as God’s to employ in deeds of usefulness and mercy.

when ye fail] i.e. when ye die; but some good MSS. read “when it (mammon) fails,” which the true riches never do (Luk_12:33).

they may receive you] The ‘they’ are either the poor who have been made friends by the right use of wealth; or the word is impersonal, as in Luk_12:11; Luk_12:20, Luk_23:31. The latter sense seems to be the best, for it is only by a very secondary and subordinate analogy that those whom we aid by a right use of riches can be said (‘by their prayers on earth, or their testimony in heaven’) to ‘receive’ us.

into everlasting habitations] Rather, into the eternal tents, Joh_14:2. “And give these the everlasting tabernacles which I had prepared for them,” 2Es_2:11. (Comp. 2Co_5:1; Isa_33:20, and see p. 384). The general duty inculcated is that of “laying up treasure in heaven” (Mat_6:20; comp. 1Ti_6:17-19). There is no Ebionite reprobation of riches as riches here; only a warning not to trust in them. (Mar_10:24.)

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 I say unto you,.... These are the words of Christ, as are also the latter part of the preceding verse, accommodating and applying the parable to his disciples, and for their instruction:

make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness: by "mammon" are designed riches, wealth, and substance; See Gill on Mat 6:24 and is called "mammon of unrighteousness", because such wealth is often unrighteously detained, and is not made use of to right and good purposes, by the owners of it; or because, generally speaking, it is possessed by unrighteous men; and, for the most part, used in an unrighteous manner, in luxury, pride and intemperance, and is the root, instrument, and means of such unrighteousness: or it maybe rendered "mammon of hurt", or "hurtful mammon"; as it often is to those who are over anxious and desirous of it, or other disuse or misuse of it: or, as best of all, "mammon of falsehood", or "deceitful mammon"; so in the Targum (w), frequent mention is made of , "mammon of falsity"; and stands opposed to "true riches" in Luk 16:10 for worldly riches are very empty and fallacious; wherefore deceitfulness is ascribed to them; and they are called uncertain riches, which are not to be depended upon. Mat 13:22 unless it should be rather thought that it is so called, because gotten in an unrighteous way; as it was by Zacchaeus, and might be by Matthew, one of the disciples, Christ now speaks to, and the publicans and sinners, who were lately become his followers, and whom he advises, as the highest piece of wisdom and prudence, to dispose of in such a manner, as of it to "make" themselves "friends"; not God, Father, Son, and Spirit. These indeed are friends to the saints, but they are not made so by money; reconciliation and redemption are not procured this way; nor is the favour of the judge to be got by such means; the only means of reconciliation, are the blood and death of Christ; though indeed acts of beneficence, rightly performed, are well pleasing to God: nor are the angels meant, who are very friendly to all good men; nor rich men, to whom riches are not to be given, Pro 22:16 but rather riches themselves, which, if not rightly used, and so made friends of, will cry, and be a witness against the owners of them, Jam 5:1 though it may be the poor saints are intended; who by their prayers are capable of doing either a great deal of hurt, or a great deal of good; and it is the interest of rich men to make them their friends:

that when ye fail: of money; or "that fails", as the Ethiopic version reads; or rather, when ye leave that, that is, when ye die; so in Jer 42:22 "know certainly that ye shall die"; the Septuagint renders it, "ye shall fall by the sword", &c.

they may receive you into everlasting habitations: the mansions of glory, which are many, and of an eternal duration: this is to be understood of their being received thither, not by the poor, to whom they have been benefactors; for though these may now pray for their reception to glory when they die, and will hereafter rejoice at their reception thither; yet they themselves will not be receivers of them, or their introducers into the everlasting tents, or tabernacles: nor are the angels intended, who carry the souls of the righteous into Abraham's bosom, and will gather the elect together at the last day; for not they, but God and Christ, receive the saints to glory: the words may be rendered impersonally, "you may be received"; in a way of welldoing, though not for it; mention is made of the "everlasting tabernacles", in

"Their glory also will I take unto me, and give these the everlasting tabernacles, which I had prepared for them.'' (2 Esdras 2:11)

and so the phrase may be rendered here, as opposed to the earthly and perishable tabernacles of the body Co2 5:1

(w) Targum in Job xxvii. 8. & in Isa v. 23. & xxxiii. 15. & in Ezek. xxii. 27. & in Hos. v. 11.

