³³ Sell your possessions and give to the poor.^(A) Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven^(B) that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.^{(C) 34} For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.^(D)

Giving to the Needy

6 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.^(A) If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

² “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.^(B)

13 If I speak in the tongues^[a](A) of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy^(B) and can fathom all mysteries^(C) and all knowledge,^(D) and if I have a faith^(E) that can move mountains,^(F) but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor^(G) and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,^[b](H) but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient,^(I) love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.^{(J) 5} It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,^(K) it is not easily angered,^(L) it keeps no record of wrongs.^{(M) 6} Love does not delight in evil^(N) but rejoices with the truth.^{(O) 7} It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.^(P)

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,^(Q) they will cease; where there are tongues,^(R) they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part^(S) and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes,^(T) what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood^(U) behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;^(V) then we shall see face to face.^(W) Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.^(X)

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.^(Y) But the greatest of these is love.^(Z)

⁷ But since you excel in everything^(A)—in faith, in speech, in knowledge,^(B) in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you^[a]—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

⁸ I am not commanding you,^(C) but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. ⁹ For you know the grace^(D) of our Lord Jesus Christ,^(E) that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,^(F) so that you through his poverty might become rich.^(G)

¹⁰ And here is my judgment^(H) about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so.^{(I) 11} Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness^(J) to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. ¹² For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has,^(K) not according to what one does not have.

¹³ Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. ¹⁴ At the present time your plenty will supply what they need,^(L) so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, ¹⁵ as it is written: “The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little.”^[b](M)