If you are joining us in reading through the Gospel of Matthew, today’s reading is Matthew 19:13-26 and the devotion is taken from verses 21-22. Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. A rich young ruler had approached Jesus and asked him what was necessary to receive eternal life. After going through a litany of things and the ruler confirming that he had done all of those Jesus simply said if you want to be perfect you must do two things: sell all your possessions and give the receipts to the poor and then come and follow him. This made the young man very sad and he left. There are two things that jump out at you from this passage. The first one is generally misinterpreted by those who hold to a more works centered salvation. They concentrate on the fact that the young ruler is to give everything away and that is what is to make him “perfect.” The problem with this understanding is the Greek word which has been translated as the word “perfect” doesn’t really mean saved in the sense of having a redeemed life. It means that one has been made complete and there is nothing left for him to do. The second thing that jumps out at you is that Jesus has gone through a significant number of steps to bring the rich young ruler to this point in the conversation, all of which the ruler has stated as being completed. The problem is he forgot the most important commandment of all and that is “that you love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul.” This is found in Deuteronomy 6:4. You see it wasn’t enough to do external things. What was required was he doing something that was internal. He had to trust God for his existence. For if he gave up everything and followed Christ he was depending on Christ to provide his daily needs. Have you given up everything?
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 10:00:00 +0000
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