Clement of Alexandria · a new plain-English translation from the original language
But the man who carries his riches in his soul, and instead of the Spirit of God carries gold or a field in his heart, and is forever making his possession boundless, and looking each time for more, bowed down toward the earth and shackled by the snares of the world -- being earth, and destined to depart into earth -- how can he desire the kingdom of heaven, or give it any thought? A man who carries not a heart but a field or a mine will of necessity be found among those very things he chose. "For where the mind of man is, there also is his treasure."
Now the Lord knows treasures of two kinds: the one good, for "the good man brings forth good out of the good treasure of his heart"; the other evil, for "the evil man brings forth evil out of the evil treasure, because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." Just as, then, treasure is not a single thing among men, in his usage any more than in ours -- the sort that grants a great sudden gain upon being found, but also a second kind, profitless and unenviable and hard to acquire and even harmful -- so too wealth is in one case of good things, in another of evil things, since we know that wealth and treasure are not, by their nature, separate from one another. And one sort of wealth would be worth acquiring and worth wrapping oneself in, while the other is not worth acquiring and ought to be thrown away; and in the same way poverty too -- the spiritual kind -- is to be called blessed. That is why Matthew added: "Blessed are the poor" -- how? -- "in spirit." And again: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God." So then wretched are those of the opposite poverty, who have no share in God, and still less share in human possessions, and have no taste of the righteousness of God.
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