Jesus' "Sell everything" is NOT for all Christians. My pushback on the Christian Poverty Movement.

BibleThinker

Mike Winger

Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2024

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I really hope that those who have freely chosen to be part of communal living or to sell all they have will pay close attention to the actual verses of Scripture I use here and how consistently the Bible makes it clear that this command is not for all believers. I've made several different points which each seem quite powerful in proving that this movement has misapplied some verses and missed the meaning of others. You can freely do so, but to tell everyone that they are obligated to do so is not only demonstrably unbiblical, it comes with a lot of heartache and can cause whole communities of Christians to become a burden on their neighbors. My website: https://BibleThinker.org

Transcript

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0:00.0	Is this command Jesus gave the man to sell everything? Is that a command for all Christians?
0:05.4	Or was it just a command for the one man? That's a significant question we need to ask and
0:11.3	it will change how we understand the passage.
0:13.2	If you say it's universal then effectively every Christian has to sell all they have, give it
0:17.2	to the poor in order to follow Christ.
0:20.2	But I think that we have every reason to think that's not the case.
0:23.2	I mean, let me say this first.
0:25.4	If you're a Christian, you should be willing to do that.
0:27.9	Like that should be like absolutely what I'll do whatever you want.
0:30.4	No questions asked.
0:31.7	You'll just sell all I have. I'm going to sell it all right now, and give it away.
0:36.0	Whatever you want. That's not the issue here. It's not as though I'm like, I have to fight so we can keep our stuff, but rather I want to understand scripture and the call of Christ to each of us individually.
0:44.6	So note a few things.
0:47.1	Peter, who is one of the apostles, he had, after he started following Jesus, he still had a house.
0:54.0	Him and Andrew have a house in Capurnium. It becomes kind of Jesus'
0:58.0	like headquarters when he's in Capurnium, but it's still called Andrew and Peter's house.
1:02.0	It's their home. So he also still had a boat in
1:05.6	John 21-3 long after he's following Jesus for years. Jesus dies, the
1:10.1	resurrection has happened and then Peter's there fishing he's got a boat he's got
1:13.4	fishing tackle these are things that he would have sold if he was supposed to sell everything
1:17.0	to follow Jesus what Jesus wants his full commitment not necessarily for everyone to sell everything they have, but he wants us to be fully and totally committed to him.
1:26.0	Everything I do have belongs to him, whatever he wants me to do with it. That's the natural response of the heart to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives I think.
	...

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