The Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18:18-30)

Not a Blanket Command, But Specific Instructions To A Particular Person

A passage that is often used to suggest the Bible teaches socialism is Luke 18:18-30, found also in Mark 10:7-27, where Jesus told the man known as “the rich young ruler” to sell all he possessed and give it to the poor. There are problems with using this passage as espousing socialism.

To begin with, the young ruler asked, “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” The question was concerning salvation, not economic systems, state controls, or even Church government. Other passages such as Ephesians 2:8-9 tell us without question that works are useless to salvation, and that it can only be achieved “by grace through faith,” nothing else.

So why would Jesus tell the young man to sell everything and give it away? Simply this—Jesus knew the young man’s heart and knew that the young man was not willing to give up everything to Christ’s Lordship. Jesus’ suggestion was tailored specifically to that young man and was not intended as a command for all believers. The principle is this: If you are not willing to come to Him without reservation—holding nothing back—you are not truly willing to come to Him for salvation. That makes you the type of soil that is “one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22, part of the 13:1-23 account).

Go back and notice how the conversation starts—the young man asks, “Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus stops him right there. “Why do you call me good? No one is good but One—God.” In that way he was emphasizing that the young man needed to consider who Jesus really was: was he God or just a “teacher” saying good things?

Jesus then lists only five of the commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother. The ones Jesus leaves out are 1-4 and 10: 1) No other gods, 2) No idols, 3) Not using God’s name in vain, 4) Keep the Sabbath holy, and 10) Do not covet. Commands 1-3 are bound up in Jesus saying, “Why do you call me good?” If you are calling me Good, Jesus was saying, you are calling me God. Thus, if I’m not God you’ve just broken the first three commands. But since Jesus was God, the young man gets a pass by default.

Unfortunately, the first thing the young man does to correct himself is to answer with just “Teacher,” dropping the “Good” (vs. 20), not wishing to break Command #3. It’s clear then, that the young man didn’t believe Jesus was God. From his answer it’s possible the young man even thinks Jesus was admitting to breaking laws by asking “Why do you call me good?” and his answer, “I’ve kept all these from my youth” could  indicate a sense of superiority, though that’s not clear.

The Pharisees had been after Jesus for breaking the Sabbath as early as Mark chapters 2 and 3, so it’s possible the young man knew of this. The scribes had accused Jesus of blasphemy for forgiving sins in God’s stead in Mark 2, and in chapters 3 and 5 demons had called Him “the Son of God,” so that may also have been an area of doubt for the young man but the passage doesn't say.

The final Command Jesus left out was the 10th: Do not covet. Covetousness is not just wanting what someone else has, though those things are listed in Exodus 20:17 as a neighbor’s house (how he lives), his wife (who he loves), his servants (who works for him), his ox (how he earns his living), his donkey (his mode of transportation), or anything that belongs to him (his possessions). It’s also about the perception of how the neighbor gets those things. For unbelievers then as now, it’s all about the money. Money is power. Money gets me things. I want it. I deserve it.

It's very important to notice Jesus only included things the young man could answer "I've done that" and excluded things that Jesus knew he had broken. This is the reason Jesus answered as He did.

Everything Comes From God

Believers should know everything we have is from God (1 Chronicles 29:10-14, 1 Thessalonians 1:2, James 1:17), and if we are tempted to believe our status comes from money, money has become our god. That’s why Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24).

If you think money is the answer to any problem, money has become your god. It’s also connected to Jesus saying, “The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have Me” in response to the accusation that the perfume should have been sold and given to the poor, in Matthew 26:11. If you believe money alone is the answer to solving poverty, money has become your god.

Colossians 3:5 puts it rather baldly:

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry (ESV, emph. added).

To covet is to worship a false god. To believe that money is your source of good things is to deny that God is the source of all good things (James 1:17).

This is also why the part of the story where the rich young ruler leaves distraught is followed by:

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (ESV, emph. added).

In the case of Jesus telling the rich young ruler to go and sell all he had in Matthew 19 and Mark 10, the implied "you" in his command to go and sell was singular (the Greek is specific concerning singular or plural, a bit like Spanish and other languages), which meant it wasn't a command for everyone present, only the rich young ruler. The reason Jesus told him to sell everything and give it away was because He knew money was a heart issue with the young man and he wouldn't turn to Jesus until he dealt with that issue. It had become a "god" or an "idol" to him, and was in the way of his salvation.

Some scholars think Barnabas—the one who sold everything and gave it to the church to dispense (Acts 4:36)—may have been the "rich young ruler" from Matthew 19 and Mark 10. If he were, that would explain even better why Jesus would have told him to sell all that he had, including the land.

According to Old Testament law (which was still in place during Jesus' ministry prior to His crucifixion) Levites, of which Joseph/Barnabas was one, were not supposed to own property.

And the LORD said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel (Numbers 18:20, ESV).

To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting, so that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance. For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the LORD, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.

Deuteronomy 10:9 repeats the prohibition, “Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his brethren; the LORD is his inheritance, according as the LORD thy God promised him.”

This prohibition of owning property was only addressing the Levites, who were the order of priests. In addition, according to Leviticus there were supposed to be Levite cities where Levites could live and own a house, but if they sold the house in one of these cities it was supposed to revert back to the city during the year of Jubilee, and any fields that the city owned were owned by the cities and not by individuals (Leviticus 25:32-34). So as a Levite, Joseph/Barnabas was breaking the Old Testament law by owning property. Sure, many Levites had quit paying attention to OT Law, but that didn't make it right and the New Covenant was not yet in place. Thus, in order for the rich young ruler to follow God completely, if he was indeed Joseph/Barnabas and therefore a Levite, he needed to give up all those things that were forbidden by the law and make things right before God, because they were an impediment to his following Christ.

Thus, this story isn't telling all Christians to give up all possessions, it was a narrowly focused prick-of-conscience to get a specific young man to realize how sinful he was. He thought he was following the law perfectly, but indeed he wasn't following the law and was being declared sinful by it in spite of what he thought. He needed a Savior because he was sinful. That was Jesus' point.

A parallel passage can explain what Jesus’s point was—Luke 16:13:

The point of the rich young ruler story is that placing money before God will prevent you from following God. It is not that everyone must give their money into a collective pool. If Jesus were seriously giving advice for all Christians, then Peter was a liar in Acts 5:4 in saying Ananias’s land and money were his to keep or give away. It would also mean that 99.99999% of all those who say they are Christians aren’t really, because they haven’t sold everything and given it all away.

Have You?

Conclusion

There is no evidence found in Scripture that God is forcing all Christians into complete and utter poverty. However, there is plenty of evidence that God wishes us to give voluntarily to His cause, even sacrificially.

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