And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
In hell the rich man looks up in torment and sees Abraham far away with Lazarus close beside him. The scene is a parable framed in the hearers' own current ideas of consciousness between death and resurrection to warn them, not to establish torment immediately after death as truth. It shows a complete reversal, where the man who had every want supplied in life is afterward in misery while the poor sufferer who trusted God is comforted, honored and exalted. Riches themselves do not condemn and poverty does not lessen worth before God, but selfish, unfaithful use of lent means on self while neglecting the suffering neighbor does, and wealth and honor cannot secure His favor or save from being cast from His presence. Destiny is fixed in this life while grace is offered, for death gives no further choice and the impassable gulf is the disobedient character formed here, so those who waste opportunity cut themselves off from everlasting life by their own choice.
Parable Form and Figures
Luke 16:23 belongs to a parable shaped to meet the hearers on their own ground, using their prevailing belief in a conscious state of existence and converse between death and the resurrection to teach important truths. The picture of torment and distant seeing draws on those preconceived opinions to make prominent that possessions are only lent by the Lord and do not make a person valuable to God, so that misuse of entrusted gifts can place the rich below the poorest afflicted person who loves and trusts Him. It does not establish conscious torment after death as doctrine, but uses the prevailing opinion to press the lesson that the time to choose and prepare for judgment is the present life, with no further probation when it ends.
Christ held up before His hearers in this parable a mirror wherein they might see themselves in their true relation to God. He lifted the curtain on the unseen outcome before priests and rulers, scribes and Pharisees, showing the rich man after probation ended, commanded by a power he cannot question or resist to quit the stewardship he treated as his own. Having all that money could procure yet not being rich toward God, neglecting the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor, he is reduced to hopeless poverty and nakedness whom the robe of Christ's righteousness can never cover. This stands as a warning to all rich in this world's goods and not rich toward God, proving that what is highly esteemed among men is abhorrent in the sight of God and that gaining the whole world profits nothing if the soul is lost.
The rich man represents the Jewish nation, surrounded with luxuries and exalted privileges and entrusted with means, sacred truth, and spiritual and temporal blessings which God would have increased to bless and enlighten the whole world. Through ignorance, perverted life, failure to use gifts as God's stewards in truth and righteousness by helping people in need, and leaving eternity out of reckoning, the nation separated from the Lord's arrangement and brought ruin upon itself. If he had appreciated his privileges and allowed God's Spirit to mold mind and heart, with true spiritual discernment and response to the divine call, his position and future would have been altogether different.
His claim to be a son of Abraham and reliance on Abraham rather than God for salvation could not protect him when disobedience separated him by an impassable gulf. That gulf is a character wrongly developed, the gulf of disobedience: Abraham served God, following His word in faith and obedience, while the rich man was unmindful of God and of suffering humanity. True descent from Abraham is spiritual, shown by harmony with him, not by natural lineage, so Lazarus, though regarded as belonging to an inferior class, is welcomed by Abraham into close friendship and an honored place. The account in this verse portrays the closing scenes of this earth's history.
Wealth Tested and Reversed
Lazarus lay at the gate in desperate poverty, without friends, home, money, or food, covered with sores and suffering, while the rich man had every want supplied and lived in sumptuous, luxurious abundance. Day after day the rich man left him in that condition, living for himself instead of relieving him, spending extravagantly on selfish gratification resources entrusted to him for God's work, and the story points to a coming reckoning for that stewardship. A time came when he would have given all he possessed to exchange places with the poor, sore-covered beggar he had refused to help.
The verse shows a future reversal in which the one who received good things in life is afterward in torment and misery, while the one who suffered is comforted, honored, and exalted. Lazarus is seen in an honored place with Abraham, while the rich man lifts his eyes in misery from afar, teaching that those who are poor now but trust God and endure suffering will be exalted above those who hold high worldly position but have not surrendered their lives to God. Wealth and worldly honor do not make a person valuable to God or secure His favor; true faith and moral worth do. Riches, especially when gained dishonestly, cannot save from being cast out of God's presence, while poverty does not lessen worth before God or diminish a place among the righteous.
