Luke 18:18-30

¹⁸Just then a certain prominent citizen came and asked Jesus, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’

¹⁹Jesus replied, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good, except God himself. ²⁰You know God’s commandments: “You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not tell lies about others. Honour your father and mother.”’

²¹The man said, ‘I’ve kept all those commandments since I was a young man.’

²²When Jesus heard this, he told him, ‘If you really want to follow me, one thing is still missing in your life. You’ve got to go and sell everything you have and give away the money you receive to the poor: then you’ll have heavenly wealth. Then come and follow me.’

²³But when the man heard this, he felt completely miserable, because he was extremely rich. The demands of following Jesus were too challenging for him.     

²⁴Then Jesus looked at him and, noticing the man’s intense disappointment, said, ‘How difficult it is for rich people to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵I say this because it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. In fact, it’s impossible!’

²⁶Those who heard this were shocked and surprised because they thought that being rich was a sign of God’s blessing. They asked, ‘If it’s impossible for rich people, who then can be saved?’

²⁷But Jesus answered, ‘What is humanly speaking impossible is possible with God! No one can save themselves; only God can.’

²⁸Peter responded on behalf of all the apprentices, ‘Look, how about us? We’ve left everything we owned to follow you! What reward will we receive then?’

²⁹Jesus told them, ‘I assure you, everyone who has left their home, wife, brothers, parents or children because of the kingdom of God ³⁰will not lose out but will receive abundantly more in this age and then eternal life in the future age. I promise you that your reward will more than make up for all the sacrifices you’ve made.’