The church I grew up in, and the church where I park my fanny every
Sunday morning, and every church in between, they all teach and practice
that the most important thing you can do in life is to be BORN
AGAIN -- yes, in bold all caps like that. Nothing
else matters, because once you are BORN AGAIN,
you can do anything you want, because "Once Saved, Always Saved," you are
on yor way to Heaven no matter what. Think of it as a permanent "Get Out
Of Jail Free" card (see my "Not OSAS" essay a few months ago). And you
get BORN AGAIN by saying a few
magic words (in a prayer or otherwise).
My Bible does not teach any part of that doctrine. Fortunately, sound doctrine is not necessary for Salvation -- that would be "works righteousness" which they all teach (and I myself believe) is not how you get there. So people who teach this particular heresy can still be saved and go to Heaven, provided they also do what the Bible teaches.
What the Bible does teach is that the most important thing in your life is to recognize that Jesus is BOSS (that word does not occur in any Bible translation I know of, but it's a better translation of the Greek word 'Kyrios' and the Hebrew word 'Adonai' both of which are used all over the Bible to refer to God. Americans hve never understood the meaning of the (old) English word "Lord" because of what I call "the American Kool-Aid": "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (read as "people") are created (nonsensically read as "evolved") equal..." which as popularly understood means that no person has the right to tell another what to do or not do, it's in our founding documents. Not really, but that's what the kids in school learn, and everybody believes it. In pre-War England, they had Lords who were entitled to tell you what to do, and you had to do it. That's not true in England any more, they too have drunk the American Kool-Aid. So we all understand the word "Lord" as nothing more than an honorific title, without meaning, and when we see that word in the Bible, that's what we think.
But the American Kool-Aid is a false religion. People do have the right to tell us what to do, like when our employers are paying us to do it, or when if we don't do what the police say, innocent people get hurt. Nobody likes the police, but when people are paying us, we often (but not always) call them "Boss" because (at least on the job) they do have the right to boss us around. That's what the word means in English, and that's what the Greek and Hebrew words mean in the original Bible, and that's what "Lord" meant in 1611 when the King James Bible was published. Just not any more.
That is the most important thing you need to know as a Christian, God has the right to boss you around, and you have the obligation to do what He tells you, no matter whether you like it or not.
The most important thing God tells us all to do is what we call the Golden Rule: do to other people what you want done to yourself in the same circumstances. It's so important that Jesus summarized the whole of what God tells us to do in two commandments: 1. Do The Right Thing to God, and 2. Do The Right Thing to everybody else.
These two commandments are the most important part of being a Christian, far more than saying a few magic words at one emotional moment in your life. If you don't do thhese two commandments, you are not a Christian. You must do them in Heaven, because it wouldn't be Heaven for the rest of us if you don't. Doing them doesn't get you into Heaven, the Finished Work of Christ on the Cross does that, but you can't stay there unless you do them, 100% of the time without exception. If you don't like doing them now, what makes you think you will like it any better when you get there? There is no heart transplant at the Pearly Gates, either you get yourself (with God's help, of course) so you like doing the Commndments now, before you get there, or you won't like it when you arrive.
By the way, when most people do the Golden Rule most of the time, everybody's life is better, even now. Atheists can afford to Do The Wrong thing today, because there are a lot more Christians doing The Right Thing. In countries where there are few or no Christians, life is horrible for everybody -- including the people with money and power. The USA is the richest country in the whole world and in all time because we have a 500-year tradition of being told to "read the Bible and do what it says," and doing it. That's going away, because they took the Commandments off the schoolroom walls, thereby giving the kids -- now everybody -- implicit permission to lie, cheat, steal, rape, and murder (just don't get caught, as if anybody really expects to get caught). Nominal "Christian" countries where they do not teach them to "read the Bible and do what it says" have a much higher crime rate and lower national wealth. Countries where Christians are a small or tiny minority, everything is much worse.
God created us to do Good to and for each other, and when we do it, life is better for everybody. That is the Most Important Part of being a Christian. It's the Most Important Part of being human, but each individual act of Good benefits other people more than the person doing it, so a selfish person has no reason to do it. God's Work on the Cross fixes that so we can want to do Good, but you gotta have the wanta, and God does not seem to be in the business of forcing people to do Good. God will help you if you ask Him. Don't wait. Once your mind is made up, you have also sealed your destiny.
Tom Pittman
Rev. 2026 February 6