Luke 10:28,29 - You have answered correctly

10:28

Naturally, Jesus agrees with the man, then He says “do this and you will live”. Is Jesus teaching salvation by works? Is He giving a legalistic command? No. Rather He is saying that if we live like this we will be living in accordance with eternal life. And the emphasis is on love, love for God, love for people. We all too easily focus on the action, not on the motivation. In life, whether at work, or in society in general, we have an ever increasing mountain of rules, procedures and laws. These are usually introduced with good intentions. However, we all know that if an activity becomes a mere case of trying to follow the rules then we do not do things properly, we do not live properly. We need to have the correct attitudes and motivation, we need a right heart. If we have a good heart, then rules can be helpful, but if me make the rules the focus we are lost.

10:29

Notice the difference in approach of Jesus and the lawyer. Jesus has told us how we should live, the lawyer wants to justify himself. So the lawyer is immediately concerned with the precise definition of “neighbour” (typical lawyer, you might say!). The lawyer is concerned with providing proof that he is good enough (ie justifying himself). This is what happens when we aim at self-justification. Love goes out of the window. The same thing can happen today with tithing. All too often tithing is treated in a legalistic manner. How much should I give? Is it based on my gross or net income? If we ask these questions, especially the latter, we can be pretty sure that our attitude is wrong. God does not provide for us because we give, He provides for us because He is our father. We can never give too much. We are to give because it is the nature of God to give, we are to love because it is the nature of God to love. We need to become ever more Christlike.