And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
Luke 16:20 belongs to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, picturing a named beggar laid at the rich man's gate covered with sores. He lay there day after day without friends, home, money or food, longing for crumbs from the rich man's table, while the rich man lived in daily luxury with every want supplied. The verse sets a sharp contrast between abundance and comfort on one side of the gate and poverty, sickness and need on the other. Lazarus represents the poor who trust in God and patiently endure suffering, whose outward misery did not reflect their worth before God and fitted them for exaltation as heirs with Christ. His suffering placed before the rich man a stewardship responsibility to help, which he selfishly neglected, and so the parable warns that destiny is fixed in this life with no further probation after death.
Parable Setting and Picture
This verse belongs to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the account of Dives and Lazarus that warns against living for self and enjoying God's gifts while failing to help people in need. It presents the rich man as living sumptuously in extravagant use of money entrusted to him, without considering accountability or the coming reckoning. The rich man's wealth and gate did not keep Lazarus's need from his sight, and their later reversal shows that selfish pleasure is not the sum of happiness.
Lazarus is a named beggar who was laid at the rich man's gate, covered with sores, poor and suffering and destitute. He was left there day after day without friends, a home, money, or food, in great need while the wealthy man had every want supplied. He was so poor that he longed for crumbs falling from the rich man's table, for scraps the rich man discarded and despised, living on crumbs from that table. He was extremely sick and afflicted, abjectly poor and loathsome in appearance and loathsome to look at, yet he could find comfort in seeing the rich man enter his home.
The rich man was a Jewish nobleman living in customary daily luxury, with his needs supplied and with all that money could procure. The verse sets a sharp contrast between his abundance and comfort and Lazarus's poverty, suffering, and need at his gate. That contrast teaches rich and poor throughout time that earthly circumstances do not determine final outcome, for Lazarus later receives comfort while the rich man who enjoyed good things is tormented.
Whom the Figures Represent
Lazarus stands for the poor who trust in God and fear Him, who patiently and quietly endure suffering with a faith that is real and not merely theoretical. He was laid in that suffering at the rich man's gate, receiving only scraps, yet his patient endurance bore witness to Christ and proved his faith under trial. He stands for God's believing, suffering people, whom God blesses and chooses and commends.
Together Lazarus and the rich man present two representative classes whose true standing is estimated in the unseen world. Lazarus's outward misery did not measure his worth before God, for he possessed true faith and moral soundness which God valued above wealth and worldly honor. That character fitted him for the company of holy angels and for the inheritance of God and Christ.
People are therefore not to be judged or valued by wealth or by the honors others give them, for Lazarus was not worthless to God but was raised to an exalted place among the holy as an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ. Those who trust God, though low in this life, will one day be exalted above people of high worldly position who have not surrendered their lives to God, so earthly poverty and suffering do not determine final standing. The rich man, by contrast, stands for those entrusted with God-given privileges and gifts who fail to use them to bless and enlighten the world, especially the Jewish nation in its failure to share its spiritual and material blessings with people in need.
Stewardship Duty and Failure
Lazarus in great need, without friends, home, money or food, was left day after day at the rich man's gate while every want of the wealthy man was supplied, and his visible and audible suffering placed before the rich man an opportunity and responsibility to give help and sympathy. The needy and sick were brought within reach of those entrusted with means so that they could be helped, and the beggar's presence near the rich man placed the needy within reach of help and sympathy. Neglecting the poor and suffering while indulging oneself brings serious responsibility before God.
The rich man was accountable as God's steward for the means, gifts, possessions, wealth and abilities entrusted to him, and the suffering poor at his gate had claims he was bound by God to meet. He owed God the tithe and was to give further gifts and offerings to help people like Lazarus, but he lived as if all he possessed were his own and treated for himself what should have served God and humanity. He forgot his duty to God and to his neighbor and his accountability to God, and those who have abundance and refuse to help the needy answer to God for how they use their means.
