The Young Ruler (Based on Luke 18)

Soon after Jesus had blessed the little children, a young ruler came running towards Him. He knelt before Jesus and asked, “Good Master, what shall I do to have eternal life?” (verse 18).

Jesus answered, “Why dost thou call Me good? There is only One who is good, and that is God.” Jesus is good, for He is God, but He spoke in this way because He wished the young man to confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, but the young man did not say this. Then Jesus said again, “If thou wilt have eternal life, keep the commandments.”

The young man answered, “I have kept them all ever since I was young.”

Was this true? Perhaps it was true that the young man honored God’s law and that he did what was right, kind, and good to those around him, but it could not be true that he had obeyed all God’s commands. No man ever obeyed perfectly. We break God’s commands every day; we break them in our thoughts, even when we do not openly break them in word and deed. However, this young man did not know his own heart. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Those who are taught by God’s Spirit begin to understand what lives in their heart, and this young ruler had not been so taught.

Jesus looked at the young man and loved him. He loved him because he was so gentle, kind, and anxious to do right, but Jesus pitied him, too, for the ruler was very ignorant. Then Jesus said something to test if the young man really loved Him and was willing to give up everything for His sake. He said, “Yet lackest thou one thing (verse 22). Go, and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor. Then come and follow Me, and I will give thee treasures in heaven.”

Was the young man willing to obey? No, he had great riches, and he loved them so much that he could not part with them. He went away “very sorrowful: for he was very rich” (verse 23). His riches were his idol; he loved them more than he loved God.

This story should warn us not to love money, possessions, or anything else more than we love God. Jesus said, “How hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Did Jesus say that no rich people would ever be saved and go to be with Him in heaven? No; think only of Abraham, Job, and David. They were all rich men who had new hearts and were God’s children.

The disciples were amazed and asked, “Who then can be saved?” (verse 26).

Jesus answered them, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (verse 27). Nothing is too hard for God to do. He can give us a new heart that loves Him more than all the riches in the world. He can teach us by His Spirit and lead us to Himself.

Wrong Company

Sophronius, a wise teacher, would not suffer his children, even when grown up, to associate with those whose conduct was not morally pure and upright.

“Dear Father,” said his daughter Eulalia to him one day when he forbade her, in company with her brother, to visit a thoughtless friend, “dear Father, you must think us very childish if you would imagine we would be exposed to danger by it.”

The father in silence took a dead coal from the hearth and gave it to his daughter, “It will not burn you, my child; take it.” Eulalia did so, and her hand was blackened and her white dress soiled.

“One cannot be too careful in handling coals,” cried Eulalia in vexation.

“Yes, truly,” said her father. “You see, my child, that coals, even though they do not burn, blacken; so it is with evil company.”

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