The Rich Young Ruler – Part 1 — Meet a Sinner?

 ¹⁷ As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”   ¹⁸ “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’^[a]”²⁰ “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

I am often bewildered by my Christian counterparts that rely upon their own goodness through some sort of “witness by being”.   The “churchy” term is your Christian witness.  They tell stories of non-Christian co-workers who are living these horrible lives and how they hope that their example will mean something.  And, I suppose that it may.

My friends who are not actively in a relationship with Jesus are loyal, creative, smart, non-gossipy friends.  They are active in their community, they are friendly, they have great kids that they love, they have great moral values, and they are charitable.  Basically, they look like everything that I aspire to be as a Christian.  Often, you couldn’t single them out in a crowd as a “non-believer” except that their lives appear to be more “moral” than many Christians.

Certainly, my life offers little example for how to be a “good” person in comparison to theirs.  I’m still learning what that means through some of their examples.

Likewise, Jesus found himself with a lost person who looked on the outside like the finest of all Christians.  He was well-dressed, well-received by the community, and lived a moral life.  He’d look great in almost any pew in America and would probably have been nominated to be a Sunday School teacher or deacon.

The challenge:  how do you share Christ with a person who has it together?  Jesus knew that the man was a really “good” man and pointed him to God.

How do you measure up?  Do you find it challenging to share Jesus with your friends who have all of the Christian moral values without the connection to Jesus?

Dear God, Help us realize that many people need Jesus.  Many of them look just like me, and I can’t live a life good enough to point them to Jesus.  I can, however, point them to the one who is good, my God and Savior Jesus Christ.