We are to Constantly Compare Ourselves Only to the Messiah, Yahushua

The King James Version (KJV) is mostly used in these lessons. Click here to access the KJV online.

So, what happened next in Mark’s account of the events? The rich young ruler responds in Mark 10:20 - "Teacher I have kept all these things from my youth." Yahushua had cited certain commandments that deal with person-to-person relationships, because those were the commandments the young man needed the most. As a major point in this lesson, it is crucial to note here that Yahushua did not quote ‘do not covet’ in the list at [Ex.20:17; Deut.5:21] and we must ask – why not? The answer is that Yahushua knew the young man's heart and life, so He hit it where it needed to be hit. It could be that the rich young ruler apparently had no problem with covetousness!

However, as we will examine below, there are other possibilities as to why Yahushua deliberately replaced ‘not to covet’ with ‘selling all and giving to the poor.’

We all have struggles with some commandments while with others it is smooth sailing. There are commandments that we find very easy to obey and in these areas we are not even tempted. Sometimes we like to focus only on those commandments because it makes us feel good. But it's not those that we need to focus on. It is the ones that we struggle to keep that we need to focus on. It's the ones that we struggle with that we need to hear preached to us so that we rise to greater and greater levels of conviction and holiness and sanctification before our Creator. We don't want to feel good because we compare ourselves with somebody else that we know. We are to constantly compare ourselves only to the Messiah Yahushua and make sure that we are walking the walk and not just talking with our words.

So, this young man told Yahushua that he'd been keeping all of these commandments since he was little. Mark 10: 21 says - then looking at him Yahushua loved him and said to him - you lack one thing, go and sell all you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven, then come and follow me.

Now we see how this fits in with almsgiving. This is the part we must focus in on - the giving to the poor. What is it that the rich young ruler lacked? It had something to do with his treatment of the poor, that's what he lacked. It is possible that he believed he had followed perfectly the commandments to love his neighbor since he was little. However, in actuality Yahushua knew that he had deceived himself because he was stingy towards the poor.

There are many commandments in the Torah that speak of taking care of the poor, the widows, the orphans, the foreigners that join themselves to the nation of Israel. In Leviticus 19, an Israelite was not even allowed to harvest everything that he planted in his field, he had to leave the borders for the poor. Deuteronomy 24 says that when an Israelite would knock olives from the tree or gather the grapes out of a vineyard, he could make only one pass. Whatever was left over, or that grew after he had harvested, he was to leave for the poor. So, for Yahushua to tell this man to give to the poor was not out of line with keeping Torah. But to sell everything that he had - that sounds a bit extreme. It sounds extreme to sell everything you have and give the money to the poor.