Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 12:34

And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him [any question.]

34. discreetly ] “wysely,” Wyclif. The word only occurs here in the N.T., and denotes “with knowledge and understanding.”

Thou art not far ] The perception of Divine truth which his answer had shewed, revealed that he wanted but little to become a disciple of Christ. “Si non procul es, intra; alias prstiterit, procul fuisse.”

no man durst ] No other attempt was henceforth made to entangle the Redeemer by replies to subtle questions; “all alike kept aloof from one, from Whom chief priests and Rabbis equally went away humbled.” Some, however, would refer to this occasion the question respecting the woman taken in adultery (Joh 8:1-11).

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Mar 12:34

Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

Need of self-examination

There is great cause for every one of us diligently to try and examine our knowledge and faith in Christ, whether it be true, sound, and sincere; or whether it be an hypocritical and counterfeit faith, seeing one may be not far from the kingdom, and yet not in it. The rather, because so many deceive themselves with a vain persuasion and opinion of faith, thinking they have true faith in Christ, when it is not so. We are to try our faith by those marks of it, which are taught in the Word of God.

1. By the object of it. True faith believes and applies not only the promises of the gospel touching forgiveness of sins and salvation in Christ, but also all other parts of Gods Word, as the precepts and commandments of it forbidding sin and commanding holy duties, also the reproofs and threatenings denounced against sin and sinners.

2. By the means by which we attained to it, and by which it is daily nourished in us.

3. By the contrary sin of unbelief. Look whether thou feel and complain of thy unbelief, and doubtings of Gods mercy and forgiveness of thy sins in Christ, and whether thou daily pray and strive against such doubtings.

4. By the fruits and effects of it, especially by our hatred of sin, and care to avoid it, and to live holily. (G. Petter.)

Danger of this state

Among those who have turned out to be the most determined enemies of the gospel are many who once were so near conversion that it was a wonder they avoided it. Such persons seem ever after to take vengeance upon the holy influence which had almost proved too much for them. Hence our fear for persons under gracious impressions; for, if they do not now decide for God, they will become the more desperate in sin. That which is set in the sun, if it be not softened, will be hardened. I remember well a man who, under the influence of an earnest revivalist, was brought to his knees, to cry for mercy, in the presence of his wife and others; but never afterwards would he enter a place of worship, or pay attention to religious conversation. He declared that his escape was so narrow, that he would never run the risk again. Alas, that one should graze the gate of heaven, and yet drive on to hell! (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Nearly a Christian

After being twelve days on shipboard, I awakened in the morning and saw the American coast. The headlands seemed beautiful; even Sandy Hook seemed attractive. I was impatient to get on shore. It seemed as if we never would get free from quarantine, or get up the Narrows, or come to our friends who stood on the wharf waiting for us. I think that the most tedious part of a voyage is the last two or three hours. Well, there are many before me who are in the position I have described myself as once having been in. You have been voyaging on towards Christian life; you have found it a rough passage; a hurricane from Mount Sinai has smitten you, but now you see lighthouses, and you see buoys, and the great headlands of Gods mercy stretching out into the ocean of your transgression. You are almost ashore. I have come here tonight to see you land. You are very near being a Christian-Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. O that this might be the hour for your emancipation. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

Lost within sight of home

A Christian minister says: When after safely circumnavigating the globe, the Royal Charter went to pieces in Moelfra Bay, on the coast of Wales, it was my melancholy duty to visit and seek to comfort the wife of the first officer, made by that calamity a widow. The ship had been telegraphed from Queenstown, and the lady was sitting in the parlour expecting her husband, with the table spread for his evening meal, when the messenger came to tell her he was drowned. Never can I forget the grief, so stricken and tearless, with which she wrung my hand, as she said, So near home, and yet lost! That seemed to me the most terrible of sorrow. But, ah! that is nothing to the anguish which must wring the soul which is compelled to say at last, Once I was at the very gate of heaven, and had almost entered in, but now I am in hell!

Not quite saved is lost

Suppose you stop where you are, and go no further? Suppose you perish at the gate? Suppose I tell you that multitudes have come just where you are, and got no further? Do you know that to be almost saved is not to be saved at all? Suppose a man is going up a ladder and he slip, from what round had he better slip? If he slip from the bottom rung it is not half so perilous as if from the top. Suppose you are making an effort for eternal life, and you have come almost to the kingdom of heaven, and you fall-not quite saved, almost saved, very near the kingdom of God, not quite-but lost! A vessel came near the Long Island coast, and was split amid the breakers in a violent storm. They were within a stones throw of being saved, when a violent wave took the boat and capsized it, and they perished-almost ashore, but not quite. And there are men who are pulling away towards the shore of safety. Nearer and nearer they are coming. I can say to them tonight: Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. But you have not quite reached it. Alas! if you stop where you are, or if a wave of worldliness capsizes your soul, and you perish almost within arms reach of the kingdom! O do not stop where you are. Having come so near the kingdom of God, push on! push up! Will you tantalize your soul by stopping so near the kingdom of God? Will you come to look over the fence into the heavenly orchard, when you might go in and pluck the fruit? Will you sit down in front of the well curb, when a few more turns of the windlass might bring up the brimming buckets of everlasting life? (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

Not far off

The man to whom these words were addressed was a candid inquirer.

I. The characteristics of those who are not far from the kingdom.

1. They may possess considerable knowledge of Scripture.

2. They may make a candid confession of their belief.

3. They may have strong convictions of sin.

4. They may have a desire to amend their lives.

5. They may have partially reformed. They only need repentance and faith.

II. The reasons why they do not enter the kingdom.

1. Difficulties in the way.

2. Advantages in a middle course.

3. Belief that they are Christians already.

4. Reluctance to observe the needful conditions.

III. The inducements to enter.

1. The blessedness of those who do.

2. The misery of those who do not. (Seeds and Saplings.)

So near:

I. What are its marks?

1. Truthfulness of spirit.

2. Spiritual perception.

3. Acquaintance with the law.

4. Teachableness.

5. A sense of need of Christ.

6. A horror of wrongdoing.

7. A high regard for holy things.

8. Diligent attention to the means of grace.

II. What are its dangers? There is danger-

1. Lest you slip back from this hopefulness.

2. Lest you rest content to stop where you are.

3. Lest you grow proud and self-righteous.

4. Lest instead of candid you become indifferent.

5. Lest you die ere the decisive step is taken.

III. What are its duties?

1. Thank God for dealing so mercifully with you.

2. Admit with deep sincerity that you need supernatural help for entrance into the kingdom.

3. Tremble lest the decisive step be never taken.

4. Decide at once, through Divine grace. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

For the candid and thoughtful

I. The commendation which is here expressed.

1. He possessed candour.

2. He possessed spiritual knowledge.

3. He knew the superiority of an inward religion over that which is external.

4. He saw the supremacy of God over the whole of our manhood.

5. Yet he did not despise outward religion so far as it was commanded of God.

II. The question which is here suggested. This man came so near to the kingdom; did he ever enter it?

1. There is no reason why he should not have done so.

(1) His knowledge of the law might have taught him his inability to obey it.

(2) The presence of Christ might have drawn forth his love.

(3) His knowledge of sacrifices might have taught him their spiritual import.

(4) The Holy Spirit may have changed his heart.

2. But perhaps he never did enter the kingdom. If he did not enter, one of the reasons, no doubt, would be-that he was afraid of his fellow men. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Not far from Gods kingdom

I. We find many excellent people whose goodness is of a negative kind. By judicious management and advice of parents and teachers, they have grown up free from the grossest sins.

II. Another class of persons are fitted by the character of their minds, and the nature of their studies, to take an interest in Christianity and the Church from an intellectual point of view. But let such remember that religion is something more than correctness of intellect; it is a life-giving principle, regulating the will, as well as directing the creed.

III. A third class who, in disposition and habits are not far from the kingdom of God, may be described as the amiable.

IV. One other class which I shall speak of, as embracing many not far from the kingdom of God, is that of the generous and liberal spirited. (J. N. Norton, D. D.)

Not quite in time

To see a friend riding briskly away, by the time we have reached the door to deliver a parting message; to have the boat pushed off from the dock, while we are hurrying down to get on board. These small disappointments will serve as illustrations in greater things. (J. N. Norton, D. D.)

Indecision dangerous

I. Are there not many bearing the Christian name who, though not far from the kingdom of God, have never yet passed the boundary which separates them from the world

1. In this state there are those who have correct views of doctrinal truth without a spirit of devotion.

2. They are not far from the kingdom, but do not belong to that kingdom, who are the subjects of frequent and powerful convictions, yet have never been converted to God.

3. They are not far from the kingdom, but do not belong to it, who cultivate amiable tempers and agreeable manners, and yet are strangers to the influence and grace of the Divine Spirit.

II. Are there not some reasons to be assigned as causes why may of you continue so long go hover round the borders of the kingdom of God, yet never enter it? Your conduct carries in it a multitude of strange inconsistencies.

1. Your hovering still round the outer borders of the kingdom of God must be ascribed to a want of firm decision of mind.

2. It must be ascribed to a want of warm and loyal attachment to the blessed Immanuel, the Prince of life.

3. It must be ascribed to a want of true faith and humility.

III. While you continue without the boundary of the kingdom of God, at whatever point of nearness, is not your state a state of awful dancer? You are more liable to self-deception than vile profligates; you are commanded; you are in danger of attaching too much consequence to the soundness of your creed and strictness of your morals. Do not expect to glide into the kingdom without effort or hindrance.

1. You must press into the kingdom by casting off every incumbrance, and by forsaking every prejudice and passion which has a tendency to entangle and obstruct your progress.

2. You must press into the kingdom through all possible resistance. (J. Thornton.)

Not far from the kingdom

True praise never does harm; it softens and humbles. Yet this man belonged to a class which had no right to expect any indulgence at Christs hand. Christ sees the good points of the scribe. There is a kingdom of God in this world, and it has distinct boundary lines. What was there in the man which made Christ speak of him as near to the kingdom?

I. That the scribe spoke practically and sensibly, and without prejudice-as Christ expresses it, discreetly. Such a mind will always be approximating to the kingdom of truth.

II. There were further indications, in the particular thoughts which were in the scribes mind, that he was nearing the shores of truth. It is plain that he saw before his eyes the true, relative value of the types and ceremonies of the Jewish church. He recognized them as inferior to the great principles of truth and love. His mind had travelled so far as to see that the sum of all true religion is love to God and man. How is that love of God implanted in a mans breast? Will the beauties of nature do it? Will the kindnesses of Providence do it? Will the natural instincts of gratitude do it? I think not. There must be the sense of forgiveness. Within this he distinguished and magnified the unity of God. For there is one God, etc. The unity of God the argument for a unity of service.

