Luke 12:15 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Take heed, and beware of covetousness:— See to it, and be upon your guard against covetousness. The original is very lively, and the full force of it not easy to be expressed. Some old versions, and very good copies, read, all covetousness. It is not said which of these brothers was in the wrong; only because the disposition which they discovered, afforded a fit opportunity for religious advice, our Lord embraced it, and cautioned his hearers in the most solemn manner against covetousness: declaring, that neither the length nor the happiness of man's life depends upon the greatness of his possessions. Human life is sustained by little; and therefore abundance is not necessary, either to the support or comfort of it. It is not a great estate and vast possessions which make a man happy in this world; but a mind that is equal to its condition, whatever it may be. Archbishop Tillotson observes upon this verse, that "it contains a peculiar kind of caution, no where else, nor upon any other occasion, that I know of," says he, "used in scripture; in which, for the greater emphasis and weight, the words of caution are doubled, as if the matter were of so much concernment, that no caution about it could be too much: to signify to us, both the great danger of this sin of covetousness, and the great care men ought to use to preserve themselves from it." See his Sermons, vol. 6 p. 69.