Luke 6:24

But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) But woe unto you that are rich!—Better, woe for you, the tone being, as sometimes (though, as Matthew 23 shows, not uniformly) with this expression, one of pity rather than denunciation. (Comp. Matthew 23:13; Mark 13:17; Luke 21:23.) We enter here on what is a distinct feature of the Sermon on the Plain—the woes that, as it were, balance the beatitudes. It obviously lay in St. Luke’s purpose, as a physician of the soul, to treasure up and record all our Lord’s warnings against the perilous temptations that wealth brings with it. The truth thus stated in its naked awfulness is reproduced afterwards in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19).

Ye have received your consolation.—Better, simply, ye have your consolation—i.e., all that you understand or care for, all, therefore, that you can have. The thought appears again in the words of Abraham, “Thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things” (Luke 16:25). The verb is the same as in “they have their reward,” in Matthew 6:2; Matthew 6:5.

Benson Commentary

Luke 6:24-25. But wo, &c. — Here we see that this discourse differs very materially from the sermon on the mount; there our Lord pronounced blessings only, here he denounces curses; or, to speak more properly, he compassionately bewails the condition of persons of a contrary character to that of those pronounced happy in the preceding verses. For, as Grotius justly observes, the expression, ουαι υμιν, wo unto you, “vox est dolentis, non irâ incensi,” is the expression of one lamenting, [or bewailing the unhappy condition of another,] not of one inflamed with anger. It is like that used by our Lord, Matthew 24:19, wo to them that are with child, &c., in those days; an expression which no one can understand otherwise than as a declaration of the unhappiness of women in these circumstances, at such a time of general calamity as is referred to. The parallel passage in Luke 23:29 where we have the same prophecy, makes this evident. As our Lord, therefore, in the former sentences, pronounces the poor, the needy, the mournful, and the persecuted happy, so he here pronounces the rich, the jovial, and the applauded, miserable; the circumstances in which such are placed being peculiarly insnaring, and the danger being great lest they should be so taken up with the transient pleasures of time, as to forget and forfeit everlasting happiness. His words may be thus paraphrased: Miserable are ye rich — If ye have received or sought your consolation or happiness in your riches. Miserable are you that are full — Of meat and drink, and worldly goods, and take up with these things as your portion; for you shall ere long hunger — Shall fall into a state of great indigence and misery, aggravated by all the plenty which you enjoyed and abused. Miserable are you that laugh — That spend your lives in mirth and gayety, or are of a light, trifling spirit; for you shall mourn and weep — You have reason to expect a portion in those doleful regions, where, without intermission and without end, you shall be abandoned to weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. “Our Lord’s malediction,” [declaration,] says a modern author, “is not inconsistent with the apostle’s precepts, which command Christians always to rejoice. Neither is the mirth against which the wo is here denounced to be understood of that constant cheerfulness of temper, which arises to true Christians from the comfortable and cheerful doctrines with which they are enlightened by the gospel, the assurance they have of reconciliation with God, the hope they have of everlasting life and the pleasure they enjoy in the practice of piety and the other duties of religion. But it is to be understood of that turbulent, carnal mirth, that levity and vanity of spirit, which arises, not from any solid foundation, but from sensual pleasure, or those vain amusements of life by which the giddy and the gay contrive to make away their time; that sort of mirth which dissipates thought, leaves no time for consideration, and gives them an utter aversion to all serious reflections.” Persons who continue to indulge themselves in this sort of mirth through life, shall weep and mourn eternally, when they are excluded from the joys of heaven, and banished for ever from the presence of God, by the light of whose countenance all the blessed are enlightened, and made transcendently happy.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:20-26 Here begins a discourse of Christ, most of which is also found in Mt 5; 7. But some think that this was preached at another time and place. All believers that take the precepts of the gospel to themselves, and live by them, may take the promises of the gospel to themselves, and live upon them. Woes are denounced against prosperous sinners as miserable people, though the world envies them. Those are blessed indeed whom Christ blesses, but those must be dreadfully miserable who fall under his woe and curse! What a vast advantage will the saint have over the sinner in the other world! and what a wide difference will there be in their rewards, how much soever the sinner may prosper, and the saint be afflicted here!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

These verses have been omitted by Matthew. They seem to have been spoken to the Pharisees.

Who are rich - In this world's goods. They loved them; they had sought for them; they found their consolation in them. It implies, farther, that they would not seek or receive consolation from the gospel. They were proud, and would not seek it; satisfied, and did not desire it; filled with cares, and had no time or disposition to attend to it. All the consolation which they had reason to expect they had received. Alas! how poor and worthless is such consolation, compared with that which the gospel would give!

