The Rich and the Kingdom of God
18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honour your father and mother.’”
21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25 Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
26 Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
27 Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
28 Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”
What must I do?
Do you call yourself a Christian but struggle to know Jesus or make him known? Maybe you think you are a Christian because you grew up in the church, do Bible studies, or attend worship services. Are you unsure what it means to be Christian or if God can be known?
Dr. Gordon T. Smith of Ambrose University sees within the New Testament seven elements of the truly converted. Together these elements are the start of the journey toward Christian maturity, what the Apostle Paul calls, “attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:13). Over the next eight weeks we will examine these seven components and answer the questions, “What is a Christian and am I one?” We begin our journey with an introduction to these elements, some of the misconceptions about Christianity, and what it means to inherit eternal life.
