There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
Luke 16:19 opens the parable with a rich Jewish nobleman claiming to be a son of Abraham, clothed like kings in costly purple and fine linen and feasting lavishly every day as his settled custom. At his gate within his sight lay Lazarus, a friendless, homeless, suffering beggar without money or food, forming a sharp contrast to daily luxury. He did not drive Lazarus away, but selfishly left him unrelieved though he had ample means to help. Spoken to answer the covetous Pharisees who served mammon while judging men by wealth and honor, it teaches that eternal destiny is fixed in this life, with no further probation after wasted grace. His riches were a trust lent by God for the good of others, and he is condemned not for being rich but for spending what was entrusted on himself instead of relieving need and laying up treasure in heaven.
Dress, Feasting and Setting
The verse pictures a rich man living in daily luxury, dressed in costly purple and fine linen and faring lavishly every day. That purple and fine linen were garments worn by kings and nobles. His feasting was his usual custom, not an occasional celebration. He was a Jewish nobleman who claimed to be a son of Abraham.
Over against him lay Lazarus, a poor suffering beggar without friends, home, money, or food, begging in abject poverty at his gate. He lay within the rich man's sight and hearing, where he could be seen, in sharp contrast to daily luxury and abundance with every want supplied. At that time there were no hospitals, so the suffering and needy were brought to people entrusted with wealth that they might receive help and sympathy.
The rich man was not violent toward Lazarus and did not drive him away, but allowed him to remain at his gate. Yet he was selfishly indifferent and did nothing to relieve his severe need despite having ample means to do so. His own wants were met while the beggar beside him remained in need, so absence of overt cruelty did not excuse his neglect.
Parable Context and Probation
Luke 16:19 opens the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, spoken in answer to the covetous Pharisees who derided the warning that no man can serve God and mammon. Those hearers justified themselves before men while judging and valuing men by wealth and by the honors received from others. The parable answers that false standard by showing outward standing does not decide standing before God.
The parable teaches that people decide their eternal destiny during this present life, when God's grace is offered to every soul. Wasting those opportunities in self-pleasing cuts a person off from everlasting life, and there is no further probation afterward. By their own choice people fix an impassable gulf between themselves and God.
The verse presents two classes whose true standing is revealed in the unseen world: the wealthy who do not depend on God and have not surrendered their lives to Him, and the poor who trust God and patiently endure suffering. Their positions will be reversed, for the patient poor who trust God are exalted above those holding the world's highest positions. So Dives, who lived in daily luxury in costly clothing and abundant food, is afterward tormented, while Lazarus, the poor beggar who feared God, is comforted. The story stands as a lasting lesson to rich and poor that earthly prosperity does not secure comfort in the life to come.
Selfish pleasure is not the sum of happiness and does not bring lasting happiness. The rich man gave himself to intemperate, luxurious living while refusing his duty to help Lazarus from his abundance, and that course led to the loss of his soul. He later would have given all he possessed to exchange places with Lazarus, once poor and covered with sores. When sickness brought suffering he longed to call on Lazarus for relief, but the fixed gulf showed he could not cross over to obtain it.
Daily luxury and earthly possessions could not relieve him when sickness came. Because he had not laid up treasure in heaven and had neglected Lazarus suffering nearby, he faced suffering unprepared and found no comfort in wealth or former status. His neglect left a gulf of disobedience and transgression between him and Abraham. After death he is depicted as suffering with a burning fever, recalling his heartless treatment of Lazarus, yet having no knowledge of God.
Wealth as Sacred Trust
The abundance behind the daily luxury is not owned outright but held in trust, for everything a person has is lent by the Lord to be managed for Him rather than spent on self. Means and abilities are placed in human hands so they can serve others, especially those in need, and the greater the resources the greater the obligation to use them for the good of others. Accountability belongs to that trust, so the one who enjoys plenty remains answerable for how it is used and whether dependence on God is acknowledged.
That stewardship carries a definite duty to relieve suffering with food and clothing, with medical care and spiritual help, with sympathy and deeds of love and mercy. It includes returning the tithe and giving gifts and offerings for the relief of the needy, and to withhold from the hungry, the naked, and the homeless when means have been entrusted is a serious wrong. Those given wealth must share it and will answer for its use, since love to God and to neighbor is shown by what is done with what is lent.
