SCRIPTURE: Luke 10:25-28
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” …
This man is not just asking about life after death, he is asking about ‘shalom’.
According to Strong’s Concordance ‘shalom’ means completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord.
How do we experience this kind of life… by living as God created us to live.
“Do this and you will live.” (Luke 10:25,28)
Jesus is not talking about ‘earning heaven’, doing enough good things to convince God to save us.
He is talking about the kind of life necessary to experience this kind of shalom.
As long as we don’t love God and people, we are working against shalom.
God created us to be like Him, to love and live like Him, with God-like character.
If you want to experience never-failing happiness, you have to live like this.
As long as we cling to greed, pride, bitterness, selfishness, anger, hate, deception, lust, we are moving away from the experience of shalom, never-failing happiness, eternal life.
If you want to see what this shalom-life looks like, look at Jesus.
If we really want the shalom-life, we need to join with Jesus in living the God-like life.
By ourselves we can’t do it, but with God’s mercy, Jesus’ support, and the Spirit’s strength, we can more and more experience this shalom-life.
That is, if you really want it.
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, I do want completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord. Help me to live the kind of life that leads to this.
Jesus follower
trying to find His way
Thanks for sharing this MUB. Seems to me that if the ‘religious things’ aren’t helping you love God and people more, they’re not worth pursuing. The goal of spiritual disciplines is not to earn favour with God, but to help us love God and people. Like jogging, the purpose of jogging is not jogging, but improved health. If jogging is not improving your health, better to stop it. So here is a really important question… is reading the bible, praying, going to church, or to church meetings, helping improve your love for God and others… then persevere. If not, then either (a) drop them, or (b) change how you do them, or (c) encourage the church to change how they do them.
What do you think?
Love God and Love your neighbour. Sometimes I wonder about the grace vs works question. There are passages that seem to point to both positions. Today’s passage clearly points to the works side of the equation. Love God, and love your neighbour, and you will inherit the kingdom of God. Sounds like a pretty good formula. I wonder if this message is specially meant for religious type people, or church people who really want to know what God wants of them. It’s one thing to know that God will accept you and will welcome you into His kingdom because of the death of Jesus. So what do we do with this knowledge? Sometimes I wonder? Sometimes I get tired of chasing religious things, doing the things that I should, or feel that I have to because that is what a Christian is supposed to do. I don’t always feel like praying, reading the Bible, and going to meeting after meeting. I wonder if all this is chasing after the wind. It seems a lot easier to love God, and love your neighbour. That is where I will start.