Jesus and the rich young man. Pt. 3

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."

This verse is one of the more misused passages in the Bible. The general interpretation is that Christians need to sell their possessions and give the money to the poor. Some have told me that I shouldn't even buy a car, but instead use a bike and give the excess to missions. My question to them is, how far do we go? Why get a bike when you could walk? Why rent an apartment when you could live in a cave? The line of reasoning behind this "poverty" doctrine is absurd!

Let's look at the verse's context: Jesus had just asked him if he had kept all the commandments. The man replied that he had and asked what else there would be between him and eternal life. We came to find in Pt. 1 that the commandment he was missing was the first: no other gods before the True God.

This is what's important! Our money cannot be our god, just as anything else in our life can't be our god. But with our entire world revolving around riches, money tends to play a big part in our life. When we get a paycheck, we're happy. When we have to pay a fine, we're depressed. It consumes us and it shouldn't.

God gives and God takes away and ultimately- though we think its only 10%- all of our money is provided by God and is therefore His. With this in mind, our focus should not be on our money but on the things that God wants us to do.

If you have a nice car, then praise God for it. If it gets in a wreck then praise God again! He has a better plan and "things" mean nothing.

So in conclusion, being wealthy is not a bad thing, just as long as understand that our true treasures belong in heaven.