Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 19:17

"And he said unto him, Why askest thou me concerning that which is good? One there is who is good: but if thou wouldest enter into life, keep the commandments." — Matthew 19:17 (ASV)

Why callest thou me good? — Here again, the older manuscripts give a different form to our Lord’s answer: Why do you ask Me concerning that which is good? There is One who is the Good. The alteration was probably made, as before, for the sake of agreement with the other Gospels. In either case, the answer has the same force. The questioner had lightly applied the word “good” to One whom he still regarded only as a human teacher and to an act which, it seemed to him, was in his own power to perform.

Therefore, what he needed was to be taught to deepen and widen his thoughts of goodness until they rose to Him in whom alone it is absolute and infinite. It is only through fellowship with Him that any teacher can rightly be called good, and only from Him can the power to do any good thing come.

Without irreverence, the method our Lord uses to lead him to that conclusion brings to mind how Socrates is said to have dealt with similar questioners. The comparison is fitting, both in the grave, sad irony of the process and in the self-knowledge that was its intended result.

Keep the commandments — The questioner is answered from his own point of view. If eternal life was to be won by doing, there was no need to come to a new Teacher for a new precept. It was enough to keep the commandments—the great moral laws of God, as distinct from ordinances and traditions (Matthew 15:3)—with which every Israelite was familiar.