And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.
The elder son grew angry at his brother's return and would not join the feast, so his father came outside to plead with him. His anger exposed selfishness, pride, envy and resentment, for he felt righteous, faithful and deserving of honor and thought he needed no repentance. The father represents God, who meets sinners with tender, patient love and comes out to seek and restore both the one who returns and the one who resists mercy. The elder son pictures unrepentant Israel and all self-righteous people who refuse to receive returning sinners as brothers and meet them with criticism, suspicion and coldness instead of joy. The verse therefore calls for receiving the erring and repenting with pity, sympathy, forgiveness and rejoicing, rather than with resentment, harsh condemnation or refusal.
Parable Setting and Teaching
Luke 15:28 belongs to the parable of the prodigal son, which presents God's pitying love for those who have strayed from Him. Even when people turn away and become exposed to temptation, He does not leave them in their misery but shows kindness and tender pity. His loving concern is directed toward sinners.
Christ used a familiar event of daily life to illustrate immortal truth. By a familiar scene from ordinary experience He brought spiritual teaching into daily experience. Such illustrations from familiar events teach spiritual truth and brighten daily work with reminders of the unseen.
The verse shows His way of teaching truth by illustration rather than by proof or force. He illustrated truth in all its bearings and left hearers free to accept or reject it, commending truth to the conscience with clearness and earnestness. He read every heart, came right to the point without long farfetched complicated reasoning, drew things both new and old from His treasure-house to illustrate and enforce His teachings, and touched the heart and awakened the sympathies.
The parable answers the charge that Jesus welcomed sinners. His mission is to seek and restore the lost, while those who consider themselves righteous and feel no need of repentance condemn that work. The elder son's anger and refusal to enter when his father celebrates his younger brother's return, and the father's going out to plead with him, show patient love toward the resentful son as well as compassion toward the returning one.
The father's welcome of the returning son shows the tenderness and joy with which the one thought dead but now alive is received. When a sinner returns to the Father in repentance, there is joy in heaven. Heaven is marked by warmth, courtesy, and love, and the repentant sinner who returns is met with love.
The parable portrays a son far from his father's house and perishing with hunger. It points to people perishing in sin, who are to be treated as objects of compassion and brought to the saving knowledge of truth. Those prodigals who have left the Father's house are to be encouraged to return to God, and the father's coming out to appeal to one who will not go in belongs to that setting.
Backsliders seeking the Lord are like the prodigal returning to his father's house. The history describes one who once loved and served the Lord but left His house and blessing, picturing prodigals who have left their Father's house and blessing. Their need is to turn back to God and confess backsliding, and He is ready to be their help in every time of need. The return is to be without delay and with a humble heart when conscience is enlightened, as the prodigal's return to the father's house pictures coming back to God. Such a return leads step by step in submission to God's will and way into a rich experience, bringing praise to the Lord and moving those who hear of it to weep for joy.
Elder Son's Anger and Refusal
The verse shows the elder son becoming angry and refusing to go in to the feast for his returning brother, standing apart outside while his father comes out and pleads with him. That coming out is a patient, compassionate and gracious appeal to restore the resentful son rather than leave him outside, reflecting pity and forgiveness toward the repentant who return and toward the one who resists the welcome. It illustrates the father's appeal to one whose jealousy and unforgiving spirit keep him from sharing the joy of repentance and restoration, holding up the prodigal's decision to return to his Father as the pattern to follow.
His anger and refusal reveal selfishness, pride, envy, contempt and resentment. He treats the favor shown to his brother as an insult and an injustice to himself, and will not join in rejoicing that the lost has been found, because he has not shared his father's concern for the lost son or joy at his return. The father meets that jealousy and pride with tenderness, coming out to remonstrate, to explain his welcome of the returned son, and to awaken tenderness in him. That refusal pictures unrepentant, unbelieving Israel, which would not recognize publicans and sinners as brothers to be forgiven and sought, and it illustrates envy and resentment instead of rejoicing when wanderers are brought back to God.
