Matthew 19:21 - Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
We will start with the easy explanation... three escalating commands in this powerful verse.
1) Sell your possessions - how are you doing on this? Still have your home? Car? How about that cellphone and monthly bill? TV? Internet? Laptop? If you have already dropped all of those, I can keep asking, but I will assume the answer is yes to all.
2) Give to the poor - how about here? That bank account still have sufficient amount for retirement? Slimmed down those monthly "optional" expenses just so you can help others out a little more? Heck, do you even tithe regularly? How about that over and above gift to the church, beyond the 10%?
3) Follow me - now we are getting a little touchy - full-time ministry now? How about a few mission trips this year? Even gone down to the local rescue mission or soup kitchen and volunteered your time in Jesus' name?
Pretty tough verse to follow? Yeah, I would say it is. If you have taken care of all the above, I applaud you. Awesome job... actually I envy you. Unfortunately, if you do, you are missing the "biblical" mark elsewhere... seems to be many references we can cherry-pick out that talk about pride and being boastful. But hey, nobody can be perfect except Jesus, so don't beat yourself up too much.
Now, just to make it a little more real, help me find where the Bible tells us to funnel all of those funds through the government for distribution. Yeah, you won't find it, you can quit trying. The church is called to do those things, not the government. Is the church failing? Oh, heck yeah... but that doesn't mean you can cherry-pick out a scripture, take it out of context, and say that is why you are socialist. What Matthew is talking about it being a sold-out Christian for Jesus, not a government structure to overcome the shortcoming of Christians.