“A certain ruler asked Him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’

Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and your mother.’

He said, ‘All these I have kept since my youth.’

When Jesus heard this, He said to him, ‘Yet you lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow Me.’

When he heard this he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

— Luke 18

Here Jesus confronts a rich young religious man seeking spiritual “perfection”. What the Lord showed me about this rocked my world.

This rich young ruler had reached the ‘height’ of #Godgoals (or so he thought). So he confidently — perhaps even arrogantly? — approached the Lord one day asking how he could have the eternal life Jesus preached about.

To be honest, I’d always disliked Jesus’ response. It seemed so… over-the-top. Religious. Almost like He said it with a smirk, as in, You think you have it all together? Try selling all you own & give it to the poor! Some religious man you are, mwahaha 😉

Yet the other day, the Holy Spirit highlighted something very powerful to me while reading this familiar passage.

This young man had fallen into a religious mentality, like many of us do! “God, I’ve checked all the boxes. I’ve fulfilled Your (challenging) requirements for many years. Isn’t this enough to get into heaven?”

It’s not that Jesus doesn’t commend the man’s efforts (or ours). Jesus rather exposed the man’s false confidence he’d placed in his works. This young man had trusted in his goodness, his religious performance, to get closer to God and feel good about himself.

Yet Jesus said he lacked one thing. Do you know what that thing was? Through Jesus’s response, He reveals to all of us with a religious mentality that WE NEED HIM desperately… & we need something else greater than the law to drive us to do the right thing.

Even if we’ve checked every religious box, do you know what Jesus beckons us to do far beyond legalistic living??

Living in love!

The law of love supercedes religious “rules”. The whole point of God’s law — besides showing us our shortcomings — is its emphasis on LOVING God & men!

Jesus was telling this wealthy young man that he lacked LOVE. He wasn’t doing the right things to get closer to God or love & honor other people — he was doing it to earn God’s good graces & attain a sense of self-righteous satisfaction.

Sadly, the young man walked away from Jesus & His challenge that day.

Paul’s Life Change: Law –> Love

The Apostle Paul underwent this very transformation from living under legalism to love! God rescued Saul, THE quintessential Pharisee, into a born-again, saved by grace follower of Christ. The change was so radical that it required a name-change!

God led the newly-crowned Paul on a journey, from faith in his ability to earn God’s favor (an impossible task) to trusting in the Almighty’s incredible love & grace for him instead.

And guess what? Paul’s life-altering encounter with God rippled into the lives of many people & changed the course of history!

By the time of his death, Paul was so full of love for Jesus & people that he’d been imprisoned, beaten, persecuted & dishonored intensely for many years because he so loved & wanted to share the Good News with Gentiles. Paul spent years of his life longing to be with God’s people, praying for them, writing to them, encouraging them, rebuking them, teaching them and rejoicing when he learned of their commitment to God (or feeling sorrow over their sin).

Paul’s new life in Christ was a labor of true love for the lost people of the world. He wanted others to experience the same eye-opening, life-freeing love he’d found in Jesus, & he spent the rest of his life doing all he could to see it happen.

The Lord gave Paul the Father’s heart towards His people — truly supernatural — & it changed everything Paul did from then on.

For the sake of his love of God & others, Paul lost ALL his prestigious standing as ‘a Pharisee of Pharisees’, a well respected, well educated and comfortable religious zealot of his day. He wrote later that he counted it all as loss for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ our Lord. Only LOVE will do that to you!

Simply put, God changed Paul’s heart from keeping the law to living in love.

Where’s Your Focus?

If you are driven by love for God & others, you will be willing to go to great lengths to serve people, do what’s best for them, sacrifice, lose your reputation & even give up worldly blessings — all because you consider other people’s needs, not just your own!

Jesus beckoned this ‘religiously perfect’ young man to live in LOVE, not by the LAW! It was as if He was saying “Young man, there’s a whole world of life & freedom & blessing beyond your works-based faith!!! So many people will be blessed by your obedience, & your very heart will be transformed!”