Though he appears faithful and has stayed at home, he resents the welcome given to his repentant brother and is ready to watch for, criticize and accuse him. His critical, unforgiving spirit magnifies another's mistakes and fails to recognize his own need for humility and forgiveness as the Lord forgives. He felt his own course was righteous, supposed he had been faithful in home duties, thought he needed no repentance, and deserved to be commended and honored. Contrasting his own conduct with the prodigal's, in selfishness he was unwilling to receive his repenting brother and could not sympathize with his father's joy in receiving back the wanderer nor rejoice at his return, and his anger manifests that he himself was in need of repentance. Many who handle sacred things act his part, and the lesson is given for the benefit of those who claim to love God, that they may properly represent Him in service.
His spirit of fault-finding and complaint can be present even in those who endure hardships and bear burdens, and it spoils their service and makes it unlike Christ. It is marked by believing that long service and hardship entitle a person to greater reward, as when service was treated as earning salvation. That complaining attitude is one none should assume. It is a practical lesson that means much and whose practice involves eternal interests, requiring careful study of the prodigal son together with the lost sheep and the lost piece of silver. It rebukes wounding and driving away the lost sheep instead of seeking it, an offense against believing little ones that brings woe.
Father's Loving Entreaty
The father leaves the feast and goes outside to plead with his angry son who will not come in, meeting jealousy and pride with tenderness. That coming out shows patient, persistent love toward the one who resists mercy as well as compassion toward the one who returns, seeking to restore him rather than leaving him outside. The father represents God, and his going out to meet and plead pictures God meeting the sinner even now after long separation. Though the prodigal has stayed away so long, God is ready to accept and pardon all transgressions if he will come by the humble way provided.
The entreaty is a message of mercy that all things are now ready, the invitation of the Majesty of Heaven to come to Him to have life. He is ready to cleanse from sin when laid hold upon. The verse shows God as a Father who comes out with yearning love to entreat sinners instead of hurling denunciations and accusations of wrath at them. He waits to receive the returning prodigal and prepares a feast to welcome his return, having given His Son to die for the race. Teachers of truth must make known what God really is in this way and win souls in the same way, keeping the love of the Father central rather than denouncing the sinner.
In the gift of His beloved Son the Father has shown wondrous love for the fallen race and made a channel for the outflow of His infinite love, so that all who believe may be restored again to His favor. Believing brings obedience to all His commandments and life in Christ. The father's welcome and appeal portray God in Christ reaching out in mercy not only to the returning sinner but also to the one who resists, assuring sinners of acceptance, peace, and love. He beseeches people to be reconciled to Him and shows He is ready to receive and welcome them, with a loving appeal and invitation to respond.
The verse means God still invites and pleads with the refusing sinner to return, and will accept the prodigal who links himself with God and turns with full decision of soul. If the sinner gives heart and soul to God, God will bless him and work with him to help other youth be converted. The entreating is God's continuing invitation to wear Christ's yoke, lift His burden, and learn His meekness and lowliness of heart, with rest to the soul as reward. It illustrates God's loving patience toward His wayward people, willing to bear their guilt and continuing to send warnings, appeals, and invitations even when they resisted His grace and rejected His messengers. It shows the amazing sacrifice and the labor and energy Heaven expends to reclaim the lost and bring them back to the Father's house.
The Father comes out with outstretched arms to entreat and welcome, so that even when a person fails and is betrayed into sin he is still worthy to come in prayer, tell his mistakes and failures, and ask for strength for fresh endeavor. The Lord recognizes every effort to reach His ideal and will never disappoint that confidence or abuse it. God takes the first step toward sinners, seeking them while they are still in rebellion and bringing back every wanderer who will let Him. His love reaches the sinner while still far away, with the desire to return awakened by the Spirit's pleading and drawing, though even the parable falls short of expressing the fullness of that compassion.
