The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
A wealthy young man has just approached Jesus with a sincere question about what he must do to have eternal life. Jesus responds by listing several of the commandments — don't murder, don't commit adultery, don't steal, don't lie, honor your parents, love your neighbor. The young man's reply is striking: he says he has kept all of these since he was a boy. What's remarkable is that Jesus doesn't dispute the claim. But the young man senses something is still missing — which is why he asks this question. It's a moment of unusual self-awareness: the religious checklist is complete, yet something still feels hollow. Jesus is about to tell him that the one thing he lacks is also the one thing he loves most — his wealth — and the young man will walk away unable to accept that answer.
Jesus, I want to be honest with you today — honest about what I'm holding onto and honest about the parts of my life I'm afraid you might ask me to release. Give me the courage this young man couldn't find. I don't want to walk away sad. Amen.
He had done everything right. Every box checked, every rule followed since childhood — and he still knew, somewhere underneath it all, that it wasn't enough. That's actually a rare and honest thing. Most people who have a full religious resume don't ask that question; they assume the resume is the point. This young man was asking with his whole chest, which is what makes what comes next so heartbreaking. The very sincerity that drove him to Jesus would also be what made the answer unbearable. There is a version of this question that lives quietly inside most sincere believers: *What do I still lack?* It's worth sitting with, seriously, rather than flinching away from it. Not as self-punishment — that kind of guilt usually circles back to being about us rather than about God — but as genuine, open-handed honesty. What if Jesus looked at your life today, affirmed everything good in it, and then pointed to one specific thing? The rich young man's tragedy wasn't that he asked the question. It was that he couldn't stay in the room long enough to live with the answer.
Why do you think the young man still felt something was missing, even after a lifetime of following the commandments faithfully?
Have you ever done everything 'right' spiritually and still felt a quiet sense of emptiness or incompleteness? What did that feel like, and what did you do with it?
Jesus takes the young man's claim of keeping all the commandments seriously without challenging it. What does that suggest about how Jesus regards sincere religious effort — even when something deeper is still needed?
Is it possible to love the rules more than the God behind them — to use religion as a way to feel secure without actually surrendering? What does that look like in real life?
If you were to genuinely ask Jesus 'What do I still lack?' right now — what do you honestly suspect he might say? What would you do with that answer?
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
Luke 18:11
I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.
Luke 18:12
Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Galatians 3:24
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing .
James 1:4
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Romans 3:23
So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
John 8:7
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
John 5:39
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
Luke 15:7
The young man said to Him, "I have kept all these things [from my youth]; what do I still lack?"
AMP
The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?”
ESV
The young man said to Him, 'All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?'
NASB
“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
NIV
The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?”
NKJV
“I’ve obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else must I do?”
NLT
The young man said, "I've done all that. What's left?"
MSG