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"Unless you repent ("metanoeo": have a new mind), you shall perish." (Luke 13:3) "Verily, verily, I say unto you, unless ye be born again of water [through baptism] & of the Spirit [by having a new mind instilled in you from God], ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." (John 3:5)

In order to have this new mind, you must pray to God for it as fervently as the man in Luke 11 who is knocking on his friend's door repeatedly at midnight out of desperation does, for "if we ask Him for the Spirit, He is sure to give it to us." (Luke 11:13) We should all be that desperate, if we realize what Hell is truly like. And in order to pray, we must first have faith in Christ, for instance faith that we will gain the Spirit if we ask, for "whosoever believeth in the Son shall not perish but shall have eternal life." (John 3:16)

Now I will describe in detail what this new mind which is wholly the result of faith & reliance on Christ (not the result of good works) should look like:

“’Which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘You shall love (agapeseis) the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The Law and the prophets hang on [i.e. “depend on”] these two commandments.’” (Matt. 22:36-40)

1) When He says that “the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments,” He implies that every demand God makes of man derives from these two commandments. Thus, all He wants of us is LOVE—for Him and for all humans.

2) One meaning of the Greek word agapeo is “to take pleasure in.” The English word “love” carries this meaning also, for when we say we “love” certain foods, for instance, we mean that we “take pleasure” in them. Thus, God demands of us that we “take pleasure” in Him and in all humans. That he demands this is extremely clear from the Psalms, in which the four most common words are most likely “God,” “LORD,” “sing,” and “praise.” God wants us to be “singing to” and “praising” Him joyfully. That he demands us to take pleasure in Him is also clear from the fact that He commands us to love Him “with all your heart.” The heart is the seat of feeling. We are also, then, to take pleasure in our neighbors rather than hate them. Of course, though, this does not mean to take pleasure in their sinful behavior.

3) When He commands us to love Him with “all your mind,” He means that all of our thoughts need to be about Him, and that we need to always think of Him with pleasure! That is why He says about the “blessed” or “happy” man that “his delight is in the law of the LORD, and he meditates in it DAY AND NIGHT.” (Psalm 1:3) “O how I love your law! It is my meditation ALL THE DAY!” (Psalm 119:97) “REJOICE ALWAYS, PRAY WITHOUT CEASING, IN EVERYTHING GIVE THANKS.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) This does not mean walking with your face in your Bible all day long; rather, it means in part that we need to read the Bible frequently and that when we are not reading it we need to be meditating on its contents with our memory. “SEEK WISDOM AS YOU DO SILVER AND SEARCH FOR IT AS FOR TREASURES, THEN YOU WILL…ATTAIN KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, FOR THE LORD GRANTS WISDOM.” (Proverbs 2:2-6)

But He does not mean to confine our minds to simply interpreting the words of His Law; He wants us to think about how God and His people live out the Law as well. “We give thanks to God always concerning all you, making mention of at our prayers, UNCEASINGLY REMEMBERING your work of faith and labour of love and endurance of hope of our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.” (1 Thessalonians 1:2) “They that are of the flesh think about the things of the flesh; but they who are of the Spirit THINK ABOUT THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT.” (Romans 8:5) What are these things? “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22) “Whatever things are true, venerable, just, pure, lovely, of good report; if there be any virtue and if any praise, THESE THINGS THINK ABOUT.” (Phillippians 4:8) By thinking about how His people live out His Law, one still is thinking about God, because all those beautiful souls are mirrors of God’s glory!

4) Having love for someone does not just involve “taking pleasure” in that person, but also in desiring that person’s happiness and in not wanting that person ultimately to suffer, for such a desire is a consequence of taking pleasure in a person. And the way we please God is not just by loving Him but also by loving our neighbors as ourselves. Hence, one cannot obey the greatest commandment without obeying the second greatest one as well.

Why does God find happiness in His people loving their neighbors as themselves? He does so because a person’s greatest happiness is to be found in God, so we love a person truly only if we are trying to lead that person to know how lovely God is. That is why Paul says, “whether you eat, or drink, or WHATSOEVER you do, do it for the glory (doxa) of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31) The word doxa can also mean “reputation.” Thus, Paul is telling us that everything we do should lead us and other humans to esteem God highly. Jesus teaches the same lesson when he says: “Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works, and may praise (doxasosin) Your Father who is in the heavens.” (Matt. 5:16) As the whole of world history shows, God delights in everything praising Him! In order to bring people to Christ, “it is good to store up the sayings of wise men inside of you, and have them constantly on your lips.” (Proverbs 22:18)

