Key verse Luke 16: 25. 'Son,' Abraham said, 'remember that during your life you received your good things, just as Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.
There is a contrast between people that are rich and people in poverty in the holy Scriptures.
Sometimes you hear preachers or other disciples of Christ saying that rich men cannot get into heaven, or that it would be extremely difficult for him to enter heaven. You can see in Matthew 19:23-24, Luke 18:23 that there is some cause to believe they are correct. I think we can discover here if we look the Scriptures correctly that is all in a matter of how the wealthy use in view their wealth. They were rich men that follow Jesus, Matthew 27:57 and Luke 19:2. They are also a whole society of distinguish women administered to treat Jesus using their own resources, Luke 8:3. I think it is obvious that riches can be a blessing if they are used properly and unselfishly,
The problem with riches is that they tend to lead someone away from focusing on God. As the Scriptures say you cannot serve two masters.
Now on the other hand a poor person commonly referred to as a beggar in the Scriptures, needs to look to others for his needs. There is a saying that there are no atheists in a foxhole, I think that might be also or someone who has to beg for his existence, and depends totally on the grace of others.
One of the great temptations of a rich man is to show off his wealth. In Christ times that meant spending exorbitant amounts of your wealth on your appearance, your clothing, and throwing lavish parties. The Old Testament was very clear that the landowners and wealthy men should be charitable with what was given to them by the Lord. The landowners were instructed to leave part of their crops for the poor at harvest time. There are many other references on giving to the poor and Scriptures. Christ himself said that what you do for the least of them you do for Him. The greatest way to show love for Christ is to show love for your neighbor and those in need.
We have a group of people in America now that are claimed to be the 99%. The 99% supposedly is the poor people of the United States. I like to remind all of you that the poorest person in America is in the top 1% of the rich of the world. Pres. Obama has a brother who lives for a full year on less than the poorest American makes in one day.
So what is the answer here are the rich destined for hell? No, the answer here is that the rich man has another burden on him, or distraction if you will, to turn his head away from God. All things are given to us by God and if we use them correctly they can glorify his name. Rich men or poor man keep your eyes focused on God and use whatever is given you to glorify his name. And I truly believe that the Lord will provide you with the methods to do this with whatever resources He has given you.
