Day 87

Luke 18:18–30 (NIV)

¹⁸ A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁹ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ²⁰ You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’” ²¹ “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

²² When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” ²³ When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. ²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵ Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” ²⁶ Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” ²⁷ Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

²⁸ Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!” ²⁹ “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God ³⁰ will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”

Pray for God to show you something to use from the passage

Read the Passage

Who is in the passage?

What action verbs do you see?

What other words stick out in your mind

Questions

Why does Jesus comment on the word “good”?

Why is it hard for the rich to have a relationship with God?

Why is it worth living for God in this life?

Notes

vs 18 Luke gives the detail of this man being a ruler. We do not know of what. Could have been a town official, a synagogue official, we just do not know. That doesn't seem to be important. The focus becomes his wealth. Being a ruler would mean he was well thought of in the community.

Good- Jesus makes a point that good can only be classified to God. No one else other than God is good. Jesus not saying He isn't good but rather foreshadowing what he already knows is the attitude of the man.

vs 18-22 The eternal life question- already been raised in 10:25. Jesus gives much the same answer except leaving out the focus on God. It is there He talks about the good Samaritan. Jesus' answer here also applies the same idea. It is about how your faith changes you. You don't look at people they same way. It is not just about following the letter of the law. It is about living it out in your everyday life! It reminds me a lot of the book of James (faith without works is dead). The sacrifice Jesus asks the man to make is too hard. Whether of not the man has really kept all the commands is not important. The key is he hasn't kept them with the right understanding. He is still more interested in himself than his neighbor.

vs 22- a repeat of 12:33- To be a follower of Christ means being willing to leave everything for the better thing. (idea in Matt 13:44-46) This idea is picked back up in vs 28 after a discussion on riches.

vs 23- The man cannot part with his earthly wealth(see Luke 8:14 the man is the thorny soil)

24-25 - comment on riches- Wealth in this world does not draw one closer to God. It is an obstacle in getting to Him. Why? - becomes too easy to get distracted by the so called pleasures of this world to see the treasures of the next (vs 22).

But Jesus doesn't rule out the rich going to heaven. The key is that they focus on God. The statement about the camel is an impossibility; but with God all things are possible. Note- what is true for the rich man could be said for all people in the sense that no one, no matter how good can approach God without God first approaching them!

vs 28- the disciples were not poor. As fishermen and a tax collector they would have been in the upper middle class of their day. Do Jesus' words about wealth scare Peter? I don't think so. Peter just stating that they have done what the rich man could not.

vs 29 -30 Jesus then applies vs 22 to them. They have done what Jesus has asked by leaving their way of earning money behind and by traveling with Him and leaving family. Jesus recognizes the sacrifice they have made and promises them that it will be repaid not only in the life to come but also in this life. Sometimes we think that the sacrifice is all about eternity but Jesus is saying it also is the best way to live here! (see John 10:10)

The question of eternal life has been answered again.