L e t u s n o t e t h e w o e s pronounced by Christ in Luke 6:24-26. These are negative counterparts of the Beatitudes. As the Beautitudes express the condi tions for receiving the riches of blessedness in Christ here and hereafter, so the woes express the conditions that lead to poverty of blessedness in Christ here and hereafter. Christ sets before us blessedness in its high est and lowest degrees. The Holy Spirit will indicate to each of us exactly where we stand on the ladder of Christian blessedness. The Lord pointed out the two ends, the top and the bottom. Where are you? Let’s look at the first woe. “ But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.” The Lord begins these warnings with an interjection that occurs mainly in Matthew and Luke. It is the Greek word ouai, “woe,” denoting pain or displeasure. You make a similar sound, “Ow!” or “Ouch!” when you stub your toe. Something has hurt you. You have experi enced pain. This is in direct contrast to the blessedness that the sacrificing Christian experiences. And to make the contrast more apparent, this section of woes is introduced by the conjunction pleen, meaning “ but, nevertheless, however.” The succeeding woes are not proceded by “but.” Therefore it is evident that the contrast is between two classes of followers of Christ, the one class who lives for Him, and the other who lives for self even though they believe in Christ and have acquired forgiveness of sins and that initial step of blessedness, their salvation. These are the woes pro nounced upon Christian selfishness. The Lord addressed these woes to a particular class of people. This is readily seen from the adjectival sub stantives we find in the Greek text that have the def inite article before them just as in the case of the Beatitudes.* “ But woe unto you the rich . . . the full one, the laughing ones.” The Lord did not refer to all the rich, to all the full ones, to all the laughing ones, but only to that particular group of His disciples whose riches, whose fullness, whose laughter were detrimental to His cause. He issues no general condemnation of the rich, the full, and the laughing ones; just as He gives no general promise of blessedness to all who are poor, hungry, tearful, hated, excommunicated, reproached, and slandered, but only to those who undergo these experiences for the sake of the Lord. The only rich, full, laughing ones that are condemned here are those whose condition is detrimental to the cause of Christ. The first class, then, upon whom the Lord pro nounces woe is the rich. This surely refers to the rich in material things. How illogical to claim that the Beatitudes in Luke are exactly like those in Matthew, that both refer to spiritual poverty and spiritual riches. If Luke 6:24 refers to the spiritually rich (and it must refer to them if verse 20 refers to the spiritually poor, since it is in contrast to it), why should Christ say, “Woe unto you” ? Why should a spiritually rich per son be so severely warned and alarmed? There is no reason for it. He should rattier be commended. Now when is it wrong to be rich? When your riches hinder in any way the progress of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not wrong to be rich and to engage in business so that you can use the profit for the glory of God and the promotion of His Gospel. If it were wrong to possess money, then no Christian would ever be in business, and the work of the Lord would actually suffer and not gain as a result of it. If I understand the spirit of Christ’s teaching, it is that the Christian should be diligent in business and in handling what God has given Him, but never for selfish purposes. No
Christian should become rich for the purpose of show ing off or wielding earthly power but for the purpose of using what God has given him for the progress of the Gospel. This does not mean giving away every thing that you have, but using your possessions in such a way that the greatest good will result for Christ and His work. Not only do selfishly used riches result in little blessedness in this life, but they should produce dread in us as far as the future is concerned. “Woe unto you the rich!” Why? “ For ye have received your consola tion.” The verb that is translated “have” in the original Greek text is most intriguing. No one English word can adequately convey its meaning. It is not echein, which simply means “have,” but the verb apechein, which in ancient Greece was used to indicate that a sum was received in full and was receipted as such. The verb is composed of the preposition apo, meaning “ from,” and th verb echein, “ to have.” A debt is paid off in full. The creditor can have no further claims on the debtor. The account is closed in a manner satisfac tory to the recipient. This is the verb that is used three times in this sense in Matthew. In the first instance, Matthew 6:2, the Lord is referring to those who give alms for the pur pose of being seen and commended. He says of them, “ They have their reward in full.” And what is that reward? The fact that they have been seen by others. In the second instance, Matthew 6:5, the Lord speaks about those who like to pray loudly in public so that everybody may know that they are men of prayer. Of them He says, “They have their reward in full.” There will be no answer to those prayers from God, the Master says. These people got all they asked for, favorable human comments that they were men of prayer. And the third case is in Matthew 6:16, those who fast, not for the sake of pleasing God, but of impress ing men. Of these the Lord said, “ They have their re ward in full.” They impress men but not God. In all three cases, the verb apechousin is used, ex actly the same word that is used here in Luke 6:24. If we were to put it in colloquial English, we would say that this verb means, “You have had it all.” “Woe unto you, the rich, for you have had it all.” You have had what? Your consolation. The word in Greek is parakleesin and is akin to the word parakleetos, which is one of the names of the Holy Spirit in the New Tes tament. (See John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7.) In this context it means “ comfort,” implying comfortable cir cumstances. In other words, the Lord says to the rich Christians who live selfishly, who use their riches not for Christ but for attaining every possible comfort of life, thinking in this way to increase their blessed ness, “ You have had your comforts in full. You will have nothing more coming from Me when you appear before Me on the Judgment Day.” Naturally, this re fers to a future day of Judgment. When these selfish rich Christians appear before the Lord in expectation of reward, He will say to them, “ You have had it, brother. Remember all the comforts of your earthly life? You sought them, and I did not stand in your way. You were free to use the money you made with My enabling as you pleased. You used it selfishly. Now don’t come to ask for a reward that you don’t deserve. You have had your reward. It was the comforts of life.” *A. T. Robertson, A Grammar o f the Greek New Testa ment, Doran, 3rd edition, p. 757.
NOVEMBER, 1964
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