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If love and goodness
are not a test for heaven, why does the Bible
talk so much about it?
| When we truly love
God, love for others will grow [Eph 4:20-24]. Jesus also taught that our love for others
reflects our love, too, for him [Mt 13:34-35; John 15:12-14]. Certainly God wants our love
for him (and others) to grow. The problem is when people starting thinking that loving
others means they love God. However many such people don’t know God at all.
Many religions - that totally reject the one true God - teach love and service.
Even people that sincerely love others in obedience to the WRONG god, show no love for the
God that made them. Many total atheists are "good." Since God’s test is our
love for him, combined with forgiveness for whatever sins we have committed... Our loving
others while rejecting the real God will still separate us eternally from him (in
hell). It may not seem fair, but remember that God’s standard of "good" is
far above ours. And it’s certainly not "fair" that the God of the Universe
would sacrifice his own son to provide the forgiveness we need. Yet he did it anyway. God
tells us that no one is "good enough" to get to heaven on their own [Eph 2:4-8].
God reinforces this by using his perfect Son as the only sacrifice acceptable to
give us eternal life with him. |
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