Luke 18:18

18-30. The Great Refusal. The Young Ruler who loved Riches more than Christ.

18. a certain ruler St Matthew (Matthew 19:20) only calls him "a young man." He was probably the young and wealthy ruler of a synagogue. The touch added by St Mark (Luke 10:17), that he suddenly ran up and fell on his knees before Him, seems to imply that he was eager to catch the opportunity of speaking to Jesus before He started on a journey, probably the journey from the Peraean Bethany, beyond Jordan (John 10:41-42), to the Bethany near Jerusalem, to raise Lazarus.

Good Master This title was an impropriety, almost an impertinence; for the title -good" was never addressed to Rabbis by their pupils. Therefore to address Jesus thus was to assume a tone almost of patronage. Moreover, as the young Ruler did not look on Jesus as divine, it was to assume a false standpoint altogether.

what shall I do to inherit eternal life? In St Matthew the question runs, -what goodthing shall I do?" Here, again, the young ruler betrays a false standpoint, as though -eternal life" were to be won by quantitative works, or by some single act of goodness, by doingand not by being.It was indeed the fundamental error of his whole class. Romans 9:32.