The father's coming out means Christ meets the selfishly indulgent prodigal with tender sympathy in words he needs and can understand rather than condemnation. That one once stood in pride with ambitious hopes and won prizes by excelling, but praise and flattery filled him with self-sufficiency until wine-drinking became habit and he sank lower and lower, losing courage and God-given manhood until Satan controlled mind and judgment and he drifted with no power to leave the snare, a ruined temple of his own making, discouraged, sick, tempted, and fallen. The verse also shows Jesus as the father coming out and entreating sons and daughters who act as the prodigal while claiming to be commandment keepers and Christians, yet transgress the law, are unthankful and unholy, use entrusted talents to counterwork God, have darkness instead of light, are conformed to worldly spirit and principles and exert influence on Satan's side while retaining the form of godliness and facing a final account. He yearns and longs to do them the good He delights to do but cannot do because of perversity of character.
The verse illustrates the patient, loving appeal that can help prodigals return, revealing the tender, loving care of God toward His children and His joy when the strayed repent and return. People should earnestly cooperate with Him in seeking the lost sheep and winning back the prodigal, so that restored sinners can help bring other lost people to the Father. An erring youth who has become a thorough backslider through discouragement, temptation, and severity and misunderstanding from brethren over youthful indiscretion is to be sought out and entreated back by personal labor. That means talking plainly about the peril of his situation and entreating with tears for an immediate decision to leave the service of Satan and sin and return like the prodigal to the Father's house and service even at cost of position and trade.
Who Figures Represent
The elder son stands for unrepentant, unbelieving Israel, which would not recognize publicans and sinners as brothers to be sought, forgiven, and led to everlasting life, and his anger and refusal to enter the feast exposes selfishness, pride, envy, and contempt that treats mercy to a brother as injustice to self and will not rejoice that the lost is found. The father's patient coming out to remonstrate, explain his welcome, and awaken tenderness portrays God's loving appeal to Israel, for despite rejection of mercy the Father yearns for them and seeks to draw them back, showing tenderness both to the repentant and to the self-righteous who resist the welcome.
His conduct is the pattern of self-righteous people who watch those struggling against temptation in order to criticize and accuse, expressing selfishness, jealousy, and an unforgiving spirit while appearing faithful at home and resenting the welcome given to the repentant brother. That cold, unforgiving attitude reflects Satan's spirit and places them where they cannot receive the light of God's favor, and suspicion and faultfinding can keep a person from coming near a brother to make peace and place him where God cannot give him the light of His countenance, grieving the Spirit of the Lord. The elder brother is those who meet the struggling and returning sinner with stubbornness, selfishness, indifference, complaint, and contempt instead of compassion, standing apart while the father goes out and urges him to come in. Such indifference and careless disregard for those ready to die refuses to rejoice when the lost is found and stands opposite the part of the true shepherd, for God Himself goes after the lost sheep, speaks to the distressed soul calling to return, heals backsliding, loves freely, and with all heaven rejoices in the finding, which warns against harsh judgment of a brother fallen under temptation.
He pictures church members who should rejoice when wandering people are brought back to the fold but instead become angry, envious, and jealous when labor is directed toward them, begrudging effort spent seeking the lost and expecting ministers to serve them. They murmur because constant ministerial efforts are not made for the church and speak as though robbed of labor they should have had, instead of using strength and talents to help carry the burden and wearing the yoke of Christ, failing to love those for whom Christ died and to seek perishing souls around them. Though neglecting those in danger, they resent Christ's joy when the lost are restored, and instead of rejoicing when sinners are saved they expect to be constantly fed with sermons while planting doubt, questioning, evil surmising, and jealousy and failing to do righteousness at home and in the church. That selfish, jealous, murmuring spirit greatly displeases the Lord, who hears the words and sees the attitude, and it becomes a great hindrance that keeps souls from being added and can hinder God's work. Those who truly know God and have Christ formed within as the hope of glory will not act this way but will seek to save the lost, carry the message of salvation, reflect light to all they meet, and be earnest working light-bearers who hunt for souls by precept, example, burden, and sincere prayer.
