Today’s Devotion
Topic: If You Want To Be Perfect
Text: Matt 19: 16- 23
16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” 17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “’You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honour your father and mother, ‘and ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’”
20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do i still lack” 21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Amen
The encounter Jesus had with this man must have been a very frustrating one. The man came hoping to be justified by Jesus because he was very rich and religiously faithful (a rather rare combination in Jesus’ era). Here are a few considerations:
* Knowing that he had probably observed most of what was in the law as “GOOD”, He asked Jesus, “what GOOD thing must I do to get eternal life”?
* Jesus knowing he had only come to be justified corrected him that he could have easily avoided the usage of the word “good”. As a matter of fact, his question would have been better without it because that only exposed his truest motive. Jesus then asked him to “go and keep the commandments”.
* This man still tries Jesus’ patience by asking “Which ones”? Meanwhile, everyone in Judea knew the commandments very well.
*Jesus remains gentle and mentions 6 of the commandments to Him.
*This was where the young man’s quest to be justified was exposed. He confirmed that all of what Jesus required, he had kept and then went on to further ask “what do I still lack?”. He was probably hoping that this was where Jesus would say “rejoice then, you have the eternal life you seek”.
* However, the Lord shocked him when He turned the direction of the conversation to an area where he least expected – HIS WEALTH.
*Oh no Lord, anything but his wealth! That was his source of pride, self-worth and security, not the Almighty God. Giving that away was probably harder than pursuing the eternal life he claimed to seek.
* Most of us are like this young man. We “desire” eternal life if only it means holding on to and fully enjoying all that makes us comfortable in life; even those things that take the place of God in our hearts.
The question of the Lord to you this morning is very simple, “do you want to be perfect?” Then:
i. Stop looking for ways to justify yourself simply because you adhere to religious practices.
ii. Detach your reverence from all those things that have your truest loyalty instead of God. It could be your job, wealth, credentials etc.
iii. Then come and follow Jesus. He will perfect your life and candidate you for eternal life.
Meditate on the above and begin to pray for a heart that can give up all for a life time journey unto eternity with JESUS.
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