Luke 12:18, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures a man whose land has yielded a full and abundant harvest deciding to tear down his barns and build larger ones to store and keep all his crops and goods. His plan is wholly centered on himself, treating what he has as his own to secure his own ease, comfort and enjoyment rather than recognizing any higher claim. That increase came from God, who owns the land and gives the rain, sunshine and harvest, yet the man forgets Him, gives Him no thanks and leaves Him out of his reckoning. All that is possessed is only lent by God to stewards to use for His work and to bless others, so to hoard the surplus instead of relieving the poor, hungry and needy around him is covetousness and unfaithful stewardship. Such storing is not being rich toward God, for possessions cannot give life or secure the future, and abundance is a test of character that showed he could not be trusted with eternal riches.

The Barn-Building Plan

The verse pictures a landowner whose ground has brought forth plentifully, meeting a full and abundant harvest with a deliberate resolve to pull down his already full barns and build greater ones in which to bestow and store all his fruits, crops, produce, possessions and goods. The tearing down and enlarging is not to distribute but to keep, an accumulation of the surplus for himself instead of serving God and helping people in need. His calculation treats increase as something to be housed more roomily for his own holding, a hoarding that reveals covetousness and a false security in earthly wealth rather than generosity that honors God.

His plan centers entirely on himself, treating what he handles as his own and making provision only for his own comfort, ease, enjoyment and selfish security. He seeks to keep and consume the surplus upon himself rather than recognize God as giver, failing to act as steward and to consider that his life and all he has belong to God. What is lent to him is managed for self-gratification and self-glorification instead of for God's work.

The abundance came directly from the hand of God, who owns the land and gives rain, dew, sunshine, harvest, watchcare over goods, and every means of gaining wealth. Yet in the year of plenty the man forgets God, ignores Him altogether, manifests no gratitude and gives no thanks to his gracious Benefactor. He gives God none of what is due, living for worldly wealth and ease, and his failure to acknowledge where his possessions came from is ingratitude that justly angers Him. No extensive fortune or degree of wealth secures God's favor, for all bounties and blessings come from Him.

He had enough and abundant means and many opportunities to relieve the suffering around him, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and help the poor, the orphan, the widow, and others in need. Instead he closed his heart to their needs and chose to hoard his surplus rather than use it to help others and glorify God. His full barns could have helped a poor widow and her children suffering nearby, but the Lord's poor were not relieved because he calculated to hold the gift.

Selfish Hoarding Condemned

The barn-building resolve exposes covetousness and supreme selfishness, living to accumulate wealth and enlarge earthly storehouses for self instead of giving and sacrificing for the good of others and for God. It is the self-pleasing spirit that bestows fruits and goods upon self, keeping abundance rather than honoring God with generosity. Such hoarding turns blessing into a curse, for earthly possessions cannot give life, cannot secure a long or happy life, and cannot ultimately benefit the one who piles them up.

What is possessed is only lent and entrusted by God as stewardship to be managed for His work, to bless fellow men and glorify the Maker, to help the needy and lay up treasure in heaven. God owns the land and provides rain, dew, sunshine, harvest, watchcare and every means of gaining wealth, so treating increase as one's own and using it only for self-gratification and self-glorification is unfaithful stewardship and ingratitude that justly angers Him. Life itself and all that is handled belong to God, and failure to recognize Him as giver while spending His money to satisfy wants is to ignore responsibility to Him.

Storing up wealth for self is not being rich toward God, for possessions and abundance do not make a person rich toward Him. Confidence in one's own provision and focus on keeping goods centers the heart on self rather than seeking God and becoming rich toward Him. The wealth hoarded will be lost when life ends, so to sacrifice eternal riches for what cannot give life or secure God's favor is folly.

Abundance is given to prove, test and develop character, and no extensive fortune or degree of wealth secures God's favor. Receiving more does not increase personal worth and does not in itself make a person worse or better; it is the character developed under blessing that does, and binding the sense of worth to growing wealth and ability leaves one deficient in character value before God. The decision to store rather than share, to forget God and give Him no grateful thanks as gracious Benefactor, showed the man could not be trusted with eternal riches.

All that is received increases responsibility and accountability and tests how much dependence upon God is felt. Gratitude is shown by recounting His goodness, doing the good work He designs, and transferring goods to members of the human family who need those very things. As one receives abundantly he gives abundantly, and such faithful giving proves he can be entrusted with goods, while failure to glorify God through wealth leaves him deficient to that degree.

Hoarding is linked to withholding what belongs to God, withholding the tenth and failing to use wealth to meet the needs of others. It puts into His treasury only grudgingly, as a hard master paying a laborer, for fear of coming to want and daring not to trust God. It spends the Lord's money to satisfy wants and accumulate earthly wealth instead of using it in the Lord's work and giving to those in need, and it devotes time and energy to making money while neglecting God's work and the proclamation of the cross, which is idolatry born of too little faith and selfish, covetous attachment to wealth.

The same course is acted over by many professing to believe the truth and professing that Christ is soon to come and the end of all things is at hand. Though greatly prospered they lay up treasure for themselves, turning blessing into a curse instead of using blessings to bless others, with ambition only to tear down and build greater to bestow their goods. They are buried in the cares of this life with work, work, work and large farms on the high-pressure plan, plunging deeper into the world with no spirit of sacrifice, allowing themselves and their households little time to study the word of life, meditate and pray. A man acts out all the faith he has and loves God and truth only as much as his works show, so treasure and hearts remaining upon this earth make example and influence a curse to the cause; to all such God says Thou fool, and as the Lord cut short the rich man's unprofitable life so He will deal with covetous lovers of the world now.

Wealthy people are warned not to leave property arrangements unsettled from year to year, since delay risks losing the ability to decide its proper disposition and makes them unfaithful stewards. All sons and daughters of God are warned against the self-pleasing spirit, and must not spend the Lord's money in needless adornment or erect a cathedral to court praise. They are to move out by faith to build only a plain, neat, tasteful tabernacle in harmony with faith, dedicated to God free from debt, because interest on debt is great loss.

Believers are pilgrims and strangers whose citizenship is above, who must sacrifice for the cause without ostentation or display, hide self in Jesus, and learn self-abasement and lowliness instead of exalting self. They must guard the heart with perpetual vigilance and much prayer, lest in this corrupt age it grow worldly, selfish, ungrateful to the Giver of all mercies and estranged from God, keeping the soul with diligence. True wisdom does not follow the rich man's example of foolish focus on material wealth, but seeks first God's kingdom and righteousness and makes the kingdom of heaven the first concern. Children and youth must be educated and trained not to live to please themselves and not to thirst for human appreciation and honor, but to hunger and thirst after righteousness and to gain inward spiritual perception of truth that keeps sanctification humble.