Matthew 5:1-12
The Beatitudes
1 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them saying:
3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Luke 10:25-37
The Parable of the Good Samaritan
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘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, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Hebrews 13:8
Jesus the Same
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
There are moral laws around us and they are here so that we might help others...We do not always help others, as Jesus points out in His Parable of the Good Samaritan...Jesus' Laws and Teachings are not related to the thinking of the survival of the fittest, or only the strong survive, or about changing and adapting as we encounter new climates and regions...His teachings and commands are about love and helping the weak, and we see this distinctly in His first Great Sermon, the Sermon on the Mount...And as we read about Jesus we see moral laws come to being...
Baptist Preacher F. W. Boreham said this about the moral laws we have and about the Laws of Christ, “The savage knows nothing of 'the law of Christ.'...He will bear no other's burden...The sick must die; the wounded must perish; the feeble must go to the wall...Only the mightiest and most muscular survive and produce another generation...'The law of Christ' ends all that...The luggage of life must be distributed...The sick must be nursed; the wounded must be tended; the frail must be cherished...These, too, must be permitted to play their part in the shaping of human destiny...They also may love and wed, and become fathers and mothers...The weaknesses of each are taken back into the blood of the race...The frailty of each becomes part of the common heritage...And, in the last result, if our men are not all Apollos, and if our women do not all resemble Venus de Medici, it is largely because we have millions with us who, but for 'the law of Christ/ operating on rational ideals, would have had no existence at all...In a Christian land, under Christian laws, we bear each other's burdens, we carry each other's luggage...It is the law of Christ, the law of the cross, a sacrificial law...The difference between savagery and civilization is simply this, that we have learned, in our very flesh and blood, to bear each other's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.”...