Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
Mark 10:21
Mark 10:21
This verse comes in the middle of the well know story about the rich man who asks Jesus "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" We all know how the story ends. The rich man walked away sad because he was very rich. Jesus then says the famous line "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."
I know this story is talked about a lot, and many people ask the question 'Is it really impossible to go to heaven if you are rich?' As I read this passage yesterday I remembered a teaching from Tom Hemingway (the founder of RMH) that gave me a deeper understanding.
After Tom used to teach the knot tying class he would ask students "What are the characteristics of a good knot?" He would say that a good knot holds when it needs to hold and lets go when it needs to let go. We as Christians need to be like that. God gives us things in life and we need to hold on to them securely. However there are times that God asks for us to give things back to him, and when He asks we need to release them freely.
That's what I thought of when reading the passage about the rich man. Jesus asked him to release back to God the wealth he had been given, and the rich man was unwilling to do that.
Jesus finishes the passage by saying "I tell you the truth... no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age... and in the age to come, eternal life."
I encourage you to hold tightly to what God gives you, but freely give it back when He asks because you know that anything you give to Him will be given back in greater quantity.
I know this story is talked about a lot, and many people ask the question 'Is it really impossible to go to heaven if you are rich?' As I read this passage yesterday I remembered a teaching from Tom Hemingway (the founder of RMH) that gave me a deeper understanding.
After Tom used to teach the knot tying class he would ask students "What are the characteristics of a good knot?" He would say that a good knot holds when it needs to hold and lets go when it needs to let go. We as Christians need to be like that. God gives us things in life and we need to hold on to them securely. However there are times that God asks for us to give things back to him, and when He asks we need to release them freely.
That's what I thought of when reading the passage about the rich man. Jesus asked him to release back to God the wealth he had been given, and the rich man was unwilling to do that.
Jesus finishes the passage by saying "I tell you the truth... no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age... and in the age to come, eternal life."
I encourage you to hold tightly to what God gives you, but freely give it back when He asks because you know that anything you give to Him will be given back in greater quantity.
