Chapter 19: If You Want to Be Perfect. Ponder for a minute Jesus' words: "If you want to be perfect." Matthew 19:21. These words make it clear that the rich young man was not yet perfect, for there's no such thing as being more perfect. Notice also the divine expression "if you wish to." Matthew 19:21. This shows that the young man's soul had the power of free will. Being free, the choice depended on the man himself, for the gift depended on God, who is the Lord.
And God gives to those who are both willing and exceptionally earnest. That way, their salvation becomes their own, for God does not compel anyone to come to Him. Compulsion is repugnant to Him. Rather, He supplies to those who seek. He gives to those who ask. He opens to those who knock. Matthew 7:7-8. If you want, that is, if you really want and are not just deceiving yourself, then obtain what you lack. One thing you are lacking. The one thing that endures is the good thing that is above the law.
The law cannot give this, and it cannot contain it. This one thing is the prerogative of those who really live. This young man had fulfilled all the requirements of the law from the time of his youth. He had gloried in what was magnificent, yet he was not able to complete his quest by adding the one thing that the Savior particularly required. He was unable to receive the eternal life he so desired, so he went away distressed, upset at the one commandment for eternal life that he had asked about.
What was his problem? His problem was that he did not really desire life, as he claimed. All he wanted was the reputation of seeking the good. He was quite capable of busying himself with all sorts of things, but he was powerless when it came to the work of life. The Lord had spoken similarly to Martha. She was busy with many activities, distracted and troubled with serving, and she criticized her sister for leaving the work of serving in order to sit at Jesus' feet and devote her time to learning.
As Jesus told Martha, "You are troubled about many things, but Mary has chosen the good part, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42. In the same way, the Lord told the rich young man to leave his busy life and cling to the grace of the one who offered everlasting life. Is it wrong to own possessions? Why, then, did the young man leave the Master? Why did he so quickly abandon the life and hope he had been so earnestly pursuing?
It was because Jesus told him, "Sell your possessions." But what did Jesus mean? Jesus was not saying that some people quickly conclude that the young man should throw away all he owned and abandon his property. Instead, the Savior was directing him to banish from his soul all his views about wealth, both his excitement and his worries. He directed him to abandon his material anxieties, which are the thorns of existence that choke the seeds of life. Matthew 13:22.
After all, it is no great thing to simply be destitute unless there's a special purpose behind it. That purpose must be life. Otherwise, the only ones to possess eternal life would be those who beg for their daily bread, even though they know neither God nor His righteousness. And the persons more blessed and dear to God would be those who have nothing at all, the poor who wander the streets, even though they don't know God.
The destitute would have eternal life simply because of their extreme need and their lack of material things. Furthermore, remember that renouncing one's wealth and giving it to the poor was no new thing. Many people had done this before the Savior came to earth. Some people, like the philosophers, did it in order to pursue empty human wisdom. Still others did it for empty fame and the praise of men.
Why, then, did the Master command it as though it were something new and divine, as though it alone were life-giving? After all, this very same thing didn't save people in times past. So what was the special thing that the Son of God was teaching? It was not the outward act, the thing that many others had already done. Rather, it was something greater, more godlike, and more perfect. To strip the materialistic desires of the flesh from one's very soul.
To pull it from the roots and throw away the very things that are alien to the soul. This is the instruction worthy to come from the Savior Himself. This is the teaching that is unique to believers. In the past, those who renounced external things gave up only their material possessions. But at the same time, I think they intensified the longings of the flesh, for they were arrogant, pretentious, and boastfully vain.
They treated the rest of mankind with contempt and acted as though they had done something superhuman. Why would the Savior have told the very people who were destined to live forever that they should do what would be harmful to the very life He promised? After all, a person may get rid of the burden of wealth and still have his innate lust for money. He may abandon what he has only to long for what he once had, so he will grieve twice as much.
Most certainly, those who lack the necessities of life will be mentally anguished. Trying to somehow provide for their needs, they will be hindered from better things. The proper use of wealth. How much better it is for a man to have some possessions so he can keep himself out of dire straits and so he can give assistance to those who require it. If no one had anything, how could we give to others? Isn't it clear that a literal interpretation of Jesus' words contradicts many of His other teachings?
For example, Jesus said, "Make friends with the riches of unrighteousness so that when you fail, they may welcome you into the eternal dwellings." Luke 16:9. He also said, "Acquire treasures in heaven where moths and rust cannot destroy them and thieves cannot break in." Matthew 6:20. Jesus taught that we must give food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, shelter to the homeless, or else be punished in fire and outer darkness. Matthew 25:31-46.
But how could a person do these things if he has divested himself of all his goods? No, in fact, the Savior once invited Zacchaeus and Matthew, the rich tax collectors, to entertain him in hospitality. Luke 5:29. He didn't require them to part with their property. Instead, He applied a just judgment to them, saying, "About Zacchaeus, today salvation has come to this house because this man is also a son of Abraham." Luke 19:9.
In fact, Jesus has so much praise for the appropriate use of wealth that He orders that it be shared in order to give drink to the thirsty, bread to the hungry, shelter to the homeless, and clothing to the naked. It's not possible for a man to provide those needs unless he has some material possessions of his own. So if the Lord was really calling people to abandon all of their possessions, He would have been telling us both to give and not to give at the same time.
He would be telling us to feed and not to feed, to take in and shut out, to share and not to share. That would be most irrational. So riches that benefit our neighbors as well as ourselves are not to be thrown away. They are appropriately called possessions since they are possessed. They are called goods since they are useful and provided by God for the good of men. They are under our control, and they are an instrument for good to use to those who know how to use the instrument.
If you use it skillfully, it is skillful. If you are unskilled, it's affected by your own lack of skill. In itself, it is not to be blamed. Are you able to make a right use of wealth? Then it will be a servant to righteousness. Do you use it wrongly? Then it is a minister of wrong. Its purpose is to serve, not to rule. Therefore, the thing that has no good or evil in and of itself should not be blamed. The one who should be blamed is the one who chooses to use it either for right or for wrong purposes.
The responsible party is the mind and judgment of man. Man has the liberty and free will to determine how he will use what is assigned to him. So let no man destroy wealth when he should be destroying the fleshly desires of the soul, for these desires are incompatible with the better use of wealth. By destroying these desires, a person becomes virtuous and good. He is thereby able to make good use of his riches.
In summary, the renunciation of riches and the selling of all possessions refers to the fleshly desires of the soul. Some things are inside the soul, and some things are outside of it. If the soul makes good use of something, it is deemed to be good. But if the soul makes bad use of something, it is deemed to be bad. So when Jesus commanded us to alienate our possessions, was He speaking about the physical things that can be cast away while the fleshly longings for material things still remain?
Or was He speaking about the materialistic desires, which once removed, allow wealth to even become beneficial? So the man who casts away his worldly wealth can still be rich in materialistic desires, even though he has no money to gratify his desires. Accordingly, it is of no advantage to him to be poor in purse if he is still rich in materialistic desires. He can cast away the wrong thing, something that is neither good nor evil by itself.
At the same time, he has deprived himself of something serviceable, and he has set the inborn fuel of evil on fire because he has no means to satisfy his material lusts. Therefore, we must renounce only those things that are injurious, not those that can be of service when they are used properly. Whatever is managed with wisdom, sobriety, and godliness is profitable, but whatever is harmful must be thrown out. However, external things of themselves cannot hurt us.
So then, the Lord introduces the proper use of external things. He does not tell us to put away our means of livelihood. Rather, He tells us to put away the sickness and materialistic desires of the soul. These cause us to use our wealth in a harmful way.