Matthew 19:23-24 (NIV)-M

²³ Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a [worldly] rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

²⁴ Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a [worldly] rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

Above I modified these verses to add the specification "Worldly" rich man because it is the worldly rich men who are banned from entering the kingdom of God. This is because worldly wealth is typically associated with worldly men of self-sufficiency and worldly men of political power and worldly men of sexual immorality. Money seems to bring out the worst in wicked rich men!

This is why Jesus said it is hard for a (worldly) rich man to enter the kingdom of God. It is not that the wealth was the problem but rather the heart condition. Pride and ego and control follow those who can buy whatever they want and who can control people with money.

It should be noted that only (worldly) rich men will go to hell but there are plenty of righteous rich men who entered the kingdom of God such as Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob and David and King Hezekiah and many others. These were extremely wealthy righteous rich men who entered the kingdom of God. But these righteous rich men all depended upon the Lord and gave God the glory for their wealth. The problem with wicked rich men is that they use wealth for influence to control and manipulate and work things to their own advantage using bribes and other means to get what they want. Sexual immorality is also rampant among worldly rich men them and many worldly rich men are unfaithful to their wives.

Mark 10:23 (NIV)

²³ Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the [worldly] rich to enter the kingdom of God!"

Luke 18:24-25 (NIV)

²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the [worldly] rich to enter the kingdom of God!

²⁵ Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a [worldly] rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

These scriptures should be clarified as referring to [worldly] rich men (rather that the righteous rich men). It was the righteous rich men who honored God with their wealth and used wealth to help others.

Isaiah 53:9 (NASB)-M

⁹ His place after death was assigned with wicked men, and He was in the place of the worldly rich man’s hell ensuing his decease. He suffered punishment for all human sin as a sacrifice even though He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit found in His mouth.

I modified this scripture to indicate [the worldly rich man's hell] because hell is often referred to as the place of the worldly rich man. Worldly rich men do all kinds of evil and pay bribes and lobbying money to change laws to their favor and exploit the poor and cheat employees of wages and immorality is rife among them because they can buy anyone they want. These worldly rich men are full of self-sufficiency and assume they have no need of God and are full of pride for this reason. Hell is called the place of the rich man because all "worldly" rich men go to hell when they die!

1 Chronicles 22:14 (NIV)

¹⁴ "I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone. And you may add to them.

David was wealthy and gave generously to the building of God's temple. He donated a thousand talents of gold (at 75 lbs. per talent this would be 75,000 lbs. of gold!) David gave a million talents of silver (at 75 lbs. per talent this would be 75,000,000 lbs. of silver) which is an unimaginable amount of wealth! But David and other righteous men like him all went to heaven because their money was used to help the kingdom of God and they gave generously to God's kingdom and they did not make an idol out of money. This is a great contrast to worldly rich men who love money more than God and go to hell for this reason!

Therefore "worldly" rich men should be distinguished from "righteous" rich men because they are not the same. The righteous rich men like Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Hezekiah, David and many others all went to heaven. But it is only the worldly self-indulgent and self-serving rich men who live lives of selfishness and debauchery that all end up in hell (the place of the worldly rich men when they die).