Please don't just take my word for it. A group called the Bereans listened to what Apostle Paul, the greatest missionary of all time, said, but they were sure to fact-check what he said according to the authoritative standard of the day:
"Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." Acts 17:11
What is YOUR universal, objective standard? Mine goes back to the beginning of time, it is objective, universal and has followers in virtually every part of the civilized world--it is God's Word, the most documented book of antiquity. It is most urgent to tell me if you've found something better!
Let's put it this way. If you tell me you do not believe in the Judeo-Christian God and then say to me that I should brake for animals, or pay women equally, or help the poor, or buy an electric car, on what basis are you making such an appeal? If no standard for objective truth, law, wisdom, justice, charity, kindness, compassion and fidelity exists in the universe, then what you are asking me to accept is an idea that has taken hold in your head but that has all of the moral compulsion of a bowl of cereal. You are a sentimentalist, trying to persuade me to a point of view based on your feelings about the subject and not rooted in the fear of God or some other unchanging earthly standard. —paraphrasing Cal Thomas
Here's what God says in His Word: "For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God....for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
--Romans, Chapter 6
This means you and me. Unless we accept God's gift and live our lives according to His best and beneficial will for our lives, God's Word says we are doomed.
Matthew 5:17-20 concludes with Jesus saying that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
“There is no one righteous, not even one;11 there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.12 All have turned away, they have together become worthless;there is no one who does good, not even one.” --Romans 3:10-12
So, my dying request for you includes this: spare no effort* to assure yourself that you will spend a joyful eternity with Jesus and avoid the curse that sin has put on all of us. This essential knowledge is as urgent as what the merchant sought in Jesus' story parable:
The parable reads as follows: Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
What does the Pearl of Great Price mean in Matthew 13:45-46?
Likewise, a pearl dealer trades all his wealth in exchange for a pearl of enormous value when he finds it. Both stories show that inclusion in the kingdom of heaven is worth any amount of sacrifice. Whatever is lost in pursuit of the kingdom of heaven is a small price to pay, considering the value of what is gained.
*I say effort, but this easily can be misunderstood. In God's perspective, effort is good as a matter of gratitude, but earning is irrelevant when it comes to His gifts. For by grace you have been [or will have been if you accept] saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works [as gratitude after we have accepted the gift], which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-9
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