Is Love Enough to get us to Heaven?

There is a movement in the Christian religious world today that says if we love God and others enough that is all we need to do to get to heaven.

I want you to get your Bible and carefully look at the three passages that Jesus deals with this subject. These Bible verses are: Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:28-34; and Luke 10:25-28. First, Jesus never says that the only thing you have to do to get to heaven is to love God and others. Second, Jesus says that all the Law and Prophets hang on these 2 commands and that these are the most important commands. We get the idea from these passages that if we love God enough and correctly (the way He wants us to love Him) we will go to Heaven. Also we see that loving God means that we love each other. We realize that if we love each other properly (the way that God teaches us how to love each other), we will not do anything bad to them in any way but only seek the good of others.

How can we know how to love God the way that He wants us to love Him? Some more scriptures for you to read: John 14:13-15; 15:9,10; 1 John 4:3-6; 5:1-5. If we love God and Jesus, we will keep God’s commands. We will do everything that He tells us to do. Jesus even said in John 14:31 “…the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me.” If Jesus’ attitude about following the commands of God His Father is to do exactly what God said, then our attitude can be no less! According to 1 John 2, to follow God we must obey God’s commands, which means to obey His Word, which we know is the Bible, specifically the New Testament, which is for Christians today. This is how love is made complete. 1 John 5 tells us that we know we love God and His Children (fellow Christians) by carrying out His commands.

The choice is not ours to obey God the way we want to or the way that pleases us. Matthew 7:21-23 says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Throughout all of the Bible and History, people have tried to follow God the way that they want to, not the way that God wants them to. We cannot get to Heaven our own way, but only the way that God tells to, by following His will!!

Jesus said in Matt 7:13-14 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

So how do we get to Heaven? We do this by the grace of God through Jesus that saves us and as Christians by following all of God’s commands, including the 2 most important of loving God and others!

by Doug Berry