Christians have you sold everything you own as it commands you to do in the bible?

Question

So why do any Christians answer here? If you have a computer and an Internet account, you certainly haven't followed the teachings of your god have you?
Want proof?

Matthew 19:21-24

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. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Here is another;
Matthew 6:24

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money.

So, to any of you Christians that believe the bible is truth why don't you follow the teachings of the bible?

I think some of you Christians are making up excuses!

More excuses!

Do you really need that computer? I doubt it!

Answer 1

Huh, that's true. Wait wait, If I may indulge here for a moment, there seems to be two prevalent responses to this question:

1) "This particular scripture only applied to that one character that Jesus was talking to"-so what applies only to the one character Jesus was talking to? Everything else applies to everyone, except this one?

2) "You don't understand the passage" Okay, so tell us then, what does this passage mean? Help us understand the bible.

Answer 2

The first clue is; "if you want to be PERFECT", which of course is not possible, proving the fact that this was actually somewhat sacastic on his part. Christians have you sold everything you own as it commands you to do in the bible?( as others have said, he was saying this to make a point, that the LOVE of money would be a bad thing, not money itself. Jesus knew full well that some of his followers were rich, and was warning them that it would be HARDER for them because having wealth can lead to temptation to sin. He also obviously didn't mean for all followers to be like the early apostles, traveling preachers. Why do you think there were congregations? And these ones had what was in their day the equivalent of our ability to communicate long distances, ....letters, ....the materials of such would have been considered highly valuable in that time. Writing instruments, paper for sure was a luxury, and of course the education to use them!
Anyway, I just thought I'd jump in the foray just for the heck of it. )
So why do any Christians answer here? If you have a computer and an Internet account, you certainly haven't followed the teachings of your god have you?

By the way, many people don't believe Jesus is God, but rather the SON of God, the father being YAHWEH, or in English, JEHOVAH. See psalms 83:18

Answer 3

If you would read the whole book of Matthew instead of one verse you would no that Jesus is not saying to everyone on earth to go and sell there things in order to enter into the kingdom of Heaven! There is a point behind why Jesus said for him to sell his great possesions in order to get into the kingdom of God, he was testing his faith because if you read further u would no that the man did not want to sell anything but did for Jesus. It was not ment that eveybody that wants to get into Heaven has to be poor and not own a thing that has any value! And as for Matthew 6:24 it's not saying what your taking it to say and then again if you would hear what ur reading and not what you want then you would understand.. It simply means that worldy things mean absoulutly nothing to God and for people that do not worship God because they have money are ignorant because u cannot buy your way into Heaven! Once again he is not saying Go broke and be poor thats foolish!

Answer 4

Matthew 19:21-24 ws said to one person.

Many in my church live in community. They have a common purse, that is, all their money goes into a fund which is used to support the whole house. We do not class our possessions as our own. I share my house with 2 other people and other members of the church are free to use my car. I am project coordinator and work for a company that is part of my church. I earn minimum wage, as does our managing director and every other person in the company. I previously had my own business and earned £35 per hour, about 7 times what I earn now.

Answer 5

No we don't need any of this stuff, but the Bible tells us what we need to do in order to live a better life. I am a christian but I know that I don't follow it word for word every day of my life. When Jesus speaks like this, He speaks figuratively, it does not mean that we are to sell everythign and live on the street panhandling. It means that we are to use our money and the wealth that God has given us for His purpose. We find out what that is through prayer. God's word cannot be deciphered by just plainly reading it, you have to study and think through each passage, because He, like any great author, shows us how to live rather than telling us plainly.

Answer 6

I don't get you, Julia, at all. If we Christians are so "uneducated" ,as you put it in one of your other questions, then why do you insist on wasting so much of your time and energy on us. Wouldn't it be easier to let us wallow in our own stupidity? Wouldn't it. As regards to your question. Im not rich, neither am I poor. Owning a computer isn't a sin. I donate money whenever I can. Do you really think that christians giving away all their belongings would make them any more holy? Nothing is a sin as long as it's not in excess....GREED is the sin God was talking about. This last sentence doesn't make much sense does it? sorry. I meant to say in this case.

Answer 7

Since you can read, try reading in context.
The man was telling Jesus that he has kept all 10 commandments his whole life.
Jesus was showing him that it is impossible by proving to him that he loves his money more than God since he is unwilling to give it up for God.
However Jesus was not saying that this man is banned from Heaven because rich people cant get to heaven.
He was pointing out that this man is a sinner.
The rich man was lying and practicing idolitry on top of several other sins.
So by pointing out his sins through examples, He was showing that this guy needs forgiveness.

Secondly, if anyone gave away ALL their money and clothes and food etc, they would probably die soon after. Also, it is not God's intention that we all be poor as dirt and have nothing but love for Him. We can have money to provide for our children and spouse and a car to get t o work and a house to shelter our family and even spend tons of money on vacations to form loving bonds with each other (if all goes well) So yeah we do need money and no we're not all going to hell for giving our families good lives. All we need to do is remember to keep God first.

Answer 8

I heard a sermon on this a couple weeks ago. Jesus was illustrating what works were required in order to "earn" one's own way into heaven. Perfection is impossible because of sin in our lives. It's our nature. In other words, we can do nothing by ourselves to "make" God allow us into Heaven. It takes something more, and that means you're right, I don't, I can't follow God's standards based on my own abilities. It takes the Holy Spirit within me to turn my life around, and even then I still sin. But I'm grateful for a God that forgives.

Answer 9

It's great how much energy you put into tyring to prove millions of people wrong. You're so stubborn.

In the first passage, Jesus is talking to a rich man who seems eager to join up. Jesus gives him the ultimate challenge - to give up something that defines the rich man. Most true Christians go through this too.

As for your second: you can surely serve God with your money and still keep enough to survive on.

You keep up that hard work. Maybe your anger and angst will fade and some of God's love will get in there. Have a great weekend.

Answer 10

Julia,
People get this wrong all the time. That message was for that guy. Jesus didn't tell that to everyone, or didn't you think?


EDIT: That's not an excuse, it's a lesson that you need to learn. The main gist of the lesson, you are never going to be Christian, but your devil wants you to come here and talk about Christianity like an anti christ would. By John's definition. You carry your curse. It was around before you were born.