Being rich is not itself the ground of condemnation, for there is no sin in riches that are honestly acquired and not gained by injustice. Condemnation falls on spending entrusted means in selfishness and hoarding treasure for self instead of using it to do good and laying it up beside the throne of God. Earthly honor, wealth, and daily luxury do not give true riches, and their selfish use without tender sympathy and help for the sufferer at the gate dishonors God.
Though the commands to love God and neighbor are known, blessings can still be turned to personal pleasure and honor until accountability is forgotten. Knowledge, talents, and opportunities to understand and practice God's Word are then devoted to pleasure, while amusements and the praise and flattery of friends occupy time until God is forgotten. In that forgetfulness the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor are neglected, yet possession of temporal blessings never removes the need to obey God.
To spend money entrusted by God extravagantly on selfish gratification instead of using it for God's work is unfaithful stewardship and neglect of God's heritage. It is the luxury of personal comfort and indulgence while others lack food, clothing, or shelter, and the enjoyment of life's good things while neglecting people in need. Those who so use their trust will face a reckoning and must answer for their stewardship.
Death ends stewardship and probation, when by a power that cannot be questioned or resisted the manager is commanded to quit what was managed. Nothing is brought into the world and nothing can be taken out of it, so money cannot be carried into the next life. He who once wore the richest purple and finest linen is then reduced to nakedness and hopeless poverty without the robe of Christ's righteousness to cover him. Only what was laid up in heaven endures, for faithful service and good deeds done to win people to Christ are carried to heaven while hoarded treasure for self leaves its keeper poor toward God.
True Worth Before God
Costly dress and daily feasting give a man no value in God's sight, and neither wealth nor the honor other people give can recommend anyone to heaven or secure divine favor. Men are not to be judged or valued by riches or by honors received from others, but by character, by true faith, and by true moral worth and soundness before God. What is entrusted to a man is only lent by the Lord, so possessions do not determine worth, and the wealthy who misuse them can end worse off than the poorest person who loves and trusts God. Riches gained by oppression, deception, overreaching, fraud, or any other dishonest manner, and a life of ease without moral worth, cannot obtain God's favor. All that is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God, leaving such a man worthless, corrupt, sinful, and abominable in His sight.
The one who is worthless in this sense is despised and rejected and cast out from God's presence and plunged into misery and woe unutterable. By contrast the poor despised sufferer who has true faith and moral soundness is valuable to God. He is taken by God and placed in the most exalted position and introduced into the society of refined holy angels as an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ. Purple and fine linen mark worldly wealth and honor that can win people's applause for elegance, generosity, and hospitality. Yet spending money on costly clothing and comforts to gratify pride or to gain human praise is a misuse that conflicts with humility and self-denial, for the honor that matters comes from God.
Riches and display do not commend to heaven. Christ, though heaven's King, did not exalt Himself, build rich habitations, or wear purple and fine linen. The sumptuous life did not secure the life that comes from God. Genuine faith leads people to give up burdensome earthly accumulations and transfer treasure to heaven, for where treasure is the heart will be also. Even the condition of Lazarus depending on crumbs is therefore preferable to that of professed believers who accumulate earthly wealth.
Nation, Church and Last Days
The man in purple and fine linen pictures the Jewish nation, favored with every temporal and spiritual blessing as depositaries of sacred truth and stewards of grace, called to cooperate with God by imparting those blessings and relieving temporal and spiritual suffering in deeds of love and mercy toward the poor among them, the stranger within the gates, and brethren fallen into decay. That nation had great privileges and special instruction not to seek all for self and to use its God-given light to bless and enlighten the world, yet it was filled with pride as the chosen and favored people and used the Lord's goods for selfish gratification with no helping hand put forth. Trusting in being children of Abraham instead of serving and worshiping God, it divorced itself from God and placed trust in Abraham as if he were God, preparing itself for the sentence of condemnation. Though claiming to be Abraham's son, it was separated from Abraham by a gulf of disobedience, for Abraham served God in faith and obedience while the rich man ignored God and suffering people and put Abraham in the place belonging to God. His love of worldly pleasure, display, and appetite showed a character formed in partnership with evil in spiritual ignorance amid abundant luxury.