That stewardship gave opportunity to show love to God and neighbor by providing food, medical care, clothing and spiritual help, and by using entrusted means and abilities for the good of others to carry out God's purposes. The greater Lazarus's affliction with sores and need of care, the greater the sympathy and help he should have received, for he lay as a wretched, fallen, hopeless being in need of food and clothing and words fitly spoken. Those who claim to be sons and daughters of God must not do as Dives did, who felt at liberty to enjoy the good things of this life and made no right use of what God gave, and must not look on like the priest and Levite without effort, but must be human channels through whom the pitying tenderness of the Saviour is communicated, lifting up a standard against the enemy to restore the moral image of God in man. The rich man instead lived for pleasure and neglected that duty, being accountable to God for this selfish use of what he had received.
He used what was entrusted to him for himself in luxurious, intemperate, sumptuous and extravagant living, refusing to share his abundance with Lazarus laid at his gate poor and covered with sores. He used extravagantly the money entrusted to him by God without considering his accountability or the coming day of reckoning, and his intemperate, luxurious living led to his ruin. In sickness he learned what suffering meant and remembered his heartless treatment of Lazarus, but he had no knowledge of God. Although he allowed Lazarus to remain at the gate and did not drive him away, harm him, or use violence against him, he remained selfishly indifferent day after day and did not try to relieve his suffering despite being able to help him.
He is condemned not for possessing riches, for riches are no sin if not gained by injustice, and poverty itself does not make a man sinful. A rich man is not condemned for having riches but for spending entrusted means in selfishness instead of serving God and aiding those in need and responding with sympathy and help to the suffering poor. Poverty itself is not sin and does not exclude a person from heaven, for Lazarus in humble condition without earthly comforts nevertheless had a heavenly home. Those who trust Christ as their personal Saviour are heirs to an immortal inheritance and have title to a home in heaven even when they hold a humble place in the world.
Probation and Eternal Outcome
Eternal destiny is decided in this life while grace is offered during probation, and those who waste their opportunities in self-pleasing cut themselves off from everlasting life and by their own choice fix an impassable gulf between themselves and God. There is no further probation after this life, for at death probation ends, the dead cannot choose or change, and God does not remake those who refused the opportunities to be changed. Character is formed through life's choices and is retained at the resurrection with the appetites and passions cherished in life, and death suddenly snatches the unconverted to the grave with character fixed, where he has no power to choose good or evil because his thoughts perish.
At death the unfaithful steward is commanded by irresistible power, by a power he cannot question or resist, to quit the premises where he is no longer steward, reduced from purple and fine linen to hopeless poverty and nakedness without the robe of Christ's righteousness, which can never cover that nakedness, for he brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out of it and his probation is ended. The later reversal shows that selfish pleasure is not the sum of happiness and is not true happiness, for Lazarus is comforted while the rich man who enjoyed good things in life and left Lazarus to endure evil things is tormented, comes to long for Lazarus's relief, and would have given all he had to exchange places with him, but a great gulf separates them. At his death Lazarus is pictured as carried by angels to Abraham's bosom, and when the dead are raised at Christ's call his patient suffering, endured patiently and quietly as a test of faith, will receive its reward.
The history portrays the closing scenes of earth's history, and its warning was remembered by the Jews when Jerusalem was destroyed because they neglected to let their God-given light shine to the world. The rich man claimed to be a son of Abraham but was separated from Abraham by an impassable gulf of disobedience, because Abraham served God in faith and obedience while the rich man was unmindful of God and of suffering humanity. The same course is followed today by unconverted church members who profess to long after God while loving worldly pleasure and display and indulging appetite and the lust of the flesh, choosing the atmosphere of sin and forming character in copartnership with Satanic agencies.
Wealth Doctrine and Present Call
Life is not secured by possessions but by a life of love that gives and serves. Means used to do good are laid up beside the throne of God as eternal riches that death cannot take away, so death cannot make poor the one who devotes himself to seeking them. The man who hoards treasure for self cannot take it to heaven and proves himself an unfaithful steward, showing forgetfulness of obligation to God during a lifetime of having good things and failing to secure the heavenly treasure. The rich man had all that money could procure but lived as if all he possessed were his own, neglected the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor laid at his gate, and did not possess the riches that keep his account right with God and make him rich toward God. What is highly esteemed among men is abhorrent in the sight of God, and the condition of Lazarus living on crumbs is preferable to that of professed believers who store up wealth on earth instead of becoming rich toward God.
