Bible League: Living His Word "Go and do likewise."Our verse for today is part of Jesus' Parable of the Good Samaritan. The second greatest commandment is "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). Jesus was asked by an expert in the Law of Moses, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus defined "neighbor" for him by telling a story about a Samaritan who helped a man that had been beaten, robbed, and left for dead. Unlike a priest and a Levite that passed the man by without helping him, the Samaritan bandaged the man's wounds, took him to an inn, and paid for his care. Jesus said the expert should "Go and do likewise." Who, then, is my neighbor according to Jesus? It could be anyone. It could be, as in the parable, a complete stranger. My neighbor is anyone who comes into my sphere of personal responsibility. When a person is in need and there is no one else, then it falls to me to do something. It does not matter that I may not know the person, it does not matter that I may have come upon the person by accident, and it does not matter that I have other things I would prefer to do. Indeed, it does not matter that the person may be someone I do not care for, or even an enemy. The priest and the Levite, knowing the Law of Moses, knew what they should have done, but they did not do it. It is not the person who knows and professes the second greatest commandment who keeps it, but the person who actually loves his neighbor. It is the person who does good things for his neighbor that meets the obligations of the commandment, especially when it requires personal sacrifice of some kind, especially when the neighbor is an enemy. True love for one's neighbor, according to Jesus' parable, means that we must be ready to deny ourselves in order to help someone else. God is God over all people. His commandment is a commandment that holds for all people and is meant to benefit all people. Our neighbor is a fellow member of the human race and, as such, deserves all the care and respect the commandment entails. When a neighbor comes into our sphere of personal responsibility, we must set aside our prejudices and self-centered interests and do what we can, just like the Good Samaritan. Go, therefore, and do what he did. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingAmos 7, 8, 9 Amos 7 -- Amos' Visions of Locusts, Fire and a Plumb Line; Amos Accused by Amaziah NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Amos 8 -- Basket of Fruit and Israel's Captivity NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Amos 9 -- The Certainty of God's Judgment and Israel's Restoration NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Revelation 7 Revelation 7 -- The 144,000 Sealed; the Multitude in White Robes NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it's here a little while, then it's gone.Insight Life is short no matter how many years we live. Don't be deceived into thinking that you have lots of remaining time to live for Christ, to enjoy your loved ones, or to do what you know you should. Challenge Live for God today! Then, no matter when your life ends, you will have fulfilled God's plan for you. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Isaiah 48:8 Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened.It is painful to remember that, in a certain degree, this accusation may be laid at the door of believers, who too often are in a measure spiritually insensible. We may well bewail ourselves that we do not hear the voice of God as we ought, "Yea, thou heardest not." There are gentle motions of the Holy Spirit in the soul which are unheeded by us: there are whisperings of divine