This week’s message came to us through the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan. We often make the mistake of reducing this wonderfully rich passage into a mere moral platitude that goes something like “everyone is your neighbor and we need to love everyone with a everyone-loving kind of love”. Now this isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. But it is a bad thing if this is the only thing we take a way from this parable. The reality is this parable is Jesus’ own commentary on his ministry. He is the good Samaritan and we are the hurting wounded soul on the side of the road. The law has passed us by unable to save. If we read the parable in this way, then we will see the command to love our neighbor means more than just a few kind words here and there, but it is a call to lay down your life for your neighbor; to be moved with a compassion that inspires action. If Christ is our greatest treasure, which He is, then we ought to be philanthropists of the Gospel, giving generously and often. Loving neighbor therefore, means being moved with a compassion leading to action on account of those that don’t know or love our Lord.