III. And perhaps, still more than all, that enlightened Jew had been drawn near to the Person of Christ. Consequently he consulted Him as a Teacher. Do we not know that Christ is the kingdom of God, and that we are all in or out of that kingdom just according to what Christ is to us? To be indifferent to Him is to be very far off; to feel the need of Him is to be near.

IV. The most affecting of all possible conditions is a nearness which never enters. If I had to select the most awful passage in history, I should select the Israelites on the Canaanitish boundary-they saw, they heard, they tasted, they were on the eve to pass;-they disbelieved, they did not go in, they were sent back, and they never came near again; but their carcasses fell in the wilderness. It will be an unutterably solemn thing if Christ shall, at the last, say to any of us, Thou wast not far from the kingdom of God. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Critical hours

The kingdom of heaven is a certain condition of the human soul. Christ stands contrasted with the condition of selfishness, vulgarity, animalism. See how it comes directly out of the controversy here: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. The superior love of God is what we mean by spirituality-the fulness of thought, imagination, and feeling in the direction of the Infinite. We know how men divide themselves up, and live under the dominant influence of certain parts or faculties of their nature. One man lives under the dominion of his passions; another class of men build themselves into a power in which property and collateral influences shall be central. These dominant states in which men dwell will give us an idea of what it is to be in that condition in which Christ says men are not far from the kingdom of heaven. When a man has attained the higher spiritual state, then he is in the kingdom of God. Then his mind becomes luminous. The man comes into union with God, and discerns truths which in his lower state he never could discern. When, therefore, a man is said to be not far from the kingdom of God, he is where he can easily enter into these higher perceptions and conditions. There are a great many persons who are bordering on the kingdom of heaven even in this life. There are luminous hours given to most men, and especially to men of large brain and intelligence. Persons in vulgar conditions of life have certain hours given to them which they do not understand, but which render them susceptible of being drawn into the kingdom of heaven.

1. There are hours of vision in which men are under the direct stimulus of the preached truth.

2. Sometimes the same result is produced because they have seen the truth embodied somewhere. A man goes to a funeral, and comes home and says, That was a great man; I wish I were like him. I wish I were living on a higher plane.

3. There are times of awakening that are the result of great sorrows and affliction in some natures. When men see how uncertain is everything that pertains to life, they say, I ought to have an anchor within the veil.

4. When men are in great distress in their social relations there is oftentimes a luminous hour. I do not say that if men neglect the first impulse to change their course they will never have another; the mercy of God calls a great many times; but very likely they will not have another that is so influential. If, however, in such hours of disclosure, hours of influence, hours in which everything urges him toward a nobler and a better life, a man would ratify his impulse to go forward, even though at first he stagger on the journey, he would not be far from the kingdom of God; but if he waits, you may be sure that these hours will pass away and be submerged. That is where the real force comes in. All the civilized world sent out men to take an observation of the transit of Venus; and when the conjunction came it was indispensably necessary to the success of the undertaking that the very first contact should be observed. An astronomer who had devoted six months to preparation, and has gone out to take this observation, eats a heavy dinner and takes copious draughts of liquid to wash it down, and lies down, saying, Call me at the proper time, and goes to sleep; and by and by he is waked up and is told, The planet approaches, and, half conscious, he turns over and says, Yes, yes, yes, I will attend to it; but I must finish my nap first; and before he is aware of it the thing is all over, and he has thrown away the pains he has taken to prepare himself. It was important that he should be on hand to take the observation on the second; and the whole failed, so far as he was concerned, for want of precise accuracy. A little girl sickened and died. She might have recovered; for the nature of the disease was such that if it had been watched, and if stimulants had been applied at the critical moment, they would have been like oil in a half or wholly exhausted lamp. But this was not known, and the child slept, and the caretaker thought the sleep was all right, and it slept itself out of life. The child might have been alive, walking and talking with us today, if it had not been for that. There are such critical moments as those, and they are occurring in human experience everywhere-in health, in sickness, in business, in pleasure, in love, in political affairs, in all the congeries of circumstances in which men live and move. (H. W. Beecher.)

Pharisaical righteousness to be exceeded

I. What is here meant by the kingdom of God?

II. What is meant by being far from this kingdom?

1. In regard of the means

(1) absolute: Such as are wholly and universally deprived of all the ordinances of religion, as are the heathen (Eph 2:13).

(2) Comparative remoteness, which we may notice of such as live within the bounds of the church and compass of the Christian commonwealth, and yet have little of the gospel sounding in their ears; they live in some dark corner of the land.

(3) Besides all this there is a remoteness voluntary and contracted in those which are, near the means, and yet never the nearer, who put the Word of God from them.

2. In regard of the terms: Namely, the state in which they are at present, compared with the state which they stand in opposition unto. They are far from the kingdom of God as being destitute of those personal qualifications in order to it. Their principles and life are remote. The notoriously wicked (Eph 5:5; Rom 21:8; Rev 22:15). Hypocrites or secret enemies. All such as are formal but not pious.

3. In regard of the event. In regard of Gods purpose and degree concerning them. This was the case of Paul. He was far from Gods kingdom in regard of the terms and his personal qualification; yet, in regard of the event, was very near. Sometimes the most notorious offenders are nearer conversion than civil persons. Let us look more minutely at the text.

III. It is a word of commendation: an acknowledgment of that reality of goodness which was in the Scribe, and so encouraging him in it. If we see beginnings of good in any, to cherish them. We should not break the bruised reed, etc., nor nip the sproutings of grace.

1. This does honour God Himself in the bestowing of His graces. He that takes notice of the streams acknowledges the fountain whence they proceed.

2. We draw men on further and make them more willing to improve; it is the whetstone of virtue.

3. By this course we occasionally work upon others who are much moved by such examples.

IV. It is also a word of diminution. Thou art not quite at home; you must go further; an excitement. We must not flatter so as to make beginners satisfied with less grace, but urge them forward. The speech of our Lord was effectual to him hereunto in sundry respects.

1. It showed him his defects and imperfections, for which he had need to go further. There is no greater hindrance to improvement than a conceit of perfection: when men think they are at their journeys end, they will not step any further; but when they are persuaded that they are not at home, they will set them upon going (Php 3:12-13).

2. It showed him also his hopes and possibilities: that is another excitement to endeavour. There is hope of coming hither, for you are almost there.

3. It showed him also his engagements, from what he had done already, to proceed. You have already made some endeavour, do not decline and grow worse. We should imitate Christ in helping others forward in religion, as Aquila and Priscilla did Apollos. Consider these words as reflectively, as coming from Christ the speaker of them. We should discern and distinguish persons. He discerned the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees in the foregoing part of the chapter; now He discerns the sincerity of the Scribe.

V. The occasion whereupon his censure was passed. When Jesus saw that he answered discreetly. This includes those things.

1. Distinctly as to the matter of his answer. He was right in the notion and in the thing itself. He who knows anything of religion knows that it does not lie in outside duties, but in a gracious soul; yet he does not take away the forms. Those which are above ordinances are below heaven; and they which hate instruction shall never partake of salvation.

2. He answered intelligently as to the principle from whence he answered. He did not speak by rote, but he was able to give a rational account of his religion. We must believe more than we can understand, and yet we must also understand why we believe.

3. He was hearty and serious in it. He spoke as a man that had some savour of that which he spoke. A man may be an orthodox divine, and yet but a sorry Christian.

4. He answered discreetly; that is prudently, as to the manner of it. It was with humility, teachableness, and submission to Christ. (T. Horton, D. D.)

Near but not secure

He perishes for want of that remedy which otherwise might be supplied withal. As it is sometimes in the body; those which have great sicknesses, they many times get up and recover, whilst those which have some smaller distemper, do perhaps die under it. Whats the reason of it, and how comes it about? Why, the one, thinking himself to be in danger, goes to the physician; the other, being more secure, neglects him, and looks not after him. Thus it is with men also in religion; civility trusted in is further off from conversion than profaneness in the effects and consequents of it. This was the case of the Jews in comparison of the Gentiles. (T. Horton, D. D.)

Mere morality alone is remote from the kingdom of God

Civility left alone to itself would never be grace, nor attain to the consequents of it. These two are at a very wide distance one from the other, and left alone, would never meet together. Though mere civility be not so far from the kingdom of God as absolute profaneness, yet it will never come thither, no more than profaneness itself. A mere civil man is as truly excluded from heaven as a profane man. I say as truly, though not in so great a degree. To explain it to you by an easy and familiar resemblance: Dover (for example) is not so far from Calais as London, yet he that goes no further than Dover shall never come to Calais, no more than be that stays at London. So here, a mere moral or civil person is not so remote from salvation as a debauched; but yet if he goes no further than morality, he will come short of it as well as the other. (T. Horton, D. D.)

Nearness not possession

A man may be almost in possession of a fortune; but that adds not to his credit at the bank. A man may be almost honest, or almost sober; but that will be no recommendation to a position of trust and responsibility. And as with these, so with the kingdoms of mental force, health, and social influence; nearness is not sufficient. How near it is possible to be to the kingdom of God without being in, we know not. Nor do we know how it is possible to remain near without entering; unless it be that those who are near mistake nearness for, possession. Notice:

(1) A man is not necessarily in the kingdom of God because an intelligent inquirer. Distinguish between questioning with a view to information, and questioning with a view to disputation.

(2) A man is not necessarily in the kingdom of God because he knows truth when he hears it. We may assent to all Christs utterances, and yet have no affection for Him as Saviour. It is possible to make a false god of orthodoxy. A man may be a capital judge of the soundness of a sermon, an adept as regards scripture knowledge, and yet only not far from the kingdom.

(3) A man is not necessarily in the kingdom because he can answer questions on Christianity. You may know the creed without knowing the Christ. Mere knowledge is not enough. You must repent, confess, believe, serve. (J. S. Swan.)

Not far from the kingdom of God

There are, then, different degrees of approximation to the light. Let us consider-

I. Some of those things which bring a man near the kingdom of God.

(1) A life associated with some of its members and privileges. We have all known many whose lives proved that they were true disciples of Christ; we have observed the deepening earnestness of their character, and seen it growing up into a purpose and consistency unknown before. How have we been affected by this connection?

(2) A spirit of reverence and candour towards Christ. Few things short of positive immorality so deaden the spiritual perception as does habitual flippancy. It is, therefore, a hopeful sign in a man, if he is not ashamed to own that he considers some things too sacred to be sported with.

(3) Kindliness and amiability of nature. Christ never cast a chilling look on anything that is beautiful in human nature. He acknowledged it to be good as far as it went, and sought to gain it for the Divine and eternal. All kindly and generous impulses are wild flowers of nature, which, with the enclosure of Christs garden and the hand of Divine culture, would put on a rare beauty.

