Please read the passage before the commentary.
“Keeping the Ten Commandments is not enough!” That sounds provocative. Jesus said that one thing was lacking, that sell what we have and give to the poor and, after all that, to follow him. Elsewhere it is written “that this people honors me with their lips but their hearts are far from me.”
What must I do to attain eternal life? What must you do to attain eternal life? What must we all do to attain eternal life? In the book of Deuteronomy (6:4-5) it is written, “The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.”
One can not kill, not steal, not commit adultery, and still not commit oneself to God totally. Keeping the commandments should be a sign of our commitment to God, not a substitute for it.
The rich man went away sad because he had many gods, gods who strengthened his ego, his reputation, his standing the community. What would his standing in the community be if he were poor and had no property? What would our standing be if we had no money and no property? Having no property means having nothing we can all what is proper to us, owned and used only by us, not by the community. Having no property means being dependent on others’ generosity.
The Lord’s teaching is that we become dependent on God alone without having cares for anything else. We follow the poor Jesus, the rich God who became poor to make us rich.
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