A lesson in Luke 16 part 1

There are some powerful lessons to be learned in this chapter and while I don't agree with all that William Barclay teaches when you look at the pieces of his commentary that I have posted below with minor alterations you will see the lessons I have taken away this day.

Luke 16:1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.5 So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.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.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.11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?12 And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.

(i) In Luke 16:8 the lesson is that the sons of this world are wiser in their generation than the sons of light. That means that, if only the Believer was as eager and ingenious in his attempt to attain goodness as the man of the world is in his attempt to attain money and comfort, he would be a much better man. If only People would give as much attention to the things which concern their souls as they do to the things which concern their business, they would be much better People. Over and over again a person will expend twenty times the amount of time and money and effort on their pleasure, their hobby, their garden, their sport as they do on their effort to follow the Truth. Our Walk will begin to be real and effective only when we spend as much time and effort on it as we do on our worldly activities.

(iii) In Luke 16:10-11 the lesson is that a persons way of fulfilling a small task is the best proof of his fitness or unfitness to be entrusted with a bigger task. That is clearly true of earthly things. No man will be advanced to higher office until he has given proof of his honesty and ability in a smaller position. But Yashaya extends the principle to eternity. He says, "Upon earth you are in charge of things which are not really yours. You cannot take them with you when you die. They are only lent to you. You are only a steward over them. They cannot, in the nature of things, be permanently yours. On the other hand, in heaven you will get what is really and eternally yours. And what you get in heaven depends on how you use the things of earth. What you will be given as your very own will depend on how you use the things of which you are only steward."

(iv) Luke 16:13 lays down the rule that no slave can serve two masters. The master possessed the slave, and possessed him exclusively. Nowadays, a servant or a workman can quite easily do two jobs and work for two people. He can do one job in his working time and another in his spare time. He can, for instance, be a clerk by day and a musician by night. Many a man augments his income or finds his real interest in a spare-time occupation. But a slave had no spare time; every moment of his day, and every ounce of his energy, belonged to his master. He had no time which was his own. So, serving The Most High can never be a part-time or a spare-time job. Once a man chooses to serve God every moment of his time and every atom of his energy belongs to The Most High. The Most High is the most exclusive of masters. We either belong to him totally or not at all.

Luke 16:14-18 (i) It begins with a rebuke to the Pharisees. It says that they derided Yashaya. The word literally means that they turned up their noses at him. The Jew tended to connect earthly prosperity with goodness; wealth was a sign that a man was a good man. The Pharisees put-on a parade of goodness and they regarded material prosperity as a reward of that goodness; but the more they exalted themselves before men, the more they became an abomination to The Most High. It is bad enough for a man to think himself a good man; it is worse when he points to material prosperity as an unanswerable proof of his goodness.

(ii) Before Yashaya the law and the prophets had been the final word of God; but Yashaya came preaching the kingdom. When he did, the most unlikely people, the tax-collectors and the sinners, came storming their way into the kingdom even when the scribes and Pharisees would have set up barriers to keep them out. But Yashaya emphasized that the kingdom was not the end of the law. True, the little details and regulations of the ceremonial law were wiped out. No man was to think that following Christ offered an easy way in which no laws remained. The great laws stood unaltered and unalterable. Certain Hebrew letters are very like each other and are distinguished only by the serif, the little line at the top or bottom. Not even a serif of the great laws would pass away.

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible( slightly altered)