“But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.” Luke 6:24-26
“The woes are declared upon the rich. Riches almost inescapably ensnare those who possess them in a false set of values and loyalties which involved a foreshortened perspective in which love for the things of this world proves to be greater than the desire for the Kingdom of God. One cannot serve God and mammon. The only proper attitude to mammon is an openhanded generosity which is rich in relation to the compassionate concerns of God and lays up treasure in heaven and not for oneself on earth. This for the most part is beyond those who have the greatest stake in, and find themselves most secure in relation to, material well-being in this world. Such people have settled for the consolations that may be had from riches, but they find that they have been shortchanged by their choice.”
John Nolland in Luke 1:1-9:20 (WBC; Dallas: Word, 1989) 290.