Did Jesus Really Say You Won't Get Into Heaven If You're Rich?

On the matter of Jesus and money, there are three types of people in the world.

1. The first group of people have no idea what Jesus said about money, and they don't care to know.

2. People who care so much that they make the words of Jesus about money the standard of their financial lives.

3. Then there are the people who have the words of Jesus about money in their minds, but wish they didn't.

I overheard the third type of person at a seminar about money and wealth. He was asking the speaker a question as I was returning to my seat after a break. He said: "Jesus taught that a rich man can't get into Heaven. How can you say that is it good to be rich?"

Of all of the words of Jesus about money, the comment about the rich man is probably the most misquoted and misunderstood. If I were to pick the one Bible that creates more guilt about money than any other, it would be this one. This verse creates fear in people who think that they have to choose between salvation and being rich.

The distressed questioner had misquoted the verse itself. Jesus did not say that a rich man can't get into Heaven. In the three biblical versions of the story, Jesus made a statement about a rich man entering the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven. By identifying the "Kingdom of Heaven" with "Heaven," the questioner had significantly missed an important point.

The point is that the Kingdom of Heaven is not the same as Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven is about changing the economic reality of people living on planet Earth. It is not about an afterlife.

The only liberating remedy for people who know-or think they know what Jesus said about money-is to put the words of Jesus into the context of the story, and to put the story in the context of the economic society in which Jesus lived.

If you don't put these words into context, you can spend a lifetime feeling guilty about wanting to have money. This seemed to be what happened to the man at the seminar. The first reason for his inner conflict was that he didn't even have the words right. He was stuck in the "Eye of the Needle" about money because he had missed the real point of the story.

Jesus told the story as part of his condemnation of an unjust economic system. He was not glorifying poverty. He did not say that the rich cannot get into Heaven.

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What if most of what you were taught about Jesus and money is not biblical? Don't let misunderstood words of Jesus prevent you from living an abundant life.
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