The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 76

I. TIIE J,AW OJ' INWARD GROWTH. The Lord of our nature knew that it was "in man" to do any act more readily and easily the second time than the first, the third than the second, and Ro on continually; that every disposition, faculty, principle, grows by exercise. This is true in the physical, the mental, and also in the spiritual sphere. H applies to acts of submission, of obedience, of courage, of service. One who is faithful to-day will find Ha simpler antl easier thing to be faithful to-morrow. The boy who faithfully studies at school, scorning to cheat either his teacher or bis fellows, will be the apprentice who faithfully masters his business or his profession; and he will be the merchant on whom every one may rely in large transactions in the market; and he will be the minister of state who will be trusted with the conduct of imperial affairs. Fidelity of habit will grow into strong spiritual principle, and will form a large and valuable part of a holy and Christ-like character. "He that is faithful in that which is least will," in the natural order of spiritual things, "be faithful also in much." Of course, the converse of this is equally true. II. THE PRINCIPLE OF DIVINE REWARD. God blesses uprightness in the very act, for he makes the upright man something the better and the stronger for bis act of faithful- ness. That is much, but that is not all. He holds out to faithfulness the promise of a reward in the future. This promise is twofold: 1. It is one of heavenly wealth, or wealth of the highest order. The proprietor of the estate (ver. 1) would remove the unfaithful steward altogether; but he would treat faithfulness very differently-he would be prepared to give him something so much better that it might even be called "true riches" (ver.11); nay, he might even go so far as to give him lands, vineyards, which he should not farm for another, but for himself, which he should call "his own" (ver. 12). The Divine Husbandman will reward fidelity in his service by granting to his diligent servants "the true riches;" not that about which there is so much of the fictitious, the disappointing, the burdensome, as there is about all earthly good, but that which really gladdens the heart, brightens the path, ennobles the life-that noble heritage which awaits the "faithful unto death" in the heavenly country. 2. It is inalienable wealth, that will not pass. Here a man points to his estate and says com- placently, "'l'his is mine." But it is only bis in a secondary sense. He has the legal use of it, to the exclusion of every other while he lives. But it is alienable. Disaster may come and compel him to part with it; death will come and undo the bond which binds it to him. It is only his in a certain limited sense. Of nothing visible and material can we say strictly that it is "our own." Bui if we are faithful to the end, God will one day endow us with wealth with which we shall not be called to part; of which no revolution will rob us, of which death will not deprive us-the inalienable estate of heavenly honour and blessedness; that will be "our own" for ever. III. THE GROUND FOB PRAISE AND PATIENCE. 1. Bless God that he is now iighteously endowing and enlarging his faithful ones. 2. Live in the well-assured hope that the future will disclose a much larger sphere for spiritual integrity.-C. Ver. 11.-The true riches. We must gain our idea of the sense in which the word "true" is to be taken by our knowledge of Christ's use of it. .And we know that he used it as disUnguisbing, not the correct from the incorrect, or the existing from the iwaginary, but the valuable from the comparatively unimportant, the substantial fro:n the shadowy, the essential from the accidental, the abiding from the transitory. It is in this sense that he says of himself, "I am the true Light;" i.e. "I am not that which renders the smaller service of revealing outward objects and the outward path, but that which renders the supreme service of making clear Divine and heavenly truth, and the way that leads home to God himself." Thus he speaks also of b imself as "the trne Bread;'' i.e. not the food which sustains for a few hours, but that inward and spiritual nourishment which satisfies the soul and makes it strong for ever. Similarly he declares that be is " the true Vine;" i.e. the Di vine .Author of the soul's refreshment, strength, and joy. We shall, therefore, find in" the true riches" those treasures which are truly valuable, which permanently endow their possessor, in opposition to those other treasures which are of inferior worth. We glance at- I. THI!: INFERIOR 0HABAOTl!:R OF EARTHLY TREASURE, No doubt these riches, which are not entitled to be called the" true riches," have a worth of their own which is far from contemptible. Iudeed, they render WI services which we cannot help calling  78 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING 'l'O S1'. LUKE. [en. xvi. 1-31.