Luke 6:24 But woe to you that are rich! for you have received your consolation. Unless we were accustomed to read the New Testament from our childhood, I think we should be very much struck with the warnings it contains, not only against the love of riches, but the very possession of them. That our Lord meant to speak of riches as being in some sense a calamity to the Christian is plain from His praises and recommendations of poverty. 1. The most obvious danger which worldly possessions present to our spiritual welfare is that they become practically a substitute in our hearts for that one object to which our supreme devotion is due. They are present; God is unseen. They are means at hand of effecting what we want; whether God will hear our petitions for these wants is uncertain. Thus they minister to the corrupt inclinations of our nature. 2. This, then, was some part of our Saviour's meaning, when He connects together the having with the trusting in riches. 3. The danger of possessing riches is the carnal security to which they lead; that of desiring or pursuing them is that an object of this world is thus set before us as the end and aim of life. It is a part of Christian caution to see to it that our engagements do not become pursuits. Engagements are oar portion, but pursuits are for the most part of our own choosing. 4. Money is a sort of creation, and gives the acquirer, even more than the possessor, an imagination of his own power; and tends to make him idolize self. And if such be the result of gain on an individual, doubtless it will be the same on a nation; and if the peril be so great in the one case, why should it be less in the other? (J. H. Newman, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.WEB: "But woe to you who are rich! For you have received your consolation. |
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