The kingdom of god and greed: When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Matthew 19:22

The spiritual teachings of Jesus on the Kingdom of God are not about seeking happiness through reason and virtue as many worldly philosophies hold, but rather that there are two paths, righteousness and sin, and men have to choose. As in the sapiential books, like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Ben Sira, Jesus spoke in depth about greed and generosity, because the path of the wise and the path of the fool are divergent.
And as the Gospel of Saint Matthew tells it, a very interesting situation happened to Jesus on this subject. The divine teacher had left the region of Galilee and went to Judea, after his transfiguration and so on his journey he met a young man who possessed many riches, and this person moved by spiritual curiosity asked Jesus how to inherit the true life, the gift of eternal life. It must be remembered in this historical context that the average life span was thirty years, immortality and eternal life were considered mystical secrets in the possession of a few masters, so the question was logical.
And so the young man asked Jesus: "Teacher, what good deed should I do to gain eternal life?" Matthew 19:16. Then Jesus asked him if he had fulfilled the commandments, and the young man replied that he had always been faithful to them. Then Jesus asked him the most important thing: to leave all his possessions and follow him, but the young man could not follow him because of his inclination toward worldly things, and so the gospel of Matthew concludes: "When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth" Matthew 19:22.
With this Jesus made it clear that greed and love of money are contrary to the Kingdom of God and that to inherit eternal life one must seek him above the concerns of the world.

For more information visit my profile follow the link and download for free my ebook.