And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
All Commentaries on Luke 18:18 Go To Luke 18
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
That ruler tempting Him said, Good Master, he ought to have said, Good God. For although goodness exists in divinity and divinity in goodness, yet by adding Good Master, he uses good only inpart, not in the whole. For God is good altogether, man partially.
He does not deny that He is good, but points to God. None is good then except he be full of goodness. But should it strike any one that it is said, none is good, let this also strike him, save God, and if the Son is not excepted from God, surely neither is Christ excepted from good. For how is He not good who is born from good? A good tree brings forth good fruits. How is He not good, seeing that the substance of His goodness which He took to Him from the Father has not degenerated in the Son which did not degenerate in the Spirit. Your good spirit, he says, shall lead me into a land of uprightness. But if the Spirit is good who received from the Son, verily He also is good who gave It. Because then it was a lawyer who tempted Him, as is plainly strewn in another book, He therefore well said, None is good, save God, that He might remind him that it was written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God, but he the rather gives thanks to the Lord that He is good.
Honor is concerned not only with paying respect, but also with giving bountifully. For it is honoring to reward deserts. Feed your father, feed your mother, and when you have fed them you have not requited all the pangs and agony your mother underwent for you. To the one you owe all you have, to the other all you are. What a condemnation, should the Church feed those whom you are able tofeed! But it may be said, What was going to bestow upon my parents, I prefer to give to the Church. God seeks not a gift which will starve your parents, but the Scripture says as well that parents are to be fed, as that they are to be left for God's sake, should they check the love of a devout mind.
