The parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most popular stories in the New Testament. In fact, I have written about it in this space before. The narrative of the young man who takes his inheritance and wastes it is a standard part of the collective Christian conscience. We love to hear about the grace of the father as he welcomes home his wayward child. When I first wrote for Spectrum about the Prodigal Son, it was to remind Christians that, in addition to embodying the wayward son, we can also represent the older brother in that story. Because of this, we should look at it as a cautionary tale about how to treat our brothers and sisters who come home after spending their resources in “riotous living.”
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://spectrummagazine.org/views/2023/sinful-envy