Sell everything and give to the poor

Jesus told the rich young ruler in Mark 10 to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. In Luke 12, he encouraged his disciples to sell their things and give to the poor. In Mark 12, Jesus told his disciples that the poor widow who tossed two copper coins into the temple treasury had given more that all the rich people because she gave everything she had, appearing to commend the widow and align with the teaching that we should give everything we have to the poor. 

Finally, the church in Acts 2 appears to have sold everything and distributed the revenue to the poor. Clearly, Jesus considered any accumulation of material things to be a sin and we should all live like monks with a vow of poverty. So, why don't we? Why haven't more than a few monks and "saints" like Francis of Assisi obeyed? These passages have caused a great deal of guilt among U.S. Christians who are the wealthiest people on average on the planet today and in history. 

It seems that even first century Christians didn't follow Jesus' command. Mark, the writer of the Gospel, grew up in a large house in Jerusalem that his mother hadn't sold. When an angel rescued Peter from jail, the Jerusalem church met in that house to pray for his release. Clearly, Mark's mother hadn't sold the house. Later, Peter stayed in the large house of Simon the tanner when the Holy Spirit revealed to him that gentiles would become believers. Simon hadn't sold, either. 

In the New Testament and for centuries, churches met in the large homes of rich believers. No other church in the New Testament is recorded as having sold everything. Why not? 

Luke's use of the imperfect tense in Acts 2 for the word "sold" should be translated "were constantly selling" or "began to sell" because that tense indicates something ongoing over a period of time, not a one time act. The believers were selling things and giving to the Apostles as the need arose. Much later in chapter four, Barnabas sold some land then in chapter five, Ananias and Saphira sold some of their land. Peter rebuked Ananias for lying, not for keeping part of the proceeds from the sale.  

Paul wrote to Timothy to urge believers at Ephesus to work and take care of their families in his first letter to Timothy chapter five. It seems that the Lord wants his followers to marry, have children and support them. If all believers lived as monks, Christianity would soon die out, as would the monks who need financial aid from working believers. 

Taking care of a family requires a house to live in, clothing, and food. Those require working and acquiring material things. Also, wise Christians will build savings to take care of periods of illness and unemployment as Solomon advised in Proverbs. Some Christians must earn more than they need to live on to have extra to give to those less fortunate. Solomon encouraged those with savings to invest in the import-export business via shipping in the NIV translation of Ecclesiastes 11:1. And in Proverbs, he urged believers to leave a financial legacy for their children by saving. 

Did Jesus ignore these concerns? No. After all, as God he wrote the Old Testament, which considers wealth for the Godly to be a blessing. What changed in the Gospels? Nothing.

Again, the main principle of hermeneutics is to consider the context. In the Gospels, Jesus preached mostly to unbelievers who devoted much of their lives to obtaining wealth. Jesus was trying to force them to consider the long term, life after death. As Alfred Edersheim shows in his Life and Time of Jesus the Messiah, a common rhetorical technique for persuasion in Jesus' day was hyperbole to get the attention of listeners. 

Jesus had a hard time getting the attention of the rowdy crowds. That's why he often said, "Whoever has ears, let him hear." He was telling the noisy people in the back row to shut up and pay attention. Hyperbole was one way to get their attention. Jesus used hyperbole when he told believers in Matthew eighteen to pluck out their eye and chop off their hand if those offended them, or kept them from believing. One-eyed believers with one hand didn't fill the church. 

Believers can quit feeling guilty over these verses. And socialists can quit quoting them as justification for their silly ideology. Read everything in the Bible on wealth before you consolidate a doctrine of wealth, another good principle of hermeneutics. Jesus doesn't want us to live weighed down by guilt or poverty. 

The U.S. is wealthy because from before our founding people applied Biblical principles of government: Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not murder; and prohibitions of kidnapping. God promised Israel in the Torah that he would bless the nation with wealth if the people followed his laws.