(4) A desire to conform to Gods law as far as he knows it. If conscience be at work in any man, if it is keeping him from doing what he believes to be sin, and leading him to aim at the true and right, he is to be commended. And if there be any measure of humility and charity with it, that man is certainly nearer the kingdom than he who is going on in known sin, searing his conscience, hardening his heart, and building up obstacles against his return to God.

(5) An interest in the spiritual side of things. We meet with so much indifference and materialism among the unconverted, that it is refreshing to light upon one who rises above such a chilling element, and who gives evidence that he believes there is a God, and a soul, and a spiritual law laid down for mans guidance-to see him not only listening, but putting intelligent questions, and avowing, with honest conviction, how far he goes, though it may not be so far as we desire. If we meet such a man in a kindly, candid spirit, we may win him to the kingdom of Him whose heart yearns over the most distant wanderers, but who cherishes a peculiar interest in those whose souls are feeling their way, however faintly, to the eternally true and good.

II. What is needed to make a man decidedly belong to the kingdom of God? Our Lords words imply that, with all that is favourable in this man, there is still something wanting. He perceived the claim of Gods law, and admitted it to be spiritual; but, so far as we can see, he had no conviction of that hopeless violation of it which only a Divine deliverer like Christ could meet. Then, too, while admiring Christs teaching, he gave no sign of his soul bowing before Him as a teacher sent from God, still less of his being ready to follow Him as his spiritual leader, to cast in his lot with Him, to walk in His steps and do His will. He lacked

(1) the new birth.

(2) The new life. (John Ker, D. D.)

On the verge of the kingdom

I. The qualities which consist with the state here described.

1. Religious knowledge. You may have an accurate creed, an extensive acquaintance with the Bible, a power to discuss with clearness and precision controverted points, without the will being influenced, the affections purified, the life and conversation regulated.

2. A life of blameless uprightness and integrity. Many things may tend to preserve you from the commission of great sins, besides real love for God, e.g., a prudent regard to your own well-being and well-doing in the world.

3. Strong convictions of sin, and even consequent amendment. You may, like Herod, do many things, and yet neglect the one thing needful. Outward reformation is not necessarily the result of an inward moral change.

4. Carefully maintained habits of public and private devotion. The form may be kept up long after the spirit has vanished.

II. The reasons people remain in this dangerous state.

1. A want of real and heartfelt love to God. We must give God and the things of God not only a place, but the first place in our heart. The service He requires is that which springs from a real preference of Himself.

2. If God is not loved, something else must be receiving an undue share of the affections; for man must bestow them somewhere, whether in the attractions of his calling and profession, or in the cultivation of refined and intellectual tastes, or in an idolatrous fondness for the comforts of social and domestic life. The more naturally amiable a man is, the more beloved, the more honoured, the more respected for his social and moral worth, for the largeness of his charities, for the constancy of his friendships, for the kindness of his heart, and for the blameless purity of his life, the greater danger there is lest that man should be ensnared by mere human approbation, and close his eyes to the danger he is in of falling short of the kingdom of God.

III. Now, what is the moral value of the state here described? If a long journey were set before me, it would be some comfort to have one to say, Thou art not far from thy journeys end. If all through life I had been proposing to myself the accomplishment of some great object, it would be some comfort to know I was not far from attaining the object of my ambition. This is on the supposition of continual progress, constant advancement towards that object. But the spiritual condition we have been considering is that of a person who is standing still-continuing year after year in the same state of dead, motionless, unadvancing formalism, ever seeking, but never striving to enter in at the strait gate, ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth. What, then, is the moral value of being, and continuing, not far from the kingdom? There is a door. We must be on one side of it, or the ether. There is no paradise of mediocrity. How sad to be overtaken by the avenger, when close by the city of refuge-to have made shipwreck of our souls, when just within sight of the harbour! (D. Moore, M. A.)

Reasons why a man who is near the kingdom should strive to enter it

If there are some so far away that they at times fall into a despair of ever reaching it, there are a greater number so near that they sink into an apathetic contentment with being almost Christians. Those who are far off may come to be nigh, when the children of the kingdom are cast out.

1. Though the distance may not seem great, there is momentous importance in it. A great deal depends on being a Christian, and to be a Christian needs something more than a decent arrangement of the natural life. The end of mans soul can only be found in looking to God, and learning to stand right with Him. Otherwise, it is to let a plant cling to the earth that was made to climb, and that can bring forth its best flowers and fruits only when it ascends; as if a palace were tenanted in its dungeons and lower rooms, while the higher apartments, commanding infinitely the best view, were left desolate; or as if a city had its streets crowded with traffic, and filled with the labour and din of busy life, while the temples, which tell of mans dignity by pointing him to God, remained in untrodden silence, and became the homes only of the dead. Can a man, who has a soul, feel that it is well with him in such a state? And yet thus he stands while he refuses to admit God to His rightful place.

2. The harmful effect of this position upon others. When there is a nature which has so much of the beautiful and attractive outside the proper Christian sphere, it is apt to give shallow-minded persons the idea that the gospel is not so necessary as the Bible declares.

3. The only security for permanence in what is naturally attractive in man, consists in connecting it with God. The brightest and most beautiful things of the heart lie all unshielded if Gods shadow be not over them. The conflicts of life, the assaults of passion, the irritations of care and ill-success, and the resentments against mans injustice, will corrode and canker the finest heart if it be not constantly drawing the corrective from a Divine source. Even without these trials, whatever has not God in it is smitten with the inevitable law of decay. (John Ker, D. D.)

Crossing the line

It is as if a man were standing on the snore, close to where a ship is moored. There is but a line between, and a step may cross it. But the one is fixed, the other moves, and all the future of existence depends upon that step,-new lands, a new life, and Gods great wide world. In the spiritual sphere to stand still is to fall away, to be left on that shore, doomed to decay and death. To pass into Gods kingdom is to move with it, not only up to the grandeur of His universe, but into the heritage of Himself. (John Ker, D. D.)

Some are in the suburbs of the city of refuge

I warn you against staying there. Oh, what pity is it that any should perish at the gates of salvation for want of another step!

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 34. Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.] This scribe appears to have been a prudent, sensible, and pious man; almost a Christian – so near the kingdom of God that he might have easily stepped in. It is very probable that he did at last believe in and confess Jesus.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

34. And when Jesus saw that heanswered discreetlyrather, “intelligently,” or”sensibly”; not only in a good spirit, but with a promisingmeasure of insight into spiritual things.

he said unto him, Thou artnot far from the kingdom of Godfor he had but to follow outa little further what he seemed sincerely to own, to find his wayinto the kingdom. He needed only the experience of another eminentscribe who at a later period said, “We know that the law isspiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin”: whoexclaimed, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me?”but who added, “I thank God through Jesus Christ!” (Rom 7:14;Rom 7:24; Rom 7:25).Perhaps among the “great company of the priests” and otherJewish ecclesiastics who “were obedient to the faith,”almost immediately after the day of Pentecost (Ac6:7), this upright lawyer was one. But for all his nearness tothe Kingdom of God, it may be he never entered it.

And no man after that durstask any questionall feeling that they were no match for Him,and that it was vain to enter the lists with Him.

Christ Baffles the PhariseesRegarding David (Mr12:35-37).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly,…. Wisely and prudently, as a man of sense and understanding; by taking in the several parts of our Lord’s answer very distinctly, and reasoning upon them, and confirming them:

he said unto him, thou art not far from the kingdom of God: not meaning from heaven, and eternal happiness; for right and distinct notions of the above commandments, and even the performance of the in by a sinful and imperfect creature, can neither give a man a title to, or bring him near, or introduce him into the heavenly glory, which is a pure gift of God’s grace; but our Lord’s sense is, that he was not far off from the Gospel dispensation, and was in a fair way of entering into it; his sentiments were very near to such, who became followers of Christ, and embraced the doctrines, and submitted to the ordinances of the Gospel state: since he preferred those things, which related to the knowledge of the being and perfections of God, to the love and worship of God, and to the good of his neighbour; before the ceremonies of the law; which were quickly to be abolished, and make way for the setting up of the kingdom of God, or of the Messiah, in a more glorious and visible manner. Indeed there are some persons, who seem not far off from the kingdom of God, in the other sense of the phrase, as it may respect eternal glory and happiness, who will never enter into it: there are some that seem very devout and religions; hear the word, attend on all ordinances, join themselves with a church, submit to baptism, and sit down at the Lord’s table, and live a moral life and conversation, and yet are destitute of the grace of God: yea, there are some who have clear notions of the Gospel, and make a bright profession of it, and yet have no experience of the power of it upon their hearts, and have not the oil of grace there: and even hold this profession to the end, and yet come short of the kingdom and glory of our Lord Jesus: such are almost Christians, but not altogether; virgins, but foolish ones; have lamps, but no oil; come as far as the door, but that is shut upon them.

And no man after that durst ask him any question; in any captious matter in order to ensnare him; finding they could get no advantage, or occasion against him that way; he having silenced the Herodians, Sadducees, Scribes, and Pharisees.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Discreetly (). From (intellect) and , to have. Using the mind to good effect is what the adverb means. He had his wits about him, as we say. Here only in the N.T. In Aristotle and Polybius. would be the more regular form, adverb from a participle.

Not far ( ). Adverb, not adjective, feminine accusative, a long way ( understood). The critical attitude of the lawyer had melted before the reply of Jesus into genuine enthusiasm that showed him to be near the kingdom of God.

No man after that ( ). Double negative. The debate was closed (, imperfect tense, dared). Jesus was complete victor on every side.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Discreetly [] . From nouv, mind, and ecw, to have. Having his mind in possession : “having his wits about him.” The word occurs only here in the New Testament.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) ”And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly,” (kai ho iesous idon auton hoti nounechos apekrithe) “And when Jesus saw him, that he had answered intelligently, sensibly,” with an apparent sense of sincerity and honesty, with discrimination as a scribe and a lawyer, 2Co 8:12.

2) “He said unto him,” (eipen auton) “He said to him,” personally, directly, as an accountable, responsible soul, Rom 14:11-12.

3) “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” (ou makaran ei apo tes basilesis tou theou) “You are not far away from the kingdom of God,” Act 17:27, from being saved, being a spiritual man, Personal understanding, conviction, and knowledge of sin and salvation involve one in the matter of accountability to obey the voice of God, Pro 1:20-23; Luk 16:31; Joh 8:24.

4) “And no man after that,” (kai oudeis ouketi) “And no one at all, any more,” after that, after that encounter of Jesus with the scribe lawyer.

