If you are paying attention, you will know that I have skipped over verses 13 to 15. I will circle back and cover these in part 3 of 3.
For the moment, we come across another person who asks Jesus, “What is required?” This time:
“Good teacher, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?”
“What good thing shall I do?” Just as in Part 1 of 3, the question is answered by Jesus, “Be perfect!” I know the text does not use those exact words, but that is in essence Jesus’ answer.
Think about the parallel to Part 1 of 3. This fella wants to know what he must do to have eternal life. Jesus’ answer is, “Keep the commandments”. My interpretation of that answer is to “Keep all of the Law”.
Remember how the Pharisees “…poured exorbitant energy into interpreting the Law, often looking for loopholes. If they could define exactly what was inbounds and what was out-of-bounds, they felt they could then live perfectly.”
This fella begins asking Jesus exactly which of the commandments he has to keep, as if there of some that are optional! The search for loopholes continues.
There are no loopholes. It you want to enter eternal life on your own, then be perfect—or receive Jesus.
I want to deal with the strong words about being wealthy. This is a difficult passage. The Bible teaches that money is not inherently bad, rather it is the love of money.
Yet Christians for centuries have been taught that wealth is a bad thing.
Christian businessmen and women have been made to feel that profit is somehow wrong. It is not. (If you want a great book on this, check out Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business, by Dr. Wayne Grudem
If we take just a little closer look at the text, we see that Jesus invites the man to follow him, to sell, to let go of all his things.
Many have interpreted that scene as saying that all of us must sell everything. We are not the only ones who have a reaction. Look at Peter. He is worried that he has not done enough.
And here my friends we need to stick to the text. Jesus says, “If you want to be perfect…”. Perfect! Jesus again is answering the question about “what does the Law require.”
Jesus does note, “…a rich man will enter the kingdom of heaven with difficulty.”
Now before I press on, if you are reading this and want to put yourself in the category of “not rich”, you probably cannot. Because at a global level, you most likely are rich. You can check out the data here if you want.
You and I really must deal with “being rich in material possessions”. You and I must deal with the camel going through the eye of a needle.
There are some traps (and the world “sets these traps” multiple times a day).
► Having money and possessions allows us to feel as if we have some self-sufficiency.
► Having money and possessions allows us to think we are somehow in control of improving our lives even more.
To some degree this may be true, but it is not the highest truth.
The highest truth is that all of what we have comes from God. It is a trap for the believer to somehow believe we are somehow self-sufficient. God provides it all. We are dependent on God for everything; even the air we breathe.
If we can live with this idea of dependence on God, then we will be grateful for all we have, and that gratitude should lead to a multitude of gifts. Gifts like humility and generosity. Gifts like serving others.
Jesus has said elsewhere that to whom much as been given, much is expected.
What are some to the disciplines you practice to keep yourself from falling into the trap of thinking you are self-sufficient?