But there are many different things we have to do in order to seek God’s happiness, and we have to read His Word in order to know them. Every book of the Bible makes us “fully equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17), not only by telling us explicitly how we should act, but also by showing us the nature of God the Father and God the Son, who came to Earth in part to show us how a human ought to live: “BE PERFECT, JUST AS YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN IS PERFECT.” (Matt. 5:48) “HE WHO SAYS THAT HE ABIDES IN HIM [CHRIST] OUGHT, EVEN AS HE WALKED, ALSO HIMSELF TO WALK.” (1 John 2:6) I’ll say that last verse again, because it is one of the most important verses in the whole Bible: “HE WHO SAYS THAT HE ABIDES IN HIM [CHRIST] OUGHT, EVEN AS HE WALKED, ALSO HIMSELF TO WALK.” Hence, it is appropriate to ask ourselves in any situation in life, “WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?” And to know how Christ lived, we can look closely at all the major characters of the Bible I mention in Part Two, for they were all made by God to show what Christ is like! Truly "all things by Him & for Him have been made." (Colossians 1:16) That is why Paul says: “Be imitators of me.” For, he says truly, as every Christian including each type of Christ can say, “It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Hence, we should constantly meditate on Christ’s character as manifested throughout the Bible and human history, and pray to enable us to imitate Him.

To love one’s neighbor as oneself, then, means to seek the happiness of one’s neighbor as much as one seeks one’s own happiness. That is, Christians need to seek to cultivate the same love for God that they themselves have. Therefore, when we are not contemplating the glory of God, we need to be serving others. Indeed, WE “WERE CREATED FOR GOOD WORKS”! (Ephesians 2:10) WE “WERE CREATED FOR GOOD WORKS”! WE “WERE CREATED FOR GOOD WORKS”! And the whole reason Jesus gave Himself for us was so that He could purify a people who were “ZEALOUS FOR GOOD WORKS”! (Titus 2:14) Please stay away from that evil television, brother, and go devote all your time to glorifying God! SELL ALL THE THINGS WHICH DISTRACT YOU. “EVERYONE OF YOU WHO DOES NOT TAKE LEAVE OF ALL HE POSSESSES CANNOT BE MY DISCIPLE.” (Luke 14:33)

I presume that now you can see why Christ needed to die for us, for we have all fallen short of loving God with our whole hearts and minds and of seeking the happiness of our fellow human beings as much as we seek our own!

It is essential to keep in mind that we cannot do any good works, and therefore cannot enter into God’s glorious Heavenly City, unless we depend on God as a child depends on His parents for everything we need. (Matt. 18) “If any man serve, let him serve out of the strength which God supplies.” (1 Peter 4:11) I have been doing that the past two nights by asking God to remove my need for sleep until I finish this book, and He did! We need to constantly pray to Him to enlighten us about His Word and anything else, for He is the source of all wisdom! I have been getting all these amazing revelations in the past two weeks as a result of intense praying to God. God wants us to pray to Him so that we can know that it is from Him that all good comes, so that we may love Him wholeheartedly!

In short, all God wants of us is for us to seek His happiness: by unceasingly taking pleasure in Him, by meditating on His Word, on what He does for us, on His people, and on the rest of His creation; by declaring our pleasure in Him in word and song; and by constantly seeking to lead other humans to find their happiness in God. Even the last of these tasks is supposed to bring us pleasure, for God tells us to “love kindness” (Micah 6:8) and that He “loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7). Hence, God wants us to be supremely happy, but He wants all our happiness to be found in loving and serving Him! Oh, how deceived those people are who think that they will find any happiness apart from being a Christian! As St. Augustine says in the Confessions, “my heart was restless until it rested in you.” Oh, save all those those lost sheep! Pass this book to others, so that the Blessed Trinity may be famed throughout the whole world! This life on Earth is the only chance the lost sheep have to accept Christ, for God tells us to “seek the Lord while He may be found.” (Isaiah 55:6) As Christ says about the number of people who can be converted, “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”

Know that God “rewards each person according to what he has done”: “Everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for the sake of my name, A HUNDREDFOLD SHALL RECEIVE, and eternal life.” (Matt. 19:29) Don’t scorn God’s rewards, for God knows what most pleases the human heart, since He made us. Take great risks for the expansion of Christ’s Kingdom, for eternal life is certain for His followers! Various "crowns" are promised throughout the Bible, including for winning many souls to Christ. Constantly keep your eye on the glorious Kingdom, for “one cannot even approach God unless one believes that He is and that He rewards those who seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6) The “reward” referred to in that verse is the share in the Heavenly City that all the heroes of Hebrews 11 long for! You will behold the giant Jesus who is "fairer than the sons of men" (Psalm 45:2) for all eternity! It will be a time of great learning about God, for eternal life is knowing God. (John 17:3) He will reveal His wisdom to you there for the rest of eternity! Truly you will continually learn new things, as I have been constantly learning the past few days! Be like Jesus, who, “in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross, having despised the shame.” (Hebrews 12:2) Christ orders you down into the cave to bring the lost sheep up into the light! Let everyone come to see the infinite riches of Christ! SET THE WORLD ON FIRE FOR JESUS!

CONCLUSION: HOW SHOULD A CHRISTIAN LIVE?

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