The bottom line, and the challenge for Christians is to convince them that there is a living God out there who create them in His own image. Everything else will fall on deaf ears until they come to that knowledge, and only the Holy Spirit can do that.
Until the Holy Spirit, through the grace and mercy of God opens their eyes to the reality of the existence of the Living God, they will remain blinded and continue on the road to destruction.
A lot of things Jesus said about material wealth was actually directed at the 1st century Jewish religious leaders who were mostly corrupt and greedy and did nothing to help the poor and needy.
Matthew 13:15
for made gross was the heart of this people, and with the ears they heard heavily, and their eyes they did close,
lest they might
see with the eyes, and
with the ears might hear, and with the heart understand, and turn back, and I might heal them.
Revelation 3
17 That thou are saying that
Rich I am, and I have become rich and not yet one need I am having. And not are aware that thou are the weight-calloused and forlorn and
poor and blind and naked.
18 I am together-advising to thee to buy beside of Me gold, having been fired out of fire, that thou should be being rich, and whit garments, that thou may be being clothed and no may be being made manifest the vileness of the nakedness of thee.
And
eye-salve to anoint the eyes of thee, that thou may be seeing [Luke 16:19-26/John 9:39]
Lazarus and the Rich Man - Here a little, there a little - Commentary
Luke 16:22
"So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried."
Those who insist that this is not a parable but a true, literal story Yeshua told to describe the condition of the lost in hell must overlook several facts to arrive at that conclusion.
First, Yeshua the Messiah never accuses the rich man of any sin. He is simply portrayed as a wealthy man who lived the good life.
Furthermore, Lazarus is never proclaimed to be a righteous man. He is just one who had the misfortune to be poor and unable to care for himself.
If this story is literal, then the logical implication is that all the rich are destined to burn in hell, while all the homeless and destitute will be saved. Does anyone believe this to be the case?
The Jews were truly rich, feasting on God's spiritual blessings. Yet these very gifts caused them to stumble because they prompted them to self-righteousness. They gloried in the gifts, without glorifying the Eternal God who gave them. Instead of being a "royal priesthood" that was a blessing to all nations, they instead loathed and despised the surrounding peoples. Certainly, as Paul wrote, "their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them" (Rom. 11:9)......
Matthew 23:
15 Woe to ye Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! That ye are going about the sea and the dry to make one proselyte, and whenever he may be becoming, ye are making him a son of geennhV<1067> twofold-more of ye-selves
33 "Serpents! produce of vipers! how? ye may be fleeing from the judging of the geennhV <1067>
[Ezekiel 39:12/Reve 14:11]
If the Pharisees and scribes understood Yeshua's prophetic parable, it must have astonished and infuriated them. How could the Jews become alienated from God while the elect Gentiles became the "seed of Abraham"? The implication that the House of Judah and those called from the Gentile nations were to change places would have been almost impossible for the Pharisees and scribes to believe.
