Sermon Tone Analysis

LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS \\ Luke 10:25-37 \\ \\ INTRODUCTION \\ It was meant to be a trick question.

The man with the question was a lawyer professionally trained in the Old \\ Testament law.

He asked, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"

He was not really concerned about this \\ issue, for he felt that he had eternal life settled.

He hoped Jesus would answer this question in some way that \\ would prove to be an embarrassment to Him. \\ \\ The response of Jesus led to this great discussion on love without limits.

As a response to another question \\ raised by the lawyer, Jesus gave the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Let us look carefully at this passage to see \\ what we can learn about love without limits.

\\ \\ I. THE REQUIREMENT OF LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS \\ Jesus responded to the question of the lawyer with a question.

Jesus was a master at asking just the right \\ question.

Since the man was a great student of the law, Jesus asked, "What is written in the law?

How readest \\ thou?"

It was a question about what the man understood the law of God to teach on this subject.

The lawyer had \\ not anticipated such a response.

However, he had an answer as would have had almost any person in the crowd.

\\ Everyone knew the words of the Shema which were quoted each Sabbath in the synagogues \\ \\ A.        Required by the law.

\\ The lawyer quoted those familiar words from Deuteronomy, "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 then he added the words from Leviticus, \\ "And thy neighbor as thyself."

In both cases it is a call for love without limits \\ \\ The law requires that our love for God be without limits.

The four¬fold description added to the call for love \\ indicates this.

While the original text did not include the "all of thy mind", mind was considered ¬to be a part of the \\ heart.

To paraphrase the commandment, it simply says, "You must love God with all of your being without any \\ limits."

God is to be supreme in your devotion in every way.

\\ \\ B.        Required by the Lord.

\\ Jesus commended the answer of the lawyer.

"And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou \\ shalt live."

Jesus acknowledged the rightness of the Word of the Lord through Moses and commended it to the \\ lawyer as being the proper way to live his life  a life lived by this Royal Rule would surely lead to eternal life.

\\ \\ This still stands.

if you want to earn eternal life on the basis of your works, this is all that is required.

You must \\ love God perfectly and continuously and supremely for all of your days.

You must love your neighbor as you love \\ yourself perfectly and continuously.

To fail to so love God in one instance would forfeit the inheritance.

\\ \\ It is of special interest and significance that these two commandments are put together.

They express the whole \\ of God's requirement for us.

He requires love without limits.

\\ \\ II.

THE REFUSAL OF LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS \\ The reaction of the lawyer to the admonition of Jesus was immediate.

According to Luke he felt the need to justify \\ himself.

This may be a sign that he was embarrassed by the situation in which he found himself.

It probably \\ means that he felt condemned by what Jesus had said and was looking for a way to make it more bearable.

In his \\ deepest self awareness, he knew that he had not met this divine requirement fully.

No thinking person would ever \\ claim to have had love for God and their fellowman without limits.

\\ \\ A.        The question.

\\ The lawyer asked, "And who is my neighbor?"

What are the implications of this word about loving your neighbor?

\\ Who am I obligated to love?

Most of the people of Israel had reached a conclusion about this question.

They \\ understood it to mean that they were to love the people of Israel, their brothers in the family of Israel.

However, \\ the Pharisees had drawn the circle even closer than this.

They had said that they were obligated only to love \\ those who were Pharisees, those who shared their dedication to God.

They were under no obligation to love \\ those who did not walk in their ways.

The man wanted to know if he might be free to exclude otters from this \\ obligation and still find eternal life.

\\ \\ The question of the lawyer is still with us.

Every generation seems to find another group that they want to exclude \\ from their circle of love.

They do not want to make their love without limits.

Who are you inclined to exclude? \\ \\ B.        The example.

\\ This prompted our Lord to give the parable of the Good Samaritan.

The characters have become familiar to all.

\\ Our Lord con¬fronts us with an example of someone who puts limits on their love.

The poor victim who went down \\ from Jerusalem to Jericho is simply called "a man" in the text.

We are probably to understand that he was a \\ Jewish man.

That happened to him was not uncommon on this road that ran through the rough terrain on that \\ twenty mile journey.

He was overcome by tre thieves, was stripped of everything, even his clothing, was severely \\ beaten, and left lying in the ditch half dead.

\\ \\ The priest who came by had been to Jerusalem.

He was probably a resident of Jericho who had been to \\ Jerusalem to serve in the temple.

When he saw the victim, "he passed by on tie other side."

There may have \\ been several things that prompted him to ignore the plight of the poor victim.

Since the man was "half dead", he \\ may have been afraid of ceremonial defilement.

If you touched a dead body, you were ceremonially unclean.

He \\ may have thought that what he had done in the temple was sufficient.

Some say he had failed to associate what \\ had happened in the temple with any obliga¬tion to offer love without limits to his fellowman.

Whatever the \\ reason, he put limits on his love that day.

\\ \\ The point being made by our Lord is that these two obviously were not going to inherit eternal life.

In spite of their \\ heavy investment into religion, they were limiting their love for their neighbor.

They had religion but they did not \\ have eternal life.

\\ \\ III.

THE REVELATION OF L0VE WITHOUT?

LIMITS \\ Jesus introduced a despised Samaritan into the story.

"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 \\ whatso¬ever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee."

This character demonstrated love without \\ limits.

\\        \\ A. It is love for the unknown.

\\ The Samaritan did not know the man in the ditch, but he knew that A was a fellow man being in need.

If we \\ express love only to those we know, we have put limits upon our love.

\\ \\ B. It is love for the unfriendly.

\\ Because of the location, the Samaritan would feel fairly confident that he was ministering to a Jew, The \\ relationships between Jews and Samaritans were bitter.

There was a long history to the religious and political \\ barriers that separated the two peoples.

The Jews looked upon the Samaritans as half breeds.

The Samaritans \\ were not a part of the temple worship in Jerusalem but rather maintained their own religious order.

In ordinary \\ circumstances these two men would have been expected to be on unfriendly terms, but the Samaritan did all that \\ he could to help.

\\ \\ C.        Is love for the unprofitable.

\\ What the Samaritan did was costly in time, money, and effort.

He made quite an investment of time.

He also made \\ an investment of energy when he walked to the inn while the victim rode on his donkey.

He made an investment of \\ money.

He paid for at least two weeks of lodging for the man and promised to pay the full bill when he returned.

\\ There was absolutely no hope of any return financially.

He did what he did simply because he cared for the man.

\\ He expected no return.

\\ \\ This gives us an indication of the nature of this love without limits.

It has no limits on what it will do and has no \\ limits on to whom it will minister.