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.
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘What I say is true. It is very difficult for rich people to let God rule in their lives. 24 The hole in a needle is very small. A camel cannot go through it! But I tell you, it is even more difficult than that for a rich person to let God rule in their life.’
25 When the disciples heard this, they were even more surprised. They said, ‘So perhaps God will not save anyone!’
26 Jesus looked at them and he replied, ‘For people, it really is impossible. But God can do it. God can do everything.’
27 Peter said to Jesus, ‘Look! We have left everything that we had. Now we are your disciples. What will we receive because we have done this?’
28 Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you this: One day God will cause all things to become new. I, the Son of Man, will sit on my great throne as King and I will rule that new world. You who are my disciples will also sit like kings on thrones. You will judge the people of the 12 tribes of Israel. 29 Some people have left their homes. Or they may have left their brothers or sisters. Or they may have left their mother or their father. Or they may have left their wife or their children or their fields. They have done that because of me. God will give those people many more things than they have left behind, even 100 times more! And after they die, they will live for ever with God. 30 But many people who are very important now will become the least important. And many people who are not important now will become very important then.’
