Blessed is the rich man that is found without blemish: and that hath not gone after gold, nor put his trust in money nor in treasures.9 Who is he, and we will praise him? for he hath done wonderful things in his life.10 Who hath been tried thereby, and made perfect, he shall have glory everlasting. He that could have transgressed, and hath not transgressed: and could do evil things, and hath not done them:11 Therefore are his goods established in the Lord, and all the church of the saints shall declare his alms.
How can one approve those who seem to dominate in this world, if they do less than they can? The Scripture praises precisely the one "who could have sinned but did not, who did not run after gold." Gold must follow you, and not you gold. In fact, gold is a good thing—certainly God created nothing evil. Don't you be evil, then, and the gold good. See here, I place some gold between an upright person and a dishonest one. If the dishonest person takes it, the poor are oppressed, magistrates corrupted, laws broken, social life upset. Why? Because a dishonest person took the gold. If the upright person were to have it, the poor would be sustained, the naked clothed, the oppressed liberated, prisoners redeemed. How much good is derived from the gold the honest person has, and how many evils from the gold of the dishonest person! To what end, therefore, do you say in disgust, "And what if gold did not exist at all?" You should not love gold. If you are dishonest, you will follow gold. If you are upright, it will follow you. What does "it will follow you" mean? That you will rule it and not be made its servant, because you will possess it, rather than being possessed by it.
Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands.†36 And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately.37 Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you, that he will gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and passing will minister unto them.38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.39 But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open.†40 Be you then also ready: for at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)