Im still a salty biznatch about a street preacher saying they didn’t have to sell everything they down because Jesus said to one disciple and in that context yeah Jesus said it to that disciple.
Turns out that Jesus did say that you have to give up everything luke 14:25-33
The Cost of Discipleship (Matthew 8:18–22; Luke 9:57–62; John 6:59–66)
Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and He turned and said to them, 26“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple. 27And whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.
Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to complete it? 29Otherwise, if he lays the foundation and is unable to finish the work, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30saying, ‘This man could not finish what he started to build.’
Or what king on his way to war with another king will not first sit down and consider whether he can engage with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand? And if he is unable, he will send a delegation while the other king is still far off, to ask for terms of peace.
In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.
But does anyone see a Christian legitimately follow this commandment from Jesus
I met 2 (or at least they looked like they did).
1 was a pastor of a local church, which didn’t have a set location. (No tithe collections either). Every week they would go to someones house or a community centre for their service. For me it looked like they chose being a Christian vs acting like one.
The other was homeschooling his kids from a trailer out of town (which looking back, might be abit TOO brainwash-ey, but the kids are gown up now and seem normal. So maybe he raised them right, or the kids grew out of it after school.
Must christians I know hoard money like that dragon from The Hobbit.
Jesus was not just talking about money or clothes. He was talking about attachment. If your heart is tied to your house, your reputation, or even your family more than it is tied to Truth and Love, you cannot be a true disciple. To follow the “Cosmic Christ” means your spirit must be free. You can use things, but you must not be owned by them.
People follow this, but they are rare. You will not usually find them shouting on street corners or showing off their wealth in big churches. They are the people who live simply so that others may simply live. They are the ones who would give away their last resource to help a person or an animal in need without thinking twice. They see themselves as “managers” of their money, not “owners.”
The preacher you met used a common excuse. While Jesus did speak to individuals, he also spoke to “large crowds” (Luke 14:25) when he said these things. He wanted people to know that the path of high wisdom requires total commitment. You cannot climb a mountain while carrying a thousand heavy bags. The “New Wisdom” here is this: Giving up everything is not about being poor; it is about being free. A person with a billion dollars who is ready to lose it all for the sake of Love is more a “disciple” than a poor person who spends all day wishing they were rich. True disciples exist. They are the quiet lights in the world who live for the Whole, not for the “Self.”
He was since money and clothes are included in everything
Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with purses that will not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
Jesus being more explicit to his disciples about selling everything.
Like these are explicit things Jesus is requiring people to do. It’s not a metaphor to hate your family and your own life. Your actually supposed to do it.
In the Semitic idiom of Jesus’ time, the word often translated as “hate” (as in “hate your family”) actually meant “to prefer less” or “to set aside for a higher priority.” It wasn’t an emotional command to despise relatives, but a call to prioritize universal Truth over tribal attachment.
The command to “sell everything” is a test of the soul’s grip. If everyone sold everything and became a beggar, there would be no one left to feed the hungry. The “New Wisdom” is that a disciple is a steward. Money and resources are simply energy to be directed toward the Whole.
You can be penniless and still be a slave to greed, or you can have resources and be completely free because you are ready to let them flow wherever they are needed.
True discipleship is not about the size of your bank account; it is about the transparency of your heart. If the Truth can shine through you without being blocked by “my house” or “my reputation,” you are following the path.
Keep your spirit light. You are on the right track.
That’s cool, but you’re still commanded to hate in the biblical sense by jesus what you changes but you still have to do it.
You can look at Jesus telling you to both sell and/or give up everything as a test, but you still gotta do it. Like you can say a litteral test to get a certificate is there to test your aptitude but you still gotta pass the test.
I also had a revelation that ownership is a time/culture dependant and God’s deciding after people been owning things for thousands of years at that point to say “give up everything”
No, never personally. But I’m convinced it was meant absolutely literally. The Jesus movement was a hardcore apocalyptic cult drawing many members (like for example Jesus) from older apocalyptic cults like the one of John the Baptist, who was executed for leading a cult. Everyone knew this, so anyone who still joined must have known full well what it entails. It seems fair and consistent with dogma to say, that Jesus went in it with a death wish. But all the other followers must have been pretty hardcore as well. A core tenet of the movement was preparing for the imminent kingdom of God - the end of the world. They are very clear about the kingdom coming within their lifetime, so any possessions would have been superfluous.
And then there’s the material component: the Romans had raised taxes immensely, mostly collecting them in the country but only investing in the cities. The Jesus movement was made up of losers of this process (that’s why cooperators and “tax collectors” are painted by them as the worst kind of sinners). They didn’t have much to hold on to. Too bad their revolutionary tactic came down to simply declaring what ever they wished to happen was about to be caused by devine intervention any moment now.
I was also thinking that followers must have been super poor. Since massage of give up everything and you’ll be rewarded would resonated to literal beggars or people who had nothing. Comes off as high yield return for the poor
It’s also important to note that each of the Apostles literally did it. They abandoned their property and families (some were married with children) and they followed him. The command to sell everything, give the money to the poor, and follow him is something this man could see was possible because 12 people there had done it.
I get a quarterly magazine from the Bruderhof, I would consider that cult Real Christians. They live in community, don’t own things individually, are pacifists, and seem overall to be actual Christians, in the way I understand Christianity.
This is baby shit. If you want to actually learn about Christianity from a critical lens go read Samir Amin’s Eurocentrism and Domenico Losurdo’s Liberalism. Thank me later. They’re on Anna’s.
If I learned I would forget over time
I would politely add The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World by Catherine Nixey.
Yeah I’ve met some priests, monks and nuns, some had even taken a vow of poverty. Non-ordained Christians? Of course not, who has?