All that a person has belongs to him only as lent by the Lord, and possessions in themselves do not condemn, unless gained by injustice. Condemnation rests on selfish, unfaithful stewardship, spending entrusted means and abilities on self, forgetting obligation to God, neglecting the suffering beggar and neighbor despite knowledge of God's commands, and failing to secure heavenly treasure. Such misuse will place the holder below the poorest and most afflicted person who loves God and trusts in Him, for wealth does not make its owner more valuable than that poor person. The rich man's end therefore illustrates a life spent for self and earthly gain rather than in love and mercy toward others. He hoarded treasure for himself, had his good things during his lifetime, forgot his obligation to God and proved an unfaithful steward, and cannot take any of it to heaven, while death cannot make poor the one who devotes himself to seeking eternal riches by laying up treasure beside God's throne in doing good.
After death he is reduced to hopeless poverty and nakedness, stripped of purple and fine linen, because in life he had all money could buy but lacked the riches that keep an account right with God, living as if all he possessed were his own while neglecting the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor. As he brought nothing into the world he can take nothing out, and the robe of Christ's righteousness can never cover him. Selfish pleasure and luxurious, intemperate living are not happiness and are not the sum of happiness. His suffering is as a burning fever in which he learned at last what suffering meant and recalled his heartless refusal to share his abundance, and his luxurious life and failure to help led to the loss of his soul, for he had no knowledge of God.
Probation Ended and Applied
People fix their eternal destiny in this life while grace is offered, and those who waste its opportunities through self-pleasing cut themselves off from everlasting life with no further probation afterward, so by their own choice they fix an impassable gulf between themselves and God. The time to choose and prepare for judgment is the present life, for help cannot be obtained after death, and the poor who trust God and endure suffering will be exalted above those of worldly status who do not surrender their lives to God. Death gives no further chance to choose, for in the grave thoughts and choices cease with no power to choose good or evil, and when God awakens the dead each rises with the same character, appetites and passions formed in life, since God does not remake one who refused opportunities to be changed. The impassable gulf is a wrongly developed character of disobedience, for Abraham served God in faith and obedience to His word while the rich man was unmindful of God and suffering humanity and put Abraham where God should have been, relying on Abraham rather than God, and if he had appreciated his privileges and let God's Spirit mold him his position would have been altogether different. He stands for those entrusted with means to bless and enlighten the world who separated from God's arrangement until life was perverted, failed to use gifts as stewards in truth and righteousness, left eternity out of reckoning, and brought ruin whose future would have been wholly different with true spiritual discernment and response to the divine call.
When probation ends he is commanded by a power he cannot question or resist to quit as steward the premises he treated as his own and no longer controls, reduced to hopeless poverty and nakedness and stripped of purple and fine linen. He had all that money could procure but did not possess riches toward God, having neglected the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor, so the robe of Christ's righteousness can never cover him, and as he brought nothing into the world he can take nothing out. After death his wealth cannot relieve him and those around give no consolation, and he remembers Lazarus whom he neglected and longs for him to bring relief, but a great gulf separates them. His suffering is as a burning fever in which he learns what suffering means and recalls his heartless refusal to share abundance, revealing that luxurious, intemperate living and selfish pleasure are not happiness and that such a course, without knowledge of God, ends in loss of the soul. The same course is followed today by unconverted church members who share in service and chant longing after God yet are no more righteous than sinners, loving appetite, worldly pleasure and display with no war against fleshly lust in copartnership with satanic agencies, and are suddenly snatched by death with that character formed in lifetime.
The blessings of this life and future immortal life are conditional on hearing and doing God's will, bringing blessing in obedience and curse in refusal, and the parable shows the responsibility of those with abundance to provide for the needy. Those who spend extravagantly the resources entrusted to them on selfish gratification instead of God's work face a coming reckoning for stewardship, for Dives enjoyed life's good things without using what God gave to help others. His example warns all who claim to be God's children not to feel at liberty to enjoy selfish ease while the wretched, fallen and hopeless lack food, clothing, fitly spoken words and a standard lifted against ruin. The parable applies to the colored people of the South as Lazarus full of sores lying at the gate of Dives, the white race, who rest under heavy responsibility to bend energies to their moral uplifting to higher standards of education and home life by honesty, justice and labor, for seeking supremacy as an end, overriding justice and ignoring Lazarus brings woe and retribution in torment, while uplifting Lazarus uplifts Dives himself. The verse exposes wealthy men of large cities who have more than heart could wish while multitudes around them lack fit food, clothing and shelter, living luxuriously on richly furnished houses, personal ornament and sensual gratification including tobacco and liquors that destroy brain power, unbalance the mind and debase the soul, turning means given to honor the Creator by blessing the world into selfish indulgence, dishonor to God and neglect of His heritage as unfaithful stewards marked by God and angels.
