Volume 31 – 1990 (PDF) - Searching The Scriptures

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law against murder in Matt. 5: 21-22. His interpretation
implies that the prohibition against murder involved
more than just a condemnation of homicide. He extends
it to be a prohibition against verbally depreciating an
individual by saying to him, "Raca, " (empty-head) or
"You fool. " While the young ruler had never committed
homicide could he pronounce himself innocent, never
having depreciated a person's value? Probably not.
Matthew indicates that he asked, "What am I still
lacking?" (19: 20). Do you ever feel like this young
man? You worship after the Biblical pattern every
Sunday, you have been baptized, you try to pattern your
life after what the Bible has to say but still you feel
something is lacking.
The rich ruler had come to Jesus in a state of innocent
ignorance. He just didn't know any better. He had done
what, in his limited understanding, he knew to do, but
God's requirements were so much greater. He was like
the little child who returns to a parent with joy on his
face convinced he had accomplished everything that has
been required when in reality he had not even comprehended
the requirement. I am convinced that that's the
way each of us comes to God asking, "What shall I do to
inherit eternal life?"
Jesus said, "One thing you lack; go and sell all you
possess, and give it to the poor... and come, follow Me. "
What was the one thing he lacked? Self-sacrifice. While
it may have seemed to him that he had done all the
commandments of the Lord, in reality he had not done
the one thing that was basic to all of them. He had not
given himself to the Lord. Is this the one thing you lack?
Peter said he and the other apostles had left everything
to follow the Lord (Mk. 10: 28). The churches of
Macedonia begged to help support the needy saints in
Jerusalem because "they first gave themselves to the
Lord" (2 Cor. 8: 1-5). Paul was stoned and dragged out of
the city of Lystra but went on preaching in the face of
death (Acts 14: 19-20). Men could not take Paul's life
because he did not have it. He had given it to God. "It is
no longer I who live but, Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2: 20).
Abraham gave everything, even the life of his son,
Isaac (Gen. 22). The rich ruler gave nothing. Abraham
left Mt. Moriah with everything (Gen. 22: 16-18). The
rich ruler left Jesus with nothing. God gives to those who
give themselves.
"Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house
or brothers, or sisters, or mother or father or children or
farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he
shall receive a hundred times as much now in the
present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers
and children and farms, along with persecutions;
and in the world to come eternal life" (Mk. 10: 30).
"He died for all, that they who live should no longer
live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again
on their behalf" (3 Cor. 5: 15).
Yes, our perception of Christianity is very narrow. We
search for the minimum that we must do, reduce Christianity
to a specified number of requirements and fail to
understand it as a religion of being. Only one thing do
we lack.