Do this and you will live.

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 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.” - Luke 10:15-28

In her sermon yesterday, Katy pointed out how graciously Jesus invites this leader into the process of answering his own question. Jesus loves his answer and feels no need to add to it. He simply responds with “Do this and you will live.”

There’s a sense in which so many of us know what God’s plan is for our life - it’s to love more. We get caught up in asking questions about what decision to make or how to fix a relationship, but probably 75% of all of those questions are answered by this text. Love God. Love others. Love yourself. Just love well.

How much simpler would your life be if you kept your focus on loving well? Take a moment and think about that - if you really loved well, wouldn’t that give you a lot of clarity on how to live?

Jesus is clear on his response about how to ‘get into heaven’ (the religious leader’s question) and even on how to live in heaven here and now: Do this and you will live.