What Does Luke 18:21 Mean?
And he said, All these things I have guarded from my youth.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.THE KEY
The word translated “kept” pictures guarding, so his complete record also reveals a life organized around what he believes he has successfully held in place.
THE MEANING
You can recognize the confidence of a record kept from early life. The verb carries watchfulness and guarding, so this verse lets that self-account stand while revealing the posture beneath it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A record of keeping every command does not prove that nothing still has a hold on your heart.
THE ROOT
ἐφυλαξάμην
ephylaxamēn
GROWS FROM
φυλακ- / φυλασσ- (phylak- / phylass-)
to guard, keep watch, or protect
“guarded” in this verse is ephylaxamēn. The verb behind “kept” is φυλάσσω (phylassō), “to guard” or “keep watch.” His claim is not only that he can count the commands as observed; it pictures a life spent guarding what he understands as obedience, while the next verse reveals that one thing remains unloosened.
ALSO GROWS
phylax: guard or watchman
φύλαξ
This branch makes the watchful quality of “kept” visible: the word carries the image of someone guarding.
phylakē: guard duty, watch, or prison
φυλακή
The same word family reaches from keeping watch to confinement, opening a question about whether what is guarded can also become what holds a person.
THE PATTERN
A claim of completeness is tested by the one thing that still holds the heart.
All the ways of a person are clean in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the breaths.For whoever guards the whole instruction, and yet stumbles at one point, is bound to all of it.For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.THE THREAD
When Jesus heard these things, he said to him, One thing is still left behind for you. Sell all that you hold, and hand it out to the emptied, and you will hold treasure in the heavens, and come, follow me.The reply places “all” beside “one thing”: the complete tally does not reach what remains held. The contrast reveals that guarding commands and being free to follow are not the same.
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