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

9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

Ver. 9. Make unto yourselves friends] Quibus officia praestita fidem defuncti apud Deum testificentur, illa comprobantem, et gratis coronantem (Beza.) Testify your faith by your works, that God of his free grace may commend and crown you.

Of the mammon of unrighteousness] The next odious name to the devil himself. This mammon of iniquity, this wages of wickedness, is not gain, but loss.

They may receive you] That is, that either the angels, or thy riches, or the poor, may let you into heaven.

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.

I say unto you - I, Jesus, say to you, my disciples.

Make to yourselves friends - Some have understood the word “friends,” here, as referring to the poor; others, to holy angels; and others, to God. Perhaps, however, the word should not be considered as referring to any particular “persons,” but is used in accordance with the preceding parable; for in the application our Saviour uses the “language” appropriated to the conduct of the steward to express the “general” truth that we are to make a proper use of riches. The steward had so managed his pecuniary affairs as to secure future comfort for himself, or so as to find friends that would take care of him “beyond” the time when he was put out of the office. That is, he would not be destitute, or cast off, or without comfort, when he was removed from his office. So, says our Saviour to the publicans and those who had property, so use your property as “to secure” happiness and comfort beyond the time when you shall be removed from the present life. “Have reference,” in the use of your money, to the future.

Do not use it so that it shall not avail you anything hereafter; but so employ it that, as the steward found friends, comfort, and a home by “his” wisdom in the use of it, so “you” may, after you are removed to another world, find friends, comfort, and a home - that is, may be happy in heaven. Jesus, here, does not say that we should do it “in the same way” that the steward did, for that was unjust; but only that we should “secure the result.” This may be done by using our riches as we “should do;” that is, by not suffering them to entangle us in cares and perplexities dangerous to the soul, engrossing the time, and stealing away the affections; by employing them in works of mercy and benevolence, aiding the poor, contributing to the advance of the gospel, bestowing them where they will do good, and in such a manner that God will “approve” the deed, and will bless us for it. Commonly riches are a “hindrance” to piety. To many they are snares; and, instead of positively “benefiting” the possessor, they are an injury, as they engross the time and the affections, and do not contribute at all to the eternal welfare of the soul. Everything may, by a proper use, be made to contribute to our welfare in heaven. Health, wealth, talents, and influence may be so employed; and this is what our Saviour doubtless means here.

Of the mammon - “By means” of the mammon.

Mammon - A Syriac word meaning riches. It is used, also, as an idol the god of riches.

Of unrighteousness - These words are an Hebrew expression for “unrighteous mammon,” the noun being used for an adjective, as is common in the New Testament. The word “unrighteous,” here, stands opposed to “the true riches” in Luk 16:11, and means “deceitful, false, not to be trusted.” It has this meaning often. See 1Ti 6:17; Luk 12:33; Mat 6:19; Mat 19:21. It does not signify, therefore, that they had acquired the property “unjustly,” but that property was “deceitful” and not to be trusted. The wealth of the steward was deceitful; he could not rely on its continuance; it was liable to be taken away at any moment. So the wealth of the world is deceitful. We cannot “calculate” on its continuance. It may give us support or comfort now, but it may be soon removed, or we taken from “it,” and we should, therefore, so use it as to derive benefit from it hereafter.

When ye fail - When ye “are left,” or when ye “die.” The expression is derived from the parable as referring to the “discharge” of the steward; but it refers to “death,” as if God then “discharged” his people, or took them from their stewardship and called them to account.

They may receive you - This is a form of expression denoting merely “that you may be received.” The plural form is used because it was used in the corresponding place in the parable, Luk 16:4. The direction is, so to use our worldly goods that “we may be received” into heaven when we die. “God” will receive us there, and we are to employ our property so that he will not cast us off for abusing it.

Everlasting habitations - Heaven, the eternal “home” of the righteous, where all our wants will be supplied, and where there can be no more anxiety, and no more removal from enjoyments, 2Co 5:1.