5) “Durst ask Him any question.” (etloma auton eperotesai) “Dared to question, quiz, or entrap Him,” because they were convinced any further intellectual encounter with Jesus would find them on the dumb side of the issue, on any matter of difference with Him, Luk 20:39-40. His enemies were confounded.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

34. But when Jesus saw. Whether this scribe made any farther progress is uncertain; but as he had shown himself to be teachable, Christ stretches out the hand to him, and teaches us, by his example, that we ought to assist those in whom there is any beginning either of docility or of right understanding. There appear to have been two reasons why Christ declared that this scribe was not far from the kingdom of God. It was because he was easily persuaded to do his duty, and because he skillfully distinguished the outward worship of God from necessary duties. Nor was it so much with the design of praising as of exhorting him, that Christ declared that he was near the kingdom of God; and in his person Christ encourages us all, after having once entered into the right path, to proceed with so much the greater cheerfulness. By these words we are also taught that many, while they are still held and involved in error, advance with closed eyes towards the road, and in this manner are prepared for running in the course of the Lord, when the time arrives.

And after that, no man ventured to put a question to him. The assertion of the Evangelists, that the mouth of adversaries was stopped, so they did not venture any more to lay snares for Christ, must not be so understood as if’ they desisted from their wicked obstinacy; for they groaned within, like wild beasts shut up in their dens, or, like unruly horses, they bit the bridle. But the more hardened their obstinacy, and the more incorrigible their rebellion, so much the more illustrious was Christ’s triumph over both. And this victory, which he obtained, ought greatly to encourage us never to become dispirited in the defense of the truth, being assured of success. It will often happen, indeed, that enemies shall molest and insult us till the end, but God will at length secure that their fury shall recoil on their own heads, and that, in spite of their efforts, truth shall be victorious.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(34) Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.The words are significant as showing the unity of our Lords teaching. Now, as when He spoke the Sermon on the Mount, the righteousness which fulfils the law is the condition of the entrance into the kingdom of God (Mat. 5:19-20). Even the recognition of that righteousness as consisting in the fulfilment of the two commandments that were exceeding broad, brought a man as to the very threshold of the Kingdom. It is instructive to compare our Lords different method of dealing, in Luk. 10:25-37, with one who had the same theoretical knowledge, but who obviously, consciously or unconsciously, minimised the force of the commandments by his narrowing definitions.

And no man after that durst ask him.St. Mark states the fact before, St. Matthew after, the narrative that now follows.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘And when Jesus saw that he answered thoughtfully, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingly Rule of God.”

Jesus recognised that this Scribe was genuine and that his thinking was along the right lines, and declares that he is very near to knowing the genuine truth about God and coming under His kingly rule in the new age about to begin. The fact that the scribe answered thoughtfully and not dogmatically demonstrated his genuineness. He was not there to argue, but to think and learn. The next step was for him to recognise Jesus for Whom He was, that God was beginning His new work by the Spirit, and that the Kingly Rule of God had drawn near in Jesus. Then he would be able to enter the Kingly Rule of God (Joh 3:2-6), that eternal life for which the Pharisees vainly strove.

We should note how the incident of the rich young man highlights Jesus’ words here, for while Jesus had initially pointed him to commands which called on him to love his neighbour, He had ended up by challenging his love for God. He had shown him that his love for God was deficient by calling on him for a true and practically expressed love of his neighbour. Thus he went away not only aware that he did not love his neighbour, but also that he did not love God sufficiently.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

‘And no man after that dared ask him any question,’

The challenges to Jesus now ceased. His replies had floored His enemies. They recognised that all that they would do by asking questions was discomfort themselves even more, vindicate Jesus’ teaching and set the crowds more against them. Now it will be Jesus’ turn to ask the awkward questions.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Mar 12:34. Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. Jesus applauded the piety and wisdom of the scribe’s reflection, by declaring, that the person who made it, was not far from the kingdom of God, or from being a real Christian. He had expressed sentiments becoming a subject of God’s kingdom, and such as might have a happy influence in disposing him to embrace the Gospel in sincerity, by which he might obtain a share in all the blessings of the children of God. It is added, that no man, after that, durst ask him any questions: the plain meaning of which is, they asked him no more such captious questions; for the memory of this confusion impressed their minds, during the short remainder of Christ’s continuance among them; and he was soon removed from them, so that they had no further opportunities of doing it, when that impression was worn off.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

DISCOURSE: 1452
NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Mar 12:34. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

OUR blessed Lord has given us this caution: Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine [Note: Mat 7:6.]. But, in following this suggestion, we must be careful not to judge precipitately, but to give to every one an opportunity, at least, to manifest the real dispositions of his mind. Such was our Lords conduct, in relation to the different descriptions of persons who conversed with him. There came to him many who sought only to ensnare him, and catch him in his words [Note: ver. 13.]. They, however, put on an appearance of sincerity, and addressed him with great respect [Note: ver. 14.]: and therefore, notwithstanding he saw through their design, he answered the questions which they proposed to him [Note: ver. 1517 and 1827.]. After he had put both the Herodians and the Sadducees to silence, a Scribe from among the Pharisees, with no better intention than the former, put a question to him, though of a less ensnaring kind [Note: Compare Mat 22:34-36.]. This person seems to have been instigated by others, rather than to have followed the bent of his own mind: and the benefit of returning a courteous answer, even to captious inquiries, now strikingly appeared; for he was convinced by the instruction he received; and by shewing the docility of his own mind, he elicited from our Lord that gracious testimony, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

It shall be my endeavour,

I.

To confirm the declaration of our Lord

The question asked by the Scribe was, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Our Lord replied, That it was that which enjoined us to love God with all our heart, and mind, and soul, and strength: and that the second was like unto it, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself [Note: ver. 2831.]. In this answer the Scribe fully acquiesced; and thereby he shewed, that he was not far from the kingdom of God.

Now, observe what his acquiescence implied. It indicated,

1.

Knowledge

[This was a knowledge which was by no means common amongst the Scribes and Pharisees at that day. They laid a very undue stress upon outward rites and ceremonies; and upon circumcision in particular, (as many amongst ourselves do upon baptism,) as though that were of itself sufficient to secure a mans acceptance with God. The having of Abraham for their father, was, in their estimation, a sure title to heaven [Note: Mat 3:9.]; whilst an obedience to the moral law was with them only a secondary concern. This Scribe, however, was better instructed. He saw that the requirements of the moral law were of primary and indispensable obligation; and that, without an obedience to them no person could have a well-grounded hope of Gods favour.

Now then I say, that this degree of knowledge, deeply fixed in the mind, and openly avowed, is an excellent preparation for the kingdom which our blessed Lord came to establish upon earth. Where this measure of light exists in the soul, we cannot but hope that it shall be so augmented by the Gospel, as ultimately to guide a man into the way of peace.]

2.

Candour

[Our blessed Lord had silenced the former querists; but he had not so convinced them, as to elicit any approbation of his sentiments. They were too full of prejudice to make any such acknowledgment; and would have been glad enough to justify their own views, if they had known what reply to make. He, on the contrary, was open to conviction: he would not reject knowledge, because of the person by whom it was imparted; nor would he close his eyes, or shut his ears, because his instructor was a man hated and despised: he would receive truth from whatever quarter it came; and entertain it in his mind without jealousy and without fear.

What if the Gospel which we preach were so heard; and truth were thus freely suffered to make its way to the heart? Verily the kingdom of God would be far more enlarged amongst us, than ever it has yet been. And the same may be said of every place under heaven, where the Gospel is faithfully administered.]

3.

Piety

[There was not in this Scribe a mere acquiescence in the truth proposed to him, but a most cordial approbation of it. He dilates upon our Lords words with evident pleasure; and adds to them, what was not necessarily required, a declaration, that those two commandments, of the supreme love to God, and of loving our neighbour as ourselves, were more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices. Now this was in the very teeth of all that the Pharisees maintained. There was among them, and there exists to a vast extent amongst ourselves, an idea, that if a man were punctually observant of all the rites and ceremonies of religion, he must of necessity be in a good state before God. But this Scribe justly sets down the outward observances of religion as of no account, if the person performing them be not animated by love to God and man. Rites and ceremonies are of no value, but as means to an end: whereas love is of infinite value, for its own sake: it is a conformity to God: it is the image of God upon the soul of man.
Now this the Scribe both saw and felt: and, wherever such a feeling is, verily the man may well be said to be not far from the kingdom of God.]

Taking, then, our Lords declaration as unquestionably true, I will proceed,

II.

To found upon it some salutary advice

I will address myself,

1.

To those who answer to this character

[There are many, and doubtless many here present, in whom is found a good measure of knowledge, and candour, and piety; whilst yet the best that can be said of them is, that they are not far from the kingdom of God.
It will be asked, of course, What are the defects of this character? and what needs to be superadded to it, in order to bring a man fully into the kingdom of God? I answer, There must be in him these three things: first, a sense of his undone state, on account of having violated this law; next, a dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ, as having fulfilled this law for us; and, lastly, a determination of heart, through grace, to fulfil it ourselves. Without the first of these, a broken and contrite spirit, whatever be a mans other qualities, he is not yet upon the threshold of Gods sanctuary. Without the next, that is, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, he has not knocked at the door; for Christ is the door, through which alone any man can enter in [Note: Joh 10:9.]. And without the last, obedience to Gods commands, whatever his profession be, it is clear that he has not entered in at that door: for if he had, his faith would be demonstrated by his works.

Now, then, to the regular and well-disposed part of you, I would affectionately offer this advice: Take it not for granted that you are right before God; but weigh yourselves in the balance of the sanctuary, and search wherein it is that you are found wanting. Religion does not consist in knowledge nor in candour, nor in what I have ventured to call piety; by which I mean, an approbation of what is good: it consists in a thorough conversion of the soul to God, in a way of deep penitence, and simple faith, and unreserved obedience: and till these be found in you really, deeply, abidingly, you are not really partakers of the kingdom of God. You may be not far from it; but you are not in it; nor do the blessings of it belong to you. I pray you, mistake not the appearance of religion for the reality; nor ever rest till you have attained a clear, decisive evidence that you are indeed the Lords.]

2.

To those who have not even attained this character

[How many are there that are yet full of ignorance, and prejudice, and aversion to the truth! What, then, must I say of you? Can I administer to you the encouragement which our Lord gave to the inquiring Scribe? Must I not rather say, that you are far from the kingdom of God? and if you are far from that kingdom, consider, I pray you, to what kingdom you are near; even to the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of the wicked one? I grieve to suggest to any of you so painful a thought: but I appeal to you, whether your state be not one of extreme danger: for if, whilst possessing all that this Scribe possessed, you may yet have no part in the Gospel kingdom, it surely becomes you to tremble at your state, and to cry mightily to God, if peradventure you may at last find admission into it, and be saved for ever. Possibly this counsel may be neglected by you, as that of Christ was by the Pharisees of old. But judge ye in what light they now view their past obduracy. But their weeping now is of no avail. I pray God that you, my brethren, may now improve the opportunity afforded you, and may seek the Lord whilst he may be found, and call upon him whilst he is near.]

