Thought 184
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?" Mark 10:17 (NIV1984)
Have you ever asked this question? It is the
most important question of your life.
Why
do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except
God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit
adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do 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.
Jesus
looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for
the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
The
disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children,
how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! 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.”
The
disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be
saved?”
Jesus
looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but
not with God; all things are possible with God.”
Peter
said to him, “We have left everything to follow you!”
“I
tell you the truth,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left
home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me
and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this
present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with
them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are
first will be last, and the last first.”
Mark 10:18-31 (NIV1984)
