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To get into heaven, only need to love God and neighbor?

Postby Tokey » Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:30 pm

The only thing needed to get into heaven is to love God and to love one's neighbor.

Matthew 22:34-40

34 But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. 35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.

If we love God, we will do what He says. He instructs Christians to listen to Jesus, God's Son, in whom He is well pleased (at Jesus's baptism). So, in order to draw close to God, and to "get into Heaven", loving God and our brother and sisters, in the ways Jesus instructs us to, are the only two requirements.
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Re: To get into heaven, only need to love God and neighbor?

Postby jimwalton » Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:43 pm

There were two occasions where Jesus was asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" (i.e., to get into heaven). On those two occasions, Jesus offered his criteria (since we're going to go by Jesus' words):

1. Love God with all that you are.
2. Love your neighbor as yourself.
3. Do God's will by obeying his moral commands.
4. Be willing, if he asks you, to drop everything and leave it behind to follow him.

It is also said in many places in Scripture that one must "believe" (John 1.13) in Jesus: recognize who He is and put one's faith in him (mental assent plus heart attitude [Matt. 5] plus behavioral obedience [John 14.15]). John also teaches in John 1.12 that one must "receive him."

In ways you are right: If you love God, belief, faith, obedience, trust, worship, love, compassion and generosity will all follow. But in ways your picture is incomplete. The Scriptures, to that end, do use other words and add more to the picture of what is truly means to love God and to "inherit eternal life." In many places the Bible even adds "endure to the end." In ways it's quite simple, but a complex simplicity.
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Re: To get into heaven, only need to love God and neighbor?

Postby TacoTaco » Sun Oct 11, 2015 3:05 pm

Can you justify #3? Seems like you slipped the word "moral" in there on your own....
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Re: To get into heaven, only need to love God and neighbor?

Postby jimwalton » Sun Oct 11, 2015 3:11 pm

Glad to. I didn't slip it in there on my own at all. When the rich man asked Jesus what to do to inherit eternal life, Jesus very clearly intimated that obeying the Law was important (Mt. 19.17). There's also the parable of the sheep and the goats in Mt. 25.34-40, where moral behavior is an important qualification for entering heavenly glory. I could add John 14.15, where Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command," but I had included that above.
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Re: To get into heaven, only need to love God and neighbor?

Postby TacoTaco » Sun Oct 11, 2015 4:18 pm

> When the rich man asked Jesus what to do to inherit eternal life, Jesus very clearly intimated that obeying the Law was important (Mt. 19.17)

Yes, but he didn't say "obeying the moral law is important, but the rest are not essential". Jesus lists off several commandments, but he leaves out "thou shalt have no other gods before me" and "do not covet", which are obviously still important. So it really reads more like what he was doing was rattling off a few examples to indicate "You know... all those commandments..."

> There's also the parable of the sheep and the goats in Mt. 25.34-40, where moral behavior is an important qualification for entering heavenly glory

Is it the only qualification? Obviously not.

> I could add John 14.15, where Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command,"

That would be entirely irrelevant. I'm discussing whether you were incorrect in slipping the word "moral" into "Do God's will by obeying his moral commands."
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Re: To get into heaven, only need to love God and neighbor?

Postby jimwalton » Tue Jan 03, 2017 8:15 pm

Obviously, in response to the original post, what is needed to get into heaven is more complex than "Love God and your neighbor as yourself." You seem to agree with that along with me. Let me try again to explain my use of the word "moral." In Matt. 5.18 Jesus assures his listeners that nothing will disappear from the Law until all is fulfilled. This would include the moral instructions of the Law. (If you're wanting me to show you where Jesus uses the word "moral," he doesn't. Jesus uses the word "righteousness", and it appears in this same paragraph in Matt. 5.19-20.) But then in Matthew 5 Jesus continues on talking about "morality," endorsing what the Law says, but taking it even further to what we think about in addition to how we act. It's all important for salvation.

I agree with you that the qualifications of Mt. 25.34-40 are not the only qualification, and that is the point. The answer is more complex than just loving God and neighbor, and doing God's will by obeying his moral commands is one of the qualifications. James 2.14-26 show us that obeying a moral code is one of the qualifications of genuine faith, and essential to inherit eternal life, just as Jesus said to the rich man. Paul also, in Rom. 3.31, made decidedly explicit that Christians are bound by a moral code, as well as faith, love for God, love for others, and a life of total dedication.

But our righteousness (to use Jesus' word) is not all from our own good works, but is the righteousness of Christ in us (Gal. 2.21; Phil. 3.9). Salvation is far more than being a good person, though as James 2.14-26 says, if you have been saved you are obligated to be a good person (see also James 1.27). Doing God's will by obeying his moral commands is an essential piece of salvation, along with other things.


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