Here is the passage in question:
16And behold, one came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” 17And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18He said to him, “Which?” And Jesus said, **“You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” **20The young man said to him, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?” 21Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.
Note that Jesus had given him a way to enter eternal life…one that the man asserts he already does.
He then asks, “what do I still lack?”…and Jesus says “If you would be perfect” (the NAB says complete)… It is this reply that causes the man to go away sorrowful.
I don’t think that we can say that this passage shows using temperance incorrectly. If the young man had not asked the follow-up question there would have been no problem.
What he asked though was (IMHO) to go beyond “temperance” and more into asceticism.
Just some thoughts.
Peace
James
- I am the Lord your God, thou shalt have no other gods before me.
- Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
- Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day.
**4. Honor thy Father and thy Mother.
- Thou shalt not murder.
- Thou shalt not commit adultery.
- Thou shalt not steal.
- Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods
- Thou shalt not covet your neighbor’s wife.**
When the young man asks which commandments, Jesus lists all the commandments that relate to the treatment of our neighbors, but lists none of the commandments that deal with our relationship with God. The young man may have wondered at this, knowing that he kept these neighborly commandments well, and perhaps thinking he kept the Godly commandments well also. Yet Christ did not list these. That may be why he felt prompted to ask, “what do I lack?”
Christ’s answer was to tell the young man to sell his possessions and give them to the poor, and then to come and follow Him. It wasn’t the part about helping his neighbors that the young man found difficult, as he did well to keep these commandments. It was the part about letting go of his possessions and following Christ. The implication here is that the young man placed his possessions before Christ (breaking the first commandment).
As a side note, Christ actually establishes His Divinity in the passage by implying that to keep the first commandments could be done by following Him, and that not following Him would be a violation of the first commandments.
As regards temperance, the passage is mixed. Remember that the body, too, is a created good, and the young man was neither guilty of adultery, nor lusting after his neighbor’s wife. Thus, he has temperance
in some things, but
not all things. So, it wouldn’t be that he lacks the virtue of temperance entirely, nor that he “misuses” temperance. Rather, it is that he is temperate in some things, but not in others.
Note, the young man isn’t greedy, as greed tends to lead one to theft (even if that comes in the form of usury), but the young man is not guilty of this either. Rather, I would say that he is proud. He probably worked hard to acquire his possessions, of which they are great. He therefore has much of himself invested there, and letting go of his possessions would be akin to letting go of his pride, his own self and self-worth. In this sense, he’s not only placed his possessions before God, but also placed himself before God, as his possessions represent himself. “Following” Christ would mean placing himself back into his correct place among things, as being second, and not first.
I’m just glad you found it helpful.