One day, I guy asked Jesus, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus asked him what he thought the answer was based on his understanding of the Law. The guy answered, "Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself." Then, Jesus said to him, "You have answered correctly..." (v. 28). Can you imagine what it must feel like to hear Jesus say that you have the correct answer? Especially when the question is, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" I'm sure this guy felt pretty good about himself, knowing that Jesus, the controversial rabbi and spiritual "media figure" of the day, said publicly that you were right on. "Jesus said," he may have thought to himself, "that I have the right answer." And he did. And I - just like that guy - usually am satisfied to stop right there, with only the right answer. But the rest of Jesus' answer painfully reveals the bankruptcy of only the right answer: "Do this and you will live."
The truth is, Jesus was answering the man's question with greater honesty and accuracy than he himself wanted. His question was, "What must I do...?" Maybe, like myself, he had become smugly satisfied with right answers and fluffy excuses that let you you off the hook without doing any damage to your own self-perceived, self-righteous image. Regardless of his condition and motives, the answer Jesus gives exposes our selfishness while revealing the liberating truth: knowing is not enough, we must do. Right answers must be lived in order for us to truly live. James says, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:22).
Jesus was the Word of God in human flesh (John 1:14) and lived among us. Now, dwelling in us by the Holy Spirit, he still wants to be the same. May we seek to know and to do, so that Jesus will once again live among us, and that we may truly live.
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