Luke 16:3
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The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, now that my master is taking away my position? I am too weak to dig and too ashamed to beg.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
cannot dig . . . to beg, ashamed--therefore, when dismissed, shall be in utter want.
Open source ↗The scope of Christ's discourse in this chapter is to awaken and quicken us all so to use this world as not to abuse it, so to manage all our possessions and enjoyments here as that they may make for us, and may not make against us in the other world; for they will do either the one or the other, according as we use them now. I. If we do good with them, and lay out what we have in works of piety and charity, we shall reap the benefit of it in the world to come; and this he shows in the parable of the unjust steward, who made so good a hand of his lord's goods that, when he was turned out of his stewardship, he had a comfortable subsistence to betake himself to. The parable itself we have (Luk 16:1-8); the explanation and application of it (Luk 16:9-13); and the contempt which the Pharisees put upon the doctrine Christ preached to them, for which he sharply reproved them, adding some other weighty sayings (Luk 16:14-18). II. It, instead of doing good with our worldly enjoyments, we make them the food and fuel of our lusts, of our luxury and sensuality, and deny relief to the poor, we shall certainly perish eternally, and the things of this world, which were thus abused, will but add to our misery and torment. This he shows in the other parable of the rich man and Lazarus, which has likewise a further intention, and that is, to awaken us all to take the warning given us by the written word, and not to expect immediate messages from the other world (Luk 16:19-31).
Open source ↗16:3 I’m too proud to beg: The Jewish wisdom writer Sirach said, “It is better to die than to beg” (Sirach 40:28), a reflection of Jewish attitudes.
Open source ↗Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried.
Yet we hear that some of you are leading undisciplined lives and accomplishing nothing but being busybodies.
And a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those entering the temple courts.
And a beggar named Lazarus lay at his gate, covered with sores
So he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, since I have nowhere to store my crops?’
At this, his neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging began to ask, “Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?”
Laziness brings on deep sleep, and an idle soul will suffer hunger.
For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men,
The slacker does not plow in season; at harvest time he looks, but nothing is there.
What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?