Mark 10:21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said to him, One thing you lack: go your way, sell whatever you have, and give to the poor… The lack of one thing may make void the presence of all things else. Lacking its mainspring — which is but one thing — a watch with jewels, wheels, pinions, and beautiful mechanism, the finest watch indeed that ever was made, is of no more use than a stone. A sundial without its gnomon, as it is called, Time's iron finger that throws its shadow on the circling hours — but one thing also — is as useless in broad day as in the blackest night. A ship may be built of the strongest oak, with masts of the stoutest pine, and manned by the best officers and crew; but I sail not in her if she lacks one thing — that trembling needle which a child running about the deck might fancy a toy; on that plaything, as it looks, the safety of all on board depends — lacking that, but one thing, the shin shall be their coffin, and the deep sea their grave. It is thus with true piety, with living faith. That one thing wanting, the greatest works, the costliest sacrifices, and the purest life, are of no value in the sight of God. Still further, to impress you with the valuelessness of everything without true piety, and to show how its presence imparts such worth to a believer's life and labours as to make his mites weigh more than other men's millions, and his cup of cold water more precious than their cups of gold — let me borrow an illustration from arithmetic. Write down a line of ciphers. You may add thousands, multiplying them till the sheets they fill cover the face of earth and heaven; yet they express nothing, and are worth nothing. Now take the smallest number of the ten, the smallest digit, and place that at their head — magic never wrought such a change! What before amounted to nothing rises instantly by the addition of one figure, one stroke of the pen, into thousands, or millions, as the case may be; and whether they represent pounds or pearls, how great is the sum of them! Such power resides in true faith — in genuine piety. It may be the lowest piety, but one degree above zero; it may be the love of smoking flax, the hope of a bruised reed, the faith of a mustard seed, the hesitating, fluttering confidence of him who cried, "Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief." Still, so soon as it is inwrought by the Spirit of God, it changes the whole aspect of a man's life, and the whole prospect of his eternity. It is that one thing wanting which, however amiable, moral, and even apparently religious we may be, our Lord addresses us, as He did the young ruler, saying, "One thing thou lackest." (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me. |
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