There are people misunderstand the requirement of salvation because of the story of the rich young man (19:16-30). One principle of interpretation is that use the clear teaching to interpret the harder teaching. In this story, it looks like Jesus is promoting salvation by work (19:16). Some people think the requirement of salvation is to forsake everything (19:21). However, we have clear teaching on justification by faith alone in the New Testament. So, it cannot be the meaning of the story.
The main point of this story is 19:25-26. This young man believed salvation is by work (19:16), so Jesus answered his question in his term. By asking him 6th-9th commandment, Jesus wanted him to realize he fell short of God’s standard. But this young man boldly asserted he had followed all the commandments. Now, Jesus was challenging with the 10th commandment (“Thou shall not covet”) by asking him to forsake everything. This young man left away sad because he loved his possession more than God. 19:25-26 is the intended response of the story: Who then can be saved? Jesus wanted us to know we cannot save ourselves but God can.
My sharing: Matthew put the church discipline (18:15-20) and our responsibility to forgive (18:21-35) side by side. It tells me that church discipline is not a way of personal revenge. In fact, we should always forgive those people who offend us. Church exercises discipline is for the purpose of restoration.
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