The Black Vault

Jesus made a number of very clear statements about money and wealth in the Bible. For example:

Matthew 6:19
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Luke 14:33
Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

Matthew 6:24
No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money.

Matthew 19:21-24
Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, 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."

Matthew 19:28-29
Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

Luke 9:23-25
Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?

Matt 13: 22
The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Phil 2:3
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Acts 2:44-45
All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.

The message is clear. If you want to follow Jesus, you need to "sell your possessions and give to the poor." It is a very simple message, and easy to do. Have you done it? The fact that you are reading this page would indicate that you have not. Chances are you own a computer, pay for an Internet connection every month, live in a home or apartment, have a car, etc. In other words, you live a life at a level of wealth unimaginable in Jesus' time. Meanwhile, billions of people on the planet live in startling, abject poverty.

Why don't you sell everything and follow Jesus, as he requests in the Bible? The reason is simple: Jesus and God are imaginary, and you know it. If Jesus were real, you would do what he says.

like Dolly says..

"Money, pardon the expression, is like manure. It's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow."

It is Manure, ask if he is willing to read the entire passages of each one, and discuss what its really referring to.

life is about balance..more homeostasis..staying within 'the zone'..flow

a system works best, most smoothly when variables within it work equally for their own interests and for the interests of the system, as a whole

greeney2 wrote:ask if he is willing to read the entire passages of each one, and discuss what its really referring to.

You're in no position to tell anyone what the whole passages mean when you don't know them yourself.

The ball is in your court EH, read all of Matthew 6, The entire chapter is only a page long, and tell us in your words what Matthew 6:19 means and refers to in the context of the entire Matthew 6 chapter.

Oh, so you decided to read one of the whole passages eh? Okay, I'll play.

The entire passage of Matthew 6 hits on a variety of subjects, not just this one. Actually Matthew 6:02 to 6:04 touches more specifically about giving to the poor:

Matthew 6:02 to 6:04
So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

The rest of Matthew 6 refers to prayer, fasting, treasures in heaven, and worrying. The latter two touches on the reasons you shouldn't value possessions. The former two touches on the reasons you shouldn't show off when praying or fasting (which to me appears irrelevant to this issue).

As a whole, the context of Matthew 6 does not support your apparent view that Christians shouldn't give all their valuables to the poor. But there's plenty more juicy stuff regarding this issue if you still don't believe you should do it. Have a good read over here and see for yourself, and this is not an anti-Christian page, but it was created by one of your brethren:

http://www.zompist.com/meetthepoor.html

As you read these passages, you will very likely feel a good deal of resistance (possibly at first manifesting itself as indifference). American churches have departed strongly from Biblical values in these areas, and even created a rationalization-- "prosperity theology"-- for rejecting them. It takes time and reflection to get past this misteaching.

Take heed, and notice how you've been manipulated by your own church to ignore the poor.

So it looks like the author of that copy and paste job is ignoring that wealth and money is not at all having anything to do with coins or paper.

As you point out by reading the Chapter, all the verses togather, give a totally different meaning. That reading one passage alone, can sound like something it isn't, or that the meaning can be distorted, by taking it out of context, from the complete story.

I would hope even you would agree this is a fair and reasonable premise, that no verse can be fully understood without reading entire chapters. Anything can be taken out of context, and used to promote negative feelings.

Context is always important. Subtext is, too. And so is text. All play a part in the conveyance of a message.