Verse of the Week

MATTHEW 19: 23-26

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, 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.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

-New International Version

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I  like this verse for this time frame in my life for a couple of reasons. Number one, for the bible study my boyfriend and I have been doing, we are on the week that talks about living a simple life. I never realized, until going through this bible study, that living a busy, fun filled, successful, driven life could potentially be sinful. When looking back and referring to Matthew 19:23, it makes more sense. I don't believe it it a sin to be busy, determined or successful, or to work hard and earn things on earth. If your career, the stress of your career, or making money is taking priority in your life, or taking priority over your relationship with Christ, that is where it starts to become a sin. I am not in the place where I have near enough money for it to go to my head, but I do believe this type of greed sneaks up on people and they don't even realize it is taking over their life or changing their character. 

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Secondly, in verse 26, Jesus says "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." I think this verse if often taken out of this paragraph, out of the book of the bible, and people try to make it stand alone. As a Christian, I 100% believe that God is capable of all things, if and when he wants/needs. However, I think it is important, as a learning and studying Christian, to make sure you are looking at verses in context. It is NOT our job to separate verses from one another and pretend they mean one thing to make ourselves or other people feel good. It is our job to do our due diligence and do our very best to understand what God was teaching in that instance. In this particular situation, I believe God was explaining that the only true way to salvation is through him, and they won't be able to do that on their own. 

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As always, feel free to disagree.