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

Make for yourselves friends, &c. Not that we are authorized to wrong our neighbour, to give to the poor: evil is never to be done, that good may come from it. (St. Thomas Aquinas) --- But we are exhorted to make the poor our friends before God, by relieving them with the riches which justly indeed belong to us, but are called the mammon of iniquity, because only the iniquitous man esteems them as riches, on which he sets his affections; whilst the riches of the virtuous are wholly celestial and spiritual. (St. Augustine, de quæst. Evang.) --- Of the mammon of iniquity. Mammon is a Syriac word for riches; and so it might be translated, of the riches of iniquity. Riches are called unjust, and riches of iniquity, not of themselves, but because they are many times the occasion of unjust dealings, and of all kind of vices. (Witham) --- Mammon signifies riches. They are here called the mammon of iniquity, because oftentimes ill-gotten, ill-bestowed, or an occasion of evil; and at the best are but worldly, and false: and not the true riches of a Christian. --- They may receive. By this we see, that the poor servants of God, whom we have relieved by our alms, may hereafter, by their intercession, bring our souls to heaven. (Challoner) --- They may receive you into their eternal tabernacles. What a beautiful thought this! What a consolation to the rich man, when the terms of his mortal existence is approaching, to think he shall have as many advocates to plead for his admittance into the eternal mansions of rest, as he has made friends among the poor by relieving their temporal wants. The rich give to the poor earthly treasures, the latter return in recompense eternal and infinite happiness. Hence we must infer, that the advantage is all on the side of the giver; according to the saying of our Lord, happier is the condition of him who gives, than of him who receives. (Haydock)

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).

That by mammon here is meant riches is universally agreed, but whether it originally be a Chaldaic, or Syriac, or Punic word is not so well agreed. The Chaldee paraphrast useth it, Hos 5:11; but the Hebrew there is quite otherwise, (according to our translation), he willingly walked after the commandment. But if the notion of those be true, that some of those nations had an idol called Mammon, whom they made the god of riches, answering the Grecian Plutus, it fairly interprets the Chaldee paraphrast. They followed the command for idolatry, for such was Jeroboam’s commandment, mentioned in that text, and from thence it might be that the Syrians and Punics called riches mammon. We have the word in the New Testament four times, thrice in this chapter, once Mat 6:24. It is called the mammon of unrighteousness, by a Hebraism; it is as much as, the unrighteous mammon: by which we must not understand ill gotten goods, (for God hateth robbery for a burnt offering), we must restore such goods, not make friends of them; but riches are so called, because of the manifold temptations to sin which arise from them, upon which account they are also called deceitful. But others think that it is so called in opposition to the true riches, mentioned Luk 16:11. So that the mammon of unrighteousness is the mammon of falsehood, or hurtful riches, riches of hurtfulness (αδιχια sometimes signifies hurt or wrong, and αδιχειν, laedere, nocere). Of these riches, which are no true riches, and which deceive the soul, and do hurt and mischief to a soul, exposing it to temptation, Christ commands us to make friends; either,

1. To make God our friend, not by meriting from him any thing by our disposal of them, but by obedience to his will in our distribution of them. Or:

2. To make poor Christians our friends, so as we may have their prayers. So that, when ye fail, when you die, when you fail of any more comfort from them, they may receive you into everlasting habitations; the holy Trinity, or the blessed angels, (whose work it is, as we shall hear, to carry souls into Abraham’s bosom), may receive you into heaven.

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

9. I say unto you—As this steward in his worldly dealing made earthly friends which would receive him into their earthly houses, so do you, from your worldly management, so contrive to make heavenly friends above, who will receive you

to everlasting habitations. Make to yourselves friends—Of God, of Christ, of all the holy ones above. Render yourselves fit to be a congenial associate with glorified saints and angels. Of—Rather, from or by means of. The mammon—The world’s god. See note on Mat_6:24.

Mammon of unrighteousness—That is of unrighteous mammon—The mammon of unrighteousness is unrighteous mammon, just as a man of wealth is a wealthy man, or a woman of great beauty is a beautiful woman. Mammon is called unrighteous, not because trade is in itself unlawful, nor because, as Stier would tell us, property is founded in sin; but because the spirit which pervades trade, if not purified by Christianity, and as it exists in heathen countries, and as a heathenish element in Christian countries, is unrighteous. When ye fail—In the Greek, when you depart or leave off: that is, from life, as the steward did from his office. They—The friends above, whom you have made, as directed in the former part of the verse.

