Two Rich Men

Does Christianity require a vow of poverty? That is what some allege. Where do they get that idea, and are they correct?

Some find in what has been called the account of the rich young ruler what they deem to be an “11th commandment.”

A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”

“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

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.” (Luke 18:18-22)

If all you read is this passage, and if you stop there, you can see how one can read it this way:

“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Have you followed all of the commandments?”

“Absolutely!”

“OK, you just need to follow one more: Sell everything you have and give to the poor, then you can go to heaven.”

See: The 11th Commandment! It’s obvious. If all you read is this passage, and if you stop there.

It’s true, he went away sad “because he was very wealthy”. But was it his failure to follow this 11th Commandment that cost him his soul?

This passage appears in all three synoptic gospels, but I quoted Luke for a reason. If you turn the page, you find the story of another rich man:

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:1-10)

Jesus said, “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” (Luke 18:25), but here is that camel. And Jesus did not tell him to sell all his possessions.

There are a lot of things we could say about these two passages, but let’s just focus on two.

First, the rich young ruler was looking for a way to justify himself. He didn’t really want to learn anything; he expected to be commended for his righteousness. So, secondly, his refusal to sell his possessions wasn’t a failure to follow some unwritten 11th Commandment but the first: You shall have no other gods before me (Ex 20:3). Jesus was not giving him a new rule but showing he hadn’t followed an old one.

Zaccheus, on the other hand, wasn’t even planning on talking to Jesus, he was just curious. But when Jesus called him, he responded in faith and repentance.

It’s totally fair to call out modern Christians for our affluent lifestyles. Almost every one of us could give more than we do. We should all be stretching our faith, pushing our giving beyond our comfort zone again and again. Those who are really commended for their giving in the New Testament are those who give “even beyond their ability” (2Cor 8:3, cf Luke 21:1-4). Or as CS Lewis put it,

I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc, is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditure excludes them.¹

Give generously. Give extravagantly. But we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be bothered by skeptics who are, frankly, just yanking our chain. Jesus did not command us to live as paupers. He did command us to use material wealth to be rich toward God.


1 CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

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