The brother who is in modest circumstances should take pride in being raised up. Likewise, the one who is rich should glory in being brought low, for he will disappear like a flower of the field.
Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.
Let everyone submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which derives from God, and whatever authorities exist have been instituted by God.
After this, he said to the crowd, “Take care to be on your guard against all kinds of greed. Life does not depend upon an abundance of one’s possessions.”
Jesus replied, “If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Moreover, the one to whom God grants wealth and possessions and the ability to enjoy them and to find contentment in his toil receives a gift from God.
Thereupon the Lord restored the prosperity of Job after he had prayed for his friends, and he enriched him with twice as much as he had possessed before.
They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my own special possession on the day when I act, and I will have compassion on them as a father has compassion on the son who serves him.
But you are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people claimed by God as his own possession,” so that you may proclaim the praise of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Preferable is the little that the righteous possess than the great wealth of the wicked. For the power of the wicked will be overcome, but the Lord protects the righteous.