Luke 12:15

15 And he said to them, Take care to keep yourselves free from the desire for property; for a man's life is not made up of the number of things which he has.

Luke 12:15 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 12:15

And he said unto them
Either to the two brethren, or to his disciples, as the Syriac and Persic versions read, or to the whole company:

take heed, and beware of covetousness;
of all covetousness, as read the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, and some copies; that is, of all sorts of covetousness, and every degree of it, which of all vices is to be avoided and guarded against, being the root of all evil; and as the Persic version renders it, is worse than all evil, and leads into it:

for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things
which he possesseth;
of flocks and beasts, as the Persic version renders it: a man's natural life cannot be prolonged by all the good things of the world he is possessed of; they cannot prevent diseases nor death; nor do the comfort and happiness of life, lie in these things; which are either not enjoyed by them, but kept for the hurt of the owners of them, or are intemperately used, or some way or other imbittered to them, so that they have no peace nor pleasure in them: and a man's spiritual life is neither had nor advantaged hereby, and much less is eternal life to be acquired by any of these things; which a man may have, and be lost for ever, as the following parable shows.

Luke 12:15 In-Context

13 And one of the people said to him, Master, give an order to my brother to make division of the heritage with me.

14 But he said, Man, who made me a judge or a maker of decisions for you?

15 And he said to them, Take care to keep yourselves free from the desire for property; for a man's life is not made up of the number of things which he has.

16 And he said to them, in a story, The land of a certain man of great wealth was very fertile:

17 And he said to himself, What is to be done? for I have no place in which to put all my fruit.