Jesus looking at him loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, taking up the cross.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 21. Loved him. We need understand no more by this, than that Christ gave him some marks of his tenderness for him, and for all men by his kind instructions, and invitations to a good and perfect life. Witham.—It is worthy of inquiry, how that could happen which the evangelist here mentions, how Jesus could love this young man; when, as it is here related, he did not follow the admonitions given him by Jesus Christ. The reason is, Christ loved him for his past behaviour, and his strict observance of the old law. Saint John Chrysostom in S. Thom. Cat. aur.