“Do Not Use the Word of God as a Tool to Justify Your Greed and Hypocrisy”

 

“Do Not Use the Word of God as a Tool to Justify Your Greed and Hypocrisy”

 

 

 

 

“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail. Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery” (Luke 16:16–18).

 

 

(1)   As I meditated on today’s passage, Luke 16:16–18, I became curious about the overall structure of Luke chapter 16. The reason is that I was confused about where Luke 16:16–18 belongs structurally within the chapter.

 

(a)    “Luke 16 can broadly be divided into two major sections: two teachings concerning the use of wealth (vv. 1–13) and the rebuke of the Pharisees together with the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (vv. 14–31).  The chapter emphasizes ‘the proper attitude Christians should have toward material possessions.’

 

The key structural divisions of Luke 16 are as follows:

 

1.      The Parable of the Unjust Steward and Its Lesson (vv. 1–13)

 

The Parable (vv. 1–8): A steward who had squandered his master’s possessions faced dismissal. In response, he cleverly called in his master’s debtors and reduced their debts, thereby securing friends who would receive him after he lost his position.  The master did not praise the steward’s dishonesty but rather his wisdom and shrewdness in preparing for the future in a time of crisis.

 

Lessons and Application (vv. 9–13):

 

Make friends by means of unrighteous wealth (earthly possessions) and prepare for eternal dwellings.

 

Whoever is faithful in very little (worldly wealth) will also be faithful in much.

 

Conclusion (v. 13): “No servant can serve two masters... You cannot serve God and money.”

 

2.      Rebuke of the Pharisees’ Greed (vv. 14–18)

 

The Pharisees’ Reaction (vv. 14–15): The Pharisees, who loved money, heard Jesus’ teaching about wealth and ridiculed Him.

 

The Law and the Kingdom of God (vv. 16–18): The era of the Law lasted until John; afterward, the gospel of the Kingdom of God began to be proclaimed.  God’s purpose is more important than any human manipulation of the Law, and through His strict teaching concerning divorce and remarriage, Jesus exposes the moral corruption and hypocrisy of Jewish society at that time.

 

3.      The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (vv. 19–31)

 

Life in This World (vv. 19–22): A striking contrast is presented between a rich man who lived in luxury every day and Lazarus, a beggar lying at his gate who longed to eat what fell from the rich man’s table.

 

The Great Reversal in the Afterlife (vv. 23–26): After death, Lazarus is carried to Abraham’s side (heaven), while the rich man is tormented in Hades (hell), demonstrating a dramatic reversal of fortunes.

 

Warning and Conclusion (vv. 27–31): The rich man asks that his brothers be warned, but Abraham replies that if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets (the Word of God), they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead. The emphasis is on obeying God’s present revelation and repenting.

 

Luke 16 warns against storing up wealth for one’s own benefit and pleasure. Instead, it urges believers to use the resources entrusted by God wisely to help the poor and to accomplish the purposes of God’s Kingdom” (Internet).

 

(i)    Looking at this structure of Luke 16, today’s passage, Luke 16:16–18, belongs to the section entitled “The Rebuke of the Pharisees’ Greed (vv. 14–18).”  As I reflected on this, I wondered why this passage is placed in that particular section.  The reason is that, in terms of the flow of the context, it seems as though the topics of “the Law and the Kingdom of God” and “divorce” (vv. 16–18) suddenly appear between two passages that are both about money (vv. 1–13 and vv. 19–31).

 

·        In conclusion, verses 16–18 are not an unrelated insertion.  Rather, they function as a bridge exposing the hypocrisy and distortion of the Law practiced by the money-loving Pharisees and naturally connecting the discussion to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that follows.  There are three major reasons why this section is placed here structurally (Internet).

 

a.    Exposure of the Pharisees’ Fundamental Problem: “Claiming to Keep the Law While Loving Money” (Connected to vv. 14–15)

 

In verse 14, the Pharisees are described as “lovers of money,” and they ridicule Jesus.  At that time, they justified their greed by appealing to a legalistic notion that wealth was evidence of God’s blessing.

 

In response, Jesus says in verse 15: “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts.”

