An invitation to life!

PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Luke 10:25-28

What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?

“Do this, and you will live.” (Luke 10:28)
Loving God and others is not a password or ritual to get in to heaven.
These are not just arbitrary rules, they are wisdom for living.
To love God and people is healthy, natural, God-designed living.
If everyone loved God and people, our world would be paradise.
To not love is the same as to not eat healthy or exercise – it kills us.
It is how “life to the full” (John 10:10) is actually experienced and enjoyed.
It is the most fulfilling, soul-satisfying, life-blessing way to live.
But we have reversed this order: we love ourselves, then others, then God if needed.
It was not loving God and people that got Jesus killed, it was other people not loving.
Jesus breaks the curse of sin and death to free us from self-love.
He gives us his Spirit of love to help us start to do this and live!
Jesus invites us to take steps towards loving God and people, however imperfect.
Not as a ticket to be accepted (God already accepts us), but for the thrill itself.
In time we will find that Jesus is right when he says, “do this, and you will live!”
PRAYER
Lord, our focus on rules and rituals has sucked the life out of our relationship with you. Though I cannot do this perfectly, with your help I can start. Help me to grow in my love for God and people!

6 Comments

  1. Lord thank you for making us the way we are – thank you for your hand of design over all the little things we take for granted. Lord help us love others the way you love us – in all ways, big and small.

    • Some thoughts: seems to me that everything in its healthy balance and proportion is good, including ourselves. “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God (that created it) and prayer (that receives it).” (1 Timothy 4:4-5)
      It is because we do not love God and others in a healthy way that our self love becomes unhealthy. Like a parent or a teacher or care-giver, if they love and focus on themselves more than on their child/student/patient, their self-love is wrong.
      If we receive ourselves with thanksgiving for what we are (healthy self-love), and offer (consecrate) ourselves to God and others, then it is love in the right way.
      Self-care is healthy too, for the sake of loving others (like putting on the oxygen mask first on a plane so that you can help your child next). But self-care motivated more by self-interest undermines other-care, and this would not be good.
      Our problem is that we have this strong tendency to prioritize ourselves (and the ones we love, who are close to or like us) before all others and God.

  2. “Do this and you will live.” We are all living but for the poor on the side of the street in Dhaka, at the Ferry terminal, or living in makeshift housing alongside train tracks – it’s struggling. Struggling to survive or incessant striving for gain, for wealth – is that living? Jesus says that to really live is to be right with God: loving God and loving my neighbour. Love requires action – in the action is the living. Teach me how to freely live, Lord! Help me to love others who seem sometimes to be so unlovable!

  3. The Gospel in one word is love.
    Love God.
    Love neighbour.
    My love for God needs to colour all of my doings.
    Knowing = Loving = Doing
    And when I do, others will see Christ Jesus living in me. I need to be like Christ unto others.

    Love, love, love, love,
    the gospel in a word is love,
    Love thy neighbor as thy brother,
    love, love, love.

    Peace, peace, peace, peace,
    the gospel in a word is peace,
    Peace that passes understanding,
    peace, peace, peace.

    Joy, joy, joy, joy,
    the gospel in a word is joy,
    Joy that fills to overflowing,
    joy, joy, joy.

    Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ,
    the gospel in a word is Christ,
    Love Him, serve Him, and adore Him,
    Christ, Christ, Christ.

  4. To love is to live. Love God, love yourself, and love our neighbor. This is life. The ten commandments could be summarized this way. If we all live as what Jesus told the teacher of the law, “do this and you will live” there will be no murderer, no thief, no adulterers
    …. no crime, no harrassment, no poor. Earth is paradise. We followers of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us…. is commanded to do this and live. When the church practice this, people from the outside will come in and follow Jesus as well.

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