Luke 10:30-37 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,
And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
Jesus had told this parable to a man who had asked Him what he must do to inherit eternal life, to which when Jesus told him what he had to do (love the Lord and his neighbor as himself) the man asked, Who is my neighbor?
In this parable this man had been beaten and robbed by thieves and left for dead, but who stopped to help him? A priest passed by on his journey; did he help him? No. A priest! When he saw the man laying on the side of the road he went by on the other side, completely distancing himself further away from helping that man in need. What about the Levite (a member of the Jewish tribe of Levi), did he stop to help? No, he didn’t stop to help either. But then came along a Samaritan. Now from what I have read the Jews and the Samaritans considered each other their enemy and did not have anything to do with each other, and with this in mind we can understand a bit better what happened in the parable. While the first two (the priest and the Levite) wouldn’t stop to help their own fellow Jew, this Samaritan saw this man, beaten and left for dead, and had compassion on him and helped him. They may have been considered “enemies” but he chose to show love, and it was he who showed love to his neighbor.
People may look at someone and say, “Why do I have to love them?” The answer can be found in the words of the Lord in Matthew 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Whatever you would want someone to do to you, you need to do to them. Would you want someone to steal something from you? No, so then don’t steal from them. If you were that man beaten, in pain, almost dead on the side of the road would you want someone to stop to take care of you? I think that you would, so do the same for others. Whatever it is, treat others in the same way that you would want to be treated.
Your neighbor according to this passage is not who we generally think of today as our “neighbor”, the residents who live close by you, but includes everyone. Everyone you meet is your neighbor, and Jesus commands us to love our neighbor. Good or bad, Jesus still loves everyone, because remember that it is while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
If Jesus did this then we must as well. Love, love, love, we all need to love. Whether it is your actual next door neighbor, or some random person that you have just met, our command is to love, God first of all, and after that everyone else, because we all need to show love.
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 