That same elder-brother spirit of anger and refusal will be shown by some called Seventh-day Adventists toward returning prodigals and other souls, meeting them with suspicion, distrust, and unkind, untender treatment without patience and forbearance, cherishing dislike and a spirit of retaliation toward those for whom Christ gave His life. Those who have learned by experience what it feels like to be so treated must not manifest any of that same spirit or practice it in labor for others, but are to keep the prayer of Christ ever before the mind and answer that prayer in daily attitude and practice by overcoming temptation to retaliate.
The parable also illustrates how parental indulgence can contribute to children becoming prodigal, when parents let them follow their own will instead of teaching and restraining them. Yet the heavenly Father still loves the one who has left Him and calls him to return, ready to accept him as His child. The lessons of the prodigal son and the lost sheep teach the necessity of having the Spirit of Christ in councils in dealing with those who stray, for those who stray are lost in darkness and confusion like sheep in the wilderness unable to find their way back without help, and must be searched for, found, and brought back to the fold.
The prodigal's robe represents Christ's righteousness and his place at the table represents welcome into fellowship with God, illustrating the Father's welcome and protection for those who come to Him. Enjoying the privileges of sonship requires living by its conditions and obligations, meeting God on His ground with cordial assent and willing obedience, renouncing the favor and friendship of the world, receiving Christ as Saviour and King, and walking according to His Word and doing whatever He commands. The welcome remains an invitation even when the son resists, but to claim a son's privileges is to consent to remain under care in the fold without renewing wanderings and to repay love by staying and obeying, with friendship measured by His dominion over life.
Welcoming Returning Sinners
The anger and refusal to enter, followed by the father's coming out in appeal, shows that sinners are to be met with tenderness and sympathy rather than resentment and rejection. The cold, rejecting attitude must not be shown to those who have gone astray; they need loving, unselfish concern that seeks to lead them to repentance, not harsh condemnation or repulse. The father's pleading reveals tender, persistent love toward one who resists mercy, and calls for compassion rather than harsh condemnation of the erring. Tenderness is due to those who have fallen, judgment of them harshly is warned against, and erring people need loving welcome and patient care instead of cold rejection and harshness.
The complaint is natural but not right. The father's joy pictures the way the heavenly Father receives the erring and repenting with compassion, pity, and forgiveness, though He is the One sinned against. Those who have erred already suffer in their feelings and are often desponding and discouraged, and above everything else they need pity, help, sympathy, and free forgiveness. Their return is a source of greatest joy and is to be welcomed with rejoicing that the lost is found, because the one dead in sin is alive again. The wrong response is the course frequently pursued of brother toward brother, putting too much effort into making the one in error feel where he erred and keeping his mistakes before him instead of rejoicing that the lost is found.
The elder brother's conduct represents a cold, self-righteous, jealous, unthankful, and unholy spirit toward a repentant person. It meets repentance with censure and suspicion instead of compassion. The father's coming out to entreat contrasts that hardness and calls for sympathy, forgiveness, and rejoicing when the lost return. Sympathy and help are not to be withheld from those seeking to return to God.
The spirit of criticism, faultfinding, and censorious severity toward erring youth displeases God and drives souls away from God and truth when tenderness, love, and sympathy are withheld. The erring are the purchase of Christ's blood and His property, to be met with tender, compassionate love reflected from the cross. No mistake or unwise, unloving treatment by brethren excuses grieving Christ, leaving His service for the service of Satan and sin, breaking the Sabbath, and robbing God of time, talent, and influence, and the record in heaven will leave the backslider without excuse. Returning to the Father's house means turning square about at once, leaving sin, deciding to be a Christian, keeping the Sabbath even at loss of position and wages, and receiving pardon, purified thoughts, changed purposes, and happy thankfulness through earnest prayer and entreating with tears not to delay. Anger and harshness toward those who have gone astray can keep them from the kingdom rather than help restore them.
