The Law of Love - Luke 10:25-37

Introduction

Read Luke 10:25-37

Luke 10:25–37 (ESV)

And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall 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 your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

About 20 years ago, LifeWay introduced a new evangelistic witnessing tool called “FAITH.” Part of the tool was to have you memorize the five parts of the plan, with each letter of FAITH representing a step in the plan.

But what I remember most about it was it’s opening question to start a gospel conversation with someone. The question was “In your personal opinion, what do you understand it takes for a person to get to heaven and have eternal life?”

It is a good question for us all to think about and to answer.

Some might answer with an “I don’t know” or “I don’t believe in heaven.” But a large number of people would answer the question by saying we need to be good enough, or that we need to have our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds or some variation of that kind of answer.

This is the question that the lawyer came to Jesus with.

How do I inherit eternal life?

Of course, he was not sincerely asking. He came to test Jesus. And Jesus knew this so He turned the question around on him and asked him a question, knowing his expertise in the law.

What does the law say?

Love God and love our neighbor.

The lawyer quotes both Deut 6:5

Deuteronomy 6:5 (ESV)

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

and Lev 19:18

Leviticus 19:18 (ESV)

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

And Jesus’ response to the lawyer was, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

Ultimately, what we must do for salvation is to love God completely and totally with our entire being which then shows itself in how we love others.

You Cannot Earn Eternal Life

However, the problem with the idea of earning salvation is we cannot do that, and the lawyer knew this.

Luke 10:29 (ESV)

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

We try to lower the standards of the law so we can fell better about our selves.

The lawyer knew he doesn’t really love his neighbor as well as he should, so he is having to find a way to lower the bar for himself, to make it more achievable.

He is hoping to believe that there are those who are deserving to be called neighbor and those who are not.

There is No Limit or Qualifications to Whom We Are Called to Love

So Jesus tells this story about a traveler going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

This path was known to be a very dangerous road. It did not come as a surprise to those who heard the story that this man was attacked by robbers and left for dead. This was an all too common experience for those traveling this road.

So what happens next?

The Priest and the Levite

First, a priest comes along the road. Here is a man who is religious and known for his love for God and for the law. The priest is the one who would go into the temple and represent the people before God by offering the sacrifice for the sins of the people.

After the priest came the Levite, who also served in the temple. He might not have all the responsibilities of the priest, but he also had an important role as he oversaw the temple services.

As servants within the temple, there were certain requirements that the priest and the Levite had to follow in order to remain ceremonially clean. One of those requirements was that they could not touch a dead body. So when they see the man, they go to the other side of the road because they’re not sure if he’s dead or not and cannot make themselves unclean or they would not be able to fulfill his duties.

They were so concerned with following the duties of the law, they forgot about the requirements of the law to love God and to love his neighbor.

The Samaritan

Now the story takes a turn that the audience did not expect. Many would have been frustrated with the lack of care and concern shown by those in the religious authority, but they might have thought that the story would turn to a Jewish laymen who stepped up to show love and compassion to the injured man.

However, that’s not where Jesus takes the story. Jesus presents the third man who comes along as a Samaritan man.

The Samaritans were outcasts and enemies of the Jews because they were seen as those who left the purity of the faith. When the Assyrian empire came and defeated the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the people who lived in Samaria, which was the capital of the Northern Kingdom, began to intermarry with their Assyrian occupiers. They lost their religious and racial purity by intermixing with these pagan Gentiles.

As such, there was great hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans during Jesus’ day. The Samaritans were probably one of the groups of people the lawyer had in mind when he asked the question who is considered to be a neighbor. Surely God wouldn’t expect him to love a wicked Samaritan, would He?

However, this is exactly what Jesus is presenting. This enemy of the Jews is the one who actually showed compassion to the dying man. He came, bound his wounds, caring for his injuries, and took him to an inn for continued care.

The Question is Not Who is My Neighbor, But Am I a Neighbor to Others?

Instead of lowering the bar of the law, He has actually raised it to a higher level. He is showing that true love that is obedient to the law is a love that has no bounds or limits. It is a love that transcends all the boundaries that we tend to place on ourselves. It goes beyond racial, cultural, political, socio-economic boundaries.

It goes beyond loving those who love us to loving those who might never love us in return. We are called to love even those we would consider enemies or those we might be tempted to place less value on.

Jesus is showing the lawyer and us what is truly required in keeping this law and that in our own strength, it is actually impossible for us to keep this law.

Our sinful nature keeps us from truly loving others the way God requires. We know that love is good and there are ways that we attempt to show love. We know enough that we ought to love and respect others, but if we all look deep down, we know we all fall short of this high demand.

So if we cannot keep the law that is required for eternal life, what hope do we have?

You Need the Good Neighbor to Save You

Jesus has shown us both the depth of the requirements of the law of love and the impossibility of sinners like you and me to truly fulfill this law.

We know deep down that we are called to live out this love, but the requirements go beyond what we are able to carry out.

Before we can be a Good Neighbor, we must realize our need for the Good Neighbor

Jesus is showing us our inability to actually keep the law. We are no more able to keep this law on our own than the man who was attacked by robbers could help and care for himself.

