Addendum to the 'what Jesus means when he says sell all' post

And of course 'wealth' in the post [which I paste below for reference] refers to all that sustains a person in the Kingdom of Satan. If the root that sustains the plant is connected to the Kingdom of Satan that root has to be cut. That is hard to do. People don't want to do that. Jews especially seem to not want to do that.

It's fortunate if a person starts out poor and already a bit alienated from the world and gradually is drawn into the Kingdom of God; but those who are very fixed in their way of life and the sustenance of the Kingdom of Satan, 'rich' and 'fat' in their family and society and way of life and worldliness and mind and nature and all they've come to hold dear will have a more difficult time 'selling all' and following Jesus...

They can't, ultimately, unless God does it.

But this is why we should not envy the world or the 'successful' in the world, those fixed in the deadness and illusions and delusions of the Kingdom of Satan, and we should only put the highest value on regeneration by the word and the Spirit and glorifying God.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

[Title] What Jesus means when He says sell all you have and follow Him

This biblical insight was derived from a memory of seeing a Jewish man in a Christian bookstore looking at the Jewish Messianic books, and looking furtively at all the Christians in the store. Messianic Jews recognize Jesus as Messiah, but they still don't associate themselves with Christians. They maintain a boundary there.

The insight: when Jesus tells people (Jews) to sell all that they have and follow Him it comes across as if Jesus is saying poverty is part of following Him and part of the faith.

Yet at the same time there are passages that say when you believe on Him you won't suffer worldly needs and you will have access to all God has ultimately.

So here is how to see it. That Jewish man in the Christian bookstore has derived his wealth, all he has, from his people and culture, ultimately. Jesus is saying the fount of that wealth is the Kingdom of Satan (and I'm not associating Jews particularly with the Kingdom of Satan, all who are not in the Kingdom of God are in the Kingdom of Satan, but with Jews it's a pronounced example). It is *that* that the Jew must give up. Wealth from the Kingdom of Satan. Sustenance from the Kingdom of Satan. Sell *that.*

That Jewish man though is very reluctant (scared, as we all are) to give up his wealth, or the source of his wealth (even if he's a low level accountant in his uncle's warehouse company). When you leave your family you leave what sustains you. All that you know. So he sees a necessity to maintain that boundary between him and Christians in general. He doesn't want to stop being a Jew because he doesn't want to give up what the Kingdom of Satan has given him and keeps giving him.

When you become a Christian you go through a process where you separate from even your own family.

You say: "All that is death." And you move in the direction of God.