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THE KING’S BUSINESS
not take Jesus long to show him he did not love his neighbor as himself, one com mand brought that out. Jesus said to him, “ One thing thou lackest yet.” T o the average mind it does not sem a very serious thing to lack one thing, but this passage teaches us that to lack one thing may be fatal. The one; siting he lacked was a supreme love for Jesus Christ. He was willing to do much at Jesus’ bidding, but not anything and everything. There was one thing he loved more than Jesus and that he was not willing to give up at Jesus’ bidding. Our Lord’s purpose in bidding him sell what he had and give to the poor was to bring him to see this. Money was his idol, so the Lord put His finger upon that. But the spirit o f Jesus’ command holds for all His disciples (Luke 14:33). O urXord usually calls upon those who would come after Him to give up something. Love to Him makes it easy to give up anything for Him (2 Cor. 5:14, 15). The young man was told that if he obeyed he would have “treasure in heaven.” That is infinitely the best place to have treasure (Matt. 6:19, 20). He was not merely to sell all, but “ come, follow me.” The selling all was simply preparatory to this (1 Cor, 13:3). He was very “ sorrow ful.” It was not so much that he had “great possessions,” the “great posses sions” had him. By turning away from Jesus rather than give up his earthly treasures, he lost eternal treasures and lost his, soul. And he did not keep the treas ures he chose very long.- The young man desired eternal life, but he desired money more, a bad choice. The reason why any man fails o f eternal life is because there is something he desires more. Tuesday, February 8 . Luke 18 : 24 - 30 . Our Lord took occasion from the case o f thil young man who had great posses sions, to point out the perils o f riche* (cf. Prov. 30:8, 9 ; Matt. 13:22; 1 Tim. 6:9, 10). Most men are willing to take the risk, and many men have lost their souls by taking the risk. The world is full of illustrations o f the truth o f this state-
ciency, must rule in our hearts if the door o f the kingdom is to open to us (cf. 1 Cor. 14:20; 1 Peter 1:14; Matt. 6:31; 11:25; 1 Peter 2 :2 ; Eph. 5:1 ). There are other respects in which we should not be like children (1 Cor. 14:20; Eph. 4:14). Sunday, February 6 . Luke 18 : 18 - 20 . The young man who came to Jesus had great possesions,' position, culture, exemp lary morality, a noteworthy amiability (Mark 10:21), intense earnestness (Mark 10:17), undoubted Sincerity (Mark 10:17-21), great moral courage (Mark 10:17), recognized piety, noble aspiration, benevolence. Yet all these things together did not save him. They will not save any one. The question that he put to the Lord implied that eternal life is obtained by something we do, but no man ever obtained life by doing (Gal. 2:16). Life must be received as “a free gift” (Rom. 6:23, R. V .). JesuS by His reply, “Why callest thou me good?” (see R. V. and Mark 10:18, R. V .) did not mean to imply ^that He was not good (John 8:46; 14:30; 8:29), but He saw the young man had no deep sense o f the force o f his own words. To say He was good was to say He was God, for no man is good, but that He was God the young man did not see. He was super ficial and Jesus sought to bring him to a recognition o f his superficiality. Jesus sent the young man to the law because he sought life by doing. The law is the thing to do if man is to get life by doing; but no man has ever kept the law, so the law serves to shut a man’s mouth, not to save him (Rom. 3:19, 20). What this young man needed was to have his mouth stopped and his pride laid in the dust. Jesus always sends the self-confident to the law. Those who know that they are sinners He sends to the Gospel (1 Tim. 1:15). Monday, February 7 . Luke 18 : 21 - 33 . The young ruler replied, “All these things have I observed from my youth up.” In this, though he was entirely hon est, he was thoroughly mistaken. It did
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