Luke 10
Read: Luke 10
Starting in verse 25, we read about a man who asked Jesus what he needed to do in order to inherit eternal life. Jesus answered with a question, which was pretty typical for him. He asked the man, “what is written in the law?” The man responded, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.” Maybe you’ve never really thought that much about this, but what Jesus says here is near impossible to do! He’s saying to love God with every fiber of your being. Do you do that? I sure don’t… regardless of how hard I try, I always fall short. Then he says to love your neighbor as yourself. The only person I love like myself is myself. I clothe myself, clean myself, feed myself, shelter myself, and do all sorts of other things for myself. How often do I actually love other people like I love myself? Not often at all…
The man then asked Jesus who his neighbor is. This is where things get even more radical as Jesus responded with an interesting parable. A man was going down to Jericho and got mugged almost to death. Two religious leaders walked by and did nothing to help the man, but then a Samaritan had compassion on him and helped him at his own expense. If you don’t already know this, the Samaritans and the Jews did not like each other. Jesus was giving a very practical illustration of what he said in Luke 6:27-36 about loving our enemies who are also our neighbors.
As you think about your life, where is God on your priority list? How much time do you spend with him each day? How much do your decisions reflect your faith in him and his direction for you life? Where are people on your priority list? How do you help those who are outcast and ignored by everyone else? What do you do to help the lost, the broken, the poor, the widowed, the elderly, or the orphaned? Jesus knew that none of us would really be able to love God and love people perfectly on our own. That’s why he came to die on the cross for our sins and shortcomings. But now, he has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us to live the kind of sacrificial life he talks about here. We won’t do it perfectly, but if we trust God, his grace will carry us through.
