And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
People have their own standards of goodness. A man’s mother might view him always as a good boy while those he hurts in life would argue otherwise. When asked, many would say that they themselves are basically good. They might cite to good deeds they have done to prove their position. They also might cite to all the bad things they have not done. Each of these measurements, however, is relative and truly arbitrary. Goodness is not a concept that humankind is to define. Goodness is not something that is native or natural to us. Goodness is evident in God’s character, not ours, and He defines it. This does not bode well for us.
The young rich man made quite a statement to Jesus. When told that perfect adherence to the Law would give him eternal life, he professed to have followed it perfectly. In saying this, he is stating that he is perfect. Then, Jesus challenges that claim by telling the young man to act as one who perfectly adheres to the Law. If he were perfect, he would relinquish his riches to provide for the poor. His response should have made him realize his imperfection. Parting with his possessions brought him sadness. The minor point is that he did not want to lose what he owned. The major point is that this attitude proved he was imperfect because he could not love his neighbor as himself.
We cannot do enough to prove the untrue assertion that we are good. All fall short. We might not even see how we fall short, but we do. The people in our lives who exhibit the most goodness are still not good. No one is sufficiently sweet, pure, generous, kind, loving, or compassionate to gain eternal life. One transgression is all it takes to fracture that picture of perfection. True goodness must be perfect because it must be good always, and only God can meet that standard. Let us thank him for that goodness. Father, we praise You for being always good, and we ask that You would keep us humble in recognizing that we are not.