Everlasting habitations—In contrast with the houses of the tenants mentioned in Luk_16:4.

Jesus does here advise us to imitate a wicked man, but not in his wickedness. Good men may be often instructed by the example of the wicked. If a reveller can, as he often does, spend one night a week in revelry, surely the Christian may be incited to have one watch-night in the year. We may take the devil as a model of unceasing activity; we in a good, as he in a bad cause. It is a maxim in heraldry, that of the animal placed as emblem on the coat of arms, the good qualities alone must be considered, and not the bad. So, if on the national banner an eagle, a lion, a rattlesnake, be placed, we leave out of account the beastly or reptile baseness, and take in only the excellences in these beings. Our Lord commends to his apostles the wisdom of the serpent, but not his venom; the harmlessness of the dove, but not his simplicity. In the same way he instructs from the Unjust Judge and the Reluctant Neighbour. See note on Luk_18:2-8, and on Luk_11:5-8.

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

And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. Then, with his usual solemn formula, "I say unto you," the Lord gave out his moral interpretation of the parable. His words were addressed to possessors of various degrees of wealth. "You will soon have to give up all your worldly goods; be prudent in time, make some real friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness; by means of that money entrusted to your care, do good to others who are in need." The mammon of unrighteousness. This word "mammon" does not denote, as some have supposed, the name of a deity, the god of wealth or money, but it signifies "money" itself. It is a Syriac or Aramaic term. The words, "of unrighteousness," are added because in so many eases the getting of money is tainted with unrighteousness in some form or other; and, when possessed, it so often hardens the heart, as the Lord himself said in another, (Luk_18:25) that it was easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. "What the steward of my story," said the Master, "did to men of his world, see that you with your money do toward those who belong to your world." That, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. So that when you shall be dismissed from being stewards of God"s possessions, that is, when ye shall die, "when ye suffer the last eclipse and bankruptcy of life," that then others, your friends, may receive you (welcome you) into everlasting dwellings. The majority of the older authorities here, instead of" when ye fail," read, "when it (money) shall fail you" (by the event of your death). The sense of the passage, however, remains the same, whichever reading be adopted. But now a deeply interesting question arises When the Lord speaks of friends receiving us after death into eternal homes, to what friends is he alluding? Great expositors, Ewald and Meyer, for instance, tell us that he means the angels. But the plain sense of the parable points, not to angels, but to poor, weak, suffering persons whom we have helped here; these, then, must be the friends who will receive us, or welcome us, in the world to come. A further query suggests itselfHow will these be able to receive us? To such a question no definite reply can be given. We know too little of the awful mysteries of that world to be able even to hazard a surmise as to the help or the comfort which grateful, blessed spirits will be able to show to their brethren the newly arrived, when they receive them. His word here must suffice us; well will it be for us, if one day we practically discover the holy secret for ourselves. Godet has a weighty note with which he concludes his exposition of this difficult but most instructive parable: "There is no thought more fitted than that of this parable, on the one hand to undermine the idea of merit belonging to alms-giving (what merit could be got out of that which is another"s? and is not all money, are not all goods out of which we bestow our alms, God"s?); and on the other, to encourage us in the practice of that virtue which assures us of friends and protectors for the grave moment of our passing into the world to come." One beautiful and exquisitely comforting thought is shrined in this playful and yet intensely solemn utterance of Jesus. The eternal tents, the "many mansions," as John calls them, will have among their occupants, it is certain, many a one whose life on earth was hard and sorrowful. These are now enjoying bliss indescribable, these poor Lazaruses, to whom this world was so sad, so dreary a habitation. And perhaps a portion of their blessedness consists in this power, to which the Lord makes allusion here, of assisting others the helped here becoming the helpers there. Although the teaching of Christ and his chosen servants here and elsewhere shows us distinctly that no merit can attach to almsgiving, seeing that our alms are only given out of property entrusted to us for a short time by God for this and other similar purposes, yet the same authoritative teaching informs us that God has regard to almsdeeds done in the true spirit of love, in determining our eternal destiny. Thus a message direct from heaven informs the Roman legionary Cornelius that his prayers and alms were come up for a memorial before God. Paul writes to Timothy to charge the Ephesus Christians "that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life." In the parable of Lazarus and Dives we shall find this principle yet more clearly illustrated. These are only a few out of the many passages where this generosity and almsgiving is commended to the believer with peculiar earnestness.

