41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25)
People say they are planning on going to heaven. When asked why they plan on doing so, the answer is that they "believe in Jesus." Jesus said a lot about believing when He walked and talked on earth with His followers, but as He was getting close to His departure, He also gave a lot of black-and-white/either-or pcitures of what His true followers will look like. So it would do us well to listen to what He has to say about the symptoms of whether one is a believer or not. True believers look out for others. They care about them physically, emotionally, and in terms of their ability to carry out God's plan for their life here on earth, just like He did while He was here. Jesus was not saying that in order to enter eternal life one just had to be a nice person, but He was saying that those who have received eternal life will be characterized by such a lifestyle. Since He is the One who would be doing the judging, we would do well to consider His words.
No comments:
Post a Comment