Luke 16:8

8. The lord The landlord. The same lord as in Luke 16:3; Luke 16:5.

Commended the unjust steward Though he had been the victim of his fraud, and saw no way of redress, yet he commended the acuteness of the trick. He laughed at the stratagem like a shrewd worldling, if for no other purpose than to turn the laugh from himself. He would himself have played the same manouvre, or one twice as good.

For These are the words of Jesus, explaining why the landlord laughed, and why the steward was commended by the landlord.

The trick and the laugh at the trick were in the spirit of the children of this world. In so saying our Lord guards us against the idea that either the fraudulence of the stratagem or the commendation of it by the landlord was by him approved. They are before condemned as not belonging to the children of light; he would have the child of light be in his way as acute as the children of this world in THEIR way. As the former are wise for this world, so he would have the good be wise for the better world. As the former are wise in the things of darkness, so he would have the latter wise in the things of light. We should be as wise in holiness as they are wise in wickedness.

In their generation See note on Luke 22:32. By a derived meaning, their kind, class species. One class are the children of God; the other class are the children of Satan.