Scripture to Read: Luke 10:29-37
Today we begin to look at Jesus’s parable of “The Good Samaritan.” Jesus shared this parable with the lawyer because of the lawyer’s question, “And who is my neighbor?”, as the lawyer had tried to justify himself before Jesus. Remember that Jesus had told the lawyer to live according to the answer the lawyer had given to Jesus, which was to love God and love others, as found in Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. By loving God and loving others we fulfill God’s Law, but this is impossible to do without surrendering our lives to Christ as Lord. We, in and of ourselves, are not capable of loving God and loving others because (agape) love comes from God alone, for God is (agape) love (1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16). Agape is one of the Greek words for love in the Bible. God’s love is unconditional and sacrifices everything to serve others. God demonstrated this love perfectly to us through our Lord Jesus Christ’s life, death, burial, and resurrection. Therefore, Jesus begins to share the story with the lawyer of a man who was robbed, stripped of everything he had, beaten, and left for dead. The first person to pass by this man was a priest, doing nothing. Jesus mentions the priest because the priest would have been one of the most likely to perform an act of mercy because he was a priest. The priest’s selfish actions caused him to break the Law of God he taught to others. The priest did not love his neighbor as himself.
Challenge & Application
1. What did God teach you today about (agape) love and about the priest?
2. How are you living out (agape) love in your fellowship with God and His Word and in your fellowship with others?
Don’t forget to pray using the A.C.T.S. (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication) method!