Bible Verses About Covetousness

Sell what you own and do tzedakah — make for yourselves purses that don’t wear out, riches in heaven that never fail, where no burglar comes near, where no moth destroys.

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

But he replied, “Once a man gave a banquet and invited many people.

When the time came for the banquet, he sent his slave to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come! Everything is ready!’

But they responded with a chorus of excuses. The first said to him, ‘I’ve just bought a field, and I have to go out and see it. Please accept my apologies.’

Another said, ‘I’ve just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to test them out. Please accept my apologies.’

Still another said, ‘I have just gotten married, so I can’t come.’

The slave came and reported these things to his master. “Then the owner of the house, in a rage, told his slave, ‘Quick, go out into the streets and alleys of the city; and bring in the poor, the disfigured, the blind and the crippled!’

The slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’

The master said to the slave, ‘Go out to the country roads and boundary walls, and insistently persuade people to come in, so that my house will be full.

I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet!’”

Yeshua looked at him and said, “How hard it is for people with wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!

It’s easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God!”

Yeshua answered, “Yes, indeed! I tell you, you’re not looking for me because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the bread and had all you wanted!

Don’t work for the food which passes away but for the food that stays on into eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For this is the one on whom God the Father has put his seal.”

But there was a man named Hananyah who, with his wife Shappirah, sold some property

and, with his wife’s knowledge, withheld some of the proceeds for himself; although he did bring the rest to the emissaries.

Then Kefa said, “Why has the Adversary so filled your heart that you lie to the Ruach HaKodesh and keep back some of the money you received for the land?

Before you sold it, the property was yours; and after you sold it, the money was yours to use as you pleased. So what made you decide to do such a thing? You have lied not to human beings but to God!”

On hearing these words, Hananyah fell down dead; and everyone who heard about it was terrified.

The young men got up, wrapped his body in a shroud, carried him out and buried him.

Some three hours later, his wife came in, unaware of what had happened.

Kefa challenged her: “Tell me, is it true that you sold the land for such-and-such a price?” “Yes,” she answered, “that is what we were paid for it.”

But Kefa came back at her, “Then why did you people plot to test the Spirit of the Lord? Listen! The men who buried your husband are at the door. They will carry you out too!”

Instantly she collapsed at his feet and died. The young men entered, found her there dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband.