As I’ve mentioned, I’m reading this year from the Africa Study Bible, written by and for Africans. I want to gain biblical insights from committed Christians who come from a totally different context. And I got one this morning.

I read Luke 18, which includes the story of the rich man who wanted to know how to gain eternal life. He was very devout, keeping all the commandments. But Jesus told him there was one more thing he needed to do: sell everything he had and give it to the poor.

Every sermon I’ve heard about this came from a middle-class minister directed at largely middle-class listeners. My assumption would have been that a poor minister, in preaching from this passage, would REALLY lay into rich people.

But a note in the Africa Study Bible hit a different angle. “Wealth can keep us from following Jesus, but so can lack of it. We can be so preoccupied with our poor conditions that we cannot love Jesus or help others. But we do not need money to love or reach out to help. Instead, whether rich or poor, we must put God before money.”

I’m guessing that note was written by a person with experience being “poor,” at least by Western standards.