Can A Rich Man Get Into Heaven?

When it comes to Jesus and money, the world is divided into at least three types of people.

1. The first group of people have no idea what Jesus said about money, and they don't care to know.

2. People who care so much that they make the words of Jesus about money the standard of their financial lives.

3. The people who know what Jesus said about money-or at least they think they know-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."

Of all of the words of Jesus about money, the comment about the rich man is probably the most misquoted and misunderstood. If I were to pick the one Bible that creates more guilt about money than any other, it would be this one. This verse creates fear in people who think that they have to choose between salvation and being rich.

The story of the rich man occurs three times in the Bible. In each case, Jesus talked about a rich man and the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven. In fact, Jesus did not say that a rich man can't get into Heaven. This means that the upset student at the seminar had misquoted the story. And by confusing the Kingdom of Heaven with Heaven, he had missed the real point of the story.

The Kingdom of Heaven concerns the economic reality of people alive on planet Earth. The Kingdom of Heaven is not the same as Heaven.

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.

The alternative is to live your life feeling guilty about wanting money and guilty about having it. This is what happened to the man at the seminar. He misunderstood the point of the story. As a result, he was stuck in the Eye of the Needle about money, without realizing that he had completely missed the point of the story.

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 were taught about Jesus and money is not true? Don't let misinterpreted Bible verses prevent you from living an abundant life.