3.

To those who are really admitted into the Redeemers kingdom

[See how to act towards those who are yet without. Be always ready to give to every one that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear [Note: 1Pe 3:15.]. And be particularly careful to encourage good appearances wherever you may find them. Our blessed Lord, looking upon the Young Man in the Gospel, loved him; notwithstanding he knew, that, when his professions should be put to the test, they would be found delusive [Note: Mar 10:21-22.]. And this is to be a pattern for us. What if our Lord, who knew the design of this Scribe, had given him a repulse at first, instead of answering his question? The man would have been hardened in his wickedness; instead of being, as we would fondly hope he was, brought effectually into the kingdom of God. Learn, then, tenderness towards such characters; and instruct in meekness them that oppose themselves; if God peradventure may give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth; and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, by whom they are led captive at his will [Note: 2Ti 2:25-26.].

At the same time, shew to all around you what it is to be really partakers of Christs kingdom. Shew by your life and conversation what the character of his subjects is; and seek to be daily growing in a meetness for that kingdom which awaits you at your departure hence. Determine, through grace, that having a promise of entering into Gods rest, nothing shall induce you to come short of it. Think what a terrible disappointment it must be to any soul to find itself not far from the kingdom of God, and yet not in it; and to fall from the very gates of heaven into the bottomless abyss of hell. Determine, I say, that nothing shall divert you from your course, or retard you in it: but that, with Gods help, you will so run as to obtain the prize.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:

33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question .

Ver. 34. Answered discreetly ] That he was better than the Pharisees used to be. He was Egregie cordatus homo, and began to lift up his head out of the mud towards heaven.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

34. ] Attice , opposed to , Isocr. Mar 12:7 (Meyer).

] This man had hold of that principle in which Law and Gospel are one: he stood as it were at the door of the Kingdom of God. He only wanted (but the want was indeed a serious one) repentance and faith to be within it . The Lord shews us here that even outside His flock, those who can answer who have knowledge of the spirit of the great command of Law and Gospel, are nearer to being of his flock, than the formalists: but then, as Bengel adds, ‘Si non procul es, intra: alias prstiterit, procul fuisse .’

] This is apparently out of its place here, as it is after the question which now follows , that Matt. relates this discomfiture of his adversaries. We must not however conclude too hastily, especially where the minute accuracy of Mark is at stake. The question just asked was the last put to our Lord , and therefore the notice of its being the last comes in fitly here. The enquiry which follows did more than silence their questioning: it silenced their answering too: both which things Matt. combines as the result of this day, in his Mat 22:46 .

, not, ‘to ask him any more questions:’ see on ch. Mar 11:29 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mar 12:34 . , intelligently, as one who had a mind (of his own), and really thought what he said, a refreshing thing to meet with at any time, and especially there and then. Here only in N.T. = in classics. , not far; near by insight into its nature (the ethical supreme), and in spirit a sincere thinker. , etc.: questioning given up because seen to be vain, always ending either in the confusion or in the acquiescence of questioners ( cf. Luk 20:40 ).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mark

NOT FAR AND NOT IN

Mar 12:34 .

‘A bruised reed He will not break, and the smoking flax He will not quench.’

Here is Christ’s recognition of the low beginnings of goodness and faith.

This is a special case of a man who appears to have fully discerned the spirituality and inwardness of law, and to have felt that the one bond between God and man was love. He needed only to have followed out the former thought to have been smitten by the conviction of his own sinfulness, and to have reflected on the latter to have discovered that he needed some one who could certify and commend God’s love to him, and thereby to kindle his to God. Christ recognises such beginnings and encourages him to persevere: but warns him against the danger of supposing himself in the kingdom, and against the prolongation of what is only good as a transition state.

This Scribe is an interesting study as being one who recognised the Law in its spiritual meaning, in opposition to forms and ceremonies. His intellectual convictions needed to be led on from recognition of the spirituality of the Law to recognition of his own failures. ‘By law is the knowledge of sin.’ His intellectual convictions needed to pass over into and influence his heart and life. He recognised true piety, and was earnestly striving after it, but entrance into the kingdom is by faith in the Saviour, who is ‘the Way.’ So Jesus’ praise of him is but measured. For in him there was separation between knowing and doing.

I. Who are near?

Christ’s kingdom is near us all, whether we are heathen, infidel, profligate or not.

Here is a distinct recognition of two things-a Degrees of approximation; b decisive separation between those who are, and those who are not, within the kingdom.

This Scribe was near, and yet not in, the kingdom, because, like so many in all ages, he had an intellectual hold of principles which he had never followed out to their intellectual issues, nor ever enthroned as, in their practical issues, the guides of his life. How constantly we find characters of similar incompleteness among ourselves! How many of us have true thoughts concerning God’s law and what it requires, which ought, in all reason, to have brought us to the consciousness of our own sin, and are yet untouched by one pang of penitence! How many of us have lying in our heads, like disused furniture in a lumber-room, what we suppose to be beliefs of ours, which only need to be followed out to their necessary results to refurnish with a new equipment the whole of our religious thinking! How few of us do really take pains to bring our beliefs into clear sunlight, and to follow them wherever they lead us! There is no commoner fault, and no greater foe, than the hazy, lazy half-belief, of which its owner neither knows the grounds nor perceives the intellectual or the practical issues.

There are multitudes who have, or have had, convictions of which the only rational outcome is practical surrender to Jesus Christ by faith and love. Such persons abound in Christian congregations and in Christian homes. They are on the verge of ‘the great surrender,’ but they do not go beyond the verge, and so they perpetrate ‘the great refusal.’ And to all such the word of our text should sound as a warning note, which has also hope in its bone. ‘Not far from’ is still ‘outside.’

II. Why they are only near.

The reason is not because of anything apart from themselves. The Christian gospel offers immediate entrance into the Kingdom, and all the gifts which its King can bestow, to all and every one who will. So that the sole cause of any man’s non-entrance lies with himself.

We have spoken of failure to follow out truths partially grasped, and that constitutes a reason which affects the intellect mainly, and plays its part in keeping men out of the Kingdom.

But there are other, perhaps more common, reasons, which intervene to prevent convictions being followed out into their properly consequent acts.

The two most familiar and fatal of these are:-

a Procrastination.

b Lingering love of the world.

III. Such men cannot continue near.

The state is necessarily transitional. It must pass over into-a Either going on and into the Kingdom, or b going further away from it.

Christ warns here, and would stimulate to action, for-a Convictions not acted on die; b truths not followed out fade; c impressions resisted are harder to be made again; d obstacles increase with time; e the habit of lingering becomes strengthened.

IV. Unless you are in, you are finally shut out.

‘City of refuge.’ It was of no avail to have been near. ‘Strive to enter in.’

Appeal to all such as are in this transition stage.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

discreetly = judiciously. Greek nounechos. Occurs only here in N. T,

from = away from. Greek. apo App-104.

the kingdom of God. See App-114.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

34.] -Attice , opposed to , Isocr. Mar 12:7 (Meyer).

] This man had hold of that principle in which Law and Gospel are one: he stood as it were at the door of the Kingdom of God. He only wanted (but the want was indeed a serious one) repentance and faith to be within it. The Lord shews us here that even outside His flock, those who can answer -who have knowledge of the spirit of the great command of Law and Gospel, are nearer to being of his flock, than the formalists:-but then, as Bengel adds, Si non procul es, intra: alias prstiterit, procul fuisse.

] This is apparently out of its place here, as it is after the question which now follows, that Matt. relates this discomfiture of his adversaries. We must not however conclude too hastily, especially where the minute accuracy of Mark is at stake. The question just asked was the last put to our Lord, and therefore the notice of its being the last comes in fitly here. The enquiry which follows did more than silence their questioning: it silenced their answering too: both which things Matt. combines as the result of this day, in his Mat 22:46.

, not, to ask him any more questions: see on ch. Mar 11:29.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mar 12:34. , thou art not far) They therefore axe far from the kingdom who have not , intelligent perception.[7] [Such, for instance, were they who were still clinging to sacrifices.-V. g.] Seeing that thou art not far from it, enter into the kingdom: otherwise it would have been better for thee to have been far off.

[7] Referring to , having intelligence, Th. , to have intelligence.-ED. and TRANSL.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

far

i.e. not far in knowledge. He knew the very law which utterly condemns the best man — its true office. Rom 3:19; Rom 10:3-5; Gal 3:10; Gal 3:22-24.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

Not Far from the Kingdom

And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.Mar 12:34.

If these had not been the words of Jesus Christ, there would probably have been some Christians found strongly objecting to them. They would have saidNo one is nearer to the Kingdom of God than another, for all men are alike dead in trespasses and sins. How can there be degrees of nearness when every one is at an infinite distance? There is a side of truth in this. The difference between Christian and non-Christian is one not of degree but of kind. Once ye were darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. And yet there are different degrees of approximation to the light. Our world is closer to the edge of dawn in one part of its course than another. The blind men who, whether through Gods providence or their own choice, took their seat by the wayside at Jericho, were nearer receiving their sight than they had ever been in their lives before, and nearer still when their ear was caught by the tread of the multitude and they began to call on Jesus of Nazareth as He passed by. And there are circumstances and associations in life that still bring some men closer to the Gospel than others. There are dispositions of mind and attitudes in certain persons towards it which make us very anxious that they should take but one decided step; which cause us to wonder why, when they are so near, they go no farther. They speak so discreetly about religious things, and have so amiable and reverent a spirit, that we feel as if Christ would still single them out, as He did this scribe, and say tenderly, regretfully, may we not add hopefully?Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.1 [Note: John Ker.]

We may divide the subject into four parts

I.The Kingdom

II.The Scribe

III.Not far from the Kingdom

IV.Not in the Kingdom

I

The Kingdom

1. What is the meaning of this expression, the kingdom of God, which was so frequently on the lips of our Lord? It occurs fourteen times in the Gospel of Mark, thirty-two times in that of Luke, while the equivalent phrase, the kingdom of heaven (or more properly, the Kingdom of the Heavens) occurs thirty-two times in the Gospel of Matthew. The Kingdom is the rule of God, whether in the human heart or in society. It exists now, but it has its full realisation in eternity. Some have to seek and gain it. Those who have gained it have to labour to retain it, and this retaining may be regarded as winning it.