 

With these words, He pierces through their hypocrisy.  Verses 16–17 continue this rebuke: “Do you really think you are keeping the Law well? Even though the age of the Law has reached its fulfillment and the Kingdom of God has come, you are still distorting the Law in order to preserve your privileged position.”  Thus, the context is exposing the spiritual condition of people who have become consumed by materialism.

 

b.   Concrete Evidence of Their Hypocrisy: Distorting the Law Through Divorce (v. 18)

 

Why does Jesus suddenly speak about divorce?  At that time, the Pharisees interpreted the Law (especially Deuteronomy 24) in a highly manipulative way. They taught that as long as a man followed the proper legal procedure and issued a certificate of divorce, he could dismiss his wife for virtually any reason and marry another woman.

 

Outwardly, they appeared to be faithfully keeping the Law.  Inwardly, however, they were satisfying their own lusts and selfish desires.  This was hypocrisy at its worst.

 

Jesus is showing that their attitude toward money and their attitude toward marriage were fundamentally the same.  They had little concern for God’s true intention—whether love for one’s neighbor or the sacred union of marriage.  Instead, they used the provisions of the Law to justify their own greed and lust.

 

c.    A Logical Bridge to the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Connected to vv. 19–31)

 

Verses 16–18 serve as a crucial foreshadowing of the conclusion of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (vv. 29–31).

 

In verse 17, Jesus declares: “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.”  Here He emphasizes the absolute authority of God’s Word.

 

Then, in verse 31, Abraham tells the rich man: “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone rises from the dead.”

 

In other words, Jesus is giving this solemn warning: “If you Pharisees continue to ignore the true meaning of the Law, love money, and live hypocritically, you will ultimately share the same fate as the rich man in Hades.”  This is why the structure is arranged in this way.

 

Summary

 

The subject has not actually changed.  Rather, Jesus is exposing the hypocritical system of the money-loving Pharisees (v. 14) by confronting them with the very area in which they took the greatest pride—namely, their supposed devotion to the Law.  In reality, however, they had thoroughly distorted the Law, especially regarding issues such as divorce (vv. 16–18).  Jesus exposes this distortion in order to show that such hypocrisy ultimately leads to judgment, as illustrated in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (vv. 19–31).  Thus, verses 16–18 are a carefully placed contextual bridge that reveals how the Pharisees used God’s Law to justify their greed and self-interest, and how such abuse of God’s Word leads inevitably to divine judgment” (Internet).

 

(2)   Then, if Jesus’ words in today’s passage, Luke 16:16–17, are essentially a declaration that, “Do you really think you are keeping the Law well? Even though the age of the Law (up to the time of John) has passed and the Kingdom of God has come, you are still distorting the Law and enjoying your privileged status,” I became curious about the specific meaning of verses 16–17.

 

(a)    At first glance, Luke 16:16–17 appears difficult to understand because verse 16 seems to say, “the age of the Law has ended,” while verse 17 seems to say, “the Law never changes.”  These statements appear to clash with one another. However, through these words Jesus was exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. The following is an explanation, verse by verse, provided by an AI source (Internet):

 

1.      Verse 16: “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.”

This verse declares that a massive paradigm shift has taken place in redemptive history (God’s history of salvation).

 

“The Law and the Prophets were until John”

 

Here, “the Law and the Prophets” refers to the entire Old Testament and the era it represents.  The role of the Old Testament was to foretell and prepare for the coming Messiah and the Kingdom of God.  John the Baptist was the final representative of that Old Testament era and the one who closed its chapter.

 

“Since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached”

 

With the coming of Jesus, the era of the preview (the Old Testament) had ended, and the era of the full reality—the Kingdom of God—had begun.

 

“Everyone is forcing his way into it”

 

The expression “forcing his way into it” implies entering with intense effort and earnestness.  At that time, the Pharisees had built fences through their own demanding standards of law-keeping (the traditions of the elders), effectively preventing the poor, tax collectors, and sinners from entering the Kingdom of God.

 

But Jesus was declaring: “Now the false barriers of law erected by your privileged class have been torn down. The sinners and Gentiles who were once excluded are hearing the gospel and are rushing into the Kingdom of God with passionate faith and zeal.”

 

2.      Verse 17: “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.”

 

After hearing Jesus say in verse 16 that the Old Testament era had reached its fulfillment, the Pharisees may have thought: “This Jesus is trying to abolish the Law.”  Verse 17 directly refutes that assumption and turns the accusation back upon the Pharisees.

