Entering the Kingdom of God

Discipleship and Mission

Call to Discipleship

Calling to Salvation

Luke 18:18-30 The Message

The Rich Official

18 One day one of the local officials asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to deserve eternal life?”
19-20 Jesus said, “Why are you calling me good? No one is good—only God. You know the commandments, don’t you? No illicit sex, no killing, no stealing, no lying, honor your father and mother.”
21 He said, “I’ve kept them all for as long as I can remember.”
22 When Jesus heard that, he said, “Then there’s only one thing left to do: Sell everything you own and give it away to the poor. You will have riches in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
23 This was the last thing the official expected to hear. He was very rich and became terribly sad. He was holding on tight to a lot of things and not about to let them go.
24-25 Seeing his reaction, Jesus said, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who have it all to enter God’s kingdom? I’d say it’s easier to thread a camel through a needle’s eye than get a rich person into God’s kingdom.”
26 “Then who has any chance at all?” the others asked.
27 “No chance at all,” Jesus said, “if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.”
28 Peter tried to regain some initiative: “We left everything we owned and followed you, didn’t we?”
29-30 “Yes,” said Jesus, “and you won’t regret it. No one who has sacrificed home, spouse, brothers and sisters, parents, children—whatever—will lose out. It will all come back multiplied many times over in your lifetime. And then the bonus of eternal life!”

For Reflection

How far does one have to go to enter the Kingdom and practice righteousness?  To fully participate in the Kingdom of God one has to "go all in and double down." One must act as though one's former life is dead and begin as newborn; learning again how to crawl, walk, and run.  One has to unlearn all the ineffective ways of living and even though it may be counter-intuitive to many others, risk it all on Christ's way.

Pray

Pray about all things so that you will be more willing and able to live as Christ had.

Forward to a friend