Each of us are the one going from Jerusalem, the city of Peace, to Jericho, the place known for rebellion and curses. We all have chosen to forsake the peace of our relationship with God and have earned the wages of death our sins deserved.

We are in desperate need for someone to rescue us!

Jesus is the Good Samaritan We Need!

While this is a story that is showing us what is required of us, we must see first that this is a story showing us what we need. We cannot inherit eternal life by our own works. We are left for dead, just as the traveler.

Our rescuer is not someone like us. There is no other human that can rescue us any more than the priest and levite could rescue one of their own.

We cannot even rely on the goodness of religion and law to rescue us. All the law can do is to show us our desperate situation. It cannot get us out of our situation.

It took someone else, someone not quite like us, to come and rescue us. In fact, it took the God-Man to come rescue us. And just like the Samaritan, an enemy to the Jews, showed compassion upon this dying Jewish man, so too, God, who we became enemies to because of our sin, came and displayed compassion and care for us.

This is how Paul describes our relationship with God as sinners:

Colossians 1:21 (ESV)

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

Romans 5:6–10 (ESV)

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Jesus demonstrated what true love is as He came to save those who were His enemies. He did not wait for us to make peace with Him, He came to us even as we continued to rebel against and demonstrate our hostility towards Him.

True love is displayed when you seek the benefit and best even when that love is not reciprocated.

This was the case for the Good Samaritan, and it certainly was the case for Jesus.

Acknowledge Your Need for Christ and Submit to His Work of Salvation

Christ has demonstrated the ultimate love by coming to die for us sinners, His enemies.

We cannot earn eternal life by simply trying to obey the works of the Law. We must recognize our need for Christ, trust in His saving work and His love for us, and turn away from our rebellion against Him.

This faith in Him is the only way you and I can receive the gift of eternal life.

I want to encourage you this morning, if you have never trusted in Christ, to turn to Him this morning. He has demonstrated His love for you on the cross. You do not have to, nor can you ever, earn His love and salvation for you. It is something that has been freely given to you to receive by faith!

We Can Love Because of Jesus

We have been given the ability to love and be a good neighbor to others

But now, we have to see that even though you and I on our own do not possess the ability to fulfill the law of love, this law is still something that God demands.

But the good news of what Christ has done is that He is fulfilling the law of God within us.

Charles Spurgeon - “Let it never be forgotten that what the law demands of us, the gospel produces in us. The law tells us what we ought to be, and it is one object of the gospel to raise us to that condition.”

What he is saying is that while we do not have the ability within ourselves to fulfill the demands of the law, the work of Jesus is producing within us the fruit of faith that enables us to obey this law of love.

Because of Christ’s love for us, displayed for us and to us on the cross, we are now given the ability to love our neighbor, not just the ones we want to consider our neighbor, but all those we come into contact with, in spite of their backgrounds, beliefs, class, race, etc.

This is what John is saying in his first epistle...

1 John 4:19 (ESV)

We love because he first loved us.

We are able to love because He first loved us.

But not only have we been given the ability to love, as believers in Christ, we have the expectation to love our neighbors

After Jesus finishes the story and asks the lawyer who proved to be a good neighbor to the man, the lawyer rightly answered “The one who showed him mercy.” Of course we still see his hesitancy to love his enemies because he couldn’t bring himself to say the Samaritan was the righteous one in this story.

But Jesus affirms his answer and then commands him to Go and do likewise. Again, it is not that this is something that we can do in our own strength, but if we have experienced the love of Jesus, we cannot help but show that same love to others, however imperfectly it might be. We should long to love and grow in our love for our fellow neighbors no matter who they are.

1 John 4:19–21 (ESV)

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

The Best Way to Love Our Neighbor is to Give Them What They Need Most - Jesus

So how do we do this?

Well, first there is a sense in which we are called to love by having compassion towards others, the way the Samaritan had for the injured man.

Compassion - literally means “to suffer with.” It means to see the hurt and suffering of others and seek to relieve their sufferings the way you might seek to relieve your own.

God throughout His Word commands His people to seek to meet the needs of others as we are able. We might not be able to meet everyone’s needs, but we are called to do what we can.

However, our love for them should not end with simply meeting physical needs. It should start there wherever possible, but it cannot end there.

The greatest need for all of us is our need for a Savior. Again, if we are all like the man who was left for dead in need of Christ to come and rescue us, then this same message of Christ’s atoning death and resurrection is what our neighbors need as well.

To truly love our neighbor, we must share the Good news of Jesus with others while not neglecting their physical needs whenever possible.

Conclusion

We are called to be a neighbor with everyone around us, but who has God been putting on your heart to share the love and compassion of Christ with?

Perhaps there is someone who you have been at odds with and you struggle with loving them the way Christ does. Maybe there is some need that God is wanting to use you to meet in their life that will lead to the sharing of the good news of Jesus.

How can you be the hands and feet of Jesus with those around you?

Perhaps you need to seek God’s heart as you grow in your love for others. Only the Holy Spirit can enable you to love them the way God does.

Maybe you’re here this morning and you’ve realized that you have never received the love of Christ that was shown for you at the cross. You cannot truly love others until you experience His love in your life. I would invite you to come talk with me if you have questions about what it means to trust and follow Christ.