In hell the rich man looks up in torment and sees Abraham far away with Lazarus close beside him. The scene is a parable framed in the hearers' own current ideas of consciousness between death and resurrection to warn them, not to establish torment immediately after death as truth. It shows a complete reversal, where the man who had every want supplied in life is afterward in misery while the poor sufferer who trusted God is comforted, honored and exalted. Riches themselves do not condemn and poverty does not lessen worth before God, but selfish, unfaithful use of lent means on self while neglecting the suffering neighbor does, and wealth and honor cannot secure His favor or save from being cast from His presence. Destiny is fixed in this life while grace is offered, for death gives no further choice and the impassable gulf is the disobedient character formed here, so those who waste opportunity cut themselves off from everlasting life by their own choice.
Parable Form and Figures
Luke 16:23 belongs to a parable shaped to meet the hearers on their own ground, using their prevailing belief in a conscious state of existence and converse between death and the resurrection to teach important truths. The picture of torment and distant seeing draws on those preconceived opinions to make prominent that possessions are only lent by the Lord and do not make a person valuable to God, so that misuse of entrusted gifts can place the rich below the poorest afflicted person who loves and trusts Him. It does not establish conscious torment after death as doctrine, but uses the prevailing opinion to press the lesson that the time to choose and prepare for judgment is the present life, with no further probation when it ends.
Christ held up before His hearers in this parable a mirror wherein they might see themselves in their true relation to God. He lifted the curtain on the unseen outcome before priests and rulers, scribes and Pharisees, showing the rich man after probation ended, commanded by a power he cannot question or resist to quit the stewardship he treated as his own. Having all that money could procure yet not being rich toward God, neglecting the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor, he is reduced to hopeless poverty and nakedness whom the robe of Christ's righteousness can never cover. This stands as a warning to all rich in this world's goods and not rich toward God, proving that what is highly esteemed among men is abhorrent in the sight of God and that gaining the whole world profits nothing if the soul is lost.
The rich man represents the Jewish nation, surrounded with luxuries and exalted privileges and entrusted with means, sacred truth, and spiritual and temporal blessings which God would have increased to bless and enlighten the whole world. Through ignorance, perverted life, failure to use gifts as God's stewards in truth and righteousness by helping people in need, and leaving eternity out of reckoning, the nation separated from the Lord's arrangement and brought ruin upon itself. If he had appreciated his privileges and allowed God's Spirit to mold mind and heart, with true spiritual discernment and response to the divine call, his position and future would have been altogether different.
His claim to be a son of Abraham and reliance on Abraham rather than God for salvation could not protect him when disobedience separated him by an impassable gulf. That gulf is a character wrongly developed, the gulf of disobedience: Abraham served God, following His word in faith and obedience, while the rich man was unmindful of God and of suffering humanity. True descent from Abraham is spiritual, shown by harmony with him, not by natural lineage, so Lazarus, though regarded as belonging to an inferior class, is welcomed by Abraham into close friendship and an honored place. The account in this verse portrays the closing scenes of this earth's history.
Wealth Tested and Reversed
Lazarus lay at the gate in desperate poverty, without friends, home, money, or food, covered with sores and suffering, while the rich man had every want supplied and lived in sumptuous, luxurious abundance. Day after day the rich man left him in that condition, living for himself instead of relieving him, spending extravagantly on selfish gratification resources entrusted to him for God's work, and the story points to a coming reckoning for that stewardship. A time came when he would have given all he possessed to exchange places with the poor, sore-covered beggar he had refused to help.
The verse shows a future reversal in which the one who received good things in life is afterward in torment and misery, while the one who suffered is comforted, honored, and exalted. Lazarus is seen in an honored place with Abraham, while the rich man lifts his eyes in misery from afar, teaching that those who are poor now but trust God and endure suffering will be exalted above those who hold high worldly position but have not surrendered their lives to God. Wealth and worldly honor do not make a person valuable to God or secure His favor; true faith and moral worth do. Riches, especially when gained dishonestly, cannot save from being cast out of God's presence, while poverty does not lessen worth before God or diminish a place among the righteous.
