²³ After he heard this, he became extremely sad, because he was very rich. (Luke 18:23 CSB)

What in this life could you not walk away from?

What holds such interest, such control, that you could not lay it down for Christ?

The rich young ruler had done everything scripture called for but Christ called for the one thing he could not let go of.

Nothing in our lives is so valuable or important that it should come between us and the Lord. I think that we intrinsically know this, yet we cling to the things of this life as if they could save us or are any true level of security.

When we allow anything in life to break our communion with God we are setting up idols. This is exactly what the rich young ruler did. Wealth was his idol. He could not bring himself to let go of the one thing that separated him from Christ. That which separates holds no lasting value. Only what we have and do for Christ has lasting value. Value that we take with us into eternity. Even if we are buried with our idols they will not save us from decay, they will not find us in eternity.