Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 15:19
And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
No more worthy … – Such has been my conduct that I have been a disgrace to my father. I am not fit to be honored by being called the son of a man so kind and virtuous.
Make me as one … – Treat me as a servant. Let me come again into your family, but I do not ask to be treated as a son. I am willing to come in if you will give me only the support that you give to a servant. This evinced,
- Deep humility – such as a sinner should have.
- Love for his fathers house – such as all penitents should have toward Gods dwelling-place in heaven.
- Confidence in his father that he would treat him kindly, even if he treated him as a servant. Such confidence all returning penitents feel in God. They are assured that God will treat them kindly that whatever he gives them will be more than they deserve, and they are, therefore, willing to be in his hands. Yet,
- He had no adequate sense of his fathers kindness. He did not fully appreciate his character. He was far more kind than he had dared to hope he would be; just as all sinners undervalue the character of God, and find him always more kind than they had supposed. No sinner comes to God with a just and adequate view of his character, but always finds him more merciful than he had dared to hope.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
And am no more worthy to be called thy son,…. As all the Jews were; not only by creation, and providential care, as all men are; but by national adoption: and however worthy this man might think himself to be called a Son of God before, and value himself upon it; he now sees, and was ready to own his unworthiness to be called so in any sense; and much more to be called and accounted a Son of God by special adoption;
make me as one of thy hired servants; this is said not from a servile spirit, but to express the mean thoughts he had of himself, and the great desire he had to be fed from his father’s table, in the meanest way; and what an happiness and honour it would be to him, could he be the meanest in his family, a doorkeeper in his house; which was more eligible to him, than to dwell in the tents of sin, or continue in this hungry and starving condition.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
No longer worthy ( ). Confession of the facts. He sees his own pitiful plight and is humble.
As one ( ). The hired servants in his father’s house are high above him now.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And am no more worthy,” (ouketi eimi akscos) I am or exist no longer worthy,” because of my poverty and my sinful behavior. He was still a son, though in anarchy, rebellion, at enmity with heaven and his father, Rom 8:7. He was still down in the hog pen, in a foreign country, resolving to go back home.
2) “To be called thy son” (klethenai huios sou) “To be addressed as your heir-son:” I have forfeited the right. He wanted to be known as the son of his father and his father’s home again; For he had acted in the past as a child of wrath, a child of the devil, Eph 2:3.
3) “Make me as one of thy hired servants.” (poleson me hos hena ton misthion sou) “Just make me as one of your hired servants,” cause me to be treated as they are treated. And to serve along with them. Humility, “here expressed, is the way to exaltation, even from the filth and mire of an hog pen in an heathen land, Jas 4:6; 1Pe 5:6; Luk 18:14; Pro 3:34.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
Ver. 19. I am not worthy ] So Austin, Domino, non sum dignus quem tu diligas. So another, Non sum dignus, Domino, sod sum indigens. Sense of misery must precede sense of mercy. Let God but hear such words as these fall from his Ephraims, and he will soon melt over them, Jer 31:19-20 Hos 11:8 . Henry the son of our Henry II, crowned by his father, and rebelling against him, died before his father at Martel in Normandy, where his father lay at siege. His father refusing to visit him (as fearing his own life), but sending his ring in sign of forgiveness, the dying prince most humbly with floods of tears kissing the same, made a most sorrowful confession of his sins: and feeling death approach, would needs be drawn (as an unworthy sinner) out of his own bed, and laid upon another strewed with ashes, where he died; which being related, the old king fell upon the earth, and weeping bitterly (like another David for his Absalom) mourned very sore. (Speed, 522.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
am no more worthy = I no longer deserve. make me. Contrast “give me ” (Luk 15:12).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Luk 15:19. ) Use me as.-) any one you please [even in the lowest position].-, of thy hired servants) who are taken even from among strangers and aliens.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
no: Luk 5:8, Luk 7:6, Luk 7:7, Gen 32:10, Job 42:6, 1Co 15:9, 1Ti 1:13-16
make: Jos 9:24, Jos 9:25, Psa 84:10, Mat 15:26, Mat 15:27, Jam 4:8-10, 1Pe 5:6
Reciprocal: Lev 26:40 – confess 1Ch 21:8 – I have sinned 2Ch 6:37 – We have sinned Job 40:4 – Behold Lam 1:20 – for Lam 3:29 – if Lam 3:42 – transgressed Dan 9:15 – we have sinned Mic 7:9 – bear Mat 8:8 – I am Luk 15:17 – How Luk 15:21 – Father Luk 23:41 – we indeed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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This is an expression of one who realizes his unworthiness of favors.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 15:19. I am no more worthy, etc. Genuine penitence!
Make me as one, etc. He does not give up his sonship, but asks only the treatment given to a hireling, for he does not even deserve that. Some explain that he wished by fidelity in that position to prove himself again worthy; but the parable must not be pressed here, since the penitent sinner has at first confused ideas of the return to God. The main point is, that the prodigal makes no excuse for his sins, but acknowledges his unworthiness.