Who is Richer?
For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Phil. 1:21)

One verse of Charles Wesley's hymn "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" begins with a remarkable thought:

Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
More than all in Thee I find.

Wesley continues by speaking of how Christ can raise the fallen, cheer the faint, heal the sick, and lead the blind. He seems to be saying that the answer to any human need is in Christ. Whatever I need to have done for me or to me, He can do.

The opening lines seem, though, to speak of something else. They speak of neither God's gifts nor His acts. They speak of Christ himself, that He is better than anything He can do for us or give to us. Wesley seems to be saying that Christ himself is enough. We need no more.

It is fair to ask whether a person who has everything plus God is really richer than a person who has only God. A person, if we could find one, who has only God is certainly not in poverty; he is as rich as the person who has everything plus God. God is enough.

Perhaps this is some of what Paul is saying when from prison he tells his Philippian friends that for him to live is Christ, and that therefore he has learned to be content in any state (Phil. 1:21; 4:11). It is certainly what Jesus is saying when He tells the rich young ruler to sell all that he has and follow Him. Jesus is not calling the young man to less. He is calling him to more, to himself, and He is enough. Have you found Him so?