What do I need to do to get into heaven?
If a stranger came and asked you this question: “What do I need to do to get into heaven?”—how would you answer?
Many from my evangelical tradition would say that you need to pray “the sinner’s prayer,” and some would add that you need to be baptized as well. The sinner’s prayer typically includes an admission of sin, a request for Jesus to forgive and save us, an acceptance of Jesus into our hearts, and a commitment to let Him become Lord of our lives.
Personally, I feel as though I need to pray this often. Everything about the sinner’s prayer is theologically accurate. Yet when Jesus was asked this same question, He didn’t answer the way my church tradition would.
In Luke chapter ten, we see an interaction between Jesus and an Old Testament expert. This expert stood up to test Jesus and asked Him this question:
Luke 10:25
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus, being the master teacher He was, decided to alter the power dynamic and test the lawyer. He essentially responded by saying, “You’re the expert here—how would you answer the question?” The expert’s answer was exactly right:
Luke 10:27
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
This answer has taken up permanent residence in my mind. It has become so profound to me for this reason: God cares as much about our love for others as He does about our love for Him.
If that idea makes you uncomfortable, you’re in good company—so was the Old Testament expert. This man, who entered the scene as the authority aiming to test Jesus, became so uncomfortable that he went on the defensive and began to justify himself.
Luke 10:29
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
That’s a great question. We don’t naturally love everyone as ourselves. In fact, I’m okay at loving the people I like and agree with—but I really don’t like to love the people I don’t like and disagree with. I think the expert felt the same. He wanted to know the boundaries: Who do I have to love, and who can I ignore?
But Jesus doesn’t answer that question. The expert essentially asked, “Who do I need to love?” But Jesus answered a different question instead: “How do I need to love?”
He responds by telling one of His most well-known stories: the Good Samaritan.
He talks about a man—just like this expert—who goes on a journey and gets robbed and beaten along the way. The man is left for dead on the side of the road. As the story progresses, two men walk by. Each is also like our expert. They’re well-versed in Scripture, respected in their religious community—and they both choose to ignore the dying man.
Then a third man walks by who is very different from our expert. He’s not of the same ethnicity, not from the same culture, not even from the same religious tradition. This third passerby is a stranger. Yet the stranger stops and responds. He lifts the dying man, uses his own resources to care for him, and then—even more generously—pays for the man’s continued care.
This stranger invests in the future of someone he doesn’t know—someone who is very different from himself.
This is how Jesus answers the question “Who do I have to love?” He doesn’t draw lines around who counts as a neighbor. He gives a tangible example of what love looks like—love for those who are different from us, who don’t believe what we believe, who aren’t from where we are from.
Jesus finishes His story with another question for the expert:
Luke 10:36
“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
The expert responds:
Luke 10:37
He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Now, if you’re still uncomfortable with my earlier statement—“God cares as much about our love for others as He does our love for Him”—here are a few more passages to consider:
Matthew 5:23–24
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Matthew 25:44–45
Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
1 Corinthians 8:11–12
And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
When Jesus was asked, “What do I need to do to get into heaven?” He said what is required is to love God and to love others—and when He says “others,” He doesn’t place boundaries on who that includes.
As we meditate on these teachings of Jesus, we should reflect on who in our own lives we are called to love as ourselves—especially those we may not be loving right now.
Maybe it’s a neighbor, or someone at school.
Maybe it looks like no longer calling your political opponents derogatory or dishonoring names, whether in private or public.
Maybe it looks like praying for leaders you think are evil or just incompetent.
Maybe it means seeing that person from another generation, culture, or country as someone made in the image of God.
Luke 10:36–37
“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”