Sell that ye have. — In its generalised form the precept is peculiar to St. Luke, but it has its parallel in the command given to the young ruler. (See Note on Matthew 19:21.) It was clearly one of the precepts which his own characteristic tendencies led him to record (see Introduction), and which found its fulfilment in the overflowing love that showed itself in the first days of the Church of the Apostles (Acts 2:45). Subsequent experience may have modified the duty of literal obedience, but the principle implied in it, that it is wise to sit loose to earthly possessions, possessing them as though we possessed not (1 Corinthians 7:30), is one which has not lost its force.
Provide yourselves bags... — The Greek word for bags (elsewhere “purse,” Luke 22:35), may be noticed as peculiar to St. Luke. Of the three words used in the New Testament for “purse” or “bag” it was the most classical.
Where no thief approacheth. — See Note on Matthew 6:20. The form is in some respects briefer here, but “the treasure that faileth not” is a touch peculiar to St. Luke. The adjective which he uses is a rare one, and not found elsewhere in the New Testament; but one from the same root, in Wis. 7:14; Wis. 8:18, describes wisdom as “a treasure that never faileth.”