If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
Parallel Translations
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If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
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So then yf ye have not ben faithfull in the wicked mamon? who will beleve you in that which is true?
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If then ye haue not ben faithful in the wicked riches, who wil trust you in the true treasure?
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Luke 16:11 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Luke 12:33 Sell that which you have, and give gifts to the needy. Make for yourselves purses which don’t grow old, a treasure in the heavens that doesn’t fail, where no thief approaches, neither moth destroys.
- James 2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
- Proverbs 8:18-19 With me are riches, honor, enduring wealth, and prosperity. My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, my yield than choice silver.
- Ephesians 3:8 To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- Luke 16:9 I tell you, make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tents.
- Luke 18:22 When Jesus heard these things, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
- Revelation 3:18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, heavenly and true riches: which are contrary…
That is, heavenly and true riches: which are contrary to worldly and flitting substance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in…
11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
Ver. 11. In the unrighteous mammon] Or the uncertain, vain, deceitful wealth of this world, which yet most rich men trust in, as if simply the better or safer for their abundance. Hence Drusius derives mammon from amans, which signifieth to trust.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain This verse now opposeth the unrighteous mammon to the…
This verse now opposeth the unrighteous mammon to the true riches, which would strongly incline one to think, that by the mammon of unrighteousness, before mentioned, our Saviour meant only false and deceitful riches. By the true riches I cannot think is meant the gospel, which indeed is said to be committed to trust of the ministers, but not of all Christians. I had rather interpret it of special, effectual grace, which is of all other the true riches: and so it teacheth us this great truth, That God is justified in the denial of his special grace to those who do not make a due use of his common gifts and grace; and indeed here will lie men’s damnation, because they do not make a just use of that common grace which they have, and might make a better use of it than they do. If they would be faithful in that, God would not deny them the true riches.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain If therefore ye have not been faithful,.... This is…
If therefore ye have not been faithful,.... This is the application of the above proverbial expressions, and seems to be directed to the disciples of Christ, though not without a view to the covetous Scribes and Pharisees, who were in hearing of it, and were disturbed at it, Luk 16:14 and the meaning is, that whereas some of them might have been unfaithful, and have acted the unjust part of gathering of riches, as Matthew, and other publicans, that were now become the followers of Christ; if therefore they should be unfaithful
in the unrighteous mammon; in the disposing of it to improper uses, which was either unrighteously gotten, and therefore called, as it sometimes was, , "mammon of ungodliness", or "ungodly mammon" (x); or, which was fallacious, deceitful, vain, and transitory:
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who will commit to your trust the true riches; or mammon? that is, how should you expect to be intrusted with the riches of grace, as the blessings and promises of the covenant of grace, the graces of the Spirit of God, which truly enrich persons, and are solid and durable? or the riches of glory, the better and more enduring substance in heaven, signified by a kingdom, and an inheritance that fadeth not away? so the Jews call the good things of another world, and say (y), that
"all the good things of this world are not , "true good things", in comparison of the good things of the world to come.''
And they use the same distinction with respect to "mammon", as here:
"the holy, blessed God, they say (z), gives him, , "mammon of truth", or true mammon; and he makes it "false", or deceitful:''
or rather the rich treasure of the Gospel is meant, called a treasure in earthen vessels, and the unsearchable riches of Christ; and is comparable to, and of more worth than gold, silver, and precious stones. And so the Syriac version renders it, "who will trust you with the truth?" with the truth of the Gospel.
(x) Targum in Hab. ii. 9. (y) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 23. 2. (z) Shemot Rabba, sect. 31. fol. 134. 4.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Who will intrust you with the true riches? -…
Who will intrust you with the true riches? - How should God intrust you with spiritual and eternal, which alone are true riches?
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Who will commit ... - If you are not…
Who will commit ... - If you are not faithful in the small matters pertaining to this world, if you do not use aright your property and influence, you cannot expect that God will commit to you the true riches of his grace. Men who are dishonest and worldly, and who do not employ the deceitful mammon as they ought, cannot expect to grow in grace. God does not confer grace upon them, and their being unfaithful in earthly matters is evidence that they “would be” also in much greater affairs, and would likewise “misimprove” the true riches.
