Is There a Prodigal in Your Life?

When you think about the prodigals in your life, what comes to mind?

Most of us are familiar with the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The story, told in Luke 15:11-32, is about a man with two sons whose younger son asked for his inheritance, moved away, and squandered all his money while the older son stayed home and worked the fields.

When the younger son was penniless and starving, he decided to return home and confess his sins to God and his father. The man celebrated the return of his younger son with a great feast, which made the older son angry.

To explain why he was welcoming his younger son home with such enthusiasm, the father said to the older son, “Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!” (Luke 15:31-32, NLT)

Using the context of the parable, a reader might assume that prodigal means someone who has left and returned after learning some difficult lessons.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary tells us something different. It defines prodigal this way:

1. characterized by profuse or wasteful expenditure, lavish; 2. recklessly spendthrift; 3. yielding abundantly

The Cambridge dictionary offers this definition:

Spending or using large amounts of money, time, energy, etc., especially in a way that is not very wise; tending to spend or use something without thinking of the future.

The origin of prodigal comes from late Latin prodigalis, from Latin prodigus, meaning lavish.

Some modern dictionaries have added the definition of “one who has returned after an absence” due to contemporary common usage, but that’s not the real meaning of prodigal.

If you use prodigal to describe someone who has gone away and returned, most readers or listeners will skim over it. But the ones who know the original meaning will notice, and it could weaken the impact of your message. Don’t distract your audience with imprecise language.

We often learn the meaning of words by the context in which we read or hear them. But context doesn’t always give an accurate definition.

So, is there a prodigal in your life?