I have returned to the story of the rich man who asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life a few times, and I’m coming back to it again. I’ve decided to make this story the fourth installment in the “Counting the Cost” series.

Here is the story from Matthew 19:16-22 (ESV):

¹⁶ And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” ¹⁷ And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” ¹⁸ He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, ¹⁹ Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁰ The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” ²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” ²² When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Sell What You Possess

Jesus told the man if he wanted to inherit eternal life he should sell everything he owned and give it to the poor, and then he should follow him. The rich man did not like this answer because he had many possessions so he went away sad, unwilling to give away the temporal for the eternal.

Did Jesus really expect this man to give away everything? Does Jesus expect us to give away everything before we can follow him and become true believers?

Counting the Cost

Jesus was testing the man to see where his heart was. Was the man serious about wanting eternal life? Would the man put earthly treasures ahead of heavenly treasures? Where were this man’s priorities?

He failed Jesus’ test because he was unwilling to part with his earthly possessions. But does this mean Jesus really expects all of us to give away everything we have if we want to follow him? Not necessarily, but our loyalty must be in the right place and this means we must value the eternal over the temporal.

You can live a Godly life, follow Jesus, and have money and possessions. But the questions are: how do you value your possessions? How do you value your money? Are your money and your possessions more important than anything else in your life? Do you find them more valuable than following Jesus?

Those are basically the questions Jesus was looking for the man to answer. The man answered them with his decision to walk away.

There are two other important questions as well: how did you gain your money, and how do you use your money?

Money must be gained through honorable means. If the opportunity comes to obtain wealth by dishonorable means then you must be willing to walk away from the acquisition of wealth and into the arms of Christ.

The love of money is the root of all sorts of evils, and many have wandered away from the faith in their desire to obtain wealth.¹ I think many times people forget the second half of that famous verse. Don’t let the acquisition of money drive you away from Christ.

In addition to gaining money through honorable means, we are also expected to be good stewards of our money, remembering that everything we acquire belongs to God. This is where the question of how you use your money comes in. Do you use any of your money to help advance the Kingdom or to spread the word of God? Do you help others who are in need? Or do you hoard it away? Do you use it simply to acquire earthly treasures?

How you answer these questions determines where your priorities are in life. They are either with the temporal or with the eternal.

Living in the World

Jesus does not expect all of us to give up everything we have and move into a rectory, a convent, or a monastery. Although some are called to do this, most of us are not. The apostles were called to give up everything, and later Paul was as well.

However, God also needs people in the secular world to do his work and to spread the Gospel to people who otherwise would not be in contact with those who have been called to give up all worldly goods. And that’s where most of us come in. We are in the world (but not of the world) and we are called to spread the Gospel to those we come in contact with.

There is more; in addition to doing God’s work to spread the Gospel, we are also called to be generous with our wealth, giving cheerfully² to the less fortunate and helping others. Through these actions our light will shine before others and when they see our actions it will be a glory to God.³

We all have a role to play in God’s plan. For some that means giving up everything and for others it means spreading the Gospel and using what we have to help others while we are here on earth.

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1. See 1 Timothy 6:10 ↩︎
2. See 2 Corinthians 9:7 ↩︎
3. See Matthew 5:16 ↩︎