As well as power and a misplaced sense of self-importance, one of the greatest obstacles to entering the kingdom is money.
A rich young (or ruler as he is called elsewhere) came to Jesus. He called Jesus a "good teacher" and asked what he had to do to inherit eternal life. He recognised there was something special about Jesus. He maybe also recognised that despite his wealth he was still lacking something. Or maybe he was just looking for assurance. Or maybe he was flattering Jesus, being proud because of his wealth and seeing what Jesus had to say.
As usual Jesus responds with His own question. First He asks why the man calls Him good. Only God is truly good. Then He effectively asks why the man is asking the question, for the man knows the commandments.
And the man confirms that he has kept all these. Jesus does not question this, but then tells him to sell all he has and give it to the poor. Now as an aside, this does not mean that all of us have to sell absolutely everything and give it to the poor. We need to take Scripture as a whole when drawing general rather than specific applications. The general application is that we are all to be generous and not hold on to money.
The man was distraught and went away. Those who preach a greed gospel would do well to consider this incident. And all of us need to look at ourselves. Jesus demands our all. Our wealth, our talents, everything we have belongs to Him.
Jesus then declared how hard it was for the rich to enter the kingdom. This shocked the disciples, for wealth was seen as a sign of God's blessing.
Jesus then makes matters even worse by making it seem virtually impossible to enter the kingdom. And so it is if we rely on our own merits. All of us need to come to Christ, depending only on Him.
Peter then speaks for all the disciples in pointing out that they had left everything. Jesus replies that they will certainly not lose out.
So we see here the tension and balance between prosperity and denial. The so-called prosperity gospel is unbiblical rubbish, but so is a poverty gospel! The wisest and most sensible thing I can ever do is give everything to Christ, and this is the thing that will benefit my life most. As Jesus said, if we lose our lives for His sake we will truly find them. We will even benefit in this life, but there may also be times in this life when the cost is enormous.
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