Wealth is only lent by God, and its misuse leaves a person lower than even the poorest and most afflicted person who loves and trusts God. The parable uses the listeners' belief in conscious existence between death and the resurrection to teach this truth. Genuine faith would lead professed believers who store up wealth on earth to sell their possessions, release their hold on earthly things, and transfer their treasure to heaven. God offers blessings in this life and immortal life, and receiving them is tied to hearing and obeying His will as the foundation of faith, goodness, and mercy. Spending for self-gratification instead of helping the poor is unfaithfulness, while God blesses and commends the suffering believer. Those who use entrusted resources for self-gratification instead of helping the poor face God's judgment, for the needy and sick were brought within reach of people entrusted with means so they could be helped, and neglecting them while indulging self brings serious responsibility before God. God and angels hold people accountable for turning means entrusted to them into self-indulgence instead of using them to bless others.
The account warns all who are rich in this world's goods against enjoying God's gifts while failing to use them to help people in need. Christ lifted the curtain on this picture before priests and rulers, scribes and Pharisees to warn all who are rich in this world's goods and not rich toward God. Those who claim to be sons and daughters of God must not do as Dives did, who felt at liberty to enjoy the good things of this life and made no right use of what God gave to carry out His purposes. They must not look on like the priest and Levite without effort, but must be human channels through whom the pitying tenderness of the Saviour is communicated, lifting up a standard against the enemy to restore the moral image of God in man. Such wretched, fallen, hopeless beings are in need of food and clothing and words fitly spoken.
The colored people of the South lie like Lazarus full of sores at the gate of Dives, with the white race standing as Dives the rich man. White Christians rest under a heavy responsibility to bend a portion of their energies to the moral uplifting of this people to higher standards of education and of home life. Woe will fall on Dives if he does not heed the sufferer at his gate.
Luke 16:20 belongs to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, picturing a named beggar laid at the rich man's gate covered with sores. He lay there day after day without friends, home, money or food, longing for crumbs from the rich man's table, while the rich man lived in daily luxury with every want supplied. The verse sets a sharp contrast between abundance and comfort on one side of the gate and poverty, sickness and need on the other. Lazarus represents the poor who trust in God and patiently endure suffering, whose outward misery did not reflect their worth before God and fitted them for exaltation as heirs with Christ. His suffering placed before the rich man a stewardship responsibility to help, which he selfishly neglected, and so the parable warns that destiny is fixed in this life with no further probation after death.
Parable Setting and Picture
This verse belongs to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the account of Dives and Lazarus that warns against living for self and enjoying God's gifts while failing to help people in need. It presents the rich man as living sumptuously in extravagant use of money entrusted to him, without considering accountability or the coming reckoning. The rich man's wealth and gate did not keep Lazarus's need from his sight, and their later reversal shows that selfish pleasure is not the sum of happiness.
Lazarus is a named beggar who was laid at the rich man's gate, covered with sores, poor and suffering and destitute. He was left there day after day without friends, a home, money, or food, in great need while the wealthy man had every want supplied. He was so poor that he longed for crumbs falling from the rich man's table, for scraps the rich man discarded and despised, living on crumbs from that table. He was extremely sick and afflicted, abjectly poor and loathsome in appearance and loathsome to look at, yet he could find comfort in seeing the rich man enter his home.
The rich man was a Jewish nobleman living in customary daily luxury, with his needs supplied and with all that money could procure. The verse sets a sharp contrast between his abundance and comfort and Lazarus's poverty, suffering, and need at his gate. That contrast teaches rich and poor throughout time that earthly circumstances do not determine final outcome, for Lazarus later receives comfort while the rich man who enjoyed good things is tormented.