The elder son grew angry at his brother's return and would not join the feast, so his father came outside to plead with him. His anger exposed selfishness, pride, envy and resentment, for he felt righteous, faithful and deserving of honor and thought he needed no repentance. The father represents God, who meets sinners with tender, patient love and comes out to seek and restore both the one who returns and the one who resists mercy. The elder son pictures unrepentant Israel and all self-righteous people who refuse to receive returning sinners as brothers and meet them with criticism, suspicion and coldness instead of joy. The verse therefore calls for receiving the erring and repenting with pity, sympathy, forgiveness and rejoicing, rather than with resentment, harsh condemnation or refusal.
Parable Setting and Teaching
Luke 15:28 belongs to the parable of the prodigal son, which presents God's pitying love for those who have strayed from Him. Even when people turn away and become exposed to temptation, He does not leave them in their misery but shows kindness and tender pity. His loving concern is directed toward sinners.
Christ used a familiar event of daily life to illustrate immortal truth. By a familiar scene from ordinary experience He brought spiritual teaching into daily experience. Such illustrations from familiar events teach spiritual truth and brighten daily work with reminders of the unseen.
The verse shows His way of teaching truth by illustration rather than by proof or force. He illustrated truth in all its bearings and left hearers free to accept or reject it, commending truth to the conscience with clearness and earnestness. He read every heart, came right to the point without long farfetched complicated reasoning, drew things both new and old from His treasure-house to illustrate and enforce His teachings, and touched the heart and awakened the sympathies.
The parable answers the charge that Jesus welcomed sinners. His mission is to seek and restore the lost, while those who consider themselves righteous and feel no need of repentance condemn that work. The elder son's anger and refusal to enter when his father celebrates his younger brother's return, and the father's going out to plead with him, show patient love toward the resentful son as well as compassion toward the returning one.
The father's welcome of the returning son shows the tenderness and joy with which the one thought dead but now alive is received. When a sinner returns to the Father in repentance, there is joy in heaven. Heaven is marked by warmth, courtesy, and love, and the repentant sinner who returns is met with love.
The parable portrays a son far from his father's house and perishing with hunger. It points to people perishing in sin, who are to be treated as objects of compassion and brought to the saving knowledge of truth. Those prodigals who have left the Father's house are to be encouraged to return to God, and the father's coming out to appeal to one who will not go in belongs to that setting.
Backsliders seeking the Lord are like the prodigal returning to his father's house. The history describes one who once loved and served the Lord but left His house and blessing, picturing prodigals who have left their Father's house and blessing. Their need is to turn back to God and confess backsliding, and He is ready to be their help in every time of need. The return is to be without delay and with a humble heart when conscience is enlightened, as the prodigal's return to the father's house pictures coming back to God. Such a return leads step by step in submission to God's will and way into a rich experience, bringing praise to the Lord and moving those who hear of it to weep for joy.
Elder Son's Anger and Refusal
The verse shows the elder son becoming angry and refusing to go in to the feast for his returning brother, standing apart outside while his father comes out and pleads with him. That coming out is a patient, compassionate and gracious appeal to restore the resentful son rather than leave him outside, reflecting pity and forgiveness toward the repentant who return and toward the one who resists the welcome. It illustrates the father's appeal to one whose jealousy and unforgiving spirit keep him from sharing the joy of repentance and restoration, holding up the prodigal's decision to return to his Father as the pattern to follow.
His anger and refusal reveal selfishness, pride, envy, contempt and resentment. He treats the favor shown to his brother as an insult and an injustice to himself, and will not join in rejoicing that the lost has been found, because he has not shared his father's concern for the lost son or joy at his return. The father meets that jealousy and pride with tenderness, coming out to remonstrate, to explain his welcome of the returned son, and to awaken tenderness in him. That refusal pictures unrepentant, unbelieving Israel, which would not recognize publicans and sinners as brothers to be forgiven and sought, and it illustrates envy and resentment instead of rejoicing when wanderers are brought back to God.
