Luke 15:31 Meaning and Explanation

The father's reply begins with tenderness — the Greek word is "child," an address of pure affection. Then two assurances answer the whole grievance: "thou art ever with me," the presence he had stopped prizing; "and all that I have is thine," the inheritance already his from the day the estate was divided (verse 12).

Nothing has been taken from the elder son by his brother's welcome. Grace is not a fixed sum that a prodigal's feast depletes; the father's love is not divided when it is shared. And the reward of long faithfulness was never going to be a goat — it was the father himself, all along, every ordinary day: "thou art ever with me." Those words are for every weary, faithful heart that has begun to feel unpaid. What we have in God, we have whole.