Whom the Figures Represent
Lazarus stands for the poor who trust in God and fear Him, who patiently and quietly endure suffering with a faith that is real and not merely theoretical. He was laid in that suffering at the rich man's gate, receiving only scraps, yet his patient endurance bore witness to Christ and proved his faith under trial. He stands for God's believing, suffering people, whom God blesses and chooses and commends.
Together Lazarus and the rich man present two representative classes whose true standing is estimated in the unseen world. Lazarus's outward misery did not measure his worth before God, for he possessed true faith and moral soundness which God valued above wealth and worldly honor. That character fitted him for the company of holy angels and for the inheritance of God and Christ.
People are therefore not to be judged or valued by wealth or by the honors others give them, for Lazarus was not worthless to God but was raised to an exalted place among the holy as an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ. Those who trust God, though low in this life, will one day be exalted above people of high worldly position who have not surrendered their lives to God, so earthly poverty and suffering do not determine final standing. The rich man, by contrast, stands for those entrusted with God-given privileges and gifts who fail to use them to bless and enlighten the world, especially the Jewish nation in its failure to share its spiritual and material blessings with people in need.
Stewardship Duty and Failure
Lazarus in great need, without friends, home, money or food, was left day after day at the rich man's gate while every want of the wealthy man was supplied, and his visible and audible suffering placed before the rich man an opportunity and responsibility to give help and sympathy. The needy and sick were brought within reach of those entrusted with means so that they could be helped, and the beggar's presence near the rich man placed the needy within reach of help and sympathy. Neglecting the poor and suffering while indulging oneself brings serious responsibility before God.
The rich man was accountable as God's steward for the means, gifts, possessions, wealth and abilities entrusted to him, and the suffering poor at his gate had claims he was bound by God to meet. He owed God the tithe and was to give further gifts and offerings to help people like Lazarus, but he lived as if all he possessed were his own and treated for himself what should have served God and humanity. He forgot his duty to God and to his neighbor and his accountability to God, and those who have abundance and refuse to help the needy answer to God for how they use their means.
That stewardship gave opportunity to show love to God and neighbor by providing food, medical care, clothing and spiritual help, and by using entrusted means and abilities for the good of others to carry out God's purposes. The greater Lazarus's affliction with sores and need of care, the greater the sympathy and help he should have received, for he lay as a wretched, fallen, hopeless being in need of food and clothing and words fitly spoken. Those who claim to be sons and daughters of God must not do as Dives did, who felt at liberty to enjoy the good things of this life and made no right use of what God gave, and must not look on like the priest and Levite without effort, but must be human channels through whom the pitying tenderness of the Saviour is communicated, lifting up a standard against the enemy to restore the moral image of God in man. The rich man instead lived for pleasure and neglected that duty, being accountable to God for this selfish use of what he had received.
He used what was entrusted to him for himself in luxurious, intemperate, sumptuous and extravagant living, refusing to share his abundance with Lazarus laid at his gate poor and covered with sores. He used extravagantly the money entrusted to him by God without considering his accountability or the coming day of reckoning, and his intemperate, luxurious living led to his ruin. In sickness he learned what suffering meant and remembered his heartless treatment of Lazarus, but he had no knowledge of God. Although he allowed Lazarus to remain at the gate and did not drive him away, harm him, or use violence against him, he remained selfishly indifferent day after day and did not try to relieve his suffering despite being able to help him.
He is condemned not for possessing riches, for riches are no sin if not gained by injustice, and poverty itself does not make a man sinful. A rich man is not condemned for having riches but for spending entrusted means in selfishness instead of serving God and aiding those in need and responding with sympathy and help to the suffering poor. Poverty itself is not sin and does not exclude a person from heaven, for Lazarus in humble condition without earthly comforts nevertheless had a heavenly home. Those who trust Christ as their personal Saviour are heirs to an immortal inheritance and have title to a home in heaven even when they hold a humble place in the world.
Probation and Eternal Outcome
Eternal destiny is decided in this life while grace is offered during probation, and those who waste their opportunities in self-pleasing cut themselves off from everlasting life and by their own choice fix an impassable gulf between themselves and God. There is no further probation after this life, for at death probation ends, the dead cannot choose or change, and God does not remake those who refused the opportunities to be changed. Character is formed through life's choices and is retained at the resurrection with the appetites and passions cherished in life, and death suddenly snatches the unconverted to the grave with character fixed, where he has no power to choose good or evil because his thoughts perish.
