Today’s passage is about the young man who asked Jesus what to do to receive eternal life. My brother, my sister, Jesus pointed to him that salvation does not come from good deeds unaccompanied by love for God. What is the Lord teaching us here? That we need to submit humbly to His Lordship by not only keeping God’s Commandments and He listed six of them, all referring to relationships with others. Then, Jesus exposed the man’s weakness. Here it was his wealth!
My friend, we may be doing all that the Word of God is asking us to do; yet, individually, we have weaknesses. Unless, we abandon them, we may never have a close relationship with God. This young man certainly feared God enough to try and observe the law, but in reality, his wealth was his god, his idol, and he would not give it up. He who visibly looked like he was doing everything right, did not know he was violating the first and greatest commandment (Exodus 20:3; Matthew 22:36-40).
The truth is, Jesus came on earth to show us the way to the Kingdom. Yet, many people focus only on the grace we have received by faith for the forgiveness of our sins as the ultimate means to eternal life. You may never do wrong… but if you don’t have love for others, there is no profit to you, both in this life and in the life after (1 Corinthians 13:1-2). You cannot claim to love God with all your heart and yet keep yourself away from the others. The same, you cannot be justified and made whole or complete in God’s sight while cherishing your weaknesses: the young man preferred to leave Jesus rather than giving up his weakness, His wealth… and he left with sadness in his heart…Why? A quick reading may suggest that this was about the man’s possessions. But remember that Jesus was not speaking in the temporal, human sense. Therefore, this was to show us that the young man was not yet ready to submit humbly to the Lordship of Christ! My friend, let’s learn to prepare our eternal life, not based on the Law, but based on our submission and obedience to Christ, which involves giving up our weaknesses and any action or attitude which may stand between the Lord and us. Stay blessed in Jesus’ name.