Love and Truth

Steven’s Scribbles
“Love and Truth”
Mark 10:17-27


    When Jesus was asked by the “rich young ruler” what he must do to inherit eternal life, there are several things to notice. 1) He addresses His divinity. Jesus reminds Him that “No one is good except God alone,” but Jesus does not refute the fact that He is good. Therefore Jesus is showing this man, He is God. 2) Jesus reminds the man of the commandments. The keeping of God’s commandments is a show of love. While we live under the New Testament commands and not the Old Testament law (Rom. 7:1-7), this is still true today. “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). For one to claim they love God but don’t keep Jesus’ commandments makes them a liar (John 14:15). 3) Jesus loves the rich ruler by telling him the truth. When we lie to make people feel better, we are not showing them love. ‘Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack…’” (Mark 10:21). Did Jesus know how the man would respond? Yes, He is God. Yet, Jesus had to tell the truth for the man to choose to repent of his sins. The man chose to go away grieving and not obey the commands of the Lord. He chose to not reciprocate Jesus’ love. However, if we are going to love the way Jesus loved, it is necessary to tell people the truth. 4) The disciples were perplexed about the difficulty of a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus tells them, “With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27). We need to rejoice in this fact because we are all much wealthier than the man referred to in this biblical account. I love you all!


In His Service,
Steven Hugley