Luke 18:11-24

¹¹The Pharisee stood and prayed silently, ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men. Some extort money from others; some treat others unjustly; some commit adultery. I do not do such things. And I am certainly not like this tax collector who cheats people!

¹²Our law says that we(exc) should ◄fast/abstain from food► once a week, but I do more than that. I fast twice a week! I give you ten percent of all that I earn!’

¹³But the tax collector stood far from the other people in the Temple courtyard because he felt very unworthy. He would not even look up toward heaven. Instead, he beat on his chest to show that he was sorry for his sin. He said, ‘God, I am a sinner; be merciful to me and forgive me!’”

¹⁴Then Jesus said, “I tell you (pl) that as the tax collector went home, the record of his sins was erased { God erased the record of his sins}, not that of the Pharisee. Remember this: Those who exalt themselves will be humbled { God will humble all those who exalt themselves}, but those who humble themselves will be exalted { he will exalt those who humble themselves}.”

¹⁵One day when many people were coming to Jesus, they were also bringing small children. They wanted him to put his hands on the children and bless them. When the disciples saw that, they rebuked those who were bringing those children.

¹⁶But Jesus called the children to come to him. He said to his disciples, “Let the children come to me! Do not stop them! It is people who are humble and trusting like they are who can experience God ruling their lives.

¹⁷Note this: Those who do not trust God and allow him to direct their lives, as children do, will not enter the MET place where God rules.”

¹⁸A Jewish leader asked Jesus, “Good teacher, what shall I do in order to have eternal life?”

¹⁹Jesus said to him, “Only God is good! No one else is good! ◄So you(sg) should consider carefully what you are implying by calling me good!/ Do you realize that you are implying that I am God by calling me good?► RHQ

²⁰But to answer your question, you (sg) know the commandments that God gave Moses. He commanded such things as ‘do not commit adultery, do not commit murder, do not steal, do not testify falsely about what you have seen or heard, honor your father and mother.’”

²¹The man said, “I have obeyed all those commandments ever since I was young. So ◄ there must be something else I have not done./is that enough?►”

²²When Jesus heard him say that, he replied to him, “There is one thing that you (sg) have not done yet. Sell all that you own. Then give the money to poor people. The result will be that you will have spiritual riches in heaven. Then come and be my disciple!”

²³The man became sad when he heard that, because he was very rich and he did not want to give everything away.

²⁴Jesus looked at the man as he left, and said, “It is very difficult for those who are wealthy to decide to let God rule MET their lives.