its a sin to be rich according to Jesus who put himself through the kenosis and subdues all believers in him to conform to his express image that transcends all the rich slave owners in the bible that God was tolerating. the rich slave owners in the bible from Abraham to joseph of arithemea? the secret disciple which capitalists don't point out have problems. if job was born after Abrahams bosom he would have been lukewarm because he cant be rich in good works and rich toward himself at the same time. its a sin to be rich does not mean that Jesus cannot save rich people.
I understand that it was Jesus Himself who said that the rich will have a hard time entering heaven.
But I can't help but wonder, why doesn't anyone who condemns the rich first ask, "How Do We Define Who Are the Rich?" and, most importantly, "Do I qualify as being part of the 'rich'?"before declaring that it's always OTHERS who are sinning by being rich.
For example:
* People who talk about the evil rich on a forum such as this have obviously had access to education (reading and writing, and even typing skills), electricity, an electronic device with which to post, and I'm guessing, when they stop typing for a potty break, they're using an indoor, flushing toilet (but I could be wrong.)
* Is someone like this truly unaware that a good number of people in the world do not have access to such things, and therefore, compared to them, the very ones ranting about the rich are part of the same rich people whom they themselves are condemning?
* Does someone who posts such things on the internet truly not realize that they have resources that many other people could only dream of having (starting with the ability to read and write)?
* Why does someone like this not have the self-recognition that to others, THEY are actually that rich person, and how would they then go about repenting? Would they give up electronics, web access, and go dig themselves an outhouse? (What about the person who doesn't have access to an outhouse, or toilet paper? To them, the person who has access to these things might be seen as "rich".) Why does "everyone else" have to repent of being "rich", but yet the person who accuses the rich is somehow always the exception?
I've spent many years in churches that often gave reminders about "the evil rich" and I started to notice a pattern: that person's definition of someone who is "rich" is always the person who has more than they do or something they don't have, but want, whether it be money, a spouse, kids, a good job, etc.
Some of my relatives are currently sharing one car - they could look to the family next door who has 2 cars and say, "Woe to you, you evil rich person! You had better repent, or your very soul is in danger of hell!!!"
But what about the family down the street that has NO car at all - do they then have a right to condemn my relatives for having a car and being "rich", because they don't have one?
I am adopted, and I like keeping in touch with my old adoption agency because I pray that God never lets me forget where I came from. One of the recent stories they published was about families who have no choice but to live in and someone survive off the large garbage dumps outside the cities. These people are socially shunned and their children are barred from going to school because no one wants to associate with this "dirty" group of people. I am guessing that many of these people, most especially their children, would not even know how to use a flushing toilet or what it even was, let alone dream of having one, since they are lucky to have even a tent as their living quarters.
And yet, you always read about "the evil rich."
Why is it so easy to condemn "the rich" as being "those other people" without even hesitating to acknowledge that compared to someone else, almost everyone is "rich" in an area in which another person is poor?
And if someone comes to that realization, how do they then choose to live "poor enough" to be able to be saved?
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