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Proverbs 13:7 · World English Bible

Proverbs 13:7 Meaning There Are Some Who Pretend to Be

There are some who pretend to be rich, yet have nothing. There are some who pretend to be poor, yet have great wealth.

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What does Proverbs 13:7 mean?

The ego measures worth by what can be held and lost, and a mind piling up such things can be wholly empty while calling itself full. The real wealth is the capacity to love and to see innocence, which cannot be stored or seized, so a mind that has let go of every outward claim may be quietly rich beyond counting.

From the Christian Psychology reading below.

Proverbs 13:7 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY

Christian Psychology

The ego measures worth by what can be held and lost, and a mind piling up such things can be wholly empty while calling itself full. The real wealth is the capacity to love and to see innocence, which cannot be stored or seized, so a mind that has let go of every outward claim may be quietly rich beyond counting. What the world names poverty is often only freedom from what was never the treasure.

Worth was never in the having. A mind is rich exactly to the degree that it loves, and no ledger can show it.

The rich man: the mind that gathers what can be lost and mistakes the pile for its own value. The poor man: the mind emptied of outward claims, holding the one wealth that fear can never take, its power to love.

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Christian Psychology lens

Live Proverbs 13:7 today

  1. Open the app where you shop or scroll and close it again without buying the thing. Then name one thing you already have that you have stopped seeing.
  2. Give something away today with no story attached, your time, a tool, a seat, a real compliment. See whether you feel smaller afterward.
  3. When a conversation turns into quiet comparison, somebody's salary, house, or holiday, let it pass without adding your entry. You are not in that race unless you line up.

If no one could see what I own, what would I actually feel rich in?

The same truth in other traditions

Tao Te Ching 33

The one who knows enough is already rich. Piling up more only moves the line further away.

Stoicism · Seneca

It is not the person with little who is poor, but the person who wants more. Wealth measured by craving is never reached.

Buddhism

Clinging is the weight, not the object. Hands that hold nothing tightly are the ones free enough to give.

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