for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
You will leave this world just as you entered it. Paul builds an argument on that one fact. Why does so plain a truth need an apostle to say it? And what changes in the person who believes it?
A fact that needs no revelation
Every reader already agrees with this verse. That is the strange part, as one writer points out. The problem is not knowing the fact but living against it.
Manuel SeibelEveryone knows that this often-quoted statement of the Apostle Paul to Timothy is a fact of life: "we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world." No special revelation is needed to grasp it. When we are born, we bring no possessions of any kind with us. We come to this earth naked. The same goes for the end of life here: no one can take a single penny with him or her for what lies beyond. Even so, we often live and act as if our possessions had been ours for hundreds of years. We act as if our life, our success and our happiness depended on our wealth. How short-sighted we often are!
Seen by all, acted on by few
The verse points at the two ends of a life. William Kelly asks who lives by what everyone can see:
William KellyHe shows this and drives it home with the plain facts of how a person's life begins and ends here below. All can see those facts, but only people of faith act on them. Paul puts it so briefly and bluntly that we need not wonder if words added to explain him later crept into many manuscripts. The oldest authorities turn our entrance into the world with nothing into a solemn reminder that it will be the same at the close. So the two-fold truth bears on the believer all the way through his course. Compare Job 1:21, a saying voiced long ago, and as simple as it is sure. But only piety joined with "contentment" makes its weight felt and shapes a walk that matches the truth.
Job with empty hands
Job, in the Old Testament, lost his property at a stroke. What he said next shows what this truth looks like when a person stands on it.
Samuel RidoutNot a murmur escapes his lips at the loss of his property… He admits that nothing was his by right. He had come into the world naked, and would leave it as he came. But he turns from the stroke to the Hand that gave it. He looks past all second causes, whether human or miraculous, and lays his sorrow at the Lord's feet. "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."
Tenants, not owners
If nothing comes in with us and nothing goes out, what are we while we hold things? One writer answers:
C E StuartThe things we have to deal with now are not our own things at all. They belong to another, even God. Our own things are on high, not here. Of possessions in this world, however valuable, however extensive, we are but life-renters. They are not our own. This casts a new light on all that people by nature seek to gain down here. And the future possession, which we so easily treat as vague and unreal, turns out to be solid and substantial.
What chasing more costs
The cost is not only foolishness at the end. There is a loss now, in what a Christian could be enjoying today.
An Outline of Sound WordsEven true Christians may be hindered from laying hold on eternal life by the desire for present things. The pursuit of present possessions is very effective at preventing the enjoyment of the life that we have in Christ. That is why the apostle says, "we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world." This being so, is it not foolish for a Christian to pile up wealth in this world?
The standard Paul sets
The fact sets a measure for daily life, and the measure is modest.
F. B. HoleWe entered the world with nothing; we go out with nothing. God may indeed give us much to enjoy. Even so, we should be content with just the necessaries of life — food and clothing. This sets a high standard before us, and few of us come up to it, though the Apostle himself did.
Summary
- Empty in. You arrived owning nothing. The verse starts where every human life starts, so no reader can claim it does not apply to them.
- Empty out. The way you came is the way you go. That double fact is meant to press on you the whole way through.
- On loan. Between those two moments you are a life-renter, not an owner. What you handle belongs to God; your own things are on high.
- Enough. The measure is food and clothing — a high standard few reach, and one Paul himself lived.
- Empty hands, full heart. Job lost his property and blessed the Lord's name. All can see this truth; only faith acts on it.