Wealth and Salvation

Hello Everyone,

This week our pastor was preaching a sermon on "Flunking Life." Part of the sermon brought up the parable of the young rich man and what he must do to get in to Heaven.


Matthew 19: 16-24
16And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
18He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
19Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
20The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
21Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
22But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
23Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
24And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

In this parable Jesus mentions "the eye of a needle." There are many questions whether he is talking literally or about a gate that had existed in Jerusalem where one had to strip his camel of all that he was carrying and make it prostrate itself to crawl through.

After hearing our pastor talk about this story I had a revelation of us stripping off our possessions and crawling before God.

I had never heard the story of the gate before and had not thought of this parable in this way. We do not have to be rich, in possessions, because through Christ we have eternal life which is far greater than any possessions. You see in fact a rich man can have eternal life, the main question is in what he sees as being rich.
Do you see possessions or do you see serving Christ as your definition of the word rich.


Have a Christ filled week!

Billy