WHAT MUST I DO TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE?
Luke 10
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
Jesus’ answer to the question about eternal life must not be overlooked: We must become a people of love to inherit eternal life. And so the way we must understand the Gospel, the sacrifice of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit is that they are essential for us to become beings of love.
Jesus was not asked how sinful man, who is essentially lovers of self, can become lovers of others but the path to the cross that he travelled tells us that we cannot just simply overcome the darkness in our heart; it needs the power of the Holy Spirit and that could only come about because Jesus became our sacrifice.
Often we are so fixated on the Gospel that we consider it a destination rather than the gate that we must enter.
The point we must not ignore and must be at the forefront of what we understand we are to be and to do is in the unequivocal answer of Jesus to the man: “Do this and you will live.”
In the scene sketched out by Jesus, a man fell into need and of 3 one chose to help, going out of his way (which shows the sincerity of his heart) for the sake of the victim.
Notice that there is nothing about the victim’s religious persuasion nor his eternal status. To be a neighbour is to simply express love where love is needed. Notice that the priest and the Levite’s fastidious adherence to the Law (expressing their love for God?) received no recognition; Jesus clearly took the religious clothes we wear out of consideration.
The question “who was a neighbour” focuses our attention solely on who we are (or who we are to be) rather than on the details of what we are to do: a neighbour must have neighbours. It is indeed not good for man to be alone.
Too many Christians add to Jesus’ teaching and teach that love must be demonstrated by our willingness to share the Gospel or even worse, teach that expressions of love in helping another in need is not as important as the activity to share the Gospel. To these, I can only point them to Jesus’ endorsement of the man’s answer: to be a neighbour is to show mercy.
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”