The Christian Way of Life

Luke 10:25-37

GOLDEN TEXT: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.”—Luke 10:27

THE parable of The Good Samaritan, chosen to illustrate the Christian way of life, furnishes a very apt lesson of what it means to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. But without detracting from that love, there is a love which is even more fundamental to the Christian; namely, that of supreme love for God. Indeed, love for one’s neighbor is an inevitable result of supreme love for God.

To love God means to love His ways and the great principles of righteousness which make up His glorious character. Thus to love Him supremely implies a desire and effort to be like Him. Hence, inasmuch as God loves the whole world of mankind, condemned to death, and dying, and has made provision for their recovery, so our hearts likewise go out to those in need, and we are willing to make sacrifices in order that they may be blessed.

When the lawyer asked Jesus what he could do to receive eternal life, Jesus asked him what was written in the Law. The lawyer answered by quoting the words of the Golden Text. On the same or a similar occasion recorded by Matthew and Mark, Jesus referred to these two commandments—supreme love for God, and love for one’s neighbor—as the greatest of all the commandments, explaining also that upon them hung all the Law and the prophets.—Matt. 22:35-40; Mark 12:28-34

Jesus placed equal importance upon these two commandments in His reply to the lawyer, for He told him that if he would keep them he would live. It was Moses who first summarized the meaning of the whole Law in these two simple commandments. (Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18) The first of these two great commandments constituted his opening remarks in that inspirational sermon he delivered to the Israelites just a short time before his death. In this sermon he several times to “all” the commandments and statues and admonishes faithfulness in keeping them, but in connection with the first, he particularizes that it should be in their hearts and should be taught diligently to their children.

Moses also instructed that these commandments should be bound upon their hands, be used as frontlets between their eyes, and written upon the posts and gates of their houses. Toward the close of this sermon Moses mentions the peculiar circumstances under which the Ten Commandments were given by God and written upon stones, and instructed that these should be kept in the ark of the covenant. (Deut. 31:26) These Ten Commandments, like all the other commandments and statutes were summarized in the two, which Jesus explains are the greatest of them all.

When Jesus said to the lawyer, “This do, and thou shalt live,” the account says that he tried “to justify himself” by asking, “Who is my neighbor?” Evidently the lawyer knew he was not obtaining life. In fact he had acknowledged this by asking Jesus what he could do to obtain it, so now he was trying to hide behind the excuse of ignorance—“Who is my neighbor whom I must love as myself in order to live?” He would have Jesus believe, perhaps, that the only reason he had not been keeping this commandment was that he had been unable to decide whom he should consider to be his neighbor.

It was in response to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” that Jesus gave the parable of The Good Samaritan. The lesson of this parable is twofold. The main point of it is, of course, intended as an answer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” and it shows that so far as the opportunity of bestowing neighborly love is concerned, those who are in great need, and who come within reach of our ability to help, are our real neighbors.

But there is another lesson in the parable, also, one which Jesus evidently thought might be especially appropriate for the lawyer. It is that those who make the greatest outward show of righteousness and godliness are not necessarily the ones who are actually loving the Lord with all their hearts and their neighbors as themselves. And, on the other hand, possibly some of those less esteemed among men, even scorned, perhaps, may at heart be living very near to the Lord and more in harmony with His commandments than those more favorably esteemed among men.

In the parable both the priest and the Levite, seeing the man who had fallen among robbers, passed by and did nothing for him. But the “good” Samaritan of the parable is revealed as being in an attitude of heart very pleasing to God. He saw the man who had fallen among robbers as a neighbor who needed help, and he helped him. That is what God has done for us, and has planned to do for all mankind.

QUESTIONS:

Is there a higher love than that of loving our neighbors as ourselves?

What two lessons are taught in the Parable of The Good Samaritan?

In what sense is it especially Godlike to love our neighbors as ourselves?

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