That is a misconception. God does not require every Christian to sell all they have and give to the poor. This command was for a specific person who was rich and his riches was hindering him from serving God. For some Christians, riches do not hinder them. It's simply a question of priority; not mutual exclusivity.
If you want to be contentious about this; I only ask that you study the life of Lydia and Philemon. Did they sell all they had after their conversion? Jojo ----- Original Message ----- From: Daniel Rocha To: John Milstone Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2014 2:20 AM Subject: Re: [Vo]:Polarized ECat Testers If they were Christians, they left all behind after convertion: Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." http://biblehub.com/matthew/19-21.htm 2014-08-20 15:13 GMT-03:00 Jojo Iznart <[email protected]>: They were believers in the true God just like Christians today. But if you want to be picky and unreasonable about it, here are a few examples of rich Christians. 1. Joseph of Arithmatea was rich. He owned his own private tomb hewn from a rock. A very expensive piece of exclusive real estate at that time. 2. Barnabas owned land worth enough to feed the whole Jerusalem church. The church at that time was at least 5000 men strong. This would be a membership of over 20,000 if you include women and children. 3. Lydia was a seller of purple. Purple was the clothing for kings and royals. She was rich enough to be associated with kings and royals. 4. Philemon was rich. He had many servants and a house with guest room for Paul. At that time, a family normally lived in a house with one room. The living room was the kitchen, the dinning room, the bedroom. Philemon has a hosue with multiple rooms and he maintained many servants. He was rich. 5. Luke was a medical doctor. A very expensive and rare vocation at that time, which means his family must have been rich enough to send him everywhere to learn medicine. They didn't have centralized medical colleges, if you want to be a doctor, you have to travel everywhere and learn from many people and places. Jojo ----- Original Message ----- From: Daniel Rocha To: John Milstone Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2014 1:58 AM Subject: Re: [Vo]:Polarized ECat Testers Those people were not Christians. 2014-08-20 14:51 GMT-03:00 Jojo Iznart <[email protected]>: You seem to be implying that one can not be both a Christian and Rich. If so, I can assure you that is not the case. Here are a few examples for you: 1. Joseph was a believer and was the 2nd in command in Egypt. He was rich in power, money and Glory 2. Abraham was very rich with thousands upon thousands of sheep and camels, and a household with 400 able-bodied fighting men. This guy had his own private army bigger than the army of many city states at that time. His men was able to defeat 4 kings and their armies. If he had 400 fighting men, the size of his household must be between 3000-5000 people. That is rich. 3. Job was the "greatest man in the east". Job was from the area of Ur. The region we know as the fertile crescent - Shinar or Babylon - the cradle of civilization. So, Job was the richest man in the world at that time. When God was done blessing him, he was twice as rich. 4. Solomon had brass that could not be counted. Enough gold and silver to overlay all the surfaces of the large building - the temple he built. The guy was richer than anyone alive today. -- Daniel Rocha - RJ [email protected] -- Daniel Rocha - RJ [email protected]
