Luke 12:33

12:33 Sell your possessions ¹  and give to the poor. ²  Provide yourselves purses that do not wear out – a treasure in heaven ³  that never decreases, ⁴  where no thief approaches and no moth ⁵  destroys.

Luke 18:22

18:22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have ⁶  and give the money ⁷  to the poor, ⁸  and you will have treasure ⁹  in heaven. Then ¹⁰  come, follow me.”

Proverbs 8:18-19

8:18 Riches and honor are with me,

long-lasting wealth and righteousness.

8:19 My fruit is better than the purest gold, ¹¹ 

and what I produce ¹²  is better than choice silver.

Ephesians 3:8

3:8 To me – less than the least of all the saints ¹³  – this grace was given, ¹⁴  to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ

James 2:5

2:5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! ¹⁵  Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?

Revelation 3:18

3:18 take my advice ¹⁶  and buy gold from me refined by fire so you can become rich! Buy from me ¹⁷  white clothing so you can be clothed and your shameful nakedness ¹⁸  will not be exposed, and buy eye salve ¹⁹  to put on your eyes so you can see!

¹ sn The call to sell your possessions is a call to a lack of attachment to the earth and a generosity as a result.

² tn Grk “give alms,” but this term is not in common use today.

³ tn Grk “in the heavens.”

⁴ tn Or “an unfailing treasure in heaven,” or “an inexhaustible treasure in heaven.”

⁵ tn The term σής (shs) refers to moths in general. It is specifically the larvae of moths that destroy clothing by eating holes in it (L&N 4.49; BDAG 922 s.v.). See Jas 5:2, which mentions “moth-eaten” clothing.

⁶ sn See Luke 14:33.

⁷ tn The words “the money” are not in the Greek text, but are implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

⁸ sn See Luke 1:50-53; 6:20-23; 14:12-14.

⁹ sn The call for sacrifice comes with a promise of eternal reward: …you will have treasure in heaven. Jesus’ call is a test to see how responsive the man is to God’s direction through him. Will he walk the path God’s agent calls him to walk? For a rich person who got it right, see Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10.

¹⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the conversation.

¹¹ tn The two synonyms, “than gold, than fine gold” probably form a hendiadys here to express “the very finest gold.”

¹² sn The language of the text with “fruit” and “ingathering” is the language of the harvest – what the crops yield. So the figure is hypocatastasis, comparing what wisdom produces to such crops.

¹³ sn In Pauline writings saints means any true believer. Thus for Paul to view himself as less than the least of all the saints is to view himself as the most unworthy object of Christ’s redemption.

¹⁴ sn The parallel phrases to proclaim and to enlighten which follow indicate why God’s grace was manifested to Paul. Grace was not something just to be received, but to be shared with others (cf. Acts 13:47).

¹⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

¹⁶ tn Grk “I counsel you to buy.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “rich, and.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation, repeating the words “Buy from me” to make the connection clear for the English reader.

¹⁸ tn Grk “the shame of the nakedness of you,” which has been translated as an attributed genitive like καινότητι ζωῆς (kainothti zwh") in Rom 6:4 (ExSyn 89-90).

¹⁹ sn The city of Laodicea had a famous medical school and exported a powder (called a “Phrygian powder”) that was widely used as an eye salve. It was applied to the eyes in the form of a paste the consistency of dough (the Greek term for the salve here, κολλούριον, kollourion [Latin collyrium], is a diminutive form of the word for a long roll of bread).