We All Know What to Do

There are many times we find ourselves in a situation when we know the correct thing to do but are too afraid to do it. This is very common when we are children, but every now and then even as adults we find this to be true. And this is even more the case when it comes to our journey toward salvation or as we call it, “Theosis”. If we were asked to list the ten things every Orthodox Christian needed to do to be saved, each one of us could list ten. But there is a difference between knowing and doing the correct thing.

In the Gospel we hear a very rich man ask Jesus, “’Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ So Jesus said to him, ‘You know the commandments.’” (Luke 18.18-20) This rich man, like us in many ways, knows exactly what he has to do to have eternal life and, in fact, does them all. So why does the rich man go away sad? This rich man was not able to part with his riches and totally follow Jesus Christ.

The same can be true for us if we can’t break ourselves free from the slavery of wealth. Remember those ten things you listed? Did the list include, follow Jesus Christ without hesitation and without fear? It should have because that is really the only thing we must do have be saved. We must be willing, no matter the cost, to following Jesus in every part of our life including our work, school, our family relationships, our financial decisions, what we eat, when we sleep, what we watch on TV…. There is nothing that is outside of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

When Jesus told the rich man to sell everything he had, He was telling the man to break free from the world and follow God. But he was unable because, although he never murdered anyone, nor did he steal anything, nor did he commit adultery, he was too addicted to his way of life to follow Jesus.

We know what to do…now let’s do it!