compassion from the Decalogue. He simply did not take the commandments seriously. God gave us the Law and the Prophets to bring us face to face with our sin, impotence, and need. (See Paul’s brilliant argument in Romans 7:7–14.) But the rich man never really thought about any of that. A surface reading of this parable might indicate that the rich man missed salvation because he was not generous enough with his money. But that is not the case. The true reason for his damnation was his disregard for