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.”
Matthew 5:43-48
Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Jesus teaches us to love God and our neighbor...And Jesus has forever tied God and our neighbors together when He gave us the Two Greatest Commandments...
Loving our neighbor sounds like an easy thing to do, but it is not...We can tell and learn from the Good Samaritan Parable, that man finds this difficult...Then to add to this specific love commandment, Jesus adds that we should love our enemies...This is even harder...
Throughout Jesus teachings He speaks of Love...He tells us to love God and to love our neighbors...But Jesus does know and shows us the difficulty of loving our neighbor...Our neighbors are all different from us (at least, this is how I see it)...We seem to be able to love our neighbors when they are most like us and agree with us on most issues...When we come face to face with loving our neighbors, as Jesus talks about in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, we see that He corrects our neighbor definition by saying that our neighbor is anyone (and I might repeat anyone) who has mercy on the individual...A large part of loving one's neighbor is having mercy on him...Jesus says it is easy to love our own people, even the pagans do that...Love is more than the neighbors who agree with me, and want to do the things that I do...
We often describe and think of love as a feeling...Love is more than a feeling, and not just a feeling...C. S. Lewis wrote, “Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”...
Love is constant and consistent...Jesus showed us that love is done on an individual basis and not on a group basis...Jesus showed us that loving one's neighbor is helping the poor and the meek and those in need...Love is to done to those we do not even know, but need our help...Jesus showed us that we are to love the poor homeless person, that we do not even know...Loving one's neighbor is loving him day in and day out and hoping he gets as much good in his life as we have in ours...The Good Samaritan showed this kind of love to the stranger (and his neighbor) that was attacked by robbers...