Love Is Not What You Say But What You Do!

I believe that there are times that God will allow us to go through stuff not more so that we may learn through the experiences individually but for others. I don’t believe any of us woke up one day deciding that we want to go through a hard time.

Lately the Holy Spirit has been reminding me about the parable of the story of the good Samaritan [Luke 10:25-37]. There is a need to go the whole nine yards into exegesing the text into understanding why Jesus had to use the good folk as the Samaritan instead of the Jews.

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Luke 10:25-37 NIV

Jesus shares the parable of the good Samaritan in response to a religious leader’s question of “who is my neighbor?” In his story, Jesus tells of a priest and a Levite, both religious leaders, who walk by the dying man on the road. Both avoid the man and choose not to help. The dying man, the priest and levite all have one thing in common. They are all Jews. Then Jesus describes the way the Samaritan notices the man, has compassion on him, and takes care of his needs. A powerful story with a profoundly simple truth. A religious title doesn’t make you a good neighbor; your actions make you a good neighbor.

It’s crazy how directly this story applies to our lives. Take a second to think about it…

The Samaritan took care of the dying man by bandaging his wounds, taking him to an inn, caring for him, and paying for his stay. In those days the Samaritans and the Jews did not see eye to eye. Divided by racial and ethnic barriers. Perhaps that’s why the Gospels and Acts provide so many instances of Samaritans coming into contact with the message of Jesus. It is not the person from the radically different culture on the other side of the world that is hardest to love, but the nearby neighbor whose skin color, language, rituals, values, ancestry, history, and customs are different from one’s own.

The good Samaritan wasn’t just helping; it was extravagant love. The dude was a complete stranger, but the Samaritan had mercy and showed a ton of grace. How could this look in your life? It may look like reaching out to that street child today. It may look like listening to someone who’s having a hard day. It may look like giving food to someone in need. It could look like a lot of different things, but it definitely doesn’t look like inaction. Love does; neighbors do.

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