All that a person has belongs to him only as lent by the Lord, and possessions in themselves do not condemn, unless gained by injustice. Condemnation rests on selfish, unfaithful stewardship, spending entrusted means and abilities on self, forgetting obligation to God, neglecting the suffering beggar and neighbor despite knowledge of God's commands, and failing to secure heavenly treasure. Such misuse will place the holder below the poorest and most afflicted person who loves God and trusts in Him, for wealth does not make its owner more valuable than that poor person. The rich man's end therefore illustrates a life spent for self and earthly gain rather than in love and mercy toward others. He hoarded treasure for himself, had his good things during his lifetime, forgot his obligation to God and proved an unfaithful steward, and cannot take any of it to heaven, while death cannot make poor the one who devotes himself to seeking eternal riches by laying up treasure beside God's throne in doing good.
After death he is reduced to hopeless poverty and nakedness, stripped of purple and fine linen, because in life he had all money could buy but lacked the riches that keep an account right with God, living as if all he possessed were his own while neglecting the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor. As he brought nothing into the world he can take nothing out, and the robe of Christ's righteousness can never cover him. Selfish pleasure and luxurious, intemperate living are not happiness and are not the sum of happiness. His suffering is as a burning fever in which he learned at last what suffering meant and recalled his heartless refusal to share his abundance, and his luxurious life and failure to help led to the loss of his soul, for he had no knowledge of God.
Probation Ended and Applied
People fix their eternal destiny in this life while grace is offered, and those who waste its opportunities through self-pleasing cut themselves off from everlasting life with no further probation afterward, so by their own choice they fix an impassable gulf between themselves and God. The time to choose and prepare for judgment is the present life, for help cannot be obtained after death, and the poor who trust God and endure suffering will be exalted above those of worldly status who do not surrender their lives to God. Death gives no further chance to choose, for in the grave thoughts and choices cease with no power to choose good or evil, and when God awakens the dead each rises with the same character, appetites and passions formed in life, since God does not remake one who refused opportunities to be changed. The impassable gulf is a wrongly developed character of disobedience, for Abraham served God in faith and obedience to His word while the rich man was unmindful of God and suffering humanity and put Abraham where God should have been, relying on Abraham rather than God, and if he had appreciated his privileges and let God's Spirit mold him his position would have been altogether different. He stands for those entrusted with means to bless and enlighten the world who separated from God's arrangement until life was perverted, failed to use gifts as stewards in truth and righteousness, left eternity out of reckoning, and brought ruin whose future would have been wholly different with true spiritual discernment and response to the divine call.
When probation ends he is commanded by a power he cannot question or resist to quit as steward the premises he treated as his own and no longer controls, reduced to hopeless poverty and nakedness and stripped of purple and fine linen. He had all that money could procure but did not possess riches toward God, having neglected the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor, so the robe of Christ's righteousness can never cover him, and as he brought nothing into the world he can take nothing out. After death his wealth cannot relieve him and those around give no consolation, and he remembers Lazarus whom he neglected and longs for him to bring relief, but a great gulf separates them. His suffering is as a burning fever in which he learns what suffering means and recalls his heartless refusal to share abundance, revealing that luxurious, intemperate living and selfish pleasure are not happiness and that such a course, without knowledge of God, ends in loss of the soul. The same course is followed today by unconverted church members who share in service and chant longing after God yet are no more righteous than sinners, loving appetite, worldly pleasure and display with no war against fleshly lust in copartnership with satanic agencies, and are suddenly snatched by death with that character formed in lifetime.
The blessings of this life and future immortal life are conditional on hearing and doing God's will, bringing blessing in obedience and curse in refusal, and the parable shows the responsibility of those with abundance to provide for the needy. Those who spend extravagantly the resources entrusted to them on selfish gratification instead of God's work face a coming reckoning for stewardship, for Dives enjoyed life's good things without using what God gave to help others. His example warns all who claim to be God's children not to feel at liberty to enjoy selfish ease while the wretched, fallen and hopeless lack food, clothing, fitly spoken words and a standard lifted against ruin. The parable applies to the colored people of the South as Lazarus full of sores lying at the gate of Dives, the white race, who rest under heavy responsibility to bend energies to their moral uplifting to higher standards of education and home life by honesty, justice and labor, for seeking supremacy as an end, overriding justice and ignoring Lazarus brings woe and retribution in torment, while uplifting Lazarus uplifts Dives himself. The verse exposes wealthy men of large cities who have more than heart could wish while multitudes around them lack fit food, clothing and shelter, living luxuriously on richly furnished houses, personal ornament and sensual gratification including tobacco and liquors that destroy brain power, unbalance the mind and debase the soul, turning means given to honor the Creator by blessing the world into selfish indulgence, dishonor to God and neglect of His heritage as unfaithful stewards marked by God and angels.