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GeorgeSword
Guest
Numerous times Jesus tells His followers to sell all of their possessions if they are to follow Him. It seems like He is commanding everyone to be wandering monks. Why is this not applicable to us, today?
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Don9of11
Guest
I think the message Jesus was conveying is that material possession don’t make you closer to God, not that you should sell everything you have. But if you place all your faith and trust in those possession then yes sell them all. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul.” The message applies to us even today. Many people put so much faith and trust into their possessions, money for example, that they forget about God.
Yet we can’t pay the rent if we don’t have money or pay our taxes, buy food or clothing or health care. We need money to live on. So having money, a home, a car to get back and forth to work, church or the doctors are necessary possession. Jesus doesn’t mean that we should sell all these things but not to let them consume us or will lose everything. “Give to Caesars what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.”
St. Paul tempers this message when he teaches us that it is OK to help those in need but if we give everything that we have to this end and we find ourselves in need of the very same kind of help we are trying to provide then we haven’t accomplished anything.
Hope this helps.
Yet we can’t pay the rent if we don’t have money or pay our taxes, buy food or clothing or health care. We need money to live on. So having money, a home, a car to get back and forth to work, church or the doctors are necessary possession. Jesus doesn’t mean that we should sell all these things but not to let them consume us or will lose everything. “Give to Caesars what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.”
St. Paul tempers this message when he teaches us that it is OK to help those in need but if we give everything that we have to this end and we find ourselves in need of the very same kind of help we are trying to provide then we haven’t accomplished anything.
Hope this helps.
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Crumpy
Guest
Many more educated and learned could answer this better, but here goes.
Help me, because I don’t think Jesus said this “many times.” Help me, if I’m wrong here.
Jesus was teaching about the kingdom. Certainly to the young man, maybe Jesus meant that he should actually do that. But, to us, is this not a lesson in how we should properly assess and value the “world” and our possessions?
There are things in the gospel that are considered commendable, but not absolutely obligatory. There’s a precise term for that, which I can’t recall. (maybe, “evangelical virtues”?)
Then or now, nobody could just live their lives responsibly e.g. raising a family, if they were constantly giving everything away. In at least one interpretation, gnosticism considered all physical reality to be evil. This contradicts scripture, that all the God created was good. very good.
I don’t think that any Christian group has ever believed this in its most literal form, or completely lived a life in common.
Help me, because I don’t think Jesus said this “many times.” Help me, if I’m wrong here.
Jesus was teaching about the kingdom. Certainly to the young man, maybe Jesus meant that he should actually do that. But, to us, is this not a lesson in how we should properly assess and value the “world” and our possessions?
There are things in the gospel that are considered commendable, but not absolutely obligatory. There’s a precise term for that, which I can’t recall. (maybe, “evangelical virtues”?)
Then or now, nobody could just live their lives responsibly e.g. raising a family, if they were constantly giving everything away. In at least one interpretation, gnosticism considered all physical reality to be evil. This contradicts scripture, that all the God created was good. very good.
I don’t think that any Christian group has ever believed this in its most literal form, or completely lived a life in common.
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ahollars
Guest
“Sell all you have”. So then, somebody has to buy it for that to happen. Even if you give everything away out of the kindness of your heart, who will you give it to? Jesus does not ask us to simply abandon everything and destroy our excesses. What He really wants is for us to put is to use according to His priorities before our own. Wealth and possessions can be Holy when they are owned and maintained by a humble person who remembers what they are for. Why give away something permanently when you can share something indefinitely?
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