John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Luke 12:13
Verse 13 13.Bid my brother divide Our Lord, when requested to undertake the office of dividing an inheritance, refuses to do so. Now as this tended to promote brotherly harmony, and as Christ’s office was, not only to reconcile men to God, but to bring them into a state of agreement with one another, what hindered him from settling the dispute between the two brothers? (265) There appear to have been chiefly two reasons why he declined the office of a judge. First, as the Jews imagined that the... read more
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Luke 12:14
A judge - Without some judgment given in the case, no division could be made; therefore Jesus added the word judge. Pearce. A minister of Christ ought not to concern himself with secular affairs, any farther than charity and the order of discipline require it. Our Lord could have decided this difference in a moment; but the example of a perfect disengagement from worldly things was more necessary for the ministers of his Church than that of a charity applying itself to temporal concerns. He... read more