Sincere faith compels us to do the right thing because we seek to LOVE, honor, & express care / compassion / & concern for other people. You’re not doing the ‘right things’ to feel like a better person or make others think you are. You aren’t even doing it for kudos from the Big Man 🙂 You’re doing it because 1) God’s love has changed your life and 2) you desire to extend His love to the people around you.

Your motives have changed from law to love.

God’s desire for you & I today is that we stop being driven by compulsion, guilt, condemnation, or a desire to earn His good graces or assuage our guilt. Instead He wants us to be compelled by our love for Him & His people, to please Him, to bless His heart, and to bless others through our obedience. He is not seeking “Checklist Christianity!”

Love makes us LONG to avoid offending, hurting, lying to, cheating, stealing from, and dishonoring our fellow man (or woman) 🙂 Love also goes above & beyond the law, seeking to do what’s BEST for God and the people He’s placed in our lives — even when it costs us something. And you know what else? Love keeps our focus on God & people, not on what we have to give up for them.

Love keeps the law… & then some. It’s so much better than a checklist of duties to fulfill. It changes our journey “from duty to delight”, & it’s a privilege we get to go on (if we choose to)!

Love is giving from our hearts, not under pressure or compulsion.

God’s Heart in the 10 Commandments

What the Lord showed me was that the 10 Commandments were never about attaining Moral Perfection. They were about 1) showing us our need for a Saviour and 2) revealing the Spirit behind the law: LOVE!!!

Jesus Himself said love is the greatest law!

“… the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested Him with this question: ^‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’

Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

— Matthew 22

The entire Law & Prophets hang on these 2 commands: Love God & your neighbor.

LOVE is the greatest law. This rich young man was missing love in his life — in his motives — & as a result, he’d been missing the whole purpose of God’s law. God made laws that protect us from each other, that place Him in His rightful position in our lives, & that were created out of His love for people. These laws include:

Love God: Make God your #1. No idols or taking His name in vain.
Love people: Honor your parents. Don’t lie, steal, cheat on, covet or kill your neighbor.

Jesus was inviting this young man — who seemed to have everything — to experience true riches & true religion. He wanted him to live a life led by LOVE, not religious guilt or moral obligation. And He invites us to do the same. The question is, will we let Him?

Will we lay down our faith based on ‘good works’ & live compelled to do good for others instead? To honor Him by how we treat people, how we talk about them (& to them), & bless their lives?

Or will we continue living 1D (one dimensional) Christianity — checking off boxes, reading our Bibles & going to church & not changing much else about our lives — simply trying to “do the right thing” to avoid a guilty conscience?

Did Jesus live a life of bare-minimum faith, or did He give God & us His all? Scripture says He went so far as to die for humankind, & He did it for the best reason. The Bible says Jesus was compelled by ‘the joy set before Him’ — and that joy was our salvation. That’s true love.

Are You Driven by Guilt or Love?

God wants us to live a life that exudes His love for people around us. It is a GOOD challenge from Him. He wants us to live the highest law possible, LOVE (not merely obeying a set of rules). To love is the most freeing way to live our lives.

If you’ve been following Him for a long time, this is for you (& me).

I want to live beyond good Christian behavior & doing good works so God won’t be angry at me. Going a step further, I want to treat people right because they need to experience God’s love through me & because love — acting in other people’s best interests (not merely my own) — is Jesus’s motivation. And as His follower, I want it to by mine, too.

I don’t want an inwardly-focused life driven to avoid & ease my feelings of guilt. I want a life compelled outward to love God & His people. Besides, others know when we’re giving from a place of love vs. because we ‘ought to’. Love goes beyond the should’s & sees them as get to’s (& want to’s).

Do you see the distinction? Because it makes all the difference in the world.

“If I give all I possess to the poor
and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,
but do not have love,
I gain nothing.”

— 1 Cor. 13:3

Here is God’s definition of true religion:

“Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”

— James 1:27

Lastly, I’ll leave you with Paul’s powerful insights in the book of Romans:

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other,
for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 
For the commandments,
‘You shall not commit adultery,
You shall not murder,
You shall not steal,
You shall not covet,’
and any other commandment,
are summed up in this word: 
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
Love does no wrong to a neighbor;
therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”

— Romans 13:8-10