Difficult Teachings: The 40 Most Challenging Teachings of Jesus

By Matthew Kelly

Jesus spoke to the people in beautiful parables and beatitudes to encourage and comfort but every teaching challenged every listener.

What's the hardest part about following Jesus? What teaching do you find particularly hard to live?

Explore 40 of Jesus' most difficult teachings with Matthew Kelly. Here's a sampling: Love Your Enemies. Do Not Worry. Do Not Be Afraid. The Narrow Path. Deny Yourself. Hell is Real. The Paradoxical Path. Sell What You Own. I Am the Way. What You Do for the Least.

In a world that is confused about just about everything, the clarity of the Gospel is needed more than ever before. We are all being called to live the Gospel more fully than ever before.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781635822694

Matthew Kelly

Matthew Kelly es un autor superventas, conferenciante, líder intelectual, empresario, consultor, líder espiritual e innovador. Ha dedicado su vida a ayudar a personas y organizaciones a convertirse en la mejor versión de sí mismas. Nacido en Sídney (Australia), empezó a dar conferencias y a escribir al final de su adolescencia, mientras estudiaba negocios. Desde entonces, cinco millones de personas han asistido a sus seminarios y presentaciones en más de cincuenta países. En la actualidad, Kelly es un conferenciante, autor y consultor empresarial aclamado internacionalmente. Sus libros se han publicado en más de treinta idiomas, han aparecido en las listas de los más vendidos de The New York Times, Wall Street Journal y USA Today, y han vendido más de cincuenta millones de ejemplares. A los veintipocos años desarrolló el concepto de «la mejor versión de uno mismo» y lleva más de veinticinco compartiéndolo en todos los ámbitos de la vida. Lo citan presidentes y celebridades, deportistas y sus entrenadores, líderes empresariales e innovadores, aunque quizá nunca se cita con más fuerza que cuando una madre o un padre pregunta a un hijo: «¿Te ayudará eso a convertirte en la mejor versión de ti mismo?». Los intereses personales de Kelly incluyen el golf, la música, el arte, la literatura, las inversiones, la espiritualidad y pasar tiempo con su mujer y sus hijos. Para más información, visita MatthewKelly.com

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1. WHOLEHEARTEDLY.

LIFE IS DIFFICULT.

We can accept that or get aggravated, but we cannot change it. The mistake we make is to believe that life should be easy. The problem isn’t that life is difficult. It is supposed to be difficult. The problem is when we expect life to be easy or go in search of an easy life.

The quest for an easy life seeks to avoid all difficulty and friction. This is impossible, so we become agitated and angry. All our efforts to avoid the difficulties of life lead us away from everything that is deeply satisfying.

The obstacle we face as individuals (and as a culture) is that it is impossible to embrace the difficult teachings of Jesus while we are so committed to our quest for the easy life. And so, we are confronted by a question: Are we willing to give up our love of comfort and our quest for the easy life?

We are about to explore the forty most challenging teachings of Jesus. Along with each of these teachings we will explore the practical fruits and blessings that come from embracing that teaching. It is my hope that with each passing day you will be more convinced than ever that today’s culture is bankrupt and that the ancient path of Jesus is worth exploring more deeply than ever before.

You may agree or disagree with the forty I have selected. That’s okay. I hope those that I have selected help you to explore all of Jesus’ teachings in new ways. I would like to make clear that I have made no attempt to try to rank them in order. I believe that would be impossible.

Now let’s take a look at the first of Jesus’ difficult teachings.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. It is from Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 22, verse 37.

This is the Shema Prayer. It is the most repeated prayer in the Jewish tradition, because they believe if you spent your entire lifetime trying to live this one prayer, you would live a deep meaningful life that was exceedingly pleasing to God.

Let me ask you: Have you ever done anything wholeheartedly? Have you ever made a wholehearted attempt to live the teachings of Jesus? What do you have to lose? What’s the worst that could happen? How long will we hold onto the bankrupt ideas and philosophies of our age? Are you ready for a new beginning? A fresh start?

This difficult teaching is about commitment. Do you struggle with commitment? Do you like to keep your options open? Have you been taught to prioritize options over commitment?

The more options and opportunities you have the harder it is to commit, and we live in a world of almost limitless options and opportunities. I get that. But leaping from one distraction to the next will never fulfill us.

The best things in life require commitment. Deep relationships, personal development, mastering a craft or career, and spiritual growth all require commitment. Commitment costs in the short term, but in the long term it bears amazing fruit.

Why are we so allergic to commitment? Because it turns our lives upside down. Commitment rearranges your priorities and turns your life upside down, so who and what you commit to really matters.

Make no mistake, if you fully embraced even one of these teachings we are exploring together, that one teaching would turn your life upside down, but in the most wonderful ways.

Here’s the thing. The easier we try to make life, the harder it becomes. Great joy is often the result of great effort. Throw yourself into this wholeheartedly and miracles will happen. Somewhere deep inside, we are all yearning to throw ourselves into something wholeheartedly. This is the right thing. A difficult thing, but the right thing.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

2. WHO IS YOUR NEIGHBOR?

ONE THING THAT IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT to keep in mind as we make this journey together is the definition of difficult. Difficult: requiring much effort to accomplish. The most important thing to understand about difficult is that it is not impossible. Too many people think that the teachings of Jesus are impossible, and that is not so. History is full of men and women who have celebrated life through these teachings.

Now, let’s take a look at today’s teaching.

Love your neighbor as yourself. It is from Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 22, verse 39.

If you thought loving a perfect God was hard, wait till you really try to love your imperfect neighbor. People can be obnoxious, selfish, irritating, impatient, arrogant, and endlessly creative in their ability to annoy you.

There are two astoundingly difficult aspects to this phrase from the Gospel. The first is that Jesus assumes that you love yourself. This is perhaps what is most radical here, and also what is most often overlooked. It may also be one of the hardest aspects of the Christian faith to live. Jesus invites us to a total love of God and a generous love of neighbor, but he assumes that we already love ourselves. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is a connection between our ability to love ourselves in a healthy way and our ability to love our neighbor. If you despise yourself, and many of us do at different times in our lives, that needs to be attended to.

The second is the question asked by the lawyer in Luke’s Gospel, Who is my neighbor? (Luke 10:29). The world is full of desperate need and destructive want. When we put our wants ahead of other people’s needs, we abandon our humanity. Who is my neighbor? That is the question of questions. It is one of the biggest questions of all. It challenges our morality, ethics, virtue, and worldview. When it comes to both world affairs and our individual quest to live authentically, this is a huge question. Who is my neighbor? One day I hope to write a book on this question alone. All I will say here is that the more we grow in wisdom and holiness, the more people we tend to include in our answer to this question. And for the saints, there were no strangers, just neighbors.

Jesus sets up this triad of teachings as the essence of the Gospel: Love God; love yourself; and love your neigh bor. All are necessary to live the rich and full life of a disciple.

Once upon a time, there was a young man who wanted to be a great saint. He spent