Isnt love for God and our neighbor obedience to God though?
Matthew 7:21 21 "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
It seems like those who do the will of the Father “earn” heaven?
Now let me assure you I agree if you do these things only out of selfishness so that one may avoid hell, that isnt the best reason, but is that a mortal reason?
Furthermore, how does one truly know why they do the will of God? How does one know if they do it out of love, out of fear (maybe fear rooted in the subconscious), or a combination of both? Isnt fear a good thing since it keeps us humble?
Sorry for all the questions heh.
A young boy (5 yrs old) wants to be a bicycle rider like his father and older brother. The father and brother are also looking forward to that day.
But the young boy does not know how to ride, nor does he have a bicycle.
He asks his father for a bike. His father gives him a bike.
He walks around with it, holding the handle bars, but falls over every time he tries to ride.
The young boy asks his father and brother to help him ride. He has to ride to be a bicycle rider; he cannot just walk at its side and push it.
His father balances it as he sits in the seat, and guides it along with the young boy pedaling, and the older brother riding his bike along side as example and encouragement.
As they pick up speed, the father jogging, the young boy’s steering gets straighter, and the father lets go.
After a few feet, he falls, cries. etc.
With the father’s consolation and encouragement, they try again, and again, and again, for several days.
One day, he didn’t fall. He wobbled and weaved, but went on and on. Then as days went by he could get on and start himself. And the three of them went riding together. That is heaven, riding together on their bicycles.
The boy did not work to be a member of that family of bicycle riders, he did not work to get a bike, he did not hold himself in balance as he pedaled his first attempts. All those were gifts, graces from his father and brother.
But the boy did pedal, he had to pedal to be a rider. He did fall and skin his knees and elbows. He did have to find his own balance and use it. (yet even his body and balancing mechanisms were given to him - he did not create those, simply used them, learned to use them). These things were the necessary works to be a bicycle rider within his bicycle riding family. He did have to do these works to be in that heaven of riding together with his father and brother.
We are doing works in order to learn to be, and in order to BE, like our Father in heaven, to will what He wills, to love as he loves. and to be like our older Brother, our King, Jesus. It is work that has to be a reality in order to be together with them. That is our sanctification: becoming like our Father and Brother.
The prayer “Thy will be done” is a young boy saying, “Let us all be 100% a bicycle riding family”. It is love for the Father that desires to be doing the work of the Father with the Father. “Thy will be done by you and by me, Father, let’s do it together”
The work of learning to ride “merits” the boy the position of riding with the family, in that he is able to do it, and the father and brother say to him, “You have learned to ride; you have earned the right to ride with us.”
John Martin
