Luke 18:21
“All these I have kept from my youth,” he said.
BSB
ASV
And he said, All these things have I observed from my youth up.
KJV
And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.
(in Matt. 19:19.) The young man speaks false, for if he had fulfilled that which was afterwards placed among the commandments, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, how was it that when he heard, Go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, he went away sorrowful?
1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1858)
The story we have now read is three times reported in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark and Luke were all moved by the Holy Spirit to record the history of the rich young ruler. This fact should be noticed. It shows us that there are lessons before us which demand special attention. When God would impress on Peter his duty towards the Gentiles, He sent him a vision which was repeated "three times." (Acts 10:16.) We learn, firstly, from these verses — to what lengths men may go in self-ignorance.
Ah! this gives us a glimpse of his heart. Doubtless he was perfectly sincere; but something within whispered to him that his keeping of the commandments was too easy a way of getting to heaven. He felt something beyond this to be necessary; after keeping all the commandments he was at a loss to know what that could be; and he came to Jesus just upon that point.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Luke 15:7In the same way, I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent.
leads to
In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
But it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices more over that one sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.
There is a generation of those who are pure in their own eyes and yet unwashed of their filth.
Through
Philippians 3:6as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in the law, faultless.
leads to
For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how severely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.
But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
So then, I too was convinced that I ought to do all I could to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.