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

And I say to you - Be good stewards even of the lowest talents wherewith God hath intrusted you. Mammon means riches or money. It is termed the mammon of unrighteousness, because of the manner wherein it is commonly either procured or employed. Make yourselves friends of this, by doing all possible good, particularly to the children of God: that when ye fail, when your flesh and your heart faileth, when this earthly tabernacle is dissolved, those of them who have gone before may receive, may welcome you into the everlasting habitations.

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

The application of the parable:

v. 9. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

v. 10. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.

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

v. 12. And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?

The lesson of the parable has really begun in the previous section, and it may be that the entire judgment of verse 8 was spoken by Jesus. The children of this world, the people of the present day and age, are wiser than the children of light, the believers that have been enlightened by the Spirit of God, in their generation, toward their own kind; they exhibit much more keenness and business ability in their concerns than the children Of the Church in theirs. They show their wisdom in relation to men of their own kind and in reference to worldly matters. It behooves the Christians to profit by their example and to show the same zeal, the same keenness, the same business ability in matters of the kingdom of God. One application of the lesson the Lord Himself makes with the emphasis peculiar to Him (as for Me, to you I say). The Christians should make for themselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness. Mammon, a term found in several ancient languages, denotes money. Now, one evidence of the wisdom of the children of the world consists in this, that they make provision for the future, that they make all their business ventures serve this end. To put themselves and their families beyond care as soon as possible is their object, and therefore they make use of every possible advantage to attain to this end. The children of light, on the contrary, are often anything but energetic and diligent in the things that pertain to God’s kingdom. They forget, also, that the end is coming, that they will have to give an account to the Lord in regard to their business transactions for Him. Therefore Jesus here admonishes them that they should so conduct their affairs, and principally those that concern temporal goods, wealth and money in general, that they, like the steward, shall make friends with the goods, with the mammon entrusted to them. Christians will use their money in the interest of the kingdom of God, in establishing and extending the Church of Jesus Christ throughout the world. And wherever they can, they will be actively interested in true charity in all its phases. In this way the poor congregations, the heathen, and others that receive the benefit of such investments, and the poor and suffering of the household of faith, will be under obligations to them. All these debtors will later show their true friendship in such a way that they will receive the Christians into the everlasting habitations. For the time will come that earthly wealth and mammon will fail; it is entrusted to every person only for the short space of this earthly life"; and they themselves must leave this world behind. Then the wisdom of their investment will be demonstrated. For all those that have received any form of benefit from the money of the Christian brethren and sisters will then speak for them before the throne of God, testifying to the gifts which they enjoyed here in this world by the kindness of the members of the Church that were willing to share with the less fortunate in the possession of this world’s goods. "All the good that ye do to poor people here, the friendship and benefits which we show them, those works will on the last day not only be witnesses that we have conducted ourselves as brethren and Christians, but will also be rewarded and paid. Then someone will come and praise: Lord, this person gave me a coat, a dollar, a loaf of bread, a drink of water when I was in trouble."

