A trap question about divorce, a blessing on children the disciples tried to turn away, a rich and sincere young ruler who asks exactly the right question and cannot bring himself to accept the answer, and a promise wide enough to cover everything a rich man’s own wealth can never buy him — entrance into a kingdom that has nothing to do with what a person owns.
A study in Matthew 19 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 22 min read
What Therefore God Hath Joined Together
“And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan; And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.”
Matthew 19:1-2
Galilee is behind Him now; the road ahead leads to Jerusalem and the cross. But before that final journey is finished, the Pharisees have one more trap prepared — a question rabbinic schools of Jesus’s day were bitterly divided over.
“The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”
Matthew 19:3-6
“When the Pharisees afterward questioned Him concerning the lawfulness of divorce, Jesus pointed His hearers back to the marriage institution as ordained at creation. ‘Because of the hardness of your hearts,’ He said, Moses ‘suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.’”
Ellen G. White · Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 63
One rabbinic school taught that any dissatisfaction whatsoever qualified as lawful grounds for divorce; Jesus refuses to answer inside their framework at all, going back past Moses to Eden itself, where marriage was instituted before sin ever entered the world. The Pharisees press their own follow-up, assuming they have found the crack in His argument.
“They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”
Matthew 19:7-9
Moses’s law was a concession to a hardened people, not the ideal itself — a regulation of an existing evil, never a divine endorsement of it. Jesus restores the original standard rather than simply arbitrating between two rabbinic schools.
“Like every other one of God’s good gifts entrusted to the keeping of humanity, marriage has been perverted by sin; but it is the purpose of the gospel to restore its purity and beauty. In both the Old and the New Testament the marriage relation is employed to represent the tender and sacred union that exists between Christ and His people, the redeemed ones whom He has purchased at the cost of Calvary.”
Ellen G. White · Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 64
The disciples’ own reaction shows how radical this standard sounded against the backdrop of first-century custom, and Jesus’s closing words address a question they had never thought to ask.
“His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.”
Matthew 19:10-12
Jesus acknowledges, without condemning it, that some will forgo marriage entirely for the sake of undivided devotion to God’s work — a calling, not a command, and one He is careful to say is “given,” not self-imposed by human effort alone.
Suffer Little Children, And Forbid Them Not
“Then were there brought unto him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them, and departed thence.”
Matthew 19:13-15
The disciples’ instinct was to protect Jesus’s time from interruption; His own instinct ran the opposite direction entirely.
“When Jesus told the disciples not to forbid the children to come to Him, He was speaking to His followers in all ages,—to officers of the church, to ministers, helpers, and all Christians. Jesus is drawing the children, and He bids us, Suffer them to come; as if He would say, They will come if you do not hinder them.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 517
“The Saviour regards with infinite tenderness the souls whom He has purchased with His own blood. They are the claim of His love. He looks upon them with unutterable longing. His heart is drawn out, not only to the best-behaved children, but to those who have by inheritance objectionable traits of character.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 517
Every warning this site’s own study of Matthew 18 gave about causing “these little ones” to stumble has its positive counterpart here — not merely tolerance toward children, but active longing for them, whatever their temperament.
One Thing Thou Lackest
“He saw the love that Christ manifested toward the children brought to Him; he saw how tenderly He received them, and took them up in His arms, and his heart kindled with love for the Saviour. He felt a desire to be His disciple. He was so deeply moved that as Christ was going on His way, he ran after Him, and kneeling at His feet, asked with sincerity and earnestness the question so important to his soul and to the soul of every human being, ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 518
The scene with the children was not incidental to what happens next; it is the very thing that moved a wealthy young ruler to come running after Jesus in the first place.
“And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Matthew 19:16-19
Every commandment Jesus lists governs a person’s duty to others; the ruler answers with complete, apparently sincere confidence.
“The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.”
Matthew 19:20-22
“Only one thing he lacked, but that was a vital principle. He needed the love of God in the soul. This lack, unless supplied, would prove fatal to him; his whole nature would become corrupted. By indulgence, selfishness would strengthen. That he might receive the love of God, his supreme love of self must be surrendered.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 519
“But he was not ready to accept the Saviour’s principle of self-sacrifice. He chose his riches before Jesus. He wanted eternal life, but would not receive into the soul that unselfish love which alone is life, and with a sorrowful heart he turned away from Christ.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 393
He had kept the second table of the law with real integrity and still missed the first great commandment entirely — loving God with all his heart. His possessions were never the actual obstacle; they were only the specific test that finally exposed what he had loved most all along.
With God All Things Are Possible
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”
Matthew 19:23-26
“Now they realized that they themselves were included in the solemn warning. In the light of the Saviour’s words, their own secret longing for power and riches was revealed. With misgivings for themselves they exclaimed, ‘Who then can be saved?’ ‘Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.’”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 394
The disciples, poor fishermen by trade, had assumed this warning belonged to someone else’s category entirely — until they recognized their own hidden longing for wealth and power reflected in it. Peter, always first to speak, changes the subject to a question closer to home.
“Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.”
Matthew 19:27-30
“Peter was the first to rally from the secret conviction wrought by the Saviour’s words. He thought with satisfaction of what he and his brethren had given up for Christ. ‘Behold,’ he said, ‘we have forsaken all, and followed Thee.’ Remembering the conditional promise to the young ruler, ‘Thou shalt have treasure in heaven,’ he now asked what he and his companions were to receive as a reward for their sacrifices.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 395
“But Peter’s question, ‘What shall we have therefore?’ had revealed a spirit that uncorrected would unfit the disciples to be messengers for Christ; for it was the spirit of a hireling. While they had been attracted by the love of Jesus, the disciples were not wholly free from Pharisaism. They still worked with the thought of meriting a reward in proportion to their labor. They cherished a spirit of self-exaltation and self-complacency, and made comparisons among themselves. When one of them failed in any particular, the others indulged feelings of superiority.”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 396
Peter’s question earns a generous answer, not a rebuke — but the bookkeeping instinct behind it, weighing sacrifice against reward, is precisely the spirit Jesus spends His very next parable correcting, in a story this site’s own next study will take up from the beginning.