Woe unto you that are full! - Not hungry. Satisfied with their wealth, and not feeling their need of anything better than earthly wealth can give. Many, alas! are thus "full." They profess to be satisfied. They desire nothing but wealth, and a sufficiency to satisfy the wants of the body. They have no anxiety for the riches that shall endure forever.

Ye shall hunger - Your property shall be taken away, or you shall see that it is of little value; and then you shall see the need of something better. You shall feel your want and wretchedness, and shall "hunger" for something to satisfy the desires of a dying, sinful soul.

That laugh now - Are happy, or thoughtless, or joyful, or filled with levity.

Shall mourn and weep - The time is coming when you shall sorrow deeply. In sickness, in calamity, in the prospect of death, in the fear of eternity, your laughter shall be turned into sorrow. "There is" a place where you cannot laugh, and there you will see the folly of having passed the "proper time" of preparing for such scenes in levity and folly. Alas! how many thus spend their youth! and how many weep when it is too late! God gives them over, and "laughs" at their "calamity," and mocks when their fear comes, Proverbs 1:26. To be happy in "such scenes," it is necessary to be sober, humble, pious in early life. "Then" we need not weep in the day of calamity; then there will be no terror in death; then there will be nothing to fear in the grave.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24, 25. rich … full … laugh—who have all their good things and joyous feelings here and now, in perishable objects.

received your consolation—(see on [1584]Lu 16:25).

shall hunger—their inward craving strong as ever, but the materials of satisfaction forever gone.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Not because you are rich, but because you are not rich towards God, because you look upon your riches as your portion, as your consolation; or, you that are rich in the opinion of your own righteousness.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But woe unto you that are rich,.... Not in worldly riches and substance, for some of these have been, and are happy persons in a spiritual sense; and at most, it can only mean such, who trust in their riches, and place their, happiness in them; but it chiefly regards such, as are rich in their own opinion, and stand in need of nothing; who place their confidence in their own righteousness, and do not apply to Christ, in whom alone are durable riches and righteousness:

for ye have received your consolation; which they take from their own works, and a very unstable and short lived one it is; for while they are crying Peace, Peace, to themselves, from their own services, sudden destruction comes upon them, and all their comforts vanish away: for there is no true solid comfort but in Christ, and in his righteousness; that administers consolation now, and lays a foundation for everlasting comfort hereafter.

Geneva Study Bible

But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have {f} received your consolation.

(f) That is, you reap now of your riches all the convenience and blessing you are ever likely to have, and therefore you have no other reward to look for; Mt 6:2.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Luke 6:24-25. The woes of the later tradition closely corresponding to the beatitudes. Comp. on Luke 6:20.

πλήν] on the other hand, verumtamen, so that ἀλλά also might be used as at Luke 6:35; Luke 11:41, and elsewhere. See Klotz, ad Devar. p. 725.

ὑμῖν] Conceive Jesus here extending His glance beyond the disciples (Luke 6:20) to a wider circle.

ἀπέχετε] see on Matthew 6:2.

τὴν παράκλ. ὑμῶν] Instead of receiving the consolation which you would receive by possession of the Messiah’s kingdom (comp. Luke 2:25), if you belonged to the πτωχοί, you have by anticipation what is accounted to you instead of that consolation! Comp. the history of the rich man, ch. 16. Here the Messianic retributive punishment is described negatively, and by πεινάσετε, πενθ. κ. κλαύσ., positively.

ἐμπεπλησμένοι] ye now are filled up, satisfied, Herod. i. 112. Comp. on Colossians 2:23. For the contrast, Luke 1:53. On the nominative, Buttmann, Neut. Gr. p. 123 [E. T. 141].

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 6:24-26. πλὴν, but, used here adversatively, a favourite word with Lk., suggesting therefore the hypothesis that he is responsible for the “woes” following, peculiar to his version of the sermon.—ἀπέχετε, ye have in full; riches and nothing besides your reward (cf. Matthew 6:2).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. But woe] While sin lasts, there must still be woes over against Beatitudes, as Ebal stands for ever opposite to Gerizim. In St Matthew also we find (Matthew 23) eight woes as well as eight Beatitudes. See too Jeremiah 17:5-8, but there the “cursed” precedes the “blessed.”

woe unto you that are rich] The ‘woe !’ is not necessarily or wholly denunciatory; it is also the cry of compassion, and of course it only applies—not to a Chuzas or a Nicodemus or a Joseph of Arimathaea,—but to those rich who are not poor in spirit, but trust in riches (Mark 10:24), or are not rich towards God (Luke 12:21) and have not got the true riches (Luke 16:11; Amos 6:1; James 5:1). Observe the many parallels between the Epistle of St James and the Sermon on the Mount, James 1:2; James 1:4-5; James 1:9; James 1:20; James 2:13-14; James 2:17-18; James 4:4; James 4:10-11; James 5:2; James 5:10; James 5:12.

ye have received your consolation] Rather, ye have to the full, Php 4:18; comp. Luke 16:25, “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst good things.”

