Matthew 19:21

εἰ θέλες τέλειος εἶναι (on τέλειος vide Matthew 5:48): if you wish to reach your end, the true life and the rest it brings. ὕπαγε, etc.: go, sell off, distribute to the poor, and then come, follow me such is the advice Christ gives: His final lesson for this inquirer. It is a subjective counsel relative to the individual. Jesus sees he is well-to-do, and divines where the evil lies. It is doubtful if he cares passionately, supremely for the true life; doubtful if he be τέλειος in the sense of single-mindedness. It is not a question of one more thing to do, but of the state of the heart, which the suggestion to sell off will test. The invitation to become a disciple is seriously meant. Jesus, who repelled some offering themselves, thinks so well of this man as to desire him for a disciple. He makes the proposal hopefully. Why should so noble a man not be equal to the sacrifice? He makes it with the firm belief that in no other way can this man become happy. noblesse oblige. The nobler the man, the more imperative that the heroic element in him have full scope. A potential apostle, a possible Paul even, cannot be happy as a mere wealthy merchant or landowner. It is “a counsel of perfection,” but not in the ascetic sense, as if poverty were the sure way to the higher Christian life; rather in the sense of the adage: of him to whom much is given shall much be required.