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Luk_16:10-12. These verses give more detailed information regarding the precept in Luk_16:9. “Without the specified application of the possessions of Mammon, to wit, ye cannot receive the Messianic riches.” This is shown, on the ground of a general principle of experience (Luk_16:10) from a twofold specific peculiarity of both kinds of wealth, by the argument a minori ad majus.
The faithful in the least is also faithful in much; and the unrighteous in the least is also unrighteous in much[200]—a locus communis which is to be left in its entire proverbial generality. It is fitted for very varied application to individual cases. For what special conclusion it is here intended to serve as a major proposition is contained in Luk_16:11 f.
πιστὸς ἐν ἐλαχ . is conceived as one united idea. Comp. on Gal_3:26; Eph_4:1.
Luk_16:11. In the unrighteous Mammon (here also neuter, and altogether as in Luk_16:9) those are faithful who, according to the precept in Luk_16:9, so apply it that they make for themselves friends therewith. This faithfulness is meant not from the standpoint of the mammon-mind, but of the divine mind (Luk_16:13).
ἐγένεσθε ] have become, before the Messianic decision,—an expression of the moral development.
τὸ ἀληθινόν ] placed first as a more emphatic contrast to ἘΝ Τῷ ἈΔΊΚῼ ΜΑΜ . (comp. Luk_9:20, Luk_23:31): that which is true, which is not merely a wealth that is regarded as such, but (“Jesus loquitur e sensu coelesti,” Bengel) the ideally real and genuine riches (comp. on Joh_1:9), i.e. the salvation of the kingdom of Messiah. Observe the demonstrative force of the article. De Wette, Bleek, and many others, following older writers, wrongly understand the spiritual wealth, the Spirit; compare Olshausen: “heavenly powers of the Spirit.” It must be that which previously was symbolized by the reception into the everlasting habitations; hence also it cannot be “the revealed truths, the Gospel” (Ewald), or “the spiritual riches of the kingdom of heaven” (Wieseler), the “gifts of grace” (Lahmeyer), and the like. The objection against our view, that πιστεύσει is not in harmony with it (Wieseler), is not fatal, comp. Luk_19:17. The contrast indeed is not verbally complete ( ἄδικον … δίκαιον ), but substantially just, since anything that is unrighteous cannot be ΤῸ ἈΛΗΘΙΝΌΝ , but the two are essentially in contrast.
Luk_16:12. ἘΝ Τῷ ἈΛΛΟΤΡΊῼ ] another specific attribute of the temporal riches, in what is alien, i.e. in that which belongs to another. For ye are not the possessor, but Mammon (in the parable the rich man whose wealth the οἰκονόμος did not possess, but only managed). Altogether arbitrary is the spiritualizing explanation of de Wette, that it is “what does not immediately belong to the sphere of light and Spirit” (comp. Lahmeyer), as well as that of Hölbe, “in the truth which belongs to God.” The contrary: ΤῸ ὙΜΈΤΕΡΟΝ , that which is yours, by which again is characterized not spiritual wealth, but the salvation of the Messianic kingdom,—to wit, as that which shall be the property of man, for that is indeed the hereditary possession, the κληρονομία (Act_20:32; Rom_8:17; Gal_3:18; Eph_1:14; Mat_25:34, and elsewhere), the treasure laid up by him in heaven (Mat_6:19-21), his ΠΟΛΊΤΕΥΜΑ in heaven (Php_3:20), not a mere possession by stewardship of that which belongs to another as its owner, as is the case in respect of earthly wealth. It is an arbitrary interpolation in H. Bauer, op. cit. p. 540 f., who understands ἐλάχιστον and ἈΛΛΌΤΡΙΟΝ as the ἌΔΙΚΟς ΜΑΜ . of the legal condition, to which is to be attributed no absolute significance.
[200] Views in harmony with vv. 10 and 12 occur in Clem. Cor. Luk_2:8; but to conclude therefrom that there is a relationship with the gospel of the Egyptians (Köstlin, p. 223) is very arbitrary.