It is to be noted that Christ Himself never gave any definition of the Kingdom, and perhaps it is not wise for us to attempt to do so. Any definition which we could frame would be almost certain to exclude important elements of truth. He seems to have used more than one phrase to express it, and He places each phrase in a variety of contexts which do not always seem to be quite harmonious. The idea of the Kingdom is planted in the minds of His hearers as a sort of nucleus round which different truths may gather. The Kingdom is sometimes the Way, sometimes the Truth, sometimes the Life. Perhaps most of all it is the Life. It is something living, organic, and inspiring, in which the will of God, through the free and loyal action of those who receive it, prevails. It works inwardly both in individuals and in communities, but it manifests itself outwardly. It wins adherents, and inspires and controls them. And it possesses powers, not merely of growth and improvement, but of recovery and reformation. While it prevails against the opposition and persecution of enemies, it triumphs also in the long-run over the errors and slackness and corruption of its own supporters. We possess it, and yet we have to seek it and win it. It is within us, and yet we have to strive to enter it. The truth about it is so vast that we need to have it stated in all kinds of ways in order to appropriate some of it.

2. The expression shows clearly that there is a kingdom of God in this world, and that it has distinct boundary lines. Those boundary lines do not shade off so that either it should be impossible to say whether you are in it or not in it, or that you can be partly in it and partly not in it. The words evidently convey the contrary: you may be near it, or you may be far from it, but either you are in it, or you are out of it.

3. Observe the negative side. The kingdom of God is not the Church. The Church is visible, the Kingdom is not. The Kingdom is the end, complete, perfect, and final; the Church is the means to the end, working towards perfection and striving to realise its ideal. So far as it expresses the will and character of the Messiah, the Church may be called the Kingdom of Christ, but it is not what is set before us in the Gospels as the kingdom of God or the kingdom of the heavens.1 [Note: A. Plummer.]

II

The Scribe

1. The office of Scribe.The scribes combined a scientific and technical knowledge of Hebrew laws, and of Hebrew scriptures generally, with the skill of trained teachers in expounding them to the common people. They were the teachers of their countrymen. Holding the key of knowledge, they were charged with the duty of unlocking the mystery and bringing out the meaning of the written word. Ezra went up from Babylon; and he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses. All know how much the restored exiles were indebted to him, how loyal he was to God, and how faithfully he served his generation. The office of scribe was alike useful and honourable, and they who filled it worthily deserved well of their contemporaries. Our Saviour has taught us the value of the labours of a good scribe: Every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a house-holder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old.

But there was a tendency in the profession to narrowness, to exclusiveness, to the traditionary, to the official. They sank into copyists, into mere echoes of human voices, instead of making the people understand the law of God. They paid more attention to glosses than to the original text, to commentaries than to the Scriptures themselves, to tradition than to the revelation which God had made of His mind and will. These scribes, in course of time, thought more of the lanterns of human authorities than of the light of heaven; making void the word of God by their tradition. For the most part, in the days of our Saviour, the scribes were blind leaders of the blind. They no longer helped men into the Kingdom, but hindered those who would enter. It seems that there was even more of moral than of intellectual degeneracy among them. They had not only lost touch of eternal and Divine verities, but they had also substituted mens devices for Gods commandments; their study of the letter had ceased to profit, while their refinements and rules had killed the spiritual and put into its place the ceremonial. The outcome of all this, its effect upon the scribes themselves, is seen in the statement by our Lord: Beware of the scribes which desire to walk in long robes, and to have salutations in the marketplaces, and chief seats in the synagogues, and chief places at feasts: they which devour widows houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater condemnation.

2. This Scribe.The praise which Jesus bestowed upon this lawyer is best understood when we take into account the circumstances, the pressure of assailants with ensnaring questions, the sullen disappointment or palpable exasperation of the party to which the scribe belonged. He had probably sympathised in their hostility; and had come expecting and desiring the discomfiture of Jesus. But if so, he was a candid enemy; and as each new attempt revealed more clearly the spiritual insight, the self-possession and balanced wisdom, of Him who had been represented as a dangerous fanatic, his unfriendly opinion began to waver. For he too was at issue with popular views: he had learned in the Scriptures that God desireth not sacrifice, that incense might be an abomination to Him, and new moons and sabbaths things to do away with. And so, perceiving that He had answered them well, the scribe asked, on his own account, a very different question, not rarely debated in their schools, and often answered with grotesque frivolity, but which he felt to go down to the very root of things. Instead of challenging Christs authority, he tried His wisdom. Instead of striving to entangle Him in dangerous politics, or to assail with shallow ridicule the problems of the life to come, he asked, What commandment is the first of all? And if we may accept as complete this abrupt statement of his interrogation, it would seem to have been drawn from him by a sudden impulse, or wrenched by an overmastering desire, despite of reluctance and false shame. The Lord answered him with great solemnity and emphasis. He might have quoted the commandment only. But He at once supported the precept itself and also His own view of its importance by including the majestic prologue, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. The questioner saw all the nobility of this reply; and the disdain, the anger, and perhaps the persecution of his associates could not prevent him from an admiring and reverent repetition of the Saviours words, and an avowal that all the ceremonial observances of Judaism were as nothing compared with this.

III

Not Far from the Kingdom

1. Jesus saw that he answered discreetly. While the scribe was judging, he was being judged. As he knew that Jesus had answered well, so Jesus saw that he answered discreetly; and in view of his unprejudiced judgment, his spiritual insight, and his frank approval of One who was then despised and rejected, He said to him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

Under the old Theocracy the far are either exiled Jews (Isa 57:19) or the Gentiles (Eph 2:13); distance from the new Kingdom is measured neither by miles nor by ceremonial standards, but by spiritual conditions. The man was to some extent intellectually qualified for the Kingdom; certainly he had grasped one of its fundamental principles. It would be interesting to work out a comparison between this scribe and the ruler of Mar 10:17. In both cases something was wanting to convert admiration into discipleship. If wealth was the bar in one case, pride of intellect may have been fatal in the other. The mental acumen which detects and approves spiritual truth may, in the tragedy of human life, keep its possessor from entering the Kingdom of God.1 [Note: H. B. Swete.]

Thou strong and loving Son of Man,

Redeemer from the bonds of sin,

Tis Thou the living spark dost fan

That sets my heart on fire within.

Thou openest heaven once more to men,

The souls true home, Thy Kingdom, Lord,

And I can trust and hope again,

And feel myself akin to God.2 [Note: Novalis.]

2. This is one of the many instances in which Jesus took a very kind view; and sawand was not afraid to say that He sawthe good that was in every one. Many, perhaps, see it, who do not think it well to say that they see it. You need not be afraid. True praise never does any harm. On the contrary, it softens and humbles. This man belonged to a class which had no right to expect any indulgence at Christs hand; and there was a good deal of the feeling of superiority or patronage in what he had said. And after all, it was very partial truth, and did not even touch the great truth of all, which Christ came to teach and to be. Nevertheless, Christ sees the good points. If the scribe had not spoken very humbly, he had been intelligent and discriminating,he had spoken discreetly. And if he did not see the whole truth, or the chief truth, his thoughts were leading on in that direction. And Christ, who likes to see nearness rather than farness,and who discovers the kindling of the flax even by its smoking,said, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

It would be very well if we copied Christ in our familiar intercourse; and always sought out, not the points of disagreement, but of agreement, on which to dwell in all our conversation; and especially in our conversation upon religious subjects.

But there is a much higher lesson than this contained in the kindliness of our Saviours conduct. If any of us are ever inclined to think of God as a fault-finder,as One who is quick to see what is wrong, and who does not see and appreciate what is good in us,let us read the accounts of Christs intercourse with those among whom He was thrown; and we will unlearn our false estimate of that kind, loving, hopeful heart. Not our own mother likes more to magnify our best traits.1 [Note: J. Vaughan.]

3. What was there in this man, what is there in any man, that makes it possible for Christ to say to him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God?

(1) There is a nearness that is brought about by intellectual sincerity. We may believe that this was true of the lawyer in the narrative. He appears to have been an anxious inquirer, from the intellectual standpoint. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, that is, wisely, thoughtfully, intelligently, He said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. Sincere, honest thought brings the thinker close to those higher truths which are not contrary to reason, but which unassisted reason does not apprehend.

Dr. Johnson was accustomed to say, If a man thinks deeply he thinks religiously; and deeply pondering the problems of nature, life, and duty, men have often found themselves brought to His feet who spake as never man spake. No merely intellectual endeavour can bring us into the enjoyment of saving truth and spiritual satisfaction; it may easily prepare us, however, for the word of Christ, and to receive in Him the fulness of the blessing of reconciliation and peace. In reading the writings of authors known as agnostics, utilitarians, and sceptics, we must often feel that while verbally they seem a long way from the Christian creed, yet actually they come very near it in the doctrines they accredit and the spirit they reveal. They use other language than theologians use, they contend against this or the other position of conventional religion, they suffer from many misconceptions and prejudices, yet are they in fact not unlike this lawyer in the great truths they admit and in the fine spirit they display; and we believe that our Lord says of these, as of the intellectual seeker in the text, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. They are not in the Kingdom, but they are enamoured of its walls of jasper and gates of gold.

John Bright said of a certain freethinker that he was a Christian without knowing it; and although we cannot allow that a man can be a Christian without being aware of it, it yet remains possible that sincere reflection may bring a doubting thinker much nearer to the evangelical truth than he apprehends. Let us never discourage reading, reflection, research, as if these necessarily put the thinker farther from Christ. By intellectual processes many are brought to the threshold of the spiritual Kingdom: just as the star guided the wise men of old into His presence who came to guide our feet into the way of peace.1 [Note: W. L. Watkinson.]

(2) There is a nearness to personal godliness that is brought about by moral integrity. As some are brought near to the kingdom by intellectual influences, others approach it from the standpoint of conscience. We cannot fail to detect the genuine ethical ring in this interlocutor: Which is the first commandment of all? And when Jesus had indicated the twofold supreme commandment, the scribe said unto Him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices. This is not the expression of a merely curious or polemical temper, there is nothing here captious or controversial, but at once we feel that we are dealing with one who is deeply sincere, and is anxious to understand and possess the very essence of righteousness. And our Lord, who knew what was in man, instantly recognised the scribes moral sincerity and enthusiasm. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

The biographer of Horace Bushnell tells us that the young student for seven years failed to find the power of Christ. There was nothing positively or distinctively Christian about him, and there was in him a growing spirit of doubt and difficulty as to religious doctrine; yet during all this time of grave perplexity and distress he was marked by scrupulous conscientiousness, stern integrity, purity, and honour, and in the end he became the confessor of Christ with the power of Christ.2 [Note: Ibid.]

We need it every hour

A conscience clear,

That shall be as a tower

Of strength and cheer.

We need it every hour

A true pure life,

Which failure cannot sour

Or turn to strife.1 [Note: Sara A. Underwood.]

