1242 verses about Materialism

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My lord delays his coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken,

They all as one began to make excuses. “The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please have me excused.’

“Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go try them out. Please have me excused.’

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?

So therefore whoever of you who doesn’t renounce all that he has, he can’t be my disciple.

The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them.

Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.

When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need.

He also said to his disciples, “There was a certain rich man who had a manager. An accusation was made to him that this man was wasting his possessions.

I tell you, make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tents.

If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

If you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You aren’t able to serve God and Mammon.”

The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they scoffed at him.

He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

“Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day.

and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores.

“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But here he is now comforted, and you are in anguish.

They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

Likewise, even as it was in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built;

In that day, he who will be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away. Let him who is in the field likewise not turn back.

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.’

When Jesus heard these things, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me.”

But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was very rich.

Jesus, seeing that he became very sad, said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter into God’s Kingdom!

For it is easier for a camel to enter in through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into God’s Kingdom.”

Peter said, “Look, we have left everything, and followed you.”

There was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.

He said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina away from him, and give it to him who has the ten minas.’

“They said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!’

‘For I tell you that to everyone who has, will more be given; but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.

He entered into the temple, and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it,

Show me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” They answered, “Caesar’s.”

“Beware of those scribes who like to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts;

He looked up, and saw the rich people who were putting their gifts into the treasury.

As some were talking about the temple and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts, he said,

“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.

He found in the temple those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, and the changers of money sitting.

To those who sold the doves, he said, “Take these things out of here! Don’t make my Father’s house a marketplace!”

Jesus answered them, “Most certainly I tell you, you seek me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves, and were filled.

“Why wasn’t this ointment sold for three hundred denarii, and given to the poor?”

For you always have the poor with you, but you don’t always have me.”

All who believed were together, and had all things in common.

They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need.

The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.

For neither was there among them any who lacked, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold,

But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession,

until there arose a different king, who didn’t know Joseph.

They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!

But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.

For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen,

whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, “Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth.

Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing, and her majesty destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships.”

I coveted no one’s silver, or gold, or clothing.

You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

Yes, it has been their good pleasure, and they are their debtors. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, they owe it to them also to serve them in fleshly things.

For those who are such don’t serve our Lord, Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the innocent.

But if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or stubble;

Therefore let no one boast in men. For all things are yours,

For who makes you different? And what do you have that you didn’t receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

You are already filled. You have already become rich. You have come to reign without us. Yes, and I wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you.

No, but you yourselves do wrong, and defraud, and that against your brothers.

nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortionists, will inherit God’s Kingdom.

“Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods,” but God will bring to nothing both it and them. But the body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;

and those who weep, as though they didn’t weep; and those who rejoice, as though they didn’t rejoice; and those who buy, as though they didn’t possess;

and those who use the world, as not using it to the fullest. For the mode of this world passes away.

but he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife.

But food will not commend us to God. For neither, if we don’t eat, are we the worse; nor, if we eat, are we the better.

If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things?

But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

for “the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.” Psalm 24:1

For in your eating each one takes his own supper first. One is hungry, and another is drunken.

What, don’t you have houses to eat and to drink in? Or do you despise God’s assembly, and put them to shame who don’t have enough? What shall I tell you? Shall I praise you? In this I don’t praise you.

But if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest your coming together be for judgment. The rest I will set in order whenever I come.

If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Isaiah 22:13

while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what you have, not according to what you don’t have.

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.

Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, producing with his hands something that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.

But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;

For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ.

However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ.

whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things.

I know how to be humbled, and I know also how to abound. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.

“Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch”

Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth.

Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry;

For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),

neither did we eat bread from anyone’s hand without paying for it, but in labor and travail worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you;

In the same way, that women also adorn themselves in decent clothing, with modesty and propriety; not just with braided hair, gold, pearls, or expensive clothing;

not a drinker, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous;

Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money;

But she who gives herself to pleasure is dead while she lives.

But if anyone doesn’t provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.

constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such.

But godliness with contentment is great gain.