Jesus Speaks With a Kneeling Man About Richesby Jeff
18:25Luke 18:25
For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Wealth gives no standing for entrance into God's kingdom, and for a rich man to enter on merely human terms is as impossible as a camel passing through a needle's eye. Possessions standing in the way of following Christ can keep a person out. The barrier is not possession itself but the hold riches have upon the heart, binding a person to the world.
That hold works through attachment to wealth and love of the world, and through trusting accumulated wealth instead of God and His promises. Love of riches overpowers judgment, increases fear of future want, and breeds selfishness, covetousness, hoarding and idolizing of money. The heart set on earthly treasure becomes deaf to the needs of others.
Gaining more can deepen that attachment rather than loosen it. Even those professing to give the world its final warning may strive to accumulate wealth in ways that make entrance harder. Wealth hoarded for self becomes a stumbling block that can lead to ruin and loss of heavenly treasure. So it was with a daughter left a large inheritance, whose possessing and idolizing of the money made her selfish and covetous and placed her in danger of losing the kingdom.
Escape from that danger requires a decisive choice of masters, God or Mammon, with no continuing a worldly, self-seeking course and still gaining heaven and its treasure. Understanding the cost of Christ's sacrifice leads to valuing salvation above worldly attractions and to surrendering self and what is possessed to serve God's purpose. The rich man must deny self, cut loose from the world, and take an upright, generous, noble course that proves a reformation wrought in him by the truth. That thorough inward work must be done now in readiness for Jesus' coming, for without it there will be failure of heaven.
Entrance remains especially difficult yet not impossible with God. Even a selfish heart can be changed through the love of Christ. Through the Holy Spirit and faithful human workers acting as God's agents, people whose lives have been devoted to gaining money, including influential people in responsible positions, can be converted to accept divine principles.
Conversion comes when the self-sufficient rich person, seeing Christ's self-denial and self-sacrifice, recognizes spiritual poverty and that he belongs to God. Preferring Christ to self, he grasps eternal life. He then holds possessions as a trust to be used as God directs, employing time, money, talent, and influence to help the poor and suffering, to save the lost, and to help others.
The verse is also linked to the promise that God's oppressed people will raise a united, persistent cry to heaven for deliverance, connected with the remnant's deliverance in the closing scenes of the church's history.
Wealth gives no standing for entrance into God's kingdom, and for a rich man to enter on merely human terms is as impossible as a camel passing through a needle's eye. Possessions standing in the way of following Christ can keep a person out. The barrier is not possession itself but the hold riches have upon the heart, binding a person to the world.
That hold works through attachment to wealth and love of the world, and through trusting accumulated wealth instead of God and His promises. Love of riches overpowers judgment, increases fear of future want, and breeds selfishness, covetousness, hoarding and idolizing of money. The heart set on earthly treasure becomes deaf to the needs of others.
Gaining more can deepen that attachment rather than loosen it. Even those professing to give the world its final warning may strive to accumulate wealth in ways that make entrance harder. Wealth hoarded for self becomes a stumbling block that can lead to ruin and loss of heavenly treasure. So it was with a daughter left a large inheritance, whose possessing and idolizing of the money made her selfish and covetous and placed her in danger of losing the kingdom.
Escape from that danger requires a decisive choice of masters, God or Mammon, with no continuing a worldly, self-seeking course and still gaining heaven and its treasure. Understanding the cost of Christ's sacrifice leads to valuing salvation above worldly attractions and to surrendering self and what is possessed to serve God's purpose. The rich man must deny self, cut loose from the world, and take an upright, generous, noble course that proves a reformation wrought in him by the truth. That thorough inward work must be done now in readiness for Jesus' coming, for without it there will be failure of heaven.
Entrance remains especially difficult yet not impossible with God. Even a selfish heart can be changed through the love of Christ. Through the Holy Spirit and faithful human workers acting as God's agents, people whose lives have been devoted to gaining money, including influential people in responsible positions, can be converted to accept divine principles.
Conversion comes when the self-sufficient rich person, seeing Christ's self-denial and self-sacrifice, recognizes spiritual poverty and that he belongs to God. Preferring Christ to self, he grasps eternal life. He then holds possessions as a trust to be used as God directs, employing time, money, talent, and influence to help the poor and suffering, to save the lost, and to help others.
The verse is also linked to the promise that God's oppressed people will raise a united, persistent cry to heaven for deliverance, connected with the remnant's deliverance in the closing scenes of the church's history.