Which?

Matthew 19:18-19 - And he said to [Jesus], "Which?" Jesus replied, "Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself."

It seems our man is not satisfied with Jesus' answer. He asks for more detail: which commandment(s) must I keep. As if there was a loophole only Jesus knew about. All of them! There were some loopholes, but there are usually self-defense type situations. If a man invades your house, you're allowed to defend yourself and your family. But this is a hypothetical situation the man is not talking about. He wants to know which commandment (in particular?) will get him to heaven - eternal life. He's focused not on caring about others or the plight of the less fortunate, but only on himself.

Which commandment(s) will I have to keep to get eternal life? This is a wrong question on top of a wrong question. He did not have ears to hear the truth underlying Jesus' words 0 there is no one thing we can do to inherit eternal life. However, we must act and since actions arise from our hearts and minds, we must begin by recognizing our own motives. Recognizing that other people matter too. There is an attitude required - an attitude of love - for God, for ourselves, for others. We can begin by changing our attitudes or our actions. Changed attitudes lead to changed actions lead to changed attitudes ... ad infinitum. If we choose to follow love we will naturally begin to "keep the commandments" and if we choose to "keep the commandments" we will naturally begin to love.

Some of us require more radical actions in order to change our hearts and minds. As we will see, this man is one of the (us).
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