¹⁶ And behold, there came a man up to Him, saying, Teacher, what excellent and perfectly and essentially good deed must I do to possess eternal life?^(A)

¹⁷ And He said to him, Why do you ask Me about the perfectly and essentially good? There is only One Who is good [perfectly and essentially]—God. If you would enter into the Life, you must continually keep the commandments.

¹⁸ He said to Him, What ^[a]sort of commandments? [Or, which ones?] And Jesus answered, You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,^(B)

¹⁹ Honor your father and your mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself.^(C)

²⁰ The young man said, I have observed all these from my youth; what still do I lack?

²¹ Jesus answered him, If you would be perfect [that is, ^[b]have that spiritual maturity which accompanies self-sacrificing character], go and sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; and come, ^[c]be My disciple [side with My party and follow Me].

²² But when the young man heard this, he went away sad (grieved and in much distress), for he had great possessions.

²³ And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [^[a]disown himself, ^[b]forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, ^[c]refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [^[d]cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].

²⁴ For whoever would preserve his life and save it will lose and destroy it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he will preserve and save it [^[e]from the penalty of eternal death].