The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 2 — Section 124

The e:ile e.nd distrib:1tion of property in apostolic times was an expedient which we.11 adopted for the occasion; but it was not insisted upon as necessary even then (Acts v. 4), and it wae very soon abandoned. Paul, writing to Timothy, wrote on the sup- position that the Christian Church included many wealthy men (L Tim. vi.). Every age and every country has witnessed the lives of wealthy Christian men, who have mustrated every grace that the great Teacher has commended. It is clear that a rich man may be as humble, as generous, as temperate, as pure, as devout, as any poor man can be; and he sometimes is so. The explanation of our Lord's language is found in the fact that riches are apt to put a serious obstacle in the way of entrance into the kingdom. If we would find our way into that holy and blessed kingdom, it is necessary that we should have a sense of our personal emptiness and need. We come to Christ to be filled with his fulness, to be enriched by his grace and love. He is a Physician, and it is they who feel that they are sick that are likely to apply for his healing power. He is the Divine Source of all wealth and enrichment (Rev. iii. 18), and they must know themselves to be poor who come to buy of him gold that they may become rich. Hence the difficulty. It is for this reason that- I. A MAN WHOSE MIND IS FULL OF KNOWLEDGE finds it hard to receive distinctive Christian truth. He is rich, as compared with his fellows, in the acquisition of know- ledge. He is proud of this possession of his, and is bent on making the most of it. Jesus Christ comes to him, and says that he must lay aside his own views and notions, and sit at his feet and receive the truth he brings to him from God. Then the "rich" man has to sacrifice his favourite theories, has to make nothing of his learning, that he may admit to his mind the wisdom that is from above; and he finds it very " hard" to do this. II. A MAN WHO rs CLOTHED WITH HONOUil. finds it hard to take a. very humble view of himself. For honour is an order of wealth, and one that is highly prized. But the natural and common effect of it is to lead those who are the objects of it to form a. flattering view of themselves; it is hard to get them to believe :that in God's sight they may be as sinful as those held in very much less regard by their fellow-men. But the ground on which human souls must come to Christ is that of humility. "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." III. A MAN WHOSE CHAMBERS ARE FULL OF TREASURE is tempted to seek his satis- faction in the lower good. We have to make our choice, as Divine truth is presented to us, whether we will live for the service of Christ or for our own personal enjoyment aud aggrandizement. 'l'o the poor, to the afflicted, to the suffering, to those who know they have not long to live, the temptation to live for this present world is not so strong; on their ear the overtures of the gospel of grace fall as that very thing they need for their comfort and their peace; they have little to surrender, they have much to gain. But to those to whom every avenue of enjoyment is open; to those who may look hopefully, perhaps confidently, for place, for power, for society, for pkasure, for honour,-the inducement is very strong and urgent to cast in their lot with those "whose portion is in this life." Many voices very close to their ear, very clear and con- vincing, call for their strength to be given to the material rather than the spiritual, to the temporal rather than the eternal, to the human rather than the Divine; and it is "hard" for them to resi8t and to overcome. I. Let poverty find its ample consolation in the accessibility of the riches that always satisfy and never flee. 2. Let those who know neither poverty nor riches thank God for the happy mean in which his provi- dence bas placed them-not subjecting them to the temptations of either. 3. Let wealth beware lest it make a sad, a supreme, mistake; lest, in the great spiritual strife, it- " Clutch the tinsel gilding, and let go the crown of life." c. VerR. 28, 29 (comp. Mark. x. 29, 30).-Ohrist's estimate of a Christian life. It is certain that no literalist could ever understand Jesus Christ. Men of this order of mind utterly failed to understand him in his own time (see particularly John vi. 41-46), and they are equally at fault to-day. It is clearly impossible to give a literal inter- pretation to these words of the Lord; the facts of tho case do not permit it. But going to the heart of this Divine utterance, we understand that any one who for Christ's sake suffers tho loss of kindred and of worhlly goods, shall have that which, in the sight of  THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [oH, xvm. I-43.