“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him. “Only God is truly good.
Parallel translations
- WEB Jesus asked him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good, except one — God.
- KJV And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
- BSB “Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.
- NKJV So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
- NASB But Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus questions the ruler's casual use of 'good,' noting that God alone is good. He presses the man to consider true goodness and who Jesus is.
Overview
Jesus is not denying his own goodness but challenging the ruler's superficial flattery and his shallow grasp of goodness. If God alone is good, then the ruler must reckon both with the impossibility of earning life by his own goodness and with who Jesus truly is. The question quietly invites him to recognize Jesus' divine identity.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Jas 1:17Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
- Job 15:14–16What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
- Heb 7:26For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
- Job 14:4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
- Job 25:4How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
- 1 Tim 3:16Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and received up in glory.
- Luke 1:35The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.
- Luke 11:13If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 18:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.