Charles Ellicott Commentary Luke 16:8

"And his lord commended the unrighteous steward because he had done wisely: for the sons of this world are for their own generation wiser than the sons of the light." — Luke 16:8 (ASV)

And the lord commended . . .—The “lord” is, of course, the rich man of the parable, the steward’s master. He too, in the outer framework of the story, is one of the children of this world, and he admires the sharpness and quickness of the steward’s action. In the interpretation of the story, we trace once more the grave, half-veiled indignation, more keenly incisive than if the veil had been withdrawn, which so often appears in this phase of our Lord’s teaching. If this world were all, there would be a wisdom worthy of praise when a Church or its teachers adapted themselves to men’s passions or interests at the expense of Truth. That which makes such action hateful is that by so doing the children of light transform themselves into the children of this world.

The unjust steward.—Literally, the steward of unrighteousness, Saint Luke using the half-Hebrew idiom of a genitive of the characteristic attribute. (Compare to the mammon of unrighteousness in Luke 16:9, and the unjust judge of Luke 18:6, where the same idiom is used.)

The children of this world are in their generation wiser . . .—Better, for their generation, with a view, that is, to their own advantages and interests, and those of others like them.

Wiser than the children of light.—The word for “wise” is that used by our Lord in wise as serpents (see Notes on Matthew 10:16). In children of light (literally, sons of light), though usage has made the Hebrew idiom familiar, we have another example of the genitive of characteristic attribute. We may note the recurrence of the phrase (with the variation of the Greek word for “children” instead of “sons”) in Ephesians 5:8 as another instance of the way in which the phraseology of Saint Paul was influenced by that of the words of the Lord Jesus collected by his fellow-labourer. Children of light are those in whom light is the prevailing element of their life, and they are necessarily also children of God; for God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).

It must be left to the thoughtful reader to judge how far this exposition of the parable is coherent and satisfying in itself, and in harmony with the general teaching of our Lord.

Those who wish may compare it, apart from the real or imagined authority of this or that name, with the other interpretations which find in it a lesson:

1. To the publicans (like that of Luke 3:13) to exact no more than what is appointed to them;
2. Or to all Christians to be as lenient in dealing with their “debtors” as the steward was with his master’s;
3. Or a simple example of quickness and prudence in things temporal, which Christians are to reproduce, mutatis mutandis, in dealing with things eternal;
4. Or which hold, as the main point of the parable, that the steward’s master was ignorant of his fraudulent collusion with the debtors;
5. Or find in the call to give an account of his stewardship nothing but the approach of death;
6. Or teach that the master is Mammon, and that the disciples were accused by the Pharisees of wasting his goods when they became followers of Christ;
7. Or that the steward stands for the publicans as a class, and then for all Christians generally;
8. Or for Judas Iscariot;
9. Or for Pontius Pilate;
10. Or for our Lord Himself;
11. Or for Saint Paul;
12. Or for an example of the true penitent;
13. Or for the devil.

The wild diversity of interpretations which this list partially represents should make any commentator more or less distrustful of what seems to him an adequate and complete exposition; and it may well be, even after an exposition as full as the conditions of the case seem to render possible, that there are side-lights in the parable which are yet unnoticed, and further applications which, as being founded on real analogies, might be instructive and legitimate.