Proverbs 13:7

The Message

A pretentious, showy life is an empty life; a plain and simple life is a full life.

Cross References

Proverbs 11:24

The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.

Proverbs 12:9

Better to be ordinary and work for a living than act important and starve in the process.

Proverbs 13:11

Easy come, easy go, but steady diligence pays off.

Proverbs 13:8

The rich can be sued for everything they have, but the poor are free of such threats.

Luke 12:20

“Just then God showed up and said, ‘Fool! Tonight you die. And your barnful of goods—who gets it?’

Luke 12:21

“That’s what happens when you fill your barn with Self and not with God.”

Luke 12:33

“Be generous. Give to the poor. Get yourselves a bank that can’t go bankrupt, a bank in heaven far from bankrobbers, safe from embezzlers, a bank you can bank on. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.

2 Corinthians 4:7

If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!

James 2:5

Listen, dear friends. Isn’t it clear by now that God operates quite differently? He chose the world’s down-and-out as the kingdom’s first citizens, with full rights and privileges. This kingdom is promised to anyone who loves God. And here you are abusing these same citizens! Isn’t it the high and mighty who exploit you, who use the courts to rob you blind? Aren’t they the ones who scorn the new name—“Christian”—used in your baptisms?

Revelation 2:9

“I can see your pain and poverty—constant pain, dire poverty—but I also see your wealth. And I hear the lie in the claims of those who pretend to be good Jews, who in fact belong to Satan’s crowd.