Though he appears faithful and has stayed at home, he resents the welcome given to his repentant brother and is ready to watch for, criticize and accuse him. His critical, unforgiving spirit magnifies another's mistakes and fails to recognize his own need for humility and forgiveness as the Lord forgives. He felt his own course was righteous, supposed he had been faithful in home duties, thought he needed no repentance, and deserved to be commended and honored. Contrasting his own conduct with the prodigal's, in selfishness he was unwilling to receive his repenting brother and could not sympathize with his father's joy in receiving back the wanderer nor rejoice at his return, and his anger manifests that he himself was in need of repentance. Many who handle sacred things act his part, and the lesson is given for the benefit of those who claim to love God, that they may properly represent Him in service.
His spirit of fault-finding and complaint can be present even in those who endure hardships and bear burdens, and it spoils their service and makes it unlike Christ. It is marked by believing that long service and hardship entitle a person to greater reward, as when service was treated as earning salvation. That complaining attitude is one none should assume. It is a practical lesson that means much and whose practice involves eternal interests, requiring careful study of the prodigal son together with the lost sheep and the lost piece of silver. It rebukes wounding and driving away the lost sheep instead of seeking it, an offense against believing little ones that brings woe.
Father's Loving Entreaty
The father leaves the feast and goes outside to plead with his angry son who will not come in, meeting jealousy and pride with tenderness. That coming out shows patient, persistent love toward the one who resists mercy as well as compassion toward the one who returns, seeking to restore him rather than leaving him outside. The father represents God, and his going out to meet and plead pictures God meeting the sinner even now after long separation. Though the prodigal has stayed away so long, God is ready to accept and pardon all transgressions if he will come by the humble way provided.
The entreaty is a message of mercy that all things are now ready, the invitation of the Majesty of Heaven to come to Him to have life. He is ready to cleanse from sin when laid hold upon. The verse shows God as a Father who comes out with yearning love to entreat sinners instead of hurling denunciations and accusations of wrath at them. He waits to receive the returning prodigal and prepares a feast to welcome his return, having given His Son to die for the race. Teachers of truth must make known what God really is in this way and win souls in the same way, keeping the love of the Father central rather than denouncing the sinner.
In the gift of His beloved Son the Father has shown wondrous love for the fallen race and made a channel for the outflow of His infinite love, so that all who believe may be restored again to His favor. Believing brings obedience to all His commandments and life in Christ. The father's welcome and appeal portray God in Christ reaching out in mercy not only to the returning sinner but also to the one who resists, assuring sinners of acceptance, peace, and love. He beseeches people to be reconciled to Him and shows He is ready to receive and welcome them, with a loving appeal and invitation to respond.
The verse means God still invites and pleads with the refusing sinner to return, and will accept the prodigal who links himself with God and turns with full decision of soul. If the sinner gives heart and soul to God, God will bless him and work with him to help other youth be converted. The entreating is God's continuing invitation to wear Christ's yoke, lift His burden, and learn His meekness and lowliness of heart, with rest to the soul as reward. It illustrates God's loving patience toward His wayward people, willing to bear their guilt and continuing to send warnings, appeals, and invitations even when they resisted His grace and rejected His messengers. It shows the amazing sacrifice and the labor and energy Heaven expends to reclaim the lost and bring them back to the Father's house.
The Father comes out with outstretched arms to entreat and welcome, so that even when a person fails and is betrayed into sin he is still worthy to come in prayer, tell his mistakes and failures, and ask for strength for fresh endeavor. The Lord recognizes every effort to reach His ideal and will never disappoint that confidence or abuse it. God takes the first step toward sinners, seeking them while they are still in rebellion and bringing back every wanderer who will let Him. His love reaches the sinner while still far away, with the desire to return awakened by the Spirit's pleading and drawing, though even the parable falls short of expressing the fullness of that compassion.