 

The True Fulfillment of the Law

 

The fact that the era has changed does not mean that God’s Law has become useless. Rather, through Jesus, the true intention of the Law—love for God and love for neighbor—has been perfectly fulfilled and strengthened.  Even if heaven and earth pass away, God’s Word will never disappear.

 

A Painful Indictment Against the Pharisees

 

This statement is also a profound irony and indictment directed toward the Pharisees.  Its meaning is: “You boast that you are the greatest keepers of the Law, but because of your greed—your love of money—you have actually destroyed the very heart of the Law, leaving not even a single stroke intact.”

 

They cleverly used the literal regulations of the Law to accumulate wealth and neglect their neighbors, all while convincing themselves that they were faithfully obeying God.  Jesus was upholding the true authority of the Law while exposing their counterfeit righteousness.

 

Summary: The Connected Meaning of Verses 16–17

 

“Pharisees, with John the Baptist the age in which you enjoyed your privileged status under the Old Covenant has come to an end.  The age of the gospel of the Kingdom of God has already arrived. Multitudes of sinners are entering that Kingdom through faith, yet you who claim to be experts in the Law have become blinded by money and are trampling upon its true meaning. God’s Law will never change, even if heaven and earth pass away.  Therefore, because you use the Law as a tool for hypocrisy, you will not escape judgment.”  This is the solemn message conveyed by these verses (Internet).

 

(i)       Here, as I reflect on the money-loving Pharisees—who, blinded by greed, trampled upon the true spirit of the Law—I am led to wonder: are there not pastors, elders, and even deaconesses today who, similarly blinded by money, violate the true essence of the Law—Jesus’s twin commandments to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and to “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt. 22:37, 39)?  Do they not, instead, erect fences using unbiblical church traditions—such as the rigid “legalistic standards” (the traditions of the elders) of old—or man-made church rules, thereby blocking the entrance to the Kingdom of God for the poor, the socially marginalized, and sinners? Here is the AI's response:

 

·          “Your insight is a highly accurate and incisive observation—one that the modern church today must accept with the utmost seriousness and humility.  This is because, sadly, the very image of the Pharisees who stood before Jesus two thousand years ago is being faithfully reenacted in the conduct of our church leaders and key officeholders (pastors, elders, and deaconesses) today.

 

By examining the true nature of the biblical Pharisees through the lens of the contemporary church, we can analyze—and deeply resonate with—the validity of your perspective across three key aspects:

 

a.      The Love of Money, Cloaked in ‘Success-ism’ and ‘Prosperity Theology’

 

Just as the Pharisees of that era justified their own greed by claiming that ‘wealth is a blessing from God,’ many church leaders today often disguise ‘worldly success, institutional expansion, and financial abundance’ as divine grace, rather than upholding the true essence of the Gospel.

 

Those who possess money and power easily rise to become key officeholders within the church and are met with lavish hospitality.

 

Conversely, the poor and the socially marginalized often encounter invisible barriers and experience a sense of alienation—even within the church itself.  This stands in direct violation of Jesus’ declaration (v. 13) that one cannot serve both God and money.

 

b.      The Modern-Day ‘Tradition of the Elders’ That Has Swallowed Up the ‘Double Commandment’ (Love)

 

The true meaning of the Law, as summarized by Jesus, lies in loving God and loving one’s neighbor (Mt. 22:37–39).  Yet, rather than putting this law of love into practice, the modern church today often erects fences using man-made doctrinal standards or non-essential church traditions.

 

‘To attend our church, you must dress in a certain manner,’ or ‘You must pay tithes and offerings regularly to be considered a complete...’ ...invisible rules exist—such as the notion that "only those who fit a certain mold are true saints," or that "anyone who has committed certain sins in the past (such as divorce, addiction, or failure) is ineligible to hold a leadership position or be fully integrated into the community."

 

This is no different from the "rigid legalistic standards" established by the Pharisees; indeed, it serves to transform the church into an insular "social club" reserved exclusively for a spiritual elite.

 

c.      Hypocrisy That Bars the Gates of the Kingdom of God

 

Jesus rebuked them, saying, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces.  You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to" (Mt. 23:13).