True riches - The graces of the gospel; the influences of the Spirit; eternal life, or religion. The riches of this world are false, deceitful, not to be trusted Luk 16:9; the treasures of heaven are “true,” faithful, never-failing, Mat 6:19-20.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain If then you have not been faithful in the…
If then you have not been faithful in the unjust mammon;[2] i.e. in fading and false riches, which are the occasion of unjust and wicked proceedings. --- Who will trust you with that which is the true? i.e. God will not intrust you with the true and spiritual riches of his grace. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
In iniquo mammona, Greek: en to adiko Mammona.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain unrighteous mammon--To the whole of this He applies the…
unrighteous mammon--To the whole of this He applies the disparaging term "what is least," in contrast with "the true riches."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 11. In the unrighteous mammon… the true—We have here…
11. In the unrighteous mammon… the true—We have here the real definition of the term unrighteous mammon. It is the opposite of the true divine riches; the riches of God’s favour. We may remark that the word riches is here in italics, which intimates that it is supplied by the translators, there being no word for it in the Greek. It is as if our Lord wanted a word which language did not supply. To say in the contrast the unrighteous mammon, and the true mammon) would be to sanctify the word mammon. He gives the word true and leaves us to supply the blank; and so the translators have supplied with the literal word riches.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 11. the true riches] Literally, “that which is true,”…
11. the true riches] Literally, “that which is true,” i.e. real and not evanescent. Earthly riches are neither true, nor ours.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (11) If therefore ye have not been faithful in…
(11) If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon.—Better, if ye were not, or, became not. Here the “true riches” stand in contrast with the vain, deceitful, unrighteous mammon, and answer to the true spiritual wealth of peace, pardon, wisdom, or, in St. Paul’s language, here again coloured by St. Luke’s, the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph_3:8). Our Lord teaches His disciples, what human religious teachers have so often forgotten, that honesty, integrity, and, as implied in faithfulness, benevolence, in the use of this world’s goods, be our portion small or great, is an indispensable condition of all spiritual advancement.
The Greek word for “true” may be noticed as being that which is generally characteristic of St. John. (See Notes on Joh_1:9; Joh_4:23.) This is the only instance of its use in the three first Gospels; St. Paul uses it once (1Th_1:9), and then, after companionship with St. Luke. It is found in three passages of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb_8:2; Heb_9:14; Heb_9:24; Heb_10:22) twenty-three times in the writings of St. John.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The unrighteous mammon. As above in the parable, "mammon"…
The unrighteous mammon. As above in the parable, "mammon" signifies money. The epithet "unrighteous" is used in the same sense as in ver. 9, where we read of the "mammon of unrighteousness.
The true riches.
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We must gain our idea of the sense in which the word "true" is to be taken by our knowledge of Christ"s use of it. And we know that he used it as distinguishing, not the correct from the incorrect, or the existing from the imaginary, but the valuable from the comparatively unimportant, the substantial from the shadowy, the essential from the accidental, the abiding from the transitory. It is in this sense that he says of himself, "I am the true Light;" i.e. "I am not that which renders the smaller service of revealing outward objects and the outward path, but that which renders the supreme service of making clear Divine and heavenly truth, and the way that leads home to God himself." Thus he speaks also of himself as "the true Bread;" i.e. not the food which sustains for a few hours, but that inward and spiritual nourishment which satisfies the soul and makes it strong for ever. Similarly he declares that he is "the true Vine;" i.e. the Divine Author of the soul"s refreshment, strength, and joy. We shall, therefore, find in "the true riches" those treasures which are truly valuable, which permanently endow their possessor, in opposition to those other treasures which are of inferior worth. We glance at
I THE INFERIOR CHARACTER OF EARTHLY TREASURE. NO doubt these riches, which are not entitled to be called the "true riches," have a worth of their own which is far from contemptible. Indeed, they render us services which we cannot help calling valuable; they provide us with shelter, with food, with raiment, with instruction, and even (in the sense of ver. 9) with friendship. But they neither supply to us nor secure for us lasting satisfaction.
1. They do not supply it in themselves. The possession of wealth may give, at first, considerable pleasure to the owner of it; but it may be doubted whether there is not more pleasure found in the pursuit than in the possession of it. And it cannot be doubted that the mere fact of ownership soon ceases to give more than a languid satisfaction, often balanced, often indeed quite outweighed, by the burdensome anxiety of disposing of it.
2. They do not ensure it. They can command a large number of pleasant things; but these are not happiness, much less are they well-being. That life must have been short or that experience narrow which has not supplied many instances in which the riches of this world have been held by those whose homes have been wretched, and whose hearts have been aching with unrest or even bleeding with sorrow.
II THE SUPREME VALUE OF SPIRITUAL GOOD.
1. There are true riches in reverence. To be living in the fear of God; to be worshipping the Holy One; to be walking daily, hourly, continually, with the Divine Father; to have the whole of our life hallowed by sacred intercourse with heaven; this is to be enriched and ennobled indeed.
2. There is real wealth in love. Our best possession at home is not to be found in any furniture; it is in the love we receive, and in the love we have in our own hearts: "The kind heart is more than all our store." And to be receiving the constant loving favour of a Divine Friend, and to be returning his affection; to be also loving with a true and lasting love those for whom he died; this is to be really rich.
3. There are true riches in the peace, the joy, the hope, of the gospel of Christ. The peace that passes understanding; the joy that does not pall, and which no man taketh from us joy in God and in his sacred service; the hope that maketh not ashamed, that is full of immortality; these are the true riches. To be without them is to be destitute indeed; to hold them is to be rich in the sight of God, in the estimate of heavenly wisdom. C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 11, 12. If ye have not been faithful. If…
11, 12. If ye have not been faithful. If one is faithless in an earthly trust, how can he expect to receive a heavenly trust?
Another's. That which belongs to God. All who have property should understand that it is another's. Your own. The true riches, because they become a part of our being, the inalienable possession of the redeemed.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.