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Sell that ye have - Dispose of your goods. Be not like the foolish man already mentioned, who laid up the produce of his fields, without permitting the poor to partake of God's bounty: turn the fruits of your fields (which are beyond what you need for your own support) into money, and give it in alms; and the treasure thus laid out, shall be as laid up for yourselves and families in heaven. This purse shall not grow old, and this treasure shill not decay. Ye shall by and by find both the place where you laid up the treasure, and the treasure itself in the place; for he who hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and he may rest assured, that whatever, for Christ's sake, he thus lays out, it will be paid him again.

Sell that ye have - Sell your property. Exchange it for that which you can use in distributing charity. This was the condition of their being disciples. Their property they gave up; they forsook it, or they put it into common stock, for the sake of giving alms to the poor, Acts 2:44; Acts 4:32; John 12:6; Acts 5:2.

Bags which wax not old - The word “bags,” here, means “purses,” or the bags attached to their girdles, in which they carried their money. See the notes at Matthew 5:38. By bags which wax not old Jesus means that we should lay up treasure in heaven; that our aim should be to be prepared to enter there, where all our wants will be forever provided for. Purses, here, grow old and useless. Wealth takes to itself wings. Riches are easily scattered, or we must soon leave them; but that wealth which is in heaven abides forever. It never is corrupted; never flies away; never is to be left.

Wax - This word is from an old Saxon word, and in the Bible means to “grow.”

This chapter is based on Luke 10:25-37.

In the story of the good Samaritan, Christ illustrates the nature of true religion. He shows that it consists not in systems, creeds, or rites, but in the performance of loving deeds, in bringing the greatest good to others, in genuine goodness. DA 497.1

The Lord is coming. You have no time to lose. You are not to do as did the inhabitants of the antediluvian world—plant and build, eat and drink, marry and give in marriage, the same as the careless worldling. Let the books of heaven present a different record from that which now appears. Make haste to redeem the time; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not.—The Signs of the Times, January 14, 1886. RC 269.7

In the parable we are shown that every one has received something from the Master. Each is to do his part in supplying the needs that occur in advancing the truth. Property is a talent. The Lord sends His message: “Sell that ye have, and give alms.” All that we have is the Lord's, without any question. “The silver is Mine and the gold is Mine,” saith the Lord of hosts. Why should we not, when pressed financially, present our great need to whose whom God has signified hold His money in trust, to be used in advancing the work of saving souls ready to perish? We do not want you to sow sparingly, because then you will reap sparingly. We want you, my brother, to lay up treasure in heaven. They that sow bountifully shall reap also bountifully. The reaping will be proportionate to the sowing. Read the ninth chapter of Second Corinthians. RY 97.2

Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. Luke 12:33. TDG 130.1