What Shall I Do To Inherit Eternal Life?

A lawyer stood up and questioned Jesus, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Luke 10:25.

Jesus answered him by saying, "What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?"

The lawyer answered in two parts by saying, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind" and "your neighbor as yourself'."

Jesus said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live" Luke 10:26-28.

The lawyer questioned, "And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus answered by telling the story of a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. On the journey, thieves robbed him, striped him of his clothing, beat him and left him wounded and almost dead. A priest was traveling that road and when he saw the wounded man, he passed by on the other side of the road. A Levite [from the family of priests] passed that way. When he saw the man, he stopped and looked, and then continued on his journey. Then a Samaritan came that way. Samaritans were despised by the Jews. When the Samaritan saw the wounded man, he had compassion on him. He dressed and bandaged the traveler's wounds, put him on his own animal and took him to an inn, and took care of him.

The next day as the Samaritan prepared to leave, he gave money to the innkeeper and said, "Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you."

Then Jesus asked the lawyer, "So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?"

The lawyer said, "He who showed mercy on him."

Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise" Luke 10:35-37.

"For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" Galatians 5:14 (quoted from Leviticus 19:18). Loving and serving our neighbor is fulfilling the law of God.

Jesus reinforced this principal when He said to His disciples during His last evening with them, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" John 13:34, 35.