But Jesus draws other conclusions from the parable. Faithfulness in small, apparently insignificant things is a criterion. It will follow that he who shows the right spirit, true faithfulness, in the less, will be faithful also in the greater, while the opposite holds true in the opposite case. Now, if a person does not prove faithful in the administration of the money which the Lord has entrusted to him for the short space of this earthly life, who will be foolish enough to entrust matters of real value and importance to such a one? The care and charge of spiritual gifts and goods presupposes the faithfulness in the less important temporal goods. Faith, which accepts and preserves the heavenly goods, all the gifts of God through the means of grace, will prove itself in the faithful discharge of earthly duties, in conscientious use of earthly goods, in mercy and beneficence. He that is not conscientious in the use of the money and goods entrusted to him gives evidence of lack of faith and of a contempt of heavenly goods. And if people are not faithful in the administration of the things that belong to another, who will be willing to give them such, as are their actual property? People of wealth in this world are administrators, stewards of God’s goods,’ which He has entrusted to them in the form of money or its equivalent. This involves responsibility, and the day of reckoning is coming. If God finds that such people could not even be trusted with strange property, He will conclude that they cannot be trusted either with the gifts of His grace, which are intended for their property for all eternity. All spiritual gifts, all that the heritage of heaven implies, are, unlike the temporal possessions, outright gifts. But the latter are given only to such persons as have given proof of their faith by works which proved that they could be trusted. The presence of faith is invariably shown by works of love.

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

Here our Saviour makes application of the forgoing parable to his disciples.

Where note,

1. The title given by our Saviour to wealth and riches, he calls it Mammon and Mammon of unrighteousness: Mammon was the name given by the heathens to the god of riches; the mammon of unrighteousness, is riches unrighteously gotten.

2. The advice given by our Saviour to the men of wealth: Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that is, make God your friend by a charitable distribution, that he may bless you; make the poor your friends, that they may unitedly engage their prayers for you; make your own consciences your friends, that they may not reproach and shame you, sting and torment you.

Observe, 3. The argument used to excite the rich to this improvement of their wealth: That when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. When ye fail, that is, when you died, and your riches fail you, and can stand you in no farther stead, They may receive you; What they? Some understand it of the Holy Trinity, others of the blessed angels, whose office it is to convey the charitable and good man’s soul to heaven, it’s eternal habitation. Some understand it of riches themselves. They may receive you; that is, your estates, laid out for God in works of piety and charity, may ever before you into heaven, and open the gates of eternal life for you, not in a way of merit, but in a way of means.

Lastly, They may receive you: Some understand it of the poor themselves, whose bowels our charity has refreshed, that they will welcome us to heaven, and receive us with joyful acclamations into the eternal mansions, which are prepared for the merciful.

Others say the words, They may receive you, are impersonally put for, that you may be received into heaven when you die. This is to imitate the wise merchant in sending over our money into another country by bills of exchange.

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

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

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.

9. ἐκλίπῃ אBDL, ἐκλείπῃ A, ἐκλίπητε EG &c., ἐκλείπετε D. See note.

9. ἑαυτοῖς ποιήσατε φίλους ἐκ τοῦ μαμωνᾶ τῆς ἀδικίας. Comp. Luk 16:8, ὁ κριτὴς τῆς ἀδικίας, Luk 18:6. It is the qualitative genitive, and describes the characteristic abuse of wealth. This descriptive genitive in Hebrew makes up for the paucity of adjectives. The Greek may imply either, Make the unrighteous mammon your friend; or make yourselves friends by your use of the unrighteous mammon. There is no proof that mammon is the Hebrew equivalent to Plutus, the Greek god of wealth (Mat 6:24). ‘Mammon’ simply means wealth, and is called ‘unrighteous’ by metonymy (i.e. the ethical character of the use is represented as cleaving to the thing itself) because the abuse of riches is more common than their right use (1Ti 6:10). It is not therefore necessary to give to the word ‘unrighteous’ the sense of ‘false’ or ‘unreal,’ though sometimes in the LXX[300] it has almost that meaning. We turn mammon into a friend, and make ourselves friends by its means, when we use riches not as our own to squander, but as God’s to employ in deeds of usefulness and mercy.

[300] LXX. Septuagint.

ὅταν ἐκλίπῃ. Cum defecerit. ‘When it (mammon) fails,’ which the true riches never do (Luk 12:33). The reading ἐκλίπητε means ‘when ye die.’

δέξωνται. The ‘they’ are either the poor who have been made friends by the right use of wealth (comp. Luk 16:4), or the word is the impersonal or categoric plural, as in Luk 12:11; Luk 12:20, Luk 23:31. Comp. Mat 24:31; Mar 13:27; Tob 4:7. The latter sense seems to be the best, for it is only by analogy that those whom we aid by a right use of riches can be said (‘by their prayers on earth, or their testimony in heaven’) to ‘receive’ us. The notion of a human welcome into heaven does not occur in Scripture.

