What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? (Matthew 19:16)

Sometimes this question is seen as the central concern of religious life. The question involves the idea of a covenant or contract and asks what is expected of us by God before we can receive the goal that we desire. We too can ask, "What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?"

How important should this question be? How much attention should we give to it? Perhaps it seems to be too much of a self-centered concern? If approached with the wrong emphasis it is too self-centered. If a person concentrates too much on an idea of future reward, he will never receive it. What then is our part in the covenant between the Lord and ourselves?

A church's idea of the covenant between God and human beings does provide a key definition of its beliefs. The ancient Israelites were given the choice of life and death, blessings and curses depending on their obedience to the laws given on Mount Sinai. Beyond the Ten Commandments the Israelites were given religious laws that affected what they ate, how they handled their property and especially how they were to approach God in worship. Their concentration on these laws and the requirements of sacrifice did lead them astray at times. They attended to the external requirements of their laws forgetting what the Lord really wanted and so they had to be reminded, sometimes rather sharply. God speaking through the prophet Isaiah said,

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me?

I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle

Bring no more futile sacrifices

Incense is an abomination to me

When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you;

Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear.

Your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;

Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes.

Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the oppressor;

Defend the fatherless. Plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:11,13,15-17)

Similarly the prophet Micah told the Israelites that God was not pleased with the sacrifice of thousands of rams or with the poured offerings of ten thousands of rivers of oil. He reminded them what God really desired of them: to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God. (Micah 6:7-8).

For the ancient Israelites it was too easy to think of their obligations in tangible terms because they expected their reward in equally tangible things. They had no clear concept of an afterlife. By the time of the Lord's life in the world, the idea of eternal life had entered into Jewish beliefs. Many other religions had it also. A life of blessings after this one was offered to those who fulfilled the requirements of their religion. This life of blessings was part of the covenant that the members of the various religions believed existed between themselves and their God. When the rich young man asked the Lord his question, he was sincerely seeking to learn his responsibilities that would fulfill his part of the covenant and insure him eternal life.

What do we think of as the reward that the Lord offers us? In its simplest form, what the Lord offers us is eternal happiness. Yes, the eternal happiness of dwelling in heaven in the future, but more than that. Because the true joy of heaven isn't readily apparent, it can be misunderstood. The true joy of heaven is a special state of mind that comes from the desire to serve the Lord and the neighbor. This state of mind then allows for all the external delights that can be experienced with the senses. How could this state of mind be described? It carries a sense of confidence from common purpose, the warmth of mutual love and peace of trust. This state of mind looks for and sees beauty in all things and all people. It delights in work. It has a deep sense of gratitude for gifts that it recognizes are from the Lord. The opposite to this state of mind is sometimes called the eternal death of hell. It isn't actually death, but rather eternal misery--the misery that comes from wishing good things only for oneself and resenting those that come to others. It is the misery of a person whose life is eaten away by the desire to own the possessions of others. In the life after death a person with this state of mind is deprived of all that it truly wants to achieve. It is filled with fear, hatred and distrust. It tends to see nothing but ugliness in people and things. It hates work and it constantly feels cheated by what has happened.

Given the choice between the life of heaven and the life of hell the best alternative is obvious. What then is required of you that you may receive eternal life. When the young man asked Jesus this question, he was told, "If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments." Sometimes keeping the commandments can be seen as avoiding black marks in ones' book of life. Jesus in enumerating the commandments to be followed included one from Leviticus (19:18) that carries a sense of positive action, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." People have sometimes pictured Judgment day as a weighing of the number and value of good deeds versus the number and severity of bad ones. But keeping the commandments is more than doing some things and not doing others. When the young man told Jesus, "All these things have I kept from my youth. What do I still lack?", Jesus replied "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me." The young man went away feeling sad for he was rich.

It seems the Lord made a tremendous demand of him. If he wanted to be perfect, his part of the covenant demanded more than merely doing some things and not others. It would have to fill his whole life. This is the quality of the life of heaven. The two great commandments do not describe what we must do or think. They describe what we are to love. We are to love our neighbor and we are to love the Lord. Jesus chose expressions of these two loves that would encompass the whole life of the young man. He was told to sell all that he had, an expression of love to the neighbor, and to follow Jesus, an expression of love to the Lord.

The demand of perfect fulfillment of the covenant seemed tremendous. The Lord has given us this story perhaps for that very purpose. Perhaps He wants us to reflect the qualities of our present lives that stand in the way of us receiving the life of heaven. The demand is great, but so is the reward. Remember the Lord's promise, "He who loses his life for my sake shall find it." This is the hard part of the covenant. We must give up many of the things that we delight in if we are going to receive the life of heaven. But the things that we must give up aren't so much the external joys of this world. The fact is that the Lord really isn't so interested in those things in themselves. He isn't particularly concerned with what we eat or wear, what our house is like or how expensive a car we drive. What He is concerned with are the motives behind our choices. He is concerned with the inner quality of our lives. The Lord is concerned with the inner quality of our lives right now, because He knows that heaven isn't just a future time and place for us. The beginning of our eternal lives already exists.

Heaven can never come to someone instantly. The source of true happiness is the same for both heaven and this world. We cannot be happy, here, now today apart from a desire to do what is good. Happiness will not come apart from loving those around us. This isn't easy. Loving those around us can mean giving up some of the independence possessed by someone who looks only after himself. It can mean allowing others to do things for us even though we resent needing help. It can mean personal sacrifices and inconveniences. Loving those around us can mean putting up with the pain of watching someone make a bad choice because he thinks it is a good one. It can mean risking hurting or angering another by trying to help them see a potential or present problem.

Loving others isn't easy, but its rewards are as big as its challenges. As we do our daily work of trying to wisely love those around ourselves, we will at times sense something of the delight of heaven. We will feel the delight of working for a common purpose, the warmth of mutual love and peace of trust. We will at times look around ourselves and sees beauty in so many things and so many people. Serving others will be seen as a necessary chore, but a source of great happiness. And throughout all this there will be a deep sense of gratitude for gifts that we recognize are from the Lord.

More than anything else the Lord wants us to freely choose a life that will allow us to feel these heavenly delights. He wants us to flee from the choices and states of mind that bring us hell in this world and the next. He wants to lead us away from the misery that comes from wishing good things only for ourselves and resenting those that come to others. He doesn't want us to feel the discontent of a person whose life is eaten away by the desire to own the possessions of others. He wants to save us from fear, hatred and distrust, from the hell of seeing nothing but ugliness in people and things and feeling constantly cheated by what has happened.

The Lord does offer us a covenant. He offers us His joy, not just in the distant future, but also here and now and He offers us His infinite power to fight against the evil spirits that would draw us away from that joy. We receive this power, when we fight as if we alone carried the battle. Each day we may reflect on our part of the covenant asking the question, What shall I do to earn eternal life? As we do our part of this work, we can know that we are not alone. The Lord is with us. He is working with each of us, guiding us to receive the life of heaven in every way that we can.

(References: Heaven and Hell 534; Matthew 19:16-22)