The father's coming out means Christ meets the selfishly indulgent prodigal with tender sympathy in words he needs and can understand rather than condemnation. That one once stood in pride with ambitious hopes and won prizes by excelling, but praise and flattery filled him with self-sufficiency until wine-drinking became habit and he sank lower and lower, losing courage and God-given manhood until Satan controlled mind and judgment and he drifted with no power to leave the snare, a ruined temple of his own making, discouraged, sick, tempted, and fallen. The verse also shows Jesus as the father coming out and entreating sons and daughters who act as the prodigal while claiming to be commandment keepers and Christians, yet transgress the law, are unthankful and unholy, use entrusted talents to counterwork God, have darkness instead of light, are conformed to worldly spirit and principles and exert influence on Satan's side while retaining the form of godliness and facing a final account. He yearns and longs to do them the good He delights to do but cannot do because of perversity of character.
The verse illustrates the patient, loving appeal that can help prodigals return, revealing the tender, loving care of God toward His children and His joy when the strayed repent and return. People should earnestly cooperate with Him in seeking the lost sheep and winning back the prodigal, so that restored sinners can help bring other lost people to the Father. An erring youth who has become a thorough backslider through discouragement, temptation, and severity and misunderstanding from brethren over youthful indiscretion is to be sought out and entreated back by personal labor. That means talking plainly about the peril of his situation and entreating with tears for an immediate decision to leave the service of Satan and sin and return like the prodigal to the Father's house and service even at cost of position and trade.
Who Figures Represent
The elder son stands for unrepentant, unbelieving Israel, which would not recognize publicans and sinners as brothers to be sought, forgiven, and led to everlasting life, and his anger and refusal to enter the feast exposes selfishness, pride, envy, and contempt that treats mercy to a brother as injustice to self and will not rejoice that the lost is found. The father's patient coming out to remonstrate, explain his welcome, and awaken tenderness portrays God's loving appeal to Israel, for despite rejection of mercy the Father yearns for them and seeks to draw them back, showing tenderness both to the repentant and to the self-righteous who resist the welcome.
His conduct is the pattern of self-righteous people who watch those struggling against temptation in order to criticize and accuse, expressing selfishness, jealousy, and an unforgiving spirit while appearing faithful at home and resenting the welcome given to the repentant brother. That cold, unforgiving attitude reflects Satan's spirit and places them where they cannot receive the light of God's favor, and suspicion and faultfinding can keep a person from coming near a brother to make peace and place him where God cannot give him the light of His countenance, grieving the Spirit of the Lord. The elder brother is those who meet the struggling and returning sinner with stubbornness, selfishness, indifference, complaint, and contempt instead of compassion, standing apart while the father goes out and urges him to come in. Such indifference and careless disregard for those ready to die refuses to rejoice when the lost is found and stands opposite the part of the true shepherd, for God Himself goes after the lost sheep, speaks to the distressed soul calling to return, heals backsliding, loves freely, and with all heaven rejoices in the finding, which warns against harsh judgment of a brother fallen under temptation.
He pictures church members who should rejoice when wandering people are brought back to the fold but instead become angry, envious, and jealous when labor is directed toward them, begrudging effort spent seeking the lost and expecting ministers to serve them. They murmur because constant ministerial efforts are not made for the church and speak as though robbed of labor they should have had, instead of using strength and talents to help carry the burden and wearing the yoke of Christ, failing to love those for whom Christ died and to seek perishing souls around them. Though neglecting those in danger, they resent Christ's joy when the lost are restored, and instead of rejoicing when sinners are saved they expect to be constantly fed with sermons while planting doubt, questioning, evil surmising, and jealousy and failing to do righteousness at home and in the church. That selfish, jealous, murmuring spirit greatly displeases the Lord, who hears the words and sees the attitude, and it becomes a great hindrance that keeps souls from being added and can hinder God's work. Those who truly know God and have Christ formed within as the hope of glory will not act this way but will seek to save the lost, carry the message of salvation, reflect light to all they meet, and be earnest working light-bearers who hunt for souls by precept, example, burden, and sincere prayer.