 

When the church faces criticism from the world for its moral failings or material greed, the marginalized members of society close their hearts to the Gospel.

 

Witnessing sinners and the vulnerable—who are wounded and cast out even from within the church itself—these outsiders are deprived of the opportunity to experience the Kingdom of God.  In essence, the hypocrisy of church leaders becomes a massive barrier blocking the gates of heaven.

 

Conclusion: A Mirror Held Up to Us

 

The narrative concerning the Pharisees in Luke Chapter 16 is not intended merely to condemn villains of the distant past.  Rather, it serves as a mirror held up to all of us, asking: "Are *you* not the Pharisees of this modern age?"

 

The very sense of sorrow and critical awareness you have expressed is precisely the "spiritual discernment" that the church must recover in order to return to its true essence—the "Double Commandment" of love (Internet).

 

(3)   Considering this painful reality of the modern church, I pray that we may realize how much more powerfully and fearfully the words of verse 18 (the teaching on divorce) confront us as a warning today.

 

(a)    I would like us to reflect together on why verse 18 is such a serious warning for us in the context of the modern church and to take its meaning deeply to heart.

 

1.      It warns against pursuing desire under the disguise of “legality.”

 

In Jesus’ day, when the Pharisees wanted to divorce their wives and marry someone else, they abused the provision concerning a certificate of divorce found in the Law of Moses.  Outwardly, they boasted that they had perfectly followed the legal procedure prescribed by the Law.  Inwardly, however, they were simply satisfying their own lust and selfish desires.  Jesus unequivocally declared such behavior to be “adultery.”

 

The warning for today: Modern churches and Christians can fall into the same pattern. Something may be entirely acceptable according to church regulations or civil law and may be wrapped in impressive religious language such as “God’s blessing,” “an answer to prayer,” or “church growth.”  Yet beneath the surface, it may simply be an attempt to legitimize a love of money or a desire for power.  God does not merely look at outward appearances or procedures. He sees the greed hidden within and calls it sin.

 

2.      It warns against the hypocrisy of trampling on God’s true intention—the Two Great Commandments.

 

God’s original purpose in permitting certificates of divorce was to protect vulnerable people—especially women in the ancient world whose survival could be threatened if abandoned by their husbands.  The Pharisees, however, turned this law of protection into a tool that enabled them to abandon the vulnerable more easily.

 

The warning for today: This was a direct violation of the two great commandments: love for God and love for neighbor.  In the same way, church leaders and church officers today may use fences of doctrine and tradition that they themselves have constructed to push away the poor, the marginalized, and the socially excluded.  The authority and teaching God gave to the church were intended to embrace the weak and extend forgiveness to sinners.  Yet when these gifts are used instead as weapons to condemn others and preserve existing privileges, the church is acting contrary to God’s intention.  According to this perspective, Jesus’ anger is directed toward churches that use God’s Word and ecclesiastical authority not to heal and restore, but to protect power and exclude others.

 

3.      It warns that the destiny of those who shut the door of the Kingdom is judgment.

 

When we look again at the structure of Luke 16, we see that immediately after this solemn declaration in verse 18 comes the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus.  The rich man lived in luxury every day while ignoring the poor Lazarus lying at his gate.  In the end, he found himself suffering in the flames of Hades.

 

The warning for today: Verse 18 is not an isolated statement unrelated to the surrounding discussion about wealth.  Rather, it serves as a bridge.  Those who speak about the Law while being blinded by lust and greed and who oppress the weak (v. 18) will ultimately face the same fate as the rich man who lived in comfort while neglecting the poor (vv. 19ff.).  In this interpretation, verse 18 functions as a prelude to the final judgment that follows.

 

A Resolution in Light of This Conclusion

 

Luke 16:18 is more than a moral guideline concerning divorce.  It is understood as a majestic and solemn divine warning: “Do not use the Word of God as a tool to justify your greed and hypocrisy.” 

Pastors, elders, deaconesses, and indeed all of us may be tempted to believe that we are safe within the boundaries of a righteousness of our own making while pursuing money, influence, and power.  If we fail to hear this warning and repent deeply, we too may find ourselves walking the path of the rich man.  In the face of this sobering warning, let us pray that the church would humble itself once again and recover the true essence of the Two Great Commandments—love and mercy (Internet).