Do the 'woes' of Luke 6 mean the rich will have a hard time entering heaven?
A viewer asks whether Luke 6:24-25 means that all rich people, and those who stay happy and wealthy even if they are religious and help the poor, will have a hard time entering heaven.
Answer
Jesus has some pretty harsh words for the rich in Luke 6:24-25: woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation. Take the rich young man in Matthew 19, who had kept all the commandments; Jesus does not argue with him, but tells him he needs one more thing, to sell all he has and give it to the poor, and the man walks away sad because he was very rich. Jesus says it is impossible, not merely difficult, for a rich man to get to heaven, because he worships his money and not God, and you cannot worship both; you will hate one and love the other. So unless a rich man gives up his riches, it is impossible. Nobody begrudges you a savings for the future, which the Bible also allows, but we are talking about real rich people who need to give away everything they can to help the poor. The real reason people keep their riches is that money makes them feel secure, but they never get secure; they just grow more nervous that someone will take it. And that is why people try to soften the saying that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven, claiming the 'needle' was a gate in the city wall the camel had to squeeze through. That is not the meaning; it actually means the eye of a sewing needle. A lot of rich people invested a lot of money in commentaries that made it only difficult, not impossible, for the rich to be saved.