His privileges could have been used under God's guidance to bless and enlighten others, but failure to live as a faithful steward brought ruin and national disaster. At Jerusalem's destruction, starvation and suffering brought the warning of the parable to mind, for the people's ruin followed their neglect of that light and their neglect of their divine calling. His history portrays the closing scenes of earth's history and represents people who may belong to the church yet remain unconverted. Outward religious acts and words do not make such a one righteous when the heart does not praise God. Self-love, appetite, and worldly pleasures shape this character during life, and though having knowledge, talents, and opportunities to understand and practice God's Word, he devotes them to pleasure amid amusements and friends' praise and flattery until he forgets God, neglecting duty and the final account he must give. At death he can no longer choose or change that character but rises with the same unholy desires he cherished before, and the gulf between him and the righteous reflects the character he formed by refusing the opportunities God gave him to change.
Present Duty to Neighbors
The colored people of the South lie as Lazarus at the gate, while the white race stands in the place of Dives toward them. Dives is under heavy responsibility to bend a portion of his energies to the moral uplifting of Lazarus, lifting him to higher standards of education and home life. Woe comes to Dives if he does not heed Lazarus lying at his gate full of sores. Seeking supremacy as an end in itself by overriding justice loses what is sought, while honest, just effort to uplift brings uplifting in return.
The rich man enjoying wealth and fine living while failing to use what God gave him for God's purposes warns those who claim to be sons and daughters of God against feeling at liberty to live in self-indulgence and enjoy life's good things while neglecting people in need. That warning applies while Satan is ruining souls around them, especially victims of intemperance allured to sell reason for rum. Instead of looking on without power to counteract evil like the world, they must lift up a standard in the name of the Lord God of Israel. They must not leave the Saviour's pitying tenderness for wretched, fallen, hopeless beings in vain for want of human channels, but must communicate His treasures of food and clothing and words fitly spoken. His daily luxury in contrast to Lazarus's need at his gate teaches that God judges those who spend on self-gratification instead of sharing with the poor, and that God blesses and vindicates the suffering faithful represented by Lazarus. The history introduced here shows how God deals with suffering believers and with those who use for self-gratification what they should share with the poor, commending Lazarus, not the rich man.
Luke 16:19 opens the parable with a rich Jewish nobleman claiming to be a son of Abraham, clothed like kings in costly purple and fine linen and feasting lavishly every day as his settled custom. At his gate within his sight lay Lazarus, a friendless, homeless, suffering beggar without money or food, forming a sharp contrast to daily luxury. He did not drive Lazarus away, but selfishly left him unrelieved though he had ample means to help. Spoken to answer the covetous Pharisees who served mammon while judging men by wealth and honor, it teaches that eternal destiny is fixed in this life, with no further probation after wasted grace. His riches were a trust lent by God for the good of others, and he is condemned not for being rich but for spending what was entrusted on himself instead of relieving need and laying up treasure in heaven.
Dress, Feasting and Setting
The verse pictures a rich man living in daily luxury, dressed in costly purple and fine linen and faring lavishly every day. That purple and fine linen were garments worn by kings and nobles. His feasting was his usual custom, not an occasional celebration. He was a Jewish nobleman who claimed to be a son of Abraham.
Over against him lay Lazarus, a poor suffering beggar without friends, home, money, or food, begging in abject poverty at his gate. He lay within the rich man's sight and hearing, where he could be seen, in sharp contrast to daily luxury and abundance with every want supplied. At that time there were no hospitals, so the suffering and needy were brought to people entrusted with wealth that they might receive help and sympathy.
The rich man was not violent toward Lazarus and did not drive him away, but allowed him to remain at his gate. Yet he was selfishly indifferent and did nothing to relieve his severe need despite having ample means to do so. His own wants were met while the beggar beside him remained in need, so absence of overt cruelty did not excuse his neglect.
Parable Context and Probation
Luke 16:19 opens the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, spoken in answer to the covetous Pharisees who derided the warning that no man can serve God and mammon. Those hearers justified themselves before men while judging and valuing men by wealth and by the honors received from others. The parable answers that false standard by showing outward standing does not decide standing before God.
The parable teaches that people decide their eternal destiny during this present life, when God's grace is offered to every soul. Wasting those opportunities in self-pleasing cuts a person off from everlasting life, and there is no further probation afterward. By their own choice people fix an impassable gulf between themselves and God.
