Luke 12:15. Unto them. Evidently the crowd.

Keep yourselves from all covetousness. Our Lord saw that this was the man's motive, and grounds His lesson upon it. From the one form manifested by the man He warns against ‘all' kinds.

For even when one has abundance, his life is not from his possessions. The sentence is difficult to translate accurately. The thought is: no man's life consists in what he possesses, and even when he has abundance this does not become so. The positive truth, afterwards brought out, is: A man's life is of God, hence it cannot be from even the most abundant possessions. If earthly ‘life' is here meant, the prominent idea is, that God alone lengthens or shortens the thread of life, irrespective of possessions; and this is certainly taught in the parable which follows. But Luke 12:21 seems to call for a higher sense (including spiritual and eternal life). This suggests the additional thought that true life does not consist in wealth. The two views may be represented by the two translations: his life does not depend on, or, does not consist in, his possessions.

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Old Testament