Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. | Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it. |
Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. | But godliness with contentment is great gain. |
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After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. | For we brought nothing into the world, and we certainly can’t carry anything out. But having food and clothing, we will be content with that. |
Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” | Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.” |
That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. | Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in injuries, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. |
Fools’ words get them into constant quarrels; they are asking for a beating. | A fool’s lips come into strife, and his mouth invites beatings. |
Those who love money will never have enough. How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! | He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity. |
The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers! | When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes? |
I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. | I know how to be humbled, and I also know how to abound. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need. |
Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise. | Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is with people who take advice. |
And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God. | Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God. |
When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. | Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom. |