Applying the Example of the Prodigal Son to Our Lives
The parable of the prodigal son, found in Luke 15:11-32, serves as a profound illustration of God's grace and readiness to receive repentant sinners [2]. It is presented as a narrative that highlights the riches of gospel grace and offers encouragement to those returning to God [2].
The parable begins with a younger son demanding his inheritance from his father, an act interpreted as a desire for independence from divine control and a "sin of sins" from which other transgressions spring [5]. This son then departs to a distant country and squanders his inheritance through riotous living [Luke 15:13]. This behavior is described as injurious to his parents, wasting his father's estate and causing emotional distress [8]. The son's subsequent destitution, leading him to feed pigs, represents the lowest point of his rebellion and the consequences of his choices [Luke 15:14-16].
Upon realizing his desperate situation, the prodigal son decides to return to his father, rehearsing a confession of sin [Luke 15:17-19]. His father, however, sees him from afar and runs to embrace him, demonstrating unconditional love and forgiveness [Luke 15:20]. This immediate and joyful reception underscores God's eagerness to welcome back those who repent, regardless of the severity of their past sins [2]. The father's command to bring the best robe, a ring, and sandals, and to prepare a feast, signifies the full restoration and celebration of the son's return [Luke 15:22-24].
The parable also includes an elder brother who resents his father's generosity towards the prodigal [Luke 15:25-30]. This character highlights issues of self-righteousness and a lack of compassion, contrasting with the father's boundless mercy [6]. The father's response to the elder brother emphasizes that while one son was "dead in sin" and "lost," he is now "alive again" and "found," urging the elder brother to share in the joy of his sibling's restoration [10, Luke 15:32].
Matthew Henry suggests that while the parable of the prodigal son emphasizes gospel grace, other parables, such as that of the rich man and Lazarus, serve to awaken individuals to the consequences of worldliness and sin [1]. The instruction within the parable is not only for personal reflection but also extends to the broader community, including "children" in a general sense, encouraging all to heed the wisdom offered [3, 4]. The example of Christ, who, though a Son, learned obedience through suffering, provides a parallel for the transformative journey of repentance and return [7].
Sources
- Luke (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Luke 16:19: As the parable of the prodigal son set before us the grace of the gospel, which is encouraging to us all, so this sets before us the wrath to come, and is designed for our awakening; and very fast asleep those are in sin that will not be awakened by it. The Pharisees made a jest of Christ's sermon against worldliness; now this parable was intended to make those mockers serious. The tendency of the gospel of Christ is both to reconcile us to poverty and affliction and to arm us against temptations to worldliness and sensuality. Now this parable, by drawing the curta”
- Luke (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Luke 15:11: We have here the parable of the prodigal son, the scope of which is the same with those before, to show how pleasing to God the conversion of sinners is, of great sinners, and how ready he is to receive and entertain such, upon their repentance; but the circumstances of the parable do much more largely and fully set forth the riches of gospel grace than those did, and it has been, and will be while the world stands, of unspeakable use to poor sinners, both to direct and to encourage them in repenting and returning to God. Now, I. The parable represents God as a com”
- Proverbs (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Proverbs 7:23: Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children,.... The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, read, in the singular number, "my son", in the same manner as the chapter begins; but it is in the plural number in the Hebrew text; and so read the Targum and Syriac version, "children", the children of Solomon; not only those of his own body, but all such that put themselves under his instruction, or were willing to take his advice: it may be extended to all the children of men, for all are interested herein; especially such who profess to be the children of God a”
- Proverbs (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Proverbs 4:1: Here we have, I. The invitation which Solomon gives to his children to come and receive instruction from him (Pro 4:1, Pro 4:2): Hear, you children, the instruction of a father. That is, 1. "Let my own children, in the first place, receive and give good heed to those instructions which I set down for the use of others also." Note, Magistrates and ministers, who are entrusted with the direction of larger societies, are concerned to take a more than ordinary care for the good instruction of their own families; from this duty their public work will by no means excus”
- Luke (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Luke 15:12: III. THE PRODIGAL SON. (Luke 15:11-32) the younger--as the more thoughtless. said, &c.--weary of restraint, panting for independence, unable longer to abide the check of a father's eye. This is man impatient of divine control, desiring to be independent of God, seeking to be his own master; that "sin of sins, in which all subsequent sins are included as in their germ, for they are but the unfolding of this one" [TRENCH]. he divided, &c.--Thus "God, when His service no longer appears a perfect freedom, and man promises himself something far better e”
- Luke (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Luke 15:32: This thy brother - Or, This brother of Thine. To awaken this ill-natured, angry, inhumane man to a proper sense of his duty, both to his parent and brother, this amiable father returns him his own unkind words, but in a widely different spirit. This son of mine to whom I show mercy is Thy brother, to whom thou shouldst show bowels of tenderness and affection; especially as he is no longer the person he was: he was dead in sin - he is quickened by the power of God: he was lost to thee, to me, to himself, and to our God; but now he is found: and he will be a comfort to”
- Hebrews (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Hebrews 5:8: Though he were a Son,.... The Son of God, as the Vulgate Latin version reads; not by creation, nor by adoption, nor by office, but by nature, being the only begotten of the Father, having the same nature and perfections with him: yet learned he obedience; not to his parents, or civil magistrates, though that is true; nor merely to the precepts of the law, which he did; but unto death: through sufferings he became obedient to death, even the death of the cross: and this he learnt; not that he was ignorant of the nature of it; nor was he destitute of an obedient dispo”
- Proverbs (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Proverbs 19:26: Here is, 1. The sin of a prodigal son. Besides the wrong he does to himself, he is injurious to his good parents, and basely ungrateful to those that were instruments of his being and have taken so much care and pains about him, which is a great aggravation of his sin and renders it exceedingly sinful in the eyes of God and man: He wastes is father, wastes his estate which he should have to support him in his old age, wastes his spirits, and breaks his heart, and brings his gray head with sorrow to the grave. He chases away his mother, alienates her affections ”