The verse presents two classes whose true standing is revealed in the unseen world: the wealthy who do not depend on God and have not surrendered their lives to Him, and the poor who trust God and patiently endure suffering. Their positions will be reversed, for the patient poor who trust God are exalted above those holding the world's highest positions. So Dives, who lived in daily luxury in costly clothing and abundant food, is afterward tormented, while Lazarus, the poor beggar who feared God, is comforted. The story stands as a lasting lesson to rich and poor that earthly prosperity does not secure comfort in the life to come.
Selfish pleasure is not the sum of happiness and does not bring lasting happiness. The rich man gave himself to intemperate, luxurious living while refusing his duty to help Lazarus from his abundance, and that course led to the loss of his soul. He later would have given all he possessed to exchange places with Lazarus, once poor and covered with sores. When sickness brought suffering he longed to call on Lazarus for relief, but the fixed gulf showed he could not cross over to obtain it.
Daily luxury and earthly possessions could not relieve him when sickness came. Because he had not laid up treasure in heaven and had neglected Lazarus suffering nearby, he faced suffering unprepared and found no comfort in wealth or former status. His neglect left a gulf of disobedience and transgression between him and Abraham. After death he is depicted as suffering with a burning fever, recalling his heartless treatment of Lazarus, yet having no knowledge of God.
Wealth as Sacred Trust
The abundance behind the daily luxury is not owned outright but held in trust, for everything a person has is lent by the Lord to be managed for Him rather than spent on self. Means and abilities are placed in human hands so they can serve others, especially those in need, and the greater the resources the greater the obligation to use them for the good of others. Accountability belongs to that trust, so the one who enjoys plenty remains answerable for how it is used and whether dependence on God is acknowledged.
That stewardship carries a definite duty to relieve suffering with food and clothing, with medical care and spiritual help, with sympathy and deeds of love and mercy. It includes returning the tithe and giving gifts and offerings for the relief of the needy, and to withhold from the hungry, the naked, and the homeless when means have been entrusted is a serious wrong. Those given wealth must share it and will answer for its use, since love to God and to neighbor is shown by what is done with what is lent.
Being rich is not itself the ground of condemnation, for there is no sin in riches that are honestly acquired and not gained by injustice. Condemnation falls on spending entrusted means in selfishness and hoarding treasure for self instead of using it to do good and laying it up beside the throne of God. Earthly honor, wealth, and daily luxury do not give true riches, and their selfish use without tender sympathy and help for the sufferer at the gate dishonors God.
Though the commands to love God and neighbor are known, blessings can still be turned to personal pleasure and honor until accountability is forgotten. Knowledge, talents, and opportunities to understand and practice God's Word are then devoted to pleasure, while amusements and the praise and flattery of friends occupy time until God is forgotten. In that forgetfulness the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor are neglected, yet possession of temporal blessings never removes the need to obey God.
To spend money entrusted by God extravagantly on selfish gratification instead of using it for God's work is unfaithful stewardship and neglect of God's heritage. It is the luxury of personal comfort and indulgence while others lack food, clothing, or shelter, and the enjoyment of life's good things while neglecting people in need. Those who so use their trust will face a reckoning and must answer for their stewardship.
Death ends stewardship and probation, when by a power that cannot be questioned or resisted the manager is commanded to quit what was managed. Nothing is brought into the world and nothing can be taken out of it, so money cannot be carried into the next life. He who once wore the richest purple and finest linen is then reduced to nakedness and hopeless poverty without the robe of Christ's righteousness to cover him. Only what was laid up in heaven endures, for faithful service and good deeds done to win people to Christ are carried to heaven while hoarded treasure for self leaves its keeper poor toward God.
True Worth Before God
Costly dress and daily feasting give a man no value in God's sight, and neither wealth nor the honor other people give can recommend anyone to heaven or secure divine favor. Men are not to be judged or valued by riches or by honors received from others, but by character, by true faith, and by true moral worth and soundness before God. What is entrusted to a man is only lent by the Lord, so possessions do not determine worth, and the wealthy who misuse them can end worse off than the poorest person who loves and trusts God. Riches gained by oppression, deception, overreaching, fraud, or any other dishonest manner, and a life of ease without moral worth, cannot obtain God's favor. All that is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God, leaving such a man worthless, corrupt, sinful, and abominable in His sight.