That same elder-brother spirit of anger and refusal will be shown by some called Seventh-day Adventists toward returning prodigals and other souls, meeting them with suspicion, distrust, and unkind, untender treatment without patience and forbearance, cherishing dislike and a spirit of retaliation toward those for whom Christ gave His life. Those who have learned by experience what it feels like to be so treated must not manifest any of that same spirit or practice it in labor for others, but are to keep the prayer of Christ ever before the mind and answer that prayer in daily attitude and practice by overcoming temptation to retaliate.
The parable also illustrates how parental indulgence can contribute to children becoming prodigal, when parents let them follow their own will instead of teaching and restraining them. Yet the heavenly Father still loves the one who has left Him and calls him to return, ready to accept him as His child. The lessons of the prodigal son and the lost sheep teach the necessity of having the Spirit of Christ in councils in dealing with those who stray, for those who stray are lost in darkness and confusion like sheep in the wilderness unable to find their way back without help, and must be searched for, found, and brought back to the fold.
The prodigal's robe represents Christ's righteousness and his place at the table represents welcome into fellowship with God, illustrating the Father's welcome and protection for those who come to Him. Enjoying the privileges of sonship requires living by its conditions and obligations, meeting God on His ground with cordial assent and willing obedience, renouncing the favor and friendship of the world, receiving Christ as Saviour and King, and walking according to His Word and doing whatever He commands. The welcome remains an invitation even when the son resists, but to claim a son's privileges is to consent to remain under care in the fold without renewing wanderings and to repay love by staying and obeying, with friendship measured by His dominion over life.
Welcoming Returning Sinners
The anger and refusal to enter, followed by the father's coming out in appeal, shows that sinners are to be met with tenderness and sympathy rather than resentment and rejection. The cold, rejecting attitude must not be shown to those who have gone astray; they need loving, unselfish concern that seeks to lead them to repentance, not harsh condemnation or repulse. The father's pleading reveals tender, persistent love toward one who resists mercy, and calls for compassion rather than harsh condemnation of the erring. Tenderness is due to those who have fallen, judgment of them harshly is warned against, and erring people need loving welcome and patient care instead of cold rejection and harshness.
The complaint is natural but not right. The father's joy pictures the way the heavenly Father receives the erring and repenting with compassion, pity, and forgiveness, though He is the One sinned against. Those who have erred already suffer in their feelings and are often desponding and discouraged, and above everything else they need pity, help, sympathy, and free forgiveness. Their return is a source of greatest joy and is to be welcomed with rejoicing that the lost is found, because the one dead in sin is alive again. The wrong response is the course frequently pursued of brother toward brother, putting too much effort into making the one in error feel where he erred and keeping his mistakes before him instead of rejoicing that the lost is found.
The elder brother's conduct represents a cold, self-righteous, jealous, unthankful, and unholy spirit toward a repentant person. It meets repentance with censure and suspicion instead of compassion. The father's coming out to entreat contrasts that hardness and calls for sympathy, forgiveness, and rejoicing when the lost return. Sympathy and help are not to be withheld from those seeking to return to God.
The spirit of criticism, faultfinding, and censorious severity toward erring youth displeases God and drives souls away from God and truth when tenderness, love, and sympathy are withheld. The erring are the purchase of Christ's blood and His property, to be met with tender, compassionate love reflected from the cross. No mistake or unwise, unloving treatment by brethren excuses grieving Christ, leaving His service for the service of Satan and sin, breaking the Sabbath, and robbing God of time, talent, and influence, and the record in heaven will leave the backslider without excuse. Returning to the Father's house means turning square about at once, leaving sin, deciding to be a Christian, keeping the Sabbath even at loss of position and wages, and receiving pardon, purified thoughts, changed purposes, and happy thankfulness through earnest prayer and entreating with tears not to delay. Anger and harshness toward those who have gone astray can keep them from the kingdom rather than help restore them.