The Perils of Wealth
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January 2, 2008, 5:06 am
Filed under: Teachings
Filed under: Teachings
A young man said to me: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
I responded: “Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
He responded: “Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
With love in my heart, I said: “One thing you lack; go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Sadly, he departed from me. How hard it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
7 Comments so far
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This sort of hippy rhetoric is in direct contradiction to the Bible. The Gospel is free, not by works. You’re presenting a works-based salvation here!
Comment by Ben Johansson January 9, 2008 @ 5:24 amI echo Ben’s comments. Furthermore, you seem to be indulging in class-warfare rhetoric. This is just a slippery slope to Marxist ideology. The left has been pushing this for decades, and we know where that led.
Comment by Garold Rhemer January 9, 2008 @ 5:25 amWell said again! This young man obviously had some serious issues with money. We’ve talked about this before in our church and even Sunday School. What this man was dealing with was that he loved his money more then he loved God. If he had been willing to give up his money, Jesus never would have had to ask him to do it!
Comment by SusanB January 9, 2008 @ 9:00 amThat’s what we teach people, it’s not like Jesus is commanding everyone to give up their money, he’s just making the point that you have to be ‘willing’ to give it up.
What is your point? Why are you throwing the law at him if following the law wasn’t good enough for the man? When he met your requirements, you added more. What happened to grace and mercy? Are you trying to drive people away? If you keep talking like this, you’re going to get yourself killed.
Comment by Thomas Stern January 9, 2008 @ 3:18 pmHow right you are! Jesus did talk like that and he did get killed! The point is that the man put money before God. First, Jesus asked him if he kept the Commandments to which the man responded yes. That was the big thing to Jews in those days–Old Testament law. But we know that no one is perfect and no one can keep the Commandments. Next Jesus told the man to give up what he had to follow him. To truely follow Jesus requires sacrifices sometimes. It might even require you to give up whatever you hold dear–possessions or maybe even family. That’s the extreme of course.
Comment by Josh Z January 14, 2008 @ 10:10 pmIt seems like JC is getting attacked by the Pharisees yet again. “If you keep talking like this, you’re going to get yourself killed.” I guess not much has changed in 2000 years. Do you people realize that this is Scripture? This ‘hippy rhetoric’ is the inspired Word of God! Thanks JC for preaching the truth. May we actually try to learn from your words.
Comment by Ben Wulpi January 14, 2008 @ 11:17 pmAmen to this post
Comment by jason77 January 17, 2008 @ 7:51 pm