"As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches. On God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future. That they may take hold of that which is truly life" (1 Timothy 6:17–19, ESV).
After the most famous money warning in the New Testament — "the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils" (6:10) — Paul turns to Timothy with a direct, surgical charge for those who actually have money.
The tone shifts from warning to commission. The wealthy are not asked to liquidate; they are asked to be wealthy differently.
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The Greek vocabulary, line by line
"The rich" is tois plousiois. Those with surplus beyond daily need. Paul does not flinch at the category. The Ephesian church has wealthy members and they are not asked to liquidate.
The definite article ("the rich") signals a specific group within the congregation that needs specific instruction. "In this present age" — en tō nyn aiōni. Places the wealth in eschatological context.
Paul holds two ages in tension throughout his letters: the present age that is passing away (1 Corinthians 7:31) and the age to come which is the believer's true homeland. The wealth is real. Located in the age that is mid-departure.
"Haughty" is hypsēlophroneō. To think highly of oneself, literally "high-minded" (from hypsēlos, "high," and phroneō, "to think"). The verb appears only here in the New Testament, picked deliberately. Wealth's first temptation is not consumption but pride.
The wealthy man begins to interpret his own success as evidence of superior wisdom, morality, or favor. And the slow swelling of self-estimation is what Paul targets first.
The order matters: pride is named before generosity, because un-humbled wealth cannot be generous in the way the verse requires.
"Uncertainty" is adēlotēs. That which is not visible (a-dēlos), not stable, not reliable. Paul does not say riches are evil. He says they are unreliable.
To set one's hope on them is a category error, like trusting a cloud or building a house on tidal mud. The Greek is precise: adēlotēs is the same root that gives English "indeterminate."
The very nature of riches is to be unable to deliver what they promise.
"Richly provides" is parechonti plousiōs — God himself is the abundant provider. The wordplay with plousiois ("the rich") is deliberate and pointed: the rich are urged to recognize that God is richer. The source of every good they hold.
The verb parechō ("to provide, to furnish") in the present tense indicates ongoing supply — God is not a past benefactor but a present one. "Everything to enjoy" — panta plousiōs eis apolausin. Guards the verse from asceticism.
The God who provides intends provision to be enjoyed (the noun apolausis means active enjoyment).
"Generous" is eumetadotos. A compound (eu, "well" + metadidōmi, "to share with") found only here in the New Testament. The literal sense is "ready-to-give-along-with-others." It describes a disposition, not a transaction.
"Ready to share" is koinōnikos — "communal, fellowshipping". From the same root as koinōnia. The two words pair an active willingness with a structural belonging. The wealthy Christian is integrated into the body, not detached from it through wealth.
"Storing up" is apothēsaurizontas. Laying up treasure. Paul deliberately reverses Jesus' warning of Matthew 6:19–20: the right kind of treasure-storing is precisely what generosity accomplishes.
"Foundation" is themelion. Building-language, the same word used of the foundation laid by the apostles in 1 Corinthians 3:11. "Truly life" is tēs ontōs zōēs. Life that is "actually" or "really" life.
The qualifier ontōs implies a contrast with whatever the world calls life. Money offers a simulacrum; generosity opens the door to the real thing.
The Ephesian context
Paul writes to Timothy, his apprentice now leading the Ephesian church.
Ephesus was the fourth-largest city of the Roman empire (population ~250,000), a banking center and free-trade port, the headquarters of the temple of Artemis whose statue-souvenir industry funded enormous private fortunes (Acts 19:23–27). The most cosmopolitan city in the eastern provinces.
Wealthy converts had every reason to slip into pride, hoarding, or syncretism. The earlier verses of chapter 6 warn against the love of money (6:9–10). The later verses charge those who already have it.
Paul's structure is striking. He does not tell the rich to become poor. He tells them to be rich differently. Rich in good works, rich in generosity, rich in shared life. Wealth is not removed. It is redirected. This is a more searching command than divestment would be. Liquidation is a one-time event. Redirection is a lifelong discipline.
The Ephesian backdrop also explains the urgency. False teachers in Ephesus were promoting "godliness as a means of gain" (6:5). A first-century prosperity gospel. Paul's charge to the rich (6:17–19) is the antidote inside the same letter: not extracting gain from godliness. Redirecting wealth into godly works.
Four commands for the wealthy Christian
The passage condenses to four imperatives, each diagnostic:
- Do not be haughty (hypsēlophroneō). Pride is wealth's natural fruit. Counter it by practicing visible humility — eating with the poor, learning from believers without resources, refusing the seat of honor in church gatherings, sitting under the pastoral authority of leaders less wealthy than you. The wealthy Christian who cannot be corrected by a poorer brother has already failed this command.