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 6:24. [Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν, woe is [not be] unto you) This is a denunciation, not an imprecation.—V. g.]—παράκλησιν, consolation) Psalm 49:7; Psalm 49:19; Psalm 17:14.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. These "rich" referred to here signify men of good social position. These, as a class, opposed Jesus with a bitter and unreasoning opposition. Again the same warning cry to the so-called fortunate ones of this world is re-echoed with greater force in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. "Thou in thy lifetime," said Abraham, speaking from Paradise to the poor lost Dives, "receivedst thy good things;" and yet the very characters represented in that most awful of the parable-stories of the pitiful Lord correct any false notion which, from words like these, men may entertain respecting the condemnation of the rich and great because they are rich and great. Abraham, who speaks the grave stern words, was himself a sheik of great power and consideration, and at the same time very rich. Prophets and apostles, as well as the Son of God, never ceased to warn men of the danger of misusing wealth and power; but at the same time they always represented these dangerous gifts as gifts from God, capable of a noble use, and, if nobly used, these teachers sent by God pointed out, these gifts would bring to the men who so used them a proportional reward. Luke 6:24

Vincent's Word Studies

Woe

These woes are not noted by Matthew.

Have received (ἀπέχετε)

In Matthew 6:5, Matthew 6:16, the Rev. has properly changed "they have their reward" to "they have received." The verb, compounded of ἀπό, off or from, and ἔχω, lo have, literally means to have nothing left to desire. Thus in Philippians 4:18, when Paul says, "I have all things (ἀπέχω πάντα)," he does not mean merely an acknowledgment of the receipt of the Church's gift, but that he is fully furnished. "I have all things to the full."

Consolation (παράκλησις)

From παρά, to the side of, and καλέω, to call or summon. Literally, a calling to one's side to help; and therefore entreaty, passing on into the sense of exhortation, and thence into that of consolatory exhortation; and so coming round to mean that which one is summoned to give to a suppliant - consolation. Thus it embodies the call for help, and the response to the call. Its use corresponds with that of the kindred verb παρακαλέω, to exhort or console. In its original sense of calling for aid the noun appears in the New Testament only in 2 Corinthians 8:4 : with much entreaty. The verb appears frequently in this sense, rendered beseech, pray (Matthew 8:34; Matthew 14:36; Mark 1:40; Mark 5:12, etc.). In the sense of consolation or comfort the noun occurs in Luke 2:25; Luke 6:24; 2 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 7:4; Plm 1:7. The verb, in Matthew 2:18; Matthew 5:4 :; Luke 16:25; 2 Corinthians 1:4. In some instances, however, the meaning wavers between console and exhort. In the sense of exhortation or counsel, the noun may be found in Acts 13:15; Romans 12:8; Hebrews 13:22. The verb, in Acts 2:40; Acts 11:23; Acts 14:22; Romans 12:8; Titus 2:15. Neither the noun nor the verb appear in the writings of John, but the kindred word παράκλητος the Paraclete, Comforter, or Advocate, is peculiar to him. On this word, see on John 14:16. It should be noted, however, that the word comfort goes deeper than its popular conception of soothing. It is from the later Latin confortare, to make strong. Thus Wycliffe renders Luke 1:80, "the child waxed, and was comforted in spirit" (A. V., waxed strong); and Tyndale, Luke 22:43, "there appeared an angel from heaven comforting him" (A. V., strengthening). The comfort which Christ gives is not always soothing. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is to convince of sin and of judgment. Underlying the word is the sense of a wise counsel or admonition which rouses and braces the moral nature and encourages and strengthens it to do and to endure. When, therefore, Christ says "they that mourn shall be comforted," he speaks in recognition of the fact that all sorrow is the outcome of sin, and that true comfort is given, not only in pardon for the past, but in strength to fight and resist and overcome sin. The atmosphere of the word, in short, is not the atmosphere of the sick-chamber, but the tonic breath of the open world, of moral struggle and victory; the atmosphere for him that climbs and toils and fights.