(Mark
10:17-22) “As Jesus started on
his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,”
he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?”
Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments:
‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you
shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and
mother.’” “Teacher,” he declared, “all
these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One
thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s
face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.”
This
guy thought he had it all figured out.
Then Jesus turned his world upside down.
The young man had an idea of what it meant to be “good” and therefore
worthy of eternal life. Jesus said that “only”
God was good. There is nothing we can do that will make us good – even if we obeyed
every commandment. (Which we would not)
We, like this man, have things backwards.
Thinking - “If I do then I will be.” The truth is that I must “be” before I can
do. The young man may have done many “good
“ things or not have done bad things in the eyes of his culture, but his heart
belonged to the world – not God.
It
is our natural inclination to think of righteousness – being right before God
in terms of what we do. But you know
your own heart – that in and of itself, it is desperately wicked. (Jeremiah
17:9) The Bible says (2 Timothy 3:1-5) “There
will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of
money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful,
unholy, without love, unforgiving,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of
pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying
its power. Have nothing to do with such people.”
Now
those same people may darken the doorways of churches every Sunday morning –
maybe Sunday night and Wednesdays, too.
So what is my point? Don’t be
deceived by others nor by yourself. You can’t love God and the world. You will love one and hate the other. (Luke
16:13) You can have money, but you must not love it. Your flesh will want to – but if you love God
with all your heart – there is no room
for anything else. And when you do that –
God, who is good, will change the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)
Our
quest for the “good” – for eternal life – for peace – for joy – for hope – it is
found in God through faith in Jesus. I
have always thought it a bit odd that Jesus answered the man in the way He did,
until I realized that Jesus shared “the” fundamental truth of life. God, the Father, is the source of all good.
It is only by being in a right relationship with Him that we can know what is
good. There is no good in us so there is
no good that can come out of us except from the Father. Pretty simple,
actually.
We
can rattle off Matthew 22:37 – Love God with all – but actually doing it – well
that is a horse of a different color. Our hope must be built on nothing less
than Jesus and His righteousness. CHARLEY
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