Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁸ A ruler asked Jesus, `Good Teacher, what must I do so that I will live for ever?'

¹⁹ Jesus answered him, `Why do you call me good? Only one is good, and that is God.

²⁰ `You know the laws, "Do not commit adultery. [Do not take a man or woman who is not your husband or wife.] Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not tell lies. Respect your father and your mother." '

²¹ The man said, `I have kept all these laws since I was a boy.'

²² When Jesus heard that, he said to him, `You need one thing more. Sell everything you have. Give the money to poor people. You will be rich in heaven. Then come and go with me.'

²³ When the man heard that, he was sad because he was very rich.

²⁴ Jesus looked at him and said, `It is very hard for rich people to enter the kingdom of God!

²⁵ It is easier for a big animal like a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.'

²⁶ Those who heard it asked, `Then who can be saved?'

²⁷ But Jesus said, `God can do what men cannot do.'

²⁸ Peter said, `See, we have left all things and have come with you.'

³⁰ Jesus said to them, `I tell you the truth. If any man has left his house, or his wife, or his brothers, or his father, or his mother, or his children for the sake of the kingdom of God, he will receive many times as much as he has left. He will receive that in this world. And in the next world he will live for ever.'