Charles Spurgeon Commentary Matthew 19:21

"Jesus said unto him, If thou wouldest be perfect, go, sell that which thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me." — Matthew 19:21 (ASV)

Our Lord brings him to the test of the first table of the law: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” If he did this, he would be willing, at a divine command, to part with his property, even as Abraham was ready to offer up his son. Our Lord Jesus, as God, claimed from him an unusual sacrifice. Did he love God sufficiently to make it?

The command of our Lord was a challenge to self-righteousness to prove its own profession. We may also regard it as putting his profession to have loved his neighbor as himself on trial. Did he love the poor as well as himself? If so, it would be no hardship to sell his possessions and give to the poor.

We must not infer that Jesus would have all his followers part with all that they have. It was a test for this one man: “If thou wilt be perfect.”

Still, if we love our possessions more than we love God, we are idolaters; and if we hug our property so as to let the poor hunger, we cannot be said to love them as ourselves. We have heard of persons claiming to be perfect and yet retaining possession of hundreds of thousands of pounds, and we have doubted their perfection. Was there not a cause?

Compassion for poverty, zeal for the truth, and love of doing good will hardly allow any Christian to own enormous riches. At any rate, such wealthy ones will find it hard to render an account at the last great day.

We must love Jesus and His great cause better than our wealth, or else we are not His true followers. If our religion were ever put to the great test of fierce persecution, and we had to part with all our property or part with Christ, hesitation would be fatal.