(3) There is a nearness to personal godliness that is brought about by ceremonial faithfulness. A true inclination and susceptibility of soul are developed by a right use of the Divinely appointed means and channels of grace. It seems that the faithfulness of this scribe to the study of the law and the ordinances of worship had brought him hard by the blessing.

Oh, there are worse things in the world than going to church, answered Dr. Elliot. Farquhar preaches a fine discourse, and, joking apart, youll get into the way of the thing. I really enjoy it. I remember once when I was a student going home for my Spring holidays and walking through the fields to church with my mother on a fine morning. Ive never forgotten the look on her face when she turned to me and said

I joyd when to the house of God,

Go up, they said to me.

In these days, I thought it was a way mothers had. But now, theres no saying, I may get to have that inward look on my face too.

Youre a good fellow, Elliot! I dont count this a visit, mind! Come often and see us, Colonel Morton said; for the doctor had turned to go as he finished the sentence.2 [Note: J. F. Hogg, The Angel Opportunity, 101.]

IV

Not in the Kingdom

1. Not far from the kingdom of God. Was that a satisfactory position, or was it not? There is a conventional way of looking at it which is occupied mainly with the unsatisfactoriness of it. Not far from it: not in it. The man might just as well be miles away. A very common way that of looking at the position. It is not Christs way. He says this of a certain young man with a feeling of genuine respect and admiration for him. For the moment, at any rate, under the quickening influence of the magnetic inwardness of Christs teaching, so true, so thorough, so real, the scribefor he was a scribewith all his traditions, had been lost in the man, and he had felt a thrill of responsiveness to Christ which he could not suppress. Against all his prejudices he acknowledged the rare spirit of Christs reply to the question he addressed to Him, and the feeling was mutual. Christ and this man drew to one another. There was not much difference between them on the matter of the supreme demand of God. And Christ says so. You are not far from the truth; you are pretty near the mark; there is not very much wrong with your views. That is what Christ means. Certainly not that he is as hopeless as if he were utterly astray. Christ meant to commend and encourage the man.

2. Thou art not far from the kingdom of God, said Christ, and we may be sure as He said the words He accompanied them with a loving smile. And yet if there is tenderness in this word of Christ there is severity too. Not farno, but not in. And though not far, a man may yet be never in. Just as a ship that has buffeted the oceans of half the globe may be wrecked on the last night, when the passengers are making up their baggage, and perish almost in sight of home, so there are men who come very near Christ, and then drift away, and never have the same holy contiguity again. It is a solemn thing to be not far from the Kingdom. It is a great responsibility. May it be ours to make it also a great reward.

Dante, in speaking of those who lived in dead indifference, without either infamy or praise, says that he saw in the other world the shade of him who with ignoble spirit refused the great offer. It has been a disputed question who was in the poets eye, enduring the eternal shame of declining to take one noble step. Those surely are in the right who find him in that young man who turned away sorrowful when the Lord said, Come, follow me; for, as has been observed, nothing that ever happened in the world could be so justly called, as Dante calls it, the great refusal. If anything can fill the future world of sin and loss with tormenting regret, it must be that the Kingdom of God was so near, the call to it so free, and that the opportunity was fatally and totally lost. How sadly does the wise man say, for man knoweth not his time, and what a sorrow was in the heart of Christ when He said, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace. Not far from the Kingdom of God, and yet this not far may lose it all!1 [Note: John Ker.]

The saying is true as applied to many things, and it is equally true with regard to the soul. The penitence that is not carried through is nothing. You remember Brownings lines

Oh the little more, and how much it is!

And the little less and what worlds away!

That is just the picture of the character we have before us. You may, if you like, see him in a thousand walks of life. I once heard a criticism of a preacherHe has just missed being a great preacher. I felt it to be true. What was lacking one could not say, for everything seemed so excellent; but the combined result was just as my friend had said. He had just come short of being a great preacher.2 [Note: W. Mackintosh Mackay.]

Golfers have a well-understood phrase, never up, never in. The aim of the game is to get the little ball into the little hole. And the meaning of the phrase is, if you do not play hard enough to get the length of the hole, you will not get into it. It may be a beautiful putt, lie on the lip of the hole, a picture. But it is short; never up, never in. The same is true here.3 [Note: R. J. Drummond.]

3. What is needed to make a man decidedly belong to the Kingdom of God? Christs words have shown that with all that is favourable in this man, there is still something wanting. Christ had that Divine insight which let Him see into the hearts of men, as well as into the heart of things, and which enabled Him to range them in their true place. We have neither the power nor the right thus to judge the inward nature of men. It is always right for us, however, to look as far as we can into the heart of things, and to use the principles we learn there for ascertaining our own true position.

(1) He appears to have had no sense of the need of pardon.

In what he says there is no apparent perception of the evil of sin, and no application for pardon and help. He perceives the claim of Gods law, and admits it to be spiritual; but, so far as we can see, there is no conviction of that hopeless violation of it which can be met only by a Divine deliverer like Christ.

The great mystery of religion, says Bishop Westcott, is not the punishment but the forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness involves repentance; Christ came preaching the Gospel and saying, The kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye and believe in the gospel. Repentance, therefore, is an essential condition of entering the kingdom. When a man experiences this sense of forgiven sin he becomes eager for something better, desirous of a higher, and, shall we add, a safer life. A change has come over that man, a change both of motive and of power. He longs for and attempts what he never cared about before; he is a new being. But he cannot remain content with merely understanding the Kingdom. It is a necessary sequence that he should enter it, that he should claim its gifts and privileges, that he should enrol himself as one of its citizens; and so the change which takes place in him must be correspondingly marked, and it becomes clear what are the essentials, or in another sense, the conditions of this entrance.1 [Note: J. H. Rogers.]

How they rise before us!the sweet reproachful faces of those whom we could have loved devotedly if they had been willing to be straightforward with us; whom we have lost, not by our own will, but by that paralysis of feeling which gradually invades the heart at the discovery of small insincerities. Sincerity seems our only security against losing those who love us, the only cup in which those who are worth keeping will pledge us when youth is past.2 [Note: Mary Cholmondeley, Red Pottage.]

(2) He did not recognise in Christ the Divine Teacher.While he admires Christs teaching, he speaks as one might to another on his own level: Well, Master, thou hast said the truth; but there is no appearance of his soul bowing before Him as a teacher sent from God, still less of his being ready to follow Him as a spiritual leader, and to cast in his lot with Him, to walk in His steps and to do His will. What was wanted was just the recognition of the King. Christ did not tell him that. He left him to discover it. And it is just the discovery that many a man has to make in order to enter the kingdom. It is the oath of allegiance to Christ, which we commonly call faith, that is still wanting. There are many men of fine character, of generous thoughts and noble lives, whom we naturally and properly admire. And yet there is a defect in them of which even they themselves are conscious, although what it is they do not know. It is the want of the deep recognition of the things that are unseen, the solemn sense of the supremacy of the spiritual. Could that arise in them, they would be in the kingdom and recognise that it is the Kingdom of God.

His case reminds us of the rich young ruler (Mar 10:17). The Saviour is just going forth when one rushes to overtake Him, and kneels down to Him, full of hope of a great discovery. He is so frank, so innocent and earnest, as to win the love of Jesus. And yet he presently goes away, not as he came, but with a gloomy forehead and a heavy heart, and doubtless with slow reluctance. There is indeed a charming frankness in his bearing, so that we admire even his childlike assertion of his own virtues, while the heights of a nobility yet unattained are clearly possible for one so dissatisfied, so anxious for a higher life, so urgent in his questioning, What shall I do? What lack I yet? This inquirer honestly thinks himself not far from the great attainment; he expects to reach it by some transcendent act, some great deed done, and for this he has no doubt of his own prowess, if only he were well directed. What shall I do that I may have eternal life, not of grace, but as a debtthat I may inherit it? His question supplies the clue to that answer of Christ which has perplexed so many. The youth is seeking for himself a purely human merit, indigenous and underived. And the same, too, is what he ascribes to Jesus, to Him who is so far from claiming independent human attainment, or professing to be what this youth would fain become, that He said, The Son can do nothing of himself. I can of mine own self do nothing. The secret of His human perfection is the absolute dependence of His humanity upon God, with whom He is one. No wonder, then, that He repudiates any such goodness as the ruler had in view.1 [Note: G. A. Chadwick.]

There is a legend of St. Peter, that he had always by him a cloth wherewith he wiped his eyes, which were at last red with weeping. And I can well believe it. When he was asked why he wept, he said that when he recalled that most sweet gentleness of Christ with His apostles, he could not restrain his tears. Christ must, indeed, have been perfect in kindness and tenderness. And even so, and even such, is He now daily with us; but we perceive it not.2 [Note: Watchwords from Luther.]

Dear sad J. is full of fears, but the vision will presently come, and he will know the Lord as all things and in all, and he will be a blessed light. I feel I know his standing well; his utterances want simplicity and spirituality. He knows Jesus as the Christ, but not yet as the Lord, so it seems to me. Hence he lingers in the letter of the Gospel history; he does not mount up into the heavens with St. Paul, and commune with the Lord of Glory, in communion with whom the earthly history is known in its boundless and blessed significance.1 [Note: R. W. Corbett, Letters from a Mystic of the Present Day, 40.]

(3) It may be that our scribe belonged to that class which it has been customary for some time to speak of as honest doubters. That such exist within the Church in hundreds to-day we all know. Spurgeon has some rather contemptuous words about honest doubt. What has honest doubt done for the world? What churches has it built? What nations has it founded? What hospitals has it built? What battles has it won? No; honest doubt has done none of these things, and perhaps there was need of the bold preachers utterance at a time when honest doubt was being coddled almost to death. But we should ever remember that if honest doubt has done none of these things, it has done one thing, and that the grandest of all. It has made men. The great men of faith were all at one time honest doubters. Christ therefore loves the honest doubter. He says to him, You are not far from the kingdom of God; only, remember you are not in. Your honest doubt wont save you. Men have asked, Is doubt a sin? No; doubt is not a sin, but doubt is a disease. And no man was ever saved by a disease. That great doubters have been saved I doubt not, but it was not their doubts that saved them. They were saved by the faith that lived in their honest doubts.

A newspaper writer recently described a strange habit that seamen have of visiting a famous city without landing. He said: I spoke with the mate of a ship one day at Venice, and asked him how he liked the city. Well, he had not been ashore yet. He was told that he had better go ashore; that the Piazza San Marco was worth seeing. Well, he knew it, he had seen pictures of it; but he thought that he wouldnt go ashore. Why not, now he was here? Well, he laid out to go ashore the next time he came to Venice. So he lay three weeks with his ship, after a voyage of two months, and sailed away without even setting his foot on that enchanted ground. How many, after crossing troubled seas of doubt and conflict, and finding themselves in the very haven of rest, yet hesitate to take the last step and possess the land. Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of God. Leave behind you the salt, estranging sea; be no more tossed to and fro; plant your feet on the smiling shore, walk its streets of gold, wear its white raiment, share its beauty and joy.1 [Note: W. L. Watkinson.]

