¹⁵ Then He said to them, “^(A)Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” ¹⁶ And He told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man was very productive. ¹⁷ And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸ Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, “Soul, ^(B)you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘^(C)You fool! This very night ^[a](D)your soul is required of you; and ^(E)now who will own what you have prepared?’ ²¹ So is the man who ^(F)stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

^6 (A)But godliness actually is a means of ^(B)great gain when accompanied by ^(C)contentment. ⁷ For ^(D)we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. ⁸ If we ^(E)have food and covering, with these we shall be content. ^9 (F)But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and ^(G)a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For ^(H)the love of money is a root of all ^[a]sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have ^(I)wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.