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During the first hundred years after the death of the apostles no important Christian writer wrestled with the question of how the followers of Jesus should use their money. The Lord had told his disciples not to worry about it, but to give it away freely. The Jerusalem believers obeyed this injunction by selling their excess property and sharing their goods. Later, Paul’s converts retained private ownership but systematically provided for the needy. Near the end of his life Paul warned Christians against the love of money and instructed wealthy believers to use their money for good deeds.

As Christianity spread through all classes of society thoughtful believers must have sensed the apparent tension between Jesus’ injunctions and Paul’s instructions about money. Clement was a late second-century thinker who set himself the task of clarifying the church’s understanding of wealth. His position as the tread of the famous catechetical school in Alexandria made him the most important theologian of his day. He addressed the problem in a sermon on the rich young ruler from Mark 10:17–31, usually known by its Latin title Quis Dives Salvetur? The original is available in Migne’s Patrologia Graeca and appears in English translation in the Ante-Nicene Fathers. Because Clement’s sermon is long and his style verbose, we will present his work in a paraphrased version.

The usual way to begin such an essay is with a dedication to a rich patron, but because praise belongs to God alone, and because the rich already have enough temptations to pride, I will forbear. Instead I will tell the rich how to be saved.

There are two different mistakes rich people can make about being saved. One is to remember that Jesus said it was easier for a camel to get through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to get into heaven, and then to give up. “Because there is no hope of getting a camel through the needle’s eye,” they say, “I might as well enjoy this life. I have no hope of going to heaven.” The other mistake is to think that it is easy to get into heaven, and thus not to work toward it.

Those of us who have true love for rich people will neither insult them nor cringe before them. The wealthy need to know that salvation is neither out of reach nor attained without effort. They should not make the mistake of the athlete who wanted to enter the games, but gave up when he saw the competition. Nor should they make the mistake of the athlete who signed up but did not train properly or eat correctly, so he also lost. To continue the athletic imagery, if one wants to win the crown of immortality, he should let the Word be his trainer, and the New Testament his diet. He must train by keeping the commandments, and remember that Jesus is the referee. If he does this he may be confident that God will crown him with the crown of life.

The key to understanding how rich people can be saved is in the story of the rich young ruler. It may seem that this story means that no rich person can be saved. Not necessarily. Let us look at the story once again, but this time let us put aside childish misconceptions. A young man came to Jesus and asked, “What must I do to live forever?”

“You know the commandments,” Jesus replied. “Keep them.”

“I have,” the man replied.

“Just one more thing,” said Jesus. “If you want to be perfect, sell everything you have, give the money to the poor, and then come, follow me.” Hearing this, the young man went away grieved, because he was very rich.

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