εἰς τὰς αἰωνίους σκηνάς. ‘Into the eternal tents,’ Joh 14:2, “And give these the everlasting tabernacles which I had prepared for them,” 2Es 2:11. (Comp. 2Co 5:1; Isa 33:20, and see p. 384.) The general duty inculcated is that of “laying up treasure in heaven” (Mat 6:20; comp. 1Ti 6:17-19). There is no Ebionite reprobation of riches as riches here; only a warning not to trust in them (Mar 10:24).

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.

9.] We now pass to the application at once—from the mouth of our Lord Himself. All that is dishonest and furtive in the character of the steward belonged entirely to him as a υἱὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου: but even in this character there was a point to praise and imitate. And the dishonesty itself is not inserted without purpose—viz. to shew us how little the νἱοὶ τ. αἰ. τ. scruple to use it, and how natural it is to them. Now, however, we stand on higher ground: καθαροῖς πάντα καθαρά:—in bringing up the example into the purer air which the sons of light breathe, its grosser parts drop off, and the finer only remain.

καὶ ἐγὼ ὑμῖν λ. seems to recognize a necessary difference in the two situations:—‘although you are sons of the light and the day, and can do no such furtive acts, yet I say to you’ … This view will explain how we may make φίλους ἐκ τοῦ μαμ. τῆς ἀδ. just as we can make an example for ourselves out of the οἰκονόμος τῆς ἀδικ.—that which is of itself τῆς ἀδικίας—which belongs to, is part of a system of, ἀδικία,—which is the very ῥίζα πάντων τῶν κακῶν, the result, and the aptest concretion, of that system of meum and tuum (see ch. 15:12) which is itself the result of sin having entered into the world. And we are to use this Mammon of unrighteousness to make ourselves,—not palaces, nor barns, nor estates, nor treasures,—but friends; i.e. to bestow it on the poor and needy—(see ch. 12:33, which is the most striking parallel to our text—compare ὅταν ἐκλίπῃ, with θησαυρὸν ἀνέκλειπτον there) that when it shall fail,—they, i.e. the φίλοι—(compare the joy in heaven ch. 15:7, 10, and Baxter’s remark cited there by Stier—‘Is there joy in heaven at thy conversion, and will there be none at thy glorification?’) may receive you into the (or their) everlasting tabernacles. See also ch. 14:13, 14.

God repays in their name. They receive us there with joy, if they are gone before us: they receive us there by making us partakers of their prayers, which ‘move the Hand that moves the world,’ even during this life. Deeds then of charity and mercy are to be our spiritual shrewdness, by which we may turn to our account the ἄδικον μαμωνᾶ,—providing ourselves with friends out of it;—and the debtors are here perhaps to be taken in their literal, not parabolic sense—we are to lighten their burdens by timely relief—the only way in which a son of light can change the hundred into fifty, or fourscore: see Isa 58:6-8.

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

9-14. Comments respecting the Parable and its Application, which are still addressed to the disciples. To prevent possible misunderstanding owing to the commendation of a dishonest servant, Christ here insists upon the necessity of fidelity in dealing with worldly possessions. He shows clearly that it is not the dishonesty of the steward which is commended as an example, but his prudence in using present opportunities as a means of providing for the future.

9. καὶ ἐγὼ ὑμῖν λέγω. “And I say to you,” or “I also say to you”; balancing what the master said to the steward. The disciples ought to earn similar commendation in spiritual matters.

Here, as in 2:48 and Act 10:26, the correct reading seems to be καὶ εγώ; but almost everywhere else κἀγώ is right (11:9, 19:23, 20:3, 22:29, etc.). So also κἀμοί and κἀμέ rather than καὶ ἐμοί and καὶ ἐμέ. Greg. Proleg. p. 96.

ἑαυτοῖͅ ποιήσατε φίλουͅ. The pronoun stands first with emphasis. “In your own interest make friends.” The friends are those in need, who are succoured by the benevolent use of wealth, and show their gratitude by blessing their benefactors and praying for them. The poor are the representatives of Christ (Mat 25:40), and it is well worth while having them as friends. Comp. 1Ti 6:10. Mammon is not personified here as it is in ver. 13, Comp. μὴ ἔπεχε ἐπὶ χρήμασιν ἀδίκοιͅ (Ecclus. 5:8).

