Love Your Neighbor
Today’s passage: Luke 10:1–37
Focus verse:“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:27)
We call one of Jesus’s more beloved teachings the parable of the good Samaritan. While the name for this parable comes from its main character, a better name is the parable of loving your neighbor.
Our story starts, like many of them do, with someone coming to Jesus to test him. The person is an expert in the law. Today we might call him a theologian. Let that sink in.
This person doesn’t have a genuine question for Jesus. Instead, he seeks to make Jesus look bad and himself look good. Despite this, he poses a good question.
He asks, “What must I do to receive life eternal?” Who doesn’t want to know the answer to that?
As is often the case, Jesus responds to the question with another question. He asks the man, “What does the law of Moses say about it?”
The theologian is ready with an answer. He says, “Love God totally, and then love your neighbor as much as you care for yourself.”
“Correct,” Jesus says. These two actions smartly summarize the law of Moses. “Now, go do this and live.”
The theologian squirms. He knows he falls short. He seeks a way out, a loophole to justify his unloving behavior. “Well,” he says, “who is my neighbor, anyway?”
Jesus responds with his famous parable of the good Samaritan.
Here’s a condensed version: a man gets beat up, robbed, and left to die. A priest—a religious VIP—walks by but doesn’t check on the injured guy.
A Levite—another religious person—passes by and doesn’t help either.
A Samaritan—a race despised by most Jews—sees the man and has compassion on him. At risk of also being robbed and beaten, the Samaritan invests his time and money to care for the injured man and make sure he’ll be all right.
Then Jesus asks the theologian, “Which of these three men was a good neighbor?”
Unwilling to say “Samaritan” out loud, the theologian merely mumbles, “The one who showed mercy.”
Jesus says, “Go and do the same.”
The theologian must be in dismay. His plan backfired, and he’s embarrassed.
Here are the key points.
First, Jesus confirms the way to eternal life is to love God and love our neighbors.
Second, the definition of neighbor is quite broad. It means everyone.
Third, the star of the story, the one with the right behavior, comes from a race the Jews look down on. He’s an outsider, an outcast. The hero is a nobody.
This should encourage everyone who doesn’t fit in with religious institutions or society’s expectations.
This means me, and it may mean you.
Questions:
Is loving God and loving our neighbors enough to be right with God?
How can we love our neighbors as God intends?
[Discover more about love in Leviticus 19:18, Deuteronomy 6:5, and 1 John 4:7–8.]
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Read more about the book of Luke in Dear Theophilus: A 40-Day Devotional Exploring the Life of Jesus through the Gospel of Luke, now available in ebook, paperback, and hardcover.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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