Matthew 19:21 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

If thou wilt be perfect, &c.— That is, "If thou wilt prove thyself a true disciple of mine; if thou wilt enter perfectly and unfeignedly under my banner, and enlist in my cause." It may not be improper to observe, that the terms ofsalvation here settled are not different from those mentioned elsewhere in Scripture: for though faith is declared by our Lord himself to be the condition of salvation, it is such a faith, as influences to the universal righteousness here described; If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Moreover, the Christian religion, being from God, is established upon such solid evidences, that every humble person to whom it is offered will receive it with pleasure; and, if any man refuse it, his infidelity can be owing to no other cause than this, that his deeds are evil. So our Lord himself says expressly, John 3:19 and therefore, in returning a general answer concerning the terms of salvation, Jesus fitly directed this young man to a sincere, constant, and universal obedience; and, when he replied that he had arrived at that already, and desired to know if he lacked any thing more,—namely, to render him perfectly good, our Lord, who knew how destitute he was of the true evangelical principles of holiness, required him to become his disciple; which, as he had acknowledged our Lord's divine mission, he could not refuse to do, if he was the man that he pretended to be. At the same time Jesus let him know, that he could not be perfect, or his disciple, and much less a preacher of the Gospel, without renouncing worldly possessions; because, as matters then stood, the very profession of his religion, and much more the preaching of it, would infallibly expose him to the loss of his estate. Here, therefore, our Lord has declared, that all men to whom the Gospel is offered must believe it, and make profession of it, and produce all the fruits of it internally and externally, or they cannot be saved; but he by no means says, that it is absolutely necessary for all Christians to sell their goods, and give them to the poor. An intire actual renunciation of worldly possessions might, in innumerable instances, be necessary in the first ages, when the profession of Christianity, but especially the preaching of it, exposed men to persecution and death; which was the reason that Jesus mentioned it to the young man as his indispensable duty, especially as he aimed at the highest degree of goodness: but all that our Master requires of us at present is, that we be in constant and habitual readiness to part with all things in the world; and that we actually do so with perfect acquiescence in God's good pleasure, when he in his providence calls thereto. See on Luke 14:33. Macknight, and Law's Christian Perfection, ch. 3.