Correcting the Worst Misconception people have!
Is “being moral and good” all that is needed to go to heaven?
There is no better summary as to how to behave towards our fellow man than this:
“do no harm to anyone and do as much good as we can to all”
Jesus himself said the same, but in slightly different words.: “Do to others as you would like them to do unto you”
But, according to him, doing this is not enough to give us entrance into God’s family as his adopted children!
For there is a similar rule that is even more important to God than this one.
I will not quote it right outright; I will rather illustrate it first with an example taken out of my own life, (a part of my life that is very personal and difficult to share with anyone. Please, do not judge me too quickly or harshly…)
“I, Constantin, am now 72 years old as I write, and have had an eventful and varied life.
I am a very emotional person, and very family centred.
I have been married twice, so far. Both of my wives left me, (not vice-versa).
I loved my wives and children with all my heart, (I had 10 children in all, 9 still in life)
I had concrete dreams and plans for both of my families, plans to create a family like no other, united with love, happiness, security and purpose.
I expected all members of my families to trust me and follow my plans and dreams for them, but my wives and children did not tolerate me for long, for I am also a difficult and demanding man, with strong moral or behavioural principles.
So, at some stage in our lives, when things got tough, both of my wives decided to leave me, and my children chose to follow their “softer” mothers rather than stay with “demanding” me.
(Danielle, one of my daughters was an exception; she respects me and loves me much, and lives with me…)
Now, my children live all over the world: some in England, some in France, in South Africa, Dubai, Greece, Cyprus, and for a time in the Philippines.
We haven’t kept contact, and I haven’t seen some of them for many years now.
My children may be the best persons in this world, applying to the letter the principle that I taught them, that of “doing no harm to anyone, and doing as much good as they can to all their fellow men and women”, but, since they do not apply it to me,
I, their father, am not at all pleased with them:
They are not doing their foremost duty towards me: That of loving me back, respecting me for who I (morally) am, and honouring me for being their father by behaving the way I taught them.
They have turned their backs on me and have not returned to my “fold”.
None of them has come to me, repentant and seeking to make up for the unbelievable pain and disappointment that they brought upon me.
My whole life has been messed up because they left.
We have become strangers, blaming and despising each other…
I am still waiting, like a fool, for them to return repentant and be reconciled with me.
Deep inside, I still love them and am willing to forgive and even forget (up to a point) whatever happened. But their absence says it all.
They do not care about me, how I feel.
By saying all this, I have opened to you my innermost self, saying things that I do not want to discuss with anyone, for I know, (by experience), that people seldom understand or agree with my way of seeing things, and chose to find fault with me rather than get the point I am trying to make,
that of better explaining what else God expects of us, aside of doing no harm to anyone, and doing as much good as we can to all:
God demands that we love him above all, respect, honour and submit to him.
That is what is more important than loving our fellow man as we love ourselves!
If we do not, love God, our Creator, with all our heart, soul, spirit and with all our strength.
(or, at least, sincerely strive to do that), he will not accept us as his (adopted) children, he will not let us enter his home, where eternal life and perfect happiness alone exist.
Outside his Kingdom, sorrows will be experienced eternally, to a degree that depends on the hardness of our hearts, the wickedness of our actions, and, most of all, the failure to love God.
“Loving our neighbour as ourselves” is the second most important commandment, according to Jesus himself, and will not be enough to convince our Creator of accepting anyone into his family and Kingdom.
We must repent of our apostacy and submit unconditionally to him.