Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
” In the parallel accounts, this ruler is referred to as a rich young ruler. Some speculate that this was Paul (or Saul), but there is absolutely no way to know. Whoever he was, he was young, he was rich, life was going great for him. You should know that in Jewish society, the rich were considered to be blessed by God. I guess this is true in almost any society. Even in church, we sometimes think that the people with the most money must have God on their side somehow. We sometimes get to thinking that the rich people are the spiritual people, and if we just somehow get rid of a certain sin in our life, God might pour out money and riches upon us too. That may not be what you think – especially if you know some rich Christians – but this was the way Jewish society viewed the rich. And so this man, because he was rich at such a young age, was viewed by many to have it all together. They would consider him to have been very obedient to the law for God to have blessed him so abundantly. A