(4) Perhaps he was not willing to profess himself openly a disciple of Christ and accept all that this would involve. He may have lacked the persistence of Nicodemus, who, though afraid of the Jews, yet came by night to be instructed in the way of the Kingdom. Except a man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. This was at first a hard saying to Nicodemus, but there is every reason to believe that he did commit himself more and more to Christ in newness of life; but, in so far as we have traces or glimpses of his history in the Gospels up to the time of the resurrection of Christ, he shows the same timid shrinking temper which brought him to Jesus under cover of darkness. The resurrection, being the seal and crown of all our Lords earthly work, and the signal for the coming of the illuminating and strengthening Spirit, had a wonderful effect on the disciples generally, and it may have been the occasion of the complete confirmation of Nicodemus in the faith of Christ.

Shall I, for fear of feeble man,

Thy Spirits course in me restrain?

Or undismayd in deed and word,

Be a true witness to my Lord?

Awed by a mortals frown, shall I

Conceal the Word of God most high?

How then before Thee shall I dare

To stand, or how Thy anger bear?

No; let man rage! since Thou wilt spread

Thy shadowing wings around my head:

Since in all pain Thy tender love

Will still my sweet refreshment prove.2 [Note: George Whitefield.]

There is a picture in stone which is enshrined in one of our cathedrals. It is the monument of one of Englands noblest bishops, the great and self-sacrificing Selwyn. Above the sarcophagus, which is of white marble, there is a recumbent figure of the great missionary, with a beautiful, placid countenance and the hands folded crosswise upon his breast. But the most beautiful thing of all is a windowa cross-shaped windowwhich is filled with crimson glass. It is so placed that when the noontide sun falls upon it, it throws the shadow of a blood-stained cross on the breast and face of the noble bishop beneath. It is, one feels, the truest epitaph that could be written of him. His life was made beautiful by the Cross. And so, if we are able to take that farther step which leads us into the Gethsemane of sacrifice, we shall not regret it. We shall come to feel with growing assurance and joy that our lives never truly touch completeness till they touch the Cross.1 [Note: W. Mackintosh Mackay.]

Why wilt thou thus engage thy mind,

My Master said, and fall behind?

What matters it to thee,

Whateer their whispering be?

Come on and leave their talk alone:

Stand like a tower firm, whose crown

Its summit never vails

For all the whistling gales.2 [Note: Dante, Purg. v. 1015 (tr. by Paget Toynbee).]

Not Far from the Kingdom

Literature

Arnold (T.), Sermons; Christian Life and its Course, 93.

Chadwick (G. A.), The Gospel of St. Mark, 337.

Drummond (R. J.), Faiths Perplexities, 259.

Ker (J.), Sermons, 1st Ser., 121.

Mackay (W. Mackintosh), Bible Types of Modern Men, 196.

Maclaren (A.), Expositions of Holy Scripture, St. Mark ixxvi., 148.

Newman (J. H.), Parochial and Plain Sermons, viii. 201.

Plummer (A.), An Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to St. Matthew , 25.

Rogers (J. H.), The Verily, Verilys of Christ, 21.

Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), 2nd Ser., v. No. 520.

Watkinson (W. L.), The Bane and the Antidote, 23.

Williams (C), The Evolution of Faith, 52.

Expositor, 5th Ser., ii. 41 (Watson).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

Thou: Mat 12:20, Rom 3:20, Rom 7:9, Gal 2:19

And no: Job 32:15, Job 32:16, Mat 22:46, Luk 20:40, Rom 3:19, Col 4:6, Tit 1:9-11

Reciprocal: Luk 7:43 – Thou Luk 10:27 – Thou Luk 10:28 – Thou hast Tit 2:8 – Sound

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

NOT FAR FROM THE KINGDOM

And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, He said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

Mar 12:34

The deepest interest must ever attach to those utterances of Christ, in which He has pronounced upon the moral and spiritual state of those who came before Him, and fixed their true standing in the sight of God.

I. The Kingdom.Our Lord speaks of that Kingdom as a definite reality. It is a distinct sphere or region with a frontier line marking it off from all else. Between the law which the scribe professed and the Gospel which Christ was offering, there was a sharp, intelligible boundary, which he must cross if he would pass from one to the other.

II. Near to the Kingdom.Christ recognises, welcomes, and rewards every approach towards that Kingdom. He does not look on all as equally distant from God until they have obeyed His call and enrolled themselves as His disciples. That which attracted our Lord in the character of the scribe was the pure instinct of natural goodness. The man had risen out of mere legalism to a rare conception of spiritual truth. Nevertheless there was a higher state for him to reach; he was on the verge of the Kingdom; he was still outside it. Why? Because, though he understood the necessity of love, he had not yet learned to love; because, though he knew how he ought to walk and to please God, he did not know himself; he had as yet no sense of his own weakness, no real perception of the evil which taints all mens service, no consciousness of that hopeless insufficiency which can be met only from withoutby a Divine Deliverer. And, more than this, he had no idea as yet of his own relation to Christ.

III. Where are we?The Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you, and to every one of us. Christ has addressed to us that question of questions, of which no lapse of time abates the interest, and before which it has been truly said every other fades and shrinks away: What think ye of Christ? About many things we may safely remain in suspense; but about this we cannot. We must settle it with ourselves, what He is to us, whether He is only what He was to the scribe, a human Teacher of rare greatness, or whether we do accept Him for what He claims to be.

Rev. Canon Duckworth.

Illustration

Some seem beyond the possibility of moving to a decision. They are like an Indian who fell asleep in his canoe above the waters of the foaming cataract above Woodstock on the John River. Another saw him go by, shouted, but roused him not. The canoe touched a rock, and the onlooker said, That will awaken him. No; on he drifted, until he found his canoe leaping and tossing in the rapids; then he stood up and in vain sought to pull away from danger, but it was too late. He was swept over the falls. So some men sleep away their chance of heaven.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

WHY WAS HE NEAR?

What was there in this man which made Christ speak of him as near to the kingdom of His grace, to His true Church?I say, near, for I think we shall all agree that when Christ says, not far, the negative conveys the strongest positive, and means near. Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

I. He spoke practically and sensibly, and without prejudice, as Christ expresses it, discreetly. And the Evangelist gives this as the very reason for our Saviours judgment about him. The Gospel, is, indeed, the highest reason; and if a man will but cast away pre-conceived ideas, and come to the study of the subject with a free mind, and bring to bear upon it his best powers of sense and intellect, we believe that that man will always be approximating to the kingdom of truth.

II. He saw, before his age and generation, the true, relative value of the types of the Jewish church.He recognised them as entirely inferior to the great principles of truth and love. It was a rising from the material to the spiritual. It was the seeing the invisible substances in the visible shadows. It was making way for the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a process towards the higher fields of faith.

III. His mind had travelled so far as to see that the sum and substance of all religion is lovefirst to God, and then, growing out of it, to man.

IV. He had been attracted to the Person of Christ.The Kingdom of God is Christ, and Christ is the Kingdom of God; and we are all in or out of that Kingdom, or near or far from it, just according to what Christ is to usabsolutely in Himself, and personally to ourselves.

V. Shall we leave it an open question as to whether we are in the Kingdom or not? Did Christ leave it an open question as to whether He would save us? How did He treat the penitent thief? Had St. Paul reason to fear lest he should be a castaway, and have we none? Shall we be content to see others pass up to heavens gate, and pass within, while we have to stand outside? Shall we see the light of the celestial city streaming up from behind its battlemented walls, making our darkness, solitude, and despair more intense? Shall it be an open question still? If we knew we had only another month, week, day to live, would it be an open question? Decide it nowgo in.

Illustration

Not far, not far from the Kingdom,

Yet in the shadow of sin;

How many are coming and going,

How few are entering in!

Not far from the golden gateway,

Where voices whisper and wait;

Fearing to enter in boldly,

So lingering still at the gate,

Catching the strains of the music

Floating so sweetly along;

Knowing the song they are singing,

Yet joining not in the song.

Seeing the warmth and the beauty,

The infinite love, and the light;

Yet weary, and lonely, and waiting

Out in the desolate night.

Out in the dark and the danger,

Out in the night, and the cold,

Though He is longing to lead them

Tenderly into the fold.

Not far, not far from the Kingdom,

Tis only a little space;

But it may be at last, and for ever,

Out of the resting-place.

A ship came sailing and sailing

Over a murmuring sea,

And just in sight of the haven,

Down in the waves went she.

And the spars and the broken timbers

Were cast on a storm-beat strand,

And a cry went up in the darkness,

Not far, not far from the land!

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

4

The kingdom of God had not been set up when this conversation took place, hence no actual distance could exist between it and any person as to specific items required for entrance into it. But the scribe expressed a principle of life that was so different from that of the Pharisees, that Jesus meant he was advocating ideas that were much like what would be required of persons in the kingdom when it did become a fact on earth. This conversation silenced the critics so that none of them asked Jesus any more questions.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mar 12:34. Discreetly. Understandingly, intelligently, wisely; more than discreetly, in the more modem sense.

Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. Intellectually on the right road, nearer to the kingdom than a mere formalist could be, recognizing the spirituality of the law, perhaps conscious of the folly of self-righteousness; but, though standing as it were at the door, still outside.Alexander. While the worst of His opponents were unable to convict Him of an error, or betray Him into a mistake, the best of them, when brought into direct communication with Him on the most important subjects, found themselves almost in the position of His own disciples.

And no man any more durst ask him any question. A natural effect of the previous experiments. No further question is put to Him, but He asks one which they cannot answer. Matthew however, gives more prominence to the fact that no one was able to answer Him a word, and so puts this statement after the victorious question of our Lord. Such independent testimony is the most valuable, especially here where our Lord asks a question respecting His own Person, in some respects the central question of Christianity.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Jesus meant that the scribe was not far from entering the kingdom. His openness to Scriptural revelation and his positive orientation to Jesus, if continued, would bring him to faith in Jesus and ultimately entrance into His kingdom.

Jesus’ skillful answers discouraged His critics from trying to trap Him. They stopped asking Him questions.

It was clear that Jesus’ derived His authority from God’s Word (cf. Mar 11:28). All the answers He gave went back to the Old Testament. Since this is the authority all the Jewish leaders claimed to follow, though they did not, they failed to discredit Jesus.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)