Matthew 19:16-22 Young, Wealthy, and Confused
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: May 28, 2019 Matthew 19:16-22
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
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.
(Understanding the Text) The first thing that strikes me is that Jesus is not telling the young man anything that he does not already know through the scriptures. The part that the young man lacked was also from the scriptures. Most of the prophets were constantly speaking of treating the poor well. There were also examples of prophets calling a follower, and the follower immediately leaving everything behind to follow the prophet. The example that comes to my mind is Elisha and Elijah. The young rich man knew that Jesus was not just asking him to give to the poor. That’s what we focus on all the time here, but this was the calling of a prophet to a follower. The young man was not rejecting giving to the poor. The young man was unwilling to follow God with every part of himself. He was unwilling for his life to be transformed into something new and scary and different. He was unwilling to leave the security of his riches to follow a poor rabbi even though he had been convicted that this rabbi spoke for God.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) The young man starts out with the wrong question. He asks, “what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” There is no good deed that we can do to have eternal life. Our righteousness is like filthy rags. Even one sin deserves death, and all have sinned. There is nothing that we can do to make up for our past mistakes. This question reflected the heresy that had sprung up among the Jews by the time Jesus arrived. They had forgotten that they were living as a nation because God had chosen them while they were still slaves. They had forgotten that even when they were adulterous, God still loved them and took them back. They were trying to reform themselves so that they could earn God’s favor. Their ancestors had known that God’s favor was His “hesed” for them, and their ancestors had security in knowing that God loved them just because that was the way God was. They had created a new picture of God where they had to be oh so careful not to offend Him because He was easily offended and quick to anger. In their mind, God was capricious and could turn around and punish them at any moment. Essentially, they were worshipping Caesar even while they denied it. They had recreated God into the image of Rome. This is what people today do also. Their image of God reflects their image of their government. They equate patriotism with God. Instead, of our government being a poor reflection of God, they make God into an image of what they think the government is. Many Americans have made America into their God, and that’s why they are outraged when others disrespect their image of the U.S.
It’s interesting that the commandments that Jesus told the young man to keep to have eternal life were only the ones that dealt with loving other people. The young man claimed to have dealt with other people fine, so then Jesus dealt with the first four by simply asking the man to give up everything and follow Him. Commands 1-4 are all about giving all of ourselves to God. We put Him first and reject anyone or anything that would come between us and Him; we respect Him and spend time with Him. Jesus was asking the young man to obey the first four commands, and the young man could not, which shows that he was also not truly obeying the last six since they are dependent on loving God.
The question was what good deed can I do to inherit eternal life, and God’s answer is that the only good deed is to spend time with Him and love Him and put Him first in your heart. God’s answer is that the good deed is to have a relationship with God. The answer also points out that spending time doing good to others is not enough. We have to be willing to spend time being with God and following Him around. Without a relationship with God that includes putting Him first in our lives, doing good to others is meaningless.
(Application / Prayer) My application to myself is that I have to stop myself from falling into the mentality that says I need to try to be worthy of your love by doing something. I can never be worthy of Your love, but You already love me without me being worthy. You want me to spend time with You, and I need to make the effort of being with You. I judge the rich young man, but how many times have You called me to be with You and I just didn’t feel like it? I have far less excuse than he did. I’m sorry.