Are You Stuck In The Eye Of The Needle About Money?

One way to think about Jesus and money is to consider the old joke about three types of people in the world.

1. People who either don't know or care what Jesus said about money.

2. The second group are the believers who care very much. What Jesus said about money becomes the foundation for what they think and feel about money.

3. The third group are people who know what Jesus said about money and wish they didn't.

Here is an example of the third type of person. I was at a seminar about creating a millionaire mindset. After a break, I was returning to my seat when I saw one of the students talking with the speaker. As I got closer, I heard the student ask: "How can you say it is good to be rich? Jesus said that a rich man can't get into Heaven."

This one comment about a rich man and the Kingdom of Heaven is probably the single most misunderstood verse about money among all of the words of Jesus. And it is my candidate for the Bible verse most likely to produce people who are afraid of becoming rich out of fear for their own salvation.

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 essential point is that the Kingdom of Heaven is equivalent to Heaven. When Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, he was not referring to an afterlife. The phrase Kingdom of Heaven concerns life on Earth.

What is the remedy for someone like the man at the seminar, who was sure that Jesus taught that a rich man cannot get into Heaven? The solution is context. The words of Jesus must be put into the context of the story. And then the story must be put into the context of the economic situation in which Jesus lived. This is the way to liberate people who are sure they know what Jesus said about money but wish they didn't.

Otherwise, you will be like the man at the seminar. He had misunderstood the point of the story because he confused Heaven with the Kingdom of Heaven. He was stuck in an "Eye of the Needle" of his own making.

Jesus was not saying that the rich cannot get into Heaven. Jesus was condemning an economic system that produced so much poverty. He was not insisting that people must be poor to get into Heaven.

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What if most of what you believe about Jesus and money is not biblical? Don't let misunderstood Bible verses block you from living an abundant life.
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