Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
It isn't enough to merely say we believe. We must be transformed by our belief. Paul wrote to the Romans that, "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (see Romans 10:9). But belief from the heart is different from empty words. One who has not truly reckoned with Jesus' offer of redeeming grace could still say 'Lord, Lord,' not because he really wanted, desired, or welcomed that grace, but because he knew it was expected of him. Frighteningly, this could describe many in the pews of our Churches, perhaps even ourselves. To the degree that we cling to our old worldly ways of thinking and acting when Christ calls us to be transformed it does describe us.
Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not drive out demons in your name?
Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’
We are called to more than a bulleted list of impressive feats of discipleship. These miraculous works of divine grace are no proof that we are worthy or that our lives are on a track headed toward heaven. Someone could, as Paul explained, do great and impressive things and still be lacking in the most important thing: love.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing (see First Corinthians 13:1-3).
The will of the Father, with which Jesus calls us to align our minds and hearts, is not primarily about words or mighty deeds. Jesus, in his earthly ministry emphasized that the first and greatest commandment was about love, love of God as inseparable from love of neighbor. The fact that it is all about love means we are called, not to a performance, but to a transformation. We are meant to be transplanted from lives rooted in the self-directed ego and built instead on the foundation of Jesus himself. Only built on him, transformed by his words, will we be able to withstand the storms that are an inevitable part of life. All else is as unstable and ultimately as doomed as houses built on sand. No matter how good the beach access seems from such a house, that will be little comfort when it collapses and we no longer have a place to return.
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
How solidly are our own lives set upon this rock? Do we find ourselves constantly needing to reinforce and rebuild because of a flawed foundation resulting in a tendency toward collapse? Or do we experience instead the peace of knowing that no storm can destroy that which is built on the rock of Christ? Ancient Israel had the tendency to build their house on idols, to do evil in the sight of the Lord, as their forebearers had done. This made their Kingdom unstable and vulnerable to the hostility of Babylon. This is a spiritual lesson for us, another reminder of the singular importance of building on the one foundation that can truly last.
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (see First Corinthians 3:11).
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