Luke 12
CHAPTER 12
Luke 12:1-12 . WARNING AGAINST HYPOCRISY.
1-3. meantime--in close connection, probably, with the foregoing scene. Our Lord had been speaking out more plainly than ever before, as matters were coming to a head between Him and His enemies, and this seems to have suggested to His own mind the warning here. He had just Himself illustriously exemplified His own precepts.
his disciples first of all--afterwards to "the multitudes" ( Luke 12:54 ).
covered--from the view.
2. hid--from knowledge. "Tis no use concealing anything, for all will one day come out. Give free and fearless utterance then to all the truth." (Compare 1 Corinthians 4:3 1 Corinthians 4:5 ).
4, 5. I say, &c.--You will say, That may cost us our life. Be it so; but, "My friends, there their power ends." He calls them "my friends" here, not in any loose sense, but, as we think, from the feeling He then had that in this "killing of the body" He and they were going to be affectingly one with each other.
5. Fear Him . . . Fear Him--how striking the repetition here! Only the one fear would effectually expel the other.
after he hath killed, &c.--Learn here--(1) To play false with one's convictions to save one's life, may fail of its end after all, for God can inflict a violent death in some other and equally formidable way. (2) There is a hell, it seems, for the body as well as the soul; consequently, sufferings adapted to the one as well as the other. (3) Fear of hell is a divinely authorized and needed motive of action even to Christ's "friends." (4) As Christ's meekness and gentleness were not compromised by such harsh notes as these, so those servants of Christ lack their Master's spirit who soften down all such language to please ears "polite."
6, 7. five . . . for two farthings--In Matthew 10:29 it is "two for one farthing"; so if one took two farthings' worth, he got one in addition--of such small value were they.
than many sparrows--not "than millions of sparrows"; the charm and power of our Lord's teaching is very much in this simplicity.
8, 9. confess . . . deny--The point lies in doing it "before men," because one has to do it "despising the shame." But when done, the Lord holds Himself bound to repay it in kind by confessing such "before the angels of God." For the rest,
Luke 12:13-53 . COVETOUSNESS--WATCHFULNESS--SUPERIORITY TO EARTHLY TIES.
13. Master, &c.--that is, "Great Preacher of righteousness, help; there is need of Thee in this rapacious world; here am I the victim of injustice, and that from my own brother, who withholds from me my rightful share of the inheritance that has fallen to us." In this most inopportune intrusion upon the solemnities of our Lord's teaching, there is a mixture of the absurd and the irreverent, the one, however, occasioning the other. The man had not the least idea that his case was not of as urgent a nature, and as worthy the attention of our Lord, as anything else He could deal with.
14. Man, &c.--Contrast this style of address with "my friends," ( Luke 12:4 ).
who, &c.--a question literally repudiating the office which Moses assumed ( Exodus 2:14 ). The influence of religious teachers in the external relations of life has ever been immense, when only the INDIRECT effect of their teaching; but whenever they intermeddle DIRECTLY with secular and political matters, the spell of that influence is broken.
15. unto them--the multitude around Him ( Luke 12:1 ).
of covetousness--The best copies have "all," that is, "every kind of covetousness"; because as this was one of the more plausible forms of it, so He would strike at once at the root of the evil.
a man's life, &c.--a singularly weighty maxim, and not less so because its meaning and its truth are equally evident.
16-19. a certain rich man, &c.--Why is this man called a "fool?" ( Luke 12:20 ) (1) Because he deemed a life of secure and abundant earthly enjoyment the summit of human felicity. (2) Because, possessing the means of this, through prosperity in his calling, he flattered himself that he had a long lease of such enjoyment, and nothing to do but give himself up to it. Nothing else is laid to his charge.