Jesus meets a rich man

¹⁶ One day a man came to Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked. ‘What good thing must I do so that I can live with God for ever?’

¹⁷ Jesus replied, ‘Why do you ask me about a good thing? Only God is good. Nobody else. If you want to have real life, then you must obey God's laws.’

¹⁸ The man asked Jesus, ‘Which laws must I obey?’

So Jesus replied, ‘Do not kill anyone. Do not have sex with anyone who is not your wife. Do not rob anyone. Do not say things that are not true about people. ¹⁹ Love your father and your mother and obey them. Love other people as much as you love yourself.’

²⁰ ‘I have always obeyed these laws,’ the young man replied. ‘What else must I do?’

²¹ Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be completely good, then you must do this: You must sell everything that you have. Then give the money to poor people. If you do that, you will have many valuable things in heaven. Then come back and be my disciple.’

²² When the young man heard this, he went away. He was not happy. He was feeling sad because he was a very rich man.

¹⁸ Your ancestors lived in a way that did not make them really happy. That is the way that you learned to live as well. But now God has saved you from that way of life. You know that he has bought you for himself. He did not buy you with things that do not continue for ever, like silver or gold.

¹⁴ So, those people who become God's children are human. They have human bodies. Because of that, Jesus himself became human like us. In that way, when he died he was able to destroy the Devil. It is the Devil who has power over death. ¹⁵ Before, we were like slaves all our lives because we were afraid of death. But now, Jesus' death makes us free.

¹⁴ This time, I will send all my troubles to punish you. I will send them against you, your officers and your people. I want you to know that there is nobody as great as me in the whole earth. That is why I am doing this.