22 When Jesus heard these things, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me."
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Now when Jesus heard these things,.... That he had kept all these commandments, and that ever since he was a child, and to that very time:
he said unto him, yet lackest thou one thing; not but that he lacked many other things, and even every thing: for he had performed no one thing as it should be: but Christ said, partly in answer to his pert question, "what lack I yet?" and partly by an ironical concession, granting he had kept them all, as he had said, yet one thing was wanting; and chiefly with a view to mortify his pride and vanity:
sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me; See Gill on Matthew 19:21.
lackest . . . one thing--Ah! but that a fundamental, fatal lack.
sell, &c.--As riches were his idol, our Lord, who knew if from the first, lays His great authoritative grasp at once upon it, saying, "Now give Me up that, and all is right." No general direction about the disposal of riches, then, is here given, save that we are to sit loose to them and lay them at the feet of Him who gave them. He who does this with all he has, whether rich or poor, is a true heir of the kingdom of heaven.
Yet lackest thou one thing - Namely, to love God more than mammon. Our Saviour knew his heart, and presently put him upon a trial which laid it open to the ruler himself. And to cure his love of the world, which could not in him be cured otherwise, Christ commanded him to sell all that he had. But he does not command us to do this; but to use all to the glory of God.
*More commentary available at chapter level.