Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;
Ver. 17. That they be not highminded] The devil will easily blow up his blab, if we watch not. Should the ant think herself some great business, because gotten upon her hillock? or the sumpter horse, because laden with treasure? Should the Egyptian ass think himself worshipful for bearing the golden Isis upon his back? And yet so it happens in common experience. Many men's good and their blood rise together; their hearts are lifted up with their estates, as a boat that riseth with the rising of the water. Every grain of riches hath a vermin of pride and ambition in it. Magna cognatio ut rei, sic et nominis, divitiis et vitiis.
In uncertain riches] Riches were never true to any that trusted to them. Vitrea est fortuna: cum splendet, frangitur. Riches, as glass, are bright but brittle. (Mimus.) Some render it the unevidence of riches (αδηλοτης); and indeed they do not evidence God's special love; they are blessings of his left hand, of his footstool, bona scabelli. "Not many rich," &c.
Who giveth us all things richly to enjoy] Thus riches cannot do for us. The covetous enjoy nothing, nor the sick, nor the discontented, nor any else, unless with riches God gives us himself. Our God should therefore be trusted, because he Isaiah 1:1,31. A living God. 2. A giving God. The Athenians made their gods standing with their hands upwards, as if they were more willing to receive than to give. (Archaeol. Attic. xlvi.) But our God openeth his hand, and lets fall his blessing upon everything living, and holds it a more blessed thing "to give than to receive,"Acts 20:35 .