Word Count: 1420

Contact James Barringer

"Sell everything you have, and come, follow me"

by James Barringer  
1/18/2010 / Christian Living

This essay is a brief rebuttal to Shane Claiborne. In his book "The Irresistible Revolution" - an absolutely incredible book which I recommend to everyone - he briefly mocks the American interpretation of Jesus' words in Luke 18:18-30. This is the passage in which a rich young man comes up to Jesus and asks how to inherit eternal life, and Jesus tells him, "You lack one thing: sell everything you own and give it to the poor so that you'll have treasure in heaven, and come follow me." Yet what did Jesus really mean by that statement?

Whenever someone asks "What did Jesus really mean," I like for the answer to be "exactly what he said," but I think, contrary to what Shane argues, that Jesus' answer was not meant to be normative for everyone.

There are three major reasons I say this. First, this teaching is not found in the rest of Scripture. All throughout the Old Testament, people owned things, and never once did God say anything about selling it all. Even among Jesus' disciples, Peter owned a house. Matthew 8:14 begins, "When Jesus came into Peter's house." Yet Peter was never commanded to sell his house or his belongings. Jesus told the disciples to leave their nets and follow him, but not to sell their boat and give the money to the poor. In fact, Jesus never told anyone else (that we know of) the same thing. It was not a major component of his theology, or else he would have said it to everyone who owned anything. I call this "the balance principle," by the way - if the Bible talks about something a lot, then it's important; if the Bible doesn't talk about it a lot, then it's not as important. We shouldn't spend any more or any less time talking about things than the Bible does.

The second reason comes from Acts 2. Remember that Luke and Acts were written by the same person, that being Luke. Acts 2:46 describes the early church, saying, "They broke bread together in their homes." Wait - homes? If Jesus' teaching was universal and normative, none of these people should have owned anything. They should have sold it all and given it away. Yet Luke, who wrote both books, sees no contradiction between Jesus' teaching and the disciples owning houses. He, at least, seemed to think there was something about Jesus' teaching that meant it was not supposed to be universal, that perhaps it was specific to the rich young man to whom Jesus was speaking in Luke 18.

The third reason also comes from Acts, specifically Acts 5, which tells the story of a couple named Ananias and Sapphira. They decided to do what Jesus said, namely sell their house and give away all the money. They had a change of heart, though, and kept some of the money for themselves - but the real problem is that they lied and said they were giving all of it. For this, God strikes them dead. The thing I want to observe, though, is Peter's rebuke to them. He tells them, "Didn't the house belong to you before it was sold? And after you sold it, couldn't you have done anything you wanted with the money?" Peter obviously did not think they were under any obligation to sell the house, or even to give the church all the money. (Let us also observe that the couple did not give the money to the poor, like Jesus instructed the rich young man to do.) Peter told them it was their house and their money, which they could use however they wanted.

Based on those three factors, I think we have to conclude that Jesus' teaching to the rich young man is not, was not, and was never meant to be normative or universal. Part of the reason I say this is that selling possessions, or even helping the poor, is not the point of Luke 18:18-30. The point is that the man was to follow Jesus. Yet following Jesus physically is not something we can do today. Jesus observes this himself, in Mark 14: "You will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me." So already we cannot fulfill the full command of Luke 18. We can sell everything we own and give it to the poor so we have treasure in heaven, but we cannot follow Jesus around like he was telling the rich young man to do - which is the most important part of the commandment.

Scripture is very, very insistent that we must help the poor and needy, yet that is not even the point of what Jesus is saying. If it was, Jesus' teaching would not help us at all. 90% of people in the United States self-identify as Christians, so what would happen if we spontaneously all put our houses up for sale? The real estate market would crash, and the few of us who actually did sell our houses would get nothing close to market value for them - in other words, we would have no money with which to help the poor. Even if social justice was the point of what Jesus was saying, there are better ways to help the poor than causing a nationwide (and probably, by extension, worldwide) real estate and credit collapse. Yet, as I said, social justice and helping the poor are not the point. He doesn't command the rich young man to sell all his things. He commands the rich young man to follow him. Selling his belongings is merely a means to that end.

With all that said, I want to make a few things very clear. This business of storing up treasure in heaven is a common theme in the Bible; therefore, according to the balance principle, it must be pretty important. We will be responsible to God for the decisions we make regarding our belongings. Psalm 24 makes it clear that the earth and everything in it belong to God; all the money that we have, we have because he gives it to us. If we use it for our own pleasure with no regard for the poor and needy, we will not have an eternal reward. (Search the Bible for the terms "reward" and "treasure" to see for yourself.) Also, you can use the possessions you do have to help you in following Jesus. If you have a home, you can use it generously - use your stove to make meals for needy people, use your garage to host praise band practice, use your spare bedroom to house someone in the church who has just been kicked out of an apartment or lost a house to foreclosure. Owning possessions is not a barrier to following Jesus in the spiritual sense, the way it would be to following him in the physical sense if he was out walking around on the street right now. You can use your possessions as a ministry, and you will be accountable to God for how you choose to use them.

I think that most of us in America could stand to sell some of our things and give them to the poor, don't get me wrong. I don't think God is calling us to be middle-class apathetic suburbanites. But giving to the poor is, as I keep saying, not the point of Luke 18:18-30. Following Jesus is. For the rich young man, possessions were the thing that kept him from physically following Jesus. We can't physically follow Jesus. For us, belongings may be a thing that keep us from spiritually following Jesus, or they may be a tremendous help to us in following Jesus. It's up to us which one they end up being, and we will be accountable to God for our choices. The rich young man went away sad that day when he heard Jesus' answer. When we look at our choices, and how apathetic we've been toward the poor, homeless, needy, abused, pregnant, and destitute in our own cities, I think we'll be sad as well - which merely underscores our need to follow Jesus. If we're following him, he will change our hearts and our priorities, and we in turn will change our world, as long as we have the right attitude toward our belongings.

Shane Claiborne's book is titled "The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical" (Zondervan, 2006). I recommend it very highly.

Jim Barringer is a 38-year-old writer, musician, and teacher. More of his work can be found at facebook.com/jmbarringer. This work may be reprinted for any purpose so long as this bio and statement of copyright is included.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be! Click here and TRUST JESUS NOW

Read more articles by James Barringer

Like reading Christian Articles? Check out some more options. Read articles in Main Site Articles, Most Read Articles or our highly acclaimed Challenge Articles. Read Great New Release Christian Books for FREE in our Free Reads for Reviews Program. Or enter a keyword for a topic in the search box to search our articles.

Enter comments below. Due to spam, all hyperlinks posted in the comments are now immediately disabled by our system.

Please type the following word below:

Not readable? Change text.

The opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

Hire a Christian Writer, Christian Writer Wanted, Christian Writer Needed, Christian Content Needed, Find a Christian Editor, Hire a Christian Editor, Christian Editor, Find a Christian Writer