“Jesus answered, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.” Matthew 19:21-22
Did you catch it? Being humane and civil, abstaining from bad behavior toward other people isn’t God’s definition of goodness–it’s the limited human standard. Perfection–completion, wholeness–however, means that we lay this life aside, that we hold onto nothing physical or temporal, and instead lay up treasure in heaven [Matthew 5:48 & 6:19-21; Luke 12:33; Acts 2:45 & 4:34-35].
That is, if we want to enter the narrow gate of eternal life then we must seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness–His definition of infinite goodness–in and with our whole physical life. This is an embodiment of the first four of the ten commandments [Exodus 20:1-11]. It is the greatest commandment, loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength [Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Matthew 22:36-38; Mark 12:28-30].
Many confuse Jesus’ words here with asceticism. Give everything away. Be an extremist. Have nothing. Beat yourself into submission.
But Jesus isn’t talking about severe self-discipline at all. In fact, just the opposite. He is saying that no amount of self-discipline can ever get us into heaven. But only reconciliation–the submission born of a loving reverence for the One true God.
The command to sell everything was, for the rich young man, a test of the heart. Not a test for Jesus to see if the man was sincere. Jesus already knew his heart. It was a heart check for the man to see whether or not he truly meant to offer his whole life to Christ with no other gods before him.
But the man was rich and he was young. He’d become the envy of many in a short amount of life and probably had every intention of living a very benevolent life. If he knew he could buy his way into heaven, how easy it would have been to do humanitarian and charitable works without ever submitting his heart to God. And he wanted Jesus to tell him that this would be enough.
Instead, Jesus broke the news to him, No amount of charity and good will toward men will remove the money-god in your life. You have to do that. Don’t trust in your money to do right by others. Trust in God to do right by you and all the others with or without your money. Get rid of that faith obstacle in your life and let God work through you in ways you could never imagine and ways that your money could never supply.
Benevolence doesn’t make us good. Not only that, but when we come to Jesus, we each have a faith obstacle–another god in our life that we must lay down to follow Christ.
If you have already accepted salvation, think back. What did Jesus ask you to lay down to follow Him? If you are struggling with your faith–either to accept it or to grow in it–prayerfully consider, what is God asking you to lay down? What non-god stands between you and the One True God?
KCS
Generation Heroes 