12:17 bestow my fruits. Instead of “bestowing” his affluence on others in need, he “bestowed” his fruits merely to his barns.

12:18 This will I do. In his monologue, this self-centered rich man (whom God called, “Thou fool”) used the personal pronouns (“I;” “my”) no less than eleven times in three verses (Luke 12:17-19), in addition to addressing himself three times—“soul”, “thou,” “thine.” Thus inordinate self-centeredness leads to eternal folly.

12:20 Thou fool. Those who lay up treasure for themselves and are not rich toward God (Luke 12:21) are insane fools in God’s omniscient judgment. Jesus warned against our calling someone a fool (Greek moros, meaning “stupid”), but He used even a stronger word here (Greek aphron, meaning “insane one;” the word is closely related to the word for “foaming,” aphros). This is, therefore, a very serious and sober warning against self-centered covetousness.

12:21 for himself. See Psalm 49:6-12.