The word appears to mean “that which is trusted in.” Lucrum Punice mammon dicitur (Aug. De Serm. Dom. in Monte, ii. 14. 47). But although found in Punic it is of Syrian origin and was in use in the Targums. The expression occurs in the Book of Enoch: “Our souls are satisfied with the mammon of unrighteousness, but this does not prevent us from descending into the flame of the pain of Sheol” (lxiii. 10). There are rabbinical sayings which are akin to what Jesus here says: e.g. that “alms are the salt of riches,” and that “the rich help the poor in this world, but the poor help the rich in the world to come.” See Schœttg. 1. p. 299; Herzog, Pro_2 art. Mammon. The spelling μαμμωνᾷ, with double μ, is not correct.

ἵνα ὅταν ἐκλίτῃ δέξωνται ἡμᾷ. Here, as in 14:10, the ἵνα, if it expresses purpose and not result, refers to Christ’s purpose in giving this advice rather than to that of the disciples in following it. “When it shall fail” means when the wealth shall have come to an end. The subject of ἐκλίπῃ is ὁ μαμωνᾷ. The reading ἐκλίπητε or ἐκλείπητε would mean “when ye die” (Gen 15:8, 49:33; Psa 104:29; Jer_42.(49.) 17, 22; Tobit 14:11; Wisd. 5:13). In either case the verb is intrans. No acc. is to be understood. Comp. Ps. Sol. 3:16, 17:5.

The evidence although somewhat confused, is quite decisive for the sing, ἐκλίπῃ or ἐκλείπῃ (א A B * D L R Ξ Π etc., Syr. Boh. Arm. Aeth.) as against the plur. ἐκλίπητε or ἐκλείπητε (F R U G Δ Λ; etc. etc., Vulg. Goth.) Wordsw. is almost alone in defending ἐκλίπητε. Sadler represents the choice on between “Ye fail” and “they fail.”

δέξωνται. This may be impersonal, like αἰτοῦσιν in 12:20. But possibly the φίλοι are to be understood as procuring the reception qui eos introducant in tabernacula æterna, qui necessitatibus suis terrena bona communicaverint (Aug. Quæst. Evang. ii. 34); or again, as giving them a welcome when they enter. Comp. the use of δέχεσθαι 9:5, 48; Joh 4:45.

εἰͅ τᾲ αἰωνίουͅ σκηνᾴ. The emphasis is on αἰωνίουͅ, “into the eternal tabernacles,” in contrast to the uncertain and transitory houses of the debtors (ver. 4). The steward secured a home for a time; but a wise use of opportunities may secure a home for eternity. In 5 Ezr 2:11 God is represented as promising to Israel, dabo eis tabernacula æterna, quæ præparaveram illis (Fritzsche, p. 643). Some such idea Peter seems to have had in his mind at the Transfiguration (9:33). The combination of “eternal” with “tabernacles” is remarkable, because σκηναί is commonly used of dwellings which are very temporary.

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

Make to yourselves friends. Compare Virgil, "Aeneid," 6, 664.

Among the tenants of Elysium he sees "those who, by good desert, made others mindful of them."

Of the mammon of unrighteousness [εκ του μαμωνα της αδικιας] .

The same idiom as in ver. 8, steward of injustice. Compare unrighteous mammon, ver. 11. Mammon should be spelt with one m. It is a Chaldee word, meaning riches. It occurs only in this chapter and at Mt 6:24. "Of the mammon" is, literally, by means of. In the phrase of unrighteousness, there is implied no condemnation of property as such; but it is styled unrighteous, or belonging to unrighteousness, because it is the characteristic and representative object and delight and desire of the selfish and unrighteous world : their love of it being a root of all evil (1Ti 6:10). Wyc., the riches of wickedness.

Ye fail [εκλιπητε] . But all the best texts read ejkliph, "When it (the mammon) fails."

They may receive. The friends.

Habitations [σκηνας] . Lit., tents or tabernacles.

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