Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Matthew

[Taiwanese]

How easy is it for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle?

[jimwalton]

The thrust of the whole passage (the camel and the eye of a needle, Matthew 19.23-30) is the way people perceive the path to heaven (based on good works, earning a place, being religious, and being blessed in life, i.e., being rich) and the real path to heaven (humility and accepting God's free gift of eternal life through substitutionary atonement).

The rich man of the story exemplifies the first and false way ("I've been good, I've been religious, and I'm blessed by God because I'm rich!). Jesus is saying that those things don't earn you points with God. As a matter of fact, there ARE no ways to earn points with God. Salvation is possible because God reaches to you, not because you earn your way to Him.

The "camel" verse (Matt. 19.24) is a proverb. The point is that rich people, in general (proverbially), feel self-sufficient and successful, don't see their need for God, and don't use their wealth in godly ways. It's not to say that if you're rich, too bad—no heaven for you! Jesus is using the language of hyperbole to drive his lesson home. The rich man cannot enter heaven by the ways he assumes (being good and being rich). It's as impossible as a camel going through the eye of a needle. Instead we have to see salvation and the entrance to heaven truthfully: it is an act of God, offered to us freely, if we will just accept it.