The Good Samaritan

The Lawyers test.

Jesus turns the question back to the lawyer. He ought to know, he’s a lawyer. You know, you are the expert, and so he answers and answers well.

But now he’s convicted because he knows he doesn’t measure up. So he attempts to justify himself. With the question who is my neighbor. He wants to get off the hook.

He should have said, Jesus, I don’t do that, I can’t. Is there a way for a sinner like me to be saved?

Jesus answer’s the question without answering it, as he so often does. Who is my neighbor? Is answered with; are you a neighbor? Are you a neighbor to those around you? Do you show kindness and compassion to those who are not just kind to you, but to those who are mean to you?

I tell my kids that if other kids are mean that they don’t need to hang out with them. I say, go find other kids to hang out with. But what I should also tell them is to love them regardless. You don’t have to hang out with them but you have to love them. One attitude is that, I just need to get negativity out of my life, but thats not it. You can’t. We need to be a neighbor to all people.

We need to be a true neighbor.

If you only show kindness to those who treat you well, what do you have? Everyone does that. But if you should kindness and compassion even to those who do wrong to you, who call you names, that shows that you are a neighbor indeed, and listen to this, it shows that you do indeed love God.

Jesus is getting at a deeper issue here. Can you even be said to love God, if you don’t love your neighbor.

The New King James Version Chapter 4

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

The New King James Version Chapter 4

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

Do you want to know if you have eternal life? Has the love of God been pored out on you in such away that that same love, the Spirit of God in you, extends itself to everyone around you. Family, friends, especially church family, but further, even to strangers and those who may persecute you, those who may be mean.

So why did the priest and the levite pass by the man beaten half to death? Because they didn’t love God.

Father, set your love on me in such away that I would love like you love. If you recognize that you don’t love like you should, don’t excuse it. Bring it to God and ask him to change your heart.

You know whats acceptable to God. Not an excuse. And not trying to do better.

Psalm 51:17 “17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.”

Confess your sins before God and trust in Jesus, the only Savior for sinners like us. To confess is to say the same thing. Call your sin what God calls it. God calls sin sin against him. And he calls Jesus His only begotten Son, the only Savior for mankind. There is no other name by which men can be saved outside of Jesus name.