The young man said to him, “I have kept all these from my childhood. What do I still lack?”
In this verse, the young man’s answer shows self-confidence and a sense of moral righteousness. He says, “I have kept all these from my childhood,” that is, he considers the keeping of the commandments—the outward instructions Jesus listed—to be an accomplished fact. Yet this statement, though it outwardly expresses obedience, in reality testifies to an inner spiritual blindness. It is as if he were saying, “I have not rebelled against the law, I have broken no prohibition, therefore I must deserve eternal life.” But immediately his next question, “What do I still lack?” unintentionally reveals that, despite all his outward observances, he still feels something is missing. This is the stifled voice of the heart that has understood that the soul does not find peace by keeping commandments alone. Thus, the young man’s words simultaneously contain both self-righteousness and the soul’s unrest: could there be something he still does not have? Next, Jesus will focus precisely on that lack and will show that the issue is not the formal fulfillment of the law, but the young man’s heart being bound to his possessions, as well as the absence of love and devotion.