- Do not set hope on riches (ēlpikenai). Hope is the orientation of the soul toward what one expects to deliver. Money cannot deliver. Run the diagnostic question: what would collapse in me if my net worth fell to zero? If the answer includes identity, security, or meaning, hope has lodged itself in adēlotēs.
- Do good and be rich in good works (plouteō en ergois kalois). Direct the surplus to action — funding faithful pastors, employing the unemployed, building structures of mercy, undergirding missionary work, supporting Christian schools and pregnancy-care centers. Wealth that does not work in love is unfaithful wealth. The phrase "rich in good works" is itself a redefinition of wealth: the metric of a Christian's wealth is not balance-sheet net worth but the volume of good works it has funded.
- Be generous and ready to share (eumetadotos, koinōnikos). Decide in advance how much will be given, structure life so it can be given, and remain integrated into the body so the giving has direction. Generosity that depends on momentary feeling rarely materializes. The Reformer John Calvin commented on this verse that "God has commanded us to share that we may not be cut off from the body of Christ."
The eschatological hinge — verse 19
Verse 19 is the hinge of the passage and one of the most under-preached lines in Paul: by giving in this age, the rich are "storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future. That they may take hold of that which is truly life."
Paul is not promising more material wealth in this life. He is promising eschatological reward, the same treasure Jesus described in Matthew 6:19–20.
Several theological implications follow. First, generosity is the only known mechanism for converting present-age wealth into age-to-come wealth. The dollar that stays in the hand stays in the age that is passing. The dollar that flows into kingdom work crosses the eschatological threshold.
Second, the metaphor of "foundation" implies that the believer's eternal life has substantive content shaped by present generosity — Paul's vision of heaven is not a generic paradise but a kingdom in which present obedience has built something real.
Third, the closing phrase "that which is truly life" implies the life money buys here is, by comparison, not really life at all. Paul is making a quiet but devastating claim: the wealthy man who hoards has the simulacrum and missed the substance.
Jonathan Edwards, in his 1733 sermon The Preciousness of Time, applied this verse with characteristic precision: "The wealth of a Christian is what he has sent ahead." Three centuries later C. S.
Lewis put the same point in the form of an aphorism in Mere Christianity: "If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next."
What this passage does not teach
- It does not require divestment. The wealthy are charged to remain wealthy in a particular way, not to liquidate. The rich young ruler was an extreme case (Mark 10:17–22) addressed to a man whose specific idol was wealth; Paul's charge here addresses the wealthy as a class to be sanctified, not extinguished.
- It does not bless every form of giving. Generosity is paired with good works — directed, productive, kingdom-building. Random giving, self-promoting giving, or giving that funds folly does not fulfill the charge. The wealthy disciple has a duty to give wisely as well as widely.
- It does not promise return on giving. The reward is eschatological, not immediate. Modern prosperity readings invert the passage entirely — promising in this present age what Paul carefully promises only in the age to come.
- It does not endorse asceticism. "Everything to enjoy" (panta… eis apolausin) is in the verse for a reason. The God who provides intends provision to be enjoyed in gratitude. Wealthy Christians who refuse to enjoy God's provision out of false guilt are misreading the verse from the opposite side.
- It does not target only the very rich. By global and historical standards, almost any reader of this article is "rich in this present age." Paul's charge applies to anyone with surplus beyond daily need — which in the modern Western context is almost the entire church.
Application: a four-line balance sheet for the wealthy disciple
Practically, the passage suggests a four-line balance sheet alongside the financial one. Each line names what Paul commands and asks the wealthy disciple to evaluate it as honestly as he evaluates his investments:
- Humility practiced. Where in the past month have I been visibly humbled, corrected by someone less wealthy, or seated below my "station"? If the answer is nowhere, hypsēlophroneō is gaining ground.
- Hope re-anchored. Where does my anxiety go when markets fall? An honest answer reveals where hope is actually lodged.
- Good works funded. What specific kingdom works does my wealth currently fund? Name them. If the list is short, "rich in good works" is not yet true of me.
- Generosity structured. Is my giving on a written, automated, increasing percentage — or does it depend on month-end mood and surplus? Structural generosity passes Paul's test; sentimental generosity rarely does.
A wealthy Christian who can name how each line is being lived is fulfilling 1 Timothy 6:17–19. One who cannot is being warned by it.
For continued study, see our exegesis of 1 Timothy 6:10, our Matthew 6:19-21 study, our walkthrough of Luke 12:15, our 2 Corinthians 9:7 study, our Acts 20:35 walkthrough. Our parable of the talents study. Translate the charge into structure with our Budget Calculator, Net Worth Calculator, Tithe Calculator, or revisit the full stewardship hub.
All Scripture quotations from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted; Greek transliteration follows the SBL standard.