God wants us to meet the needs of others as necessary. This daily devotional looks at how loving others helps us to serve those in our proximity to make them neighbors.
Nuggets
- Love is an investment.
- We serve others through love.
Devotions in How to Love Our Neighbors series
We’ve been looking at the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We finish up by looking at the Samaritan himself. He is a good example of love in action and how this love makes us neighbors.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
The Good Samaritan
“But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back’” (Lk. 10: 33-35 ESV)
Love is an investment.
In the last devotion, we talked about the symbolism of the parable. Let’s chase a rabbit a second before we get back to the symbolism surrounding the Samaritan.
Aitken pointed out the symbolism of the victim going from Jerusalem to Jericho. He was leaving God’s city to go to worldly Jericho. He was turning his back on God.
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Back on track.
It is logical that the Samaritan represents Jesus. The binding of the wounds represents how Jesus has provided His Spirit to grow us to a restored relationship through grace (the oil).
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Jesus had compassion on us, also. Jesus, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2: 6-7 ESV).
Jesus not only loved us enough to be born into this world, but He also loved us enough to die for us.
The Samaritan did have to invest in the victim. It may not have been convenient for him to stop and minister him, but he did.
Ministering to the victim also meant the Samaritan gave up some comforts. When he put the victim on his animal, that meant that he had to walk.
Time was not only invested, but the Samaritan also paid a significant amount for his care. I hadn’t really thought about it before as to what the robbers had taken. They had taken his money and his clothes – everything.
And the Samaritan did all of this for a man who may or may not have looked down upon him because of who he was! Who the victim was or what he had done or his opinions did not enter into the equation of whether the Samaritan was going to minister to him.
But isn’t that how serving God is going to be? It is going to be challenging. We can’t expect an easy road.
Satan is going to do everything in his power to cause us not to be successful in our doing God’s work. He can really cause us grief.
And isn’t that how Jesus is? He is going to meet all of us where we are to offer us salvation.
Spurgeon put it into perspective. He wrote, “If God forgive little sinners only, then He is little in His mercy.” He will forgive all who ask.
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The Samaritan had to invest his time to get God’s character. He didn’t just show up that day and say, “Hey! I am going to turn over a new leaf and show kindness to this person.” He was a compassionate person before he needed to be.
For us, that means we need to serve others regardless of their religion and other differences from us. It shouldn’t be based on what we like and where we want to serve. We have to serve where God calls us to serve.
We have to possess God’s character so we can minister to all who are in need. We need to have enough to get it out of our head thinking about it and into our hands and feet doing it.
Love
“‘Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’” And Jesus said to him, ‘You go, and do likewise’” (Lk. 10: 36-37 ESV)
We serve others through love.
Let’s look at the Samaritan’s act of love for a second. There were three things that it was not.
- It was not dependent on anything other than someone was in need. The Samaritan met the victim’s needs without asking any questions.
- It was not a “let’s think this through” situation. The Samaritan didn’t hesitate but went right over to minister to the one in need.
- It was not a situation where he considered whether the robbers would come back. He wasn’t afraid to do what needed to be done.
Dods gave us a good definition of neighbor. He wrote, “The true neighbour is the man who has a compassionate heart and a friendly spirit.”
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We bestow this compassion and friendly spirit on anyone who is in our proximity.
To me, this parable shows that we are dependent on each other. Things happen. We shouldn’t be so independent that we don’t ask for help or allow others to help. It tells me we shouldn’t be so arrogant or hardhearted that we do not offer help or do what we can when we are asked.
One thing has stuck with me from when Mom was battling cancer 30 years ago. Independent Old Gray Mare said that she had to let others help her so that they could get their blessing. If we continue to try to do things on our own, others lose.
They get their blessing and happiness. Hughes said something I really like. He wrote, “Happiness is not an emotion, but the fruit of love.”
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Making the Connections
Let’s contrast the lawyer and the Samaritan. They are totally opposite.
The lawyer had it all going for him. He was an orthodox Israelite who knew the law. He had the right answer. He just wasn’t applying it correctly.
Seiss thought there was some sincerity in the lawyer. He had to have some desire to follow God.
The problem the lawyer had was, even though he was following the law, he wasn’t righteous. He had some head knowledge, but he didn’t have the correct heart knowledge.
The Samaritan, on the other hand, would have been labeled a heretic. He was one of those dreaded half Jews. Seiss wrote, “His churchliness was thoroughly defective and reprehensible.”
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Instead, the Samaritan had mercy and compassion for his fellow man.
Too bad we couldn’t add the lawyers knowledge of the law with the Samaritan’s practical application of it.
How Do We Apply This?
- Know the law and apply it with compassion.
- See all of mankind as needing our compassion and give it.
- Practice self-denial.
- Serve others voluntarily in whatever way is needed.
- See the work through until the end.
- Know there will always be more work to do for God.
- Find ways to identify with others so that we may serve them.
- Be humble.
- Regardless of recipient or act, serve God in the way He calls.
- Pay attention when opportunities of service are dropped into our pathway.
- Look for opportunities to serve.
- Don’t put ourselves above others.
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Father God. Thank You for the example of the Samaritan. More importantly, thank You for Jesus as our example. Thank You for His salvation. Help us to look for ways to serve others. Amen.
What do you think?
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