The one who is worthless in this sense is despised and rejected and cast out from God's presence and plunged into misery and woe unutterable. By contrast the poor despised sufferer who has true faith and moral soundness is valuable to God. He is taken by God and placed in the most exalted position and introduced into the society of refined holy angels as an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ. Purple and fine linen mark worldly wealth and honor that can win people's applause for elegance, generosity, and hospitality. Yet spending money on costly clothing and comforts to gratify pride or to gain human praise is a misuse that conflicts with humility and self-denial, for the honor that matters comes from God.
Riches and display do not commend to heaven. Christ, though heaven's King, did not exalt Himself, build rich habitations, or wear purple and fine linen. The sumptuous life did not secure the life that comes from God. Genuine faith leads people to give up burdensome earthly accumulations and transfer treasure to heaven, for where treasure is the heart will be also. Even the condition of Lazarus depending on crumbs is therefore preferable to that of professed believers who accumulate earthly wealth.
Nation, Church and Last Days
The man in purple and fine linen pictures the Jewish nation, favored with every temporal and spiritual blessing as depositaries of sacred truth and stewards of grace, called to cooperate with God by imparting those blessings and relieving temporal and spiritual suffering in deeds of love and mercy toward the poor among them, the stranger within the gates, and brethren fallen into decay. That nation had great privileges and special instruction not to seek all for self and to use its God-given light to bless and enlighten the world, yet it was filled with pride as the chosen and favored people and used the Lord's goods for selfish gratification with no helping hand put forth. Trusting in being children of Abraham instead of serving and worshiping God, it divorced itself from God and placed trust in Abraham as if he were God, preparing itself for the sentence of condemnation. Though claiming to be Abraham's son, it was separated from Abraham by a gulf of disobedience, for Abraham served God in faith and obedience while the rich man ignored God and suffering people and put Abraham in the place belonging to God. His love of worldly pleasure, display, and appetite showed a character formed in partnership with evil in spiritual ignorance amid abundant luxury.
His privileges could have been used under God's guidance to bless and enlighten others, but failure to live as a faithful steward brought ruin and national disaster. At Jerusalem's destruction, starvation and suffering brought the warning of the parable to mind, for the people's ruin followed their neglect of that light and their neglect of their divine calling. His history portrays the closing scenes of earth's history and represents people who may belong to the church yet remain unconverted. Outward religious acts and words do not make such a one righteous when the heart does not praise God. Self-love, appetite, and worldly pleasures shape this character during life, and though having knowledge, talents, and opportunities to understand and practice God's Word, he devotes them to pleasure amid amusements and friends' praise and flattery until he forgets God, neglecting duty and the final account he must give. At death he can no longer choose or change that character but rises with the same unholy desires he cherished before, and the gulf between him and the righteous reflects the character he formed by refusing the opportunities God gave him to change.
Present Duty to Neighbors
The colored people of the South lie as Lazarus at the gate, while the white race stands in the place of Dives toward them. Dives is under heavy responsibility to bend a portion of his energies to the moral uplifting of Lazarus, lifting him to higher standards of education and home life. Woe comes to Dives if he does not heed Lazarus lying at his gate full of sores. Seeking supremacy as an end in itself by overriding justice loses what is sought, while honest, just effort to uplift brings uplifting in return.
The rich man enjoying wealth and fine living while failing to use what God gave him for God's purposes warns those who claim to be sons and daughters of God against feeling at liberty to live in self-indulgence and enjoy life's good things while neglecting people in need. That warning applies while Satan is ruining souls around them, especially victims of intemperance allured to sell reason for rum. Instead of looking on without power to counteract evil like the world, they must lift up a standard in the name of the Lord God of Israel. They must not leave the Saviour's pitying tenderness for wretched, fallen, hopeless beings in vain for want of human channels, but must communicate His treasures of food and clothing and words fitly spoken. His daily luxury in contrast to Lazarus's need at his gate teaches that God judges those who spend on self-gratification instead of sharing with the poor, and that God blesses and vindicates the suffering faithful represented by Lazarus. The history introduced here shows how God deals with suffering believers and with those who use for self-gratification what they should share with the poor, commending Lazarus, not the rich man.