At death the unfaithful steward is commanded by irresistible power, by a power he cannot question or resist, to quit the premises where he is no longer steward, reduced from purple and fine linen to hopeless poverty and nakedness without the robe of Christ's righteousness, which can never cover that nakedness, for he brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out of it and his probation is ended. The later reversal shows that selfish pleasure is not the sum of happiness and is not true happiness, for Lazarus is comforted while the rich man who enjoyed good things in life and left Lazarus to endure evil things is tormented, comes to long for Lazarus's relief, and would have given all he had to exchange places with him, but a great gulf separates them. At his death Lazarus is pictured as carried by angels to Abraham's bosom, and when the dead are raised at Christ's call his patient suffering, endured patiently and quietly as a test of faith, will receive its reward.
The history portrays the closing scenes of earth's history, and its warning was remembered by the Jews when Jerusalem was destroyed because they neglected to let their God-given light shine to the world. The rich man claimed to be a son of Abraham but was separated from Abraham by an impassable gulf of disobedience, because Abraham served God in faith and obedience while the rich man was unmindful of God and of suffering humanity. The same course is followed today by unconverted church members who profess to long after God while loving worldly pleasure and display and indulging appetite and the lust of the flesh, choosing the atmosphere of sin and forming character in copartnership with Satanic agencies.
Wealth Doctrine and Present Call
Life is not secured by possessions but by a life of love that gives and serves. Means used to do good are laid up beside the throne of God as eternal riches that death cannot take away, so death cannot make poor the one who devotes himself to seeking them. The man who hoards treasure for self cannot take it to heaven and proves himself an unfaithful steward, showing forgetfulness of obligation to God during a lifetime of having good things and failing to secure the heavenly treasure. The rich man had all that money could procure but lived as if all he possessed were his own, neglected the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor laid at his gate, and did not possess the riches that keep his account right with God and make him rich toward God. What is highly esteemed among men is abhorrent in the sight of God, and the condition of Lazarus living on crumbs is preferable to that of professed believers who store up wealth on earth instead of becoming rich toward God.
Wealth is only lent by God, and its misuse leaves a person lower than even the poorest and most afflicted person who loves and trusts God. The parable uses the listeners' belief in conscious existence between death and the resurrection to teach this truth. Genuine faith would lead professed believers who store up wealth on earth to sell their possessions, release their hold on earthly things, and transfer their treasure to heaven. God offers blessings in this life and immortal life, and receiving them is tied to hearing and obeying His will as the foundation of faith, goodness, and mercy. Spending for self-gratification instead of helping the poor is unfaithfulness, while God blesses and commends the suffering believer. Those who use entrusted resources for self-gratification instead of helping the poor face God's judgment, for the needy and sick were brought within reach of people entrusted with means so they could be helped, and neglecting them while indulging self brings serious responsibility before God. God and angels hold people accountable for turning means entrusted to them into self-indulgence instead of using them to bless others.
The account warns all who are rich in this world's goods against enjoying God's gifts while failing to use them to help people in need. Christ lifted the curtain on this picture before priests and rulers, scribes and Pharisees to warn all who are rich in this world's goods and not rich toward God. Those who claim to be sons and daughters of God must not do as Dives did, who felt at liberty to enjoy the good things of this life and made no right use of what God gave to carry out His purposes. They must not look on like the priest and Levite without effort, but must be human channels through whom the pitying tenderness of the Saviour is communicated, lifting up a standard against the enemy to restore the moral image of God in man. Such wretched, fallen, hopeless beings are in need of food and clothing and words fitly spoken.
The colored people of the South lie like Lazarus full of sores at the gate of Dives, with the white race standing as Dives the rich man. White Christians rest under a heavy responsibility to bend a portion of their energies to the moral uplifting of this people to higher standards of education and of home life. Woe will fall on Dives if he does not heed the sufferer at his gate.