Loving Your Neighbor

Pray – (1/2 minute)

Read – (2 1/2 minutes) – “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. ‘Teacher,’ he asked, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ ‘What is written in the Law?’ He replied. ‘How do you read it?’ He answered: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your souls 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.’ ” (Luke 10:25-28)
      Passage: Psalm 97:1-7

         The question of the Pharisee who tried to test Jesus betrayed his misunderstanding of how to have an eternal relationship with God. He asked “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” The question is the ultimate question of life, because everyone is going to die one day and deep down, there is a God-given sense that there must be something more than the few years we live on this earth. However, he assumed that eternal life is something that he had to earn.

When Jesus asked how this Pharisee understood the Law, he answered with the passages from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, which Jesus will say later is the greatest commandment. Jesus said He was right, but there is one big problem for us. We would have to love God totally from the moment we were born till the moment we died. Our motivation for everything would have had to be a pure, unselfish, God-centered motivation to glorify God and desire His Kingdom to expand. In other words, you would have to be perfect to get into heaven on your on merit. I haven’t done that and neither have you. The Pharisee knew he hadn’t either. The answer was right in front of him and it is in front of everyone today. The answer is Jesus. He lived the perfect life and was acceptable to God as one who could offer himself to pay the penalty for sin. The question is the most important one anybody can ask. Thank God you found the answer in Jesus.

Apply - (2 1/2 minutes)
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Pray - (1 1/2 minutes)