These are very hard teachings of Jesus, especially for materialistic people like us, and have been ignored by most churches.
Wow, so you are saying we get to "pick and choose" what we feel that Jesus would want us to do? Im not going off the deep end like that other guy in the forum, "alasdair" I think his name is?? Do you think Jesus was being a little to tough on us? We have people out there buying their children "brand new" vehicles to drive to school, of all places. Yet there are still kids going to the same school with no lunch money? Kids that have no new clothes to start the year off with? Maybe in this day and age, it would be very tough to literally sell everything you own, but I would have to believe anyone who has large amounts of money saved up as if to say their "storage barns are overflowing" should definately reexamine themselves if they proclaim to be a Christian. What are you "clinging" to this life for? Saving that money for retirement? I guess your sure you will make it? I guess you disreguard what Luke 12:20 says in reference to this very issue:
20But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?
Im sorry, I guess I get a little frustrated when you say "These are very hard teachings of Jesus" especially if you are saying its to much of a sacrifice to give up living above the means of what it takes to survive and giving away any excess you have to help those in need in the name of the Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Did he have the same attitude when it was a very hard to meet the requirement of God's law in order to save us from our sins? God forbid! I realize there were many of his teachings that would not be meant to be taken totally literally, such as plucking out your eyes, cutting off your hands, etc.. But in the case of a rich man getting into heaven, I believe it is very literal. Not totally to a point of giving up everything that you own, but not living in so much excess of what would be considered more than you need to survive. For instance, if you had tens of thousands of dollars saved in the bank or in investments, and you were blessed to make really good money each year on top of that with a nice home, etc. etc. Think of what you could be doing with all that excess money. To cling to it is the total and utter definition of not having faith. Theres nothing wrong with having some money stored up in case of emergency or disaster, but there are many so called "christians" out there living well beyond this scenerio. I apologize again, I just get very frustrated when people say these days that we dont need to listen to what Jesus says because it makes us uncomfortable or may require to much of us. That is the very problem with the Church in this day and age. To many people are to worried about telling people things they dont want to hear. If that were the case, we would have to omit many things Jesus said in the NT. Anyways, may the grace, mercy, peace and blessings of the Lord be with you all who truly cherrish and love his Word.
