THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO LUKE - Chapter 12 - Verse 33

Verse 33. Sell that ye have. Sell your property. Exchange it for that which you can use in distributing charity. This was the condition of their being disciples. Their property they gave up; they forsook it, or they put it into common stock, for the sake of giving alms to the poor, Ac 2:44; 4:32; Joh 12:6; Ac 5:2.

Bags which wax not old. The word bags, here, means purses, or the bags attached to their girdles, in which they carried their money. See Barnes "Mt 5:38".

By bags which wax not old Jesus means that we should lay up treasure in heaven; that our aim should be to be prepared to enter there, where all our wants will be for ever provided for. Purses, here, grow old and useless. Wealth takes to itself wings. Riches are easily scattered, or we must soon leave them; but that wealth which is in heaven abides for ever. It never is corrupted; never flies away; never is to be left.

Wax. This word is from an old Saxon word, and in the Bible means to grow.

{d} "Sell" Mt 19:21; Ac 2:45; 4:34

{e} "treasure" Mt 6:20; 1 Ti 6:19