Is wealth a good goal in life? Lord Jesus told someone to go sell or cash in all their wealth and give it to the poor so they would have treasure in Heaven before following Him. If we treasure Him surely we will respect the way of life He taught. Jesus teaches that the deceitfulness of wealth can weigh our hearts down so we do not bear fruit and get cast aside. This is seen in the parable of the sower but Jesus also mentioned it at other times. Jesus did say many things like this with a little variety each time so we should niot focus on the letter of His words but on the spirit of them and the understanding they give. The letter kills but the spirit gives life. So we should note as we attempt any exegesis that there is a danger of killing the power of life in the sayings by focussing on meanings of words and losing their power to inspire faith. The truth behind the words should be learned and then obeyed and lived by. The truth here in the testimony is that wealth and desire for wealth maginfies greed and envy and these blind the 'light of the soul' which Jesus said is the eye. 'If your eye is good then your whole soul/body will be full of light'. The brother of Jesus, James brought more to this topic in his epistle by reminding that wealthy people often get that wealth by not fully enough recompensing their workers so they lose concern for the rights of the poor. Jesus taught it, hence James writing of it (the Holy Spirit bearing witness in the words of James) - wealth and desire for wealth gives a conflict of interest with righteousness that as Jesus put it blnds or corrupts the eye so it prevents the soul receiving good light. In the story of Lazarus and the rich man Jesus testified importantly that the result of this can have implcations beyond this life - dire ones. 'What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world but lose his soul and what can he give in exchange for his soul'. So Jesus did the rich young ruler a great act of guidance by stearing him - attempting to - away from this wealth trap into a path of blessing and life. The wealth of the man steered him away from this path of life into the trap of darkness. His heart was overcome. Here are further examples of Jesus' sayings from what is recorded in scripture on this topic. 'He who wants to keep his life will lose it but he who loses his life for My sake will keep it to eternal life' Jesus was not just meaning life of body but life of lifestyle and means too - from the contexts in which He said it. We might hold too tightly to things we have and luxury pleasures we 'hold dear' but losing them deliberately is how to gain life in Jesus. 'Whoever loves his life more than me is not worthy of me' is the kind of thing we know He said often in various ways. Loving things too much makes way for trying to find a way to avoid obedience to His teachings. It is tough. Victory needs to continue throughout life too - each time we let things now matter too much. Treasure comes as well from persecution and rich believers persecute us if we tell it as it is so here too we can get blessed with treasure in Heaven that reduces tte allure of here-and-now wealth. It is far more important to give to the poor, He said, than the common practices of washing-up dishes and washing hands - 'first give what is inside to the poor then what is outside will be clean'. Justice for the poor should be more our concern than whether we are ceremonially clean or whether we tithe and give enough to religious purposes. Giving if wealth in genuine care of the poor Jesus puts above giving tithes and staying religiously outwardly clean and ritually corect. Perhaps it even applies to hygiene and washing dishes. So there are indeed commands here to be obeyed. There is the word of truth from the Father behind these sayings of Jesus to be obeyed. A key word is 'first'. 'First give what is inside to the poor', 'you should first practice justice for the poor and love for the poor then do not neglect tithing to God' and 'first sell all you have and give to the poor then come follow me'. It gets wealth out of the way where it can contaminate the heart with love of it. 'Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourself so when it is gone you will have friends to welcome you into Heavenly homes' - I guess we can take it with us to some extent if we do this with it. Or store up treasure in Heaven by giving to the poor and letting wealth be snatched by evildoers knowing we have such treasure instead. 'Do not work for food that spoils but for food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man gives' Jesus' counsels in Revelation 'buy from Me gold refined in the fire' and I think it amounts to letting go of debts and opportunities to be rich and the profits of dubious means and let Him in turn provide opportunities to do as the Good Samaritan did and provide the attitude of heart and freedom from fear, greed and selfishness to do such things when the opportunity comes. I mean letting go of debt collecting, releasing people who owe you and haven't or won't pay. Of course scripture says we are to pay others what we owe them, not leaving it outstanding. Wealth gotten by not paying our debts when we could pay is illgotten gain. If you are journeying to Heaven then send your cases on ahead before you travel rather than trying to take them onboard and risking losing them on the journey. You might be too worried not to be wealthy in that you might not have enough to protect yourself from evil actions or troubles by legal means or insurance or surplus, well going the way Jesus teaches of faith in God instead and kindness to all especially believers will be about prayer to God for justice instead of taking legal action and so you can 'put your hope in God instead of uncertain wealth'. God meters out justice far better than expensive lawyers when we ask Him in faith - and faith is given more richly to us when we are poor. God (Jesus taught) said to the man whose salary increased so he invested all the increase in property "you foolish man, this very day your soul will be required of you so where will your riches go now" and Jesus said 'this is how it will be to anyone who stores up riches for themselves but is not rich towards God'. Against this backdrop we have even more pertinent the words of Jesus to a very successful person who was obeying the ten commandment "if you want to be perfect, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven, then come follow Me". Later to believers in Him Jesus said "if you hold to My teachings you are really my disciples, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free". Selling excess wealth and giving to poor can besides providing day to day needs of the needy perhaps even now and then make someone's day with a big gift. Yet do it secretly lest you lose your treasure in Heaven. 'Don't even let your left hand know what your right hand is doing'. 'in everything do unto others as you would have others do unto you' if you were poor wouldn't you long for someone to make your day just once in a while. Your wealth can do that if you obey God in Christ with it. When Jesus the Christ taught all this it was God speaking through His Only Begotten Son. Each of us could set out hearts on possessing wealth and items of beauty or we can give to the poor what we have and set our minds and hearts on treasures in Heaven. Righteousness is about the latter. While looking at crystal pieces of ornamental fashion and how exquisite some works of craftsmen are today, it makes me remember the crystals of the throne of God and the walls of the antechamber of God's throne chamber and with the tremendous light and heat coming from God Himself it must all be such an exquisite marvel. From such a home God and His Son reach out over and over down ages with astounding grace in truthfulness of their revelations to us mortals and before them our humble prayers are made to ascend to their attention as they oversee the government and development of all things. Set you minds on things above and not on earthly things. Do not try to acquire mortal man's creations of treasure but let go and think of what treasures there are at the right hand of God where Christ is now. So Jesus said "if you aren't faithful with worldly wealth who will trust you with heavenly wealth".
