Following Christ Above Riches
"Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come and follow Me" (Mat_19:21).
The story before us is that of the rich young ruler. He possessed many things which were praiseworthy. He was earnest and he was moral, and he was interested, but, he lacked one thing–he was unwilling to give up his riches.
Jesus Christ does not always demand that we should place our possessions on the market, and sell them, giving the proceeds to the poor; but He does demand of every one, who would follow Him, that all possessions shall be made subservient to Him, subject to His call.
If we would follow Christ fully, we must recognize His Lordship over our possessions.
There are a great many people, who would like to "serve God and mammon"; Christ, and riches. They want Christ, but they want riches also; in fact, they want riches more than they want Christ. They want to drag Christ in somewhere; they would be willing to put Him in the rear of their procession, but they will not let Him lead the way. The Bible warns: "And they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil".
A follower of the Lord Jesus Christ should flee such things, and "follow after righteousness, Godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness".
It is not wrong to labor, that we may have to give to him that needeth; but it is wrong to labor that we may have to lay up treasures for ourselves. Our money is ourself turned into coin, and when we bring our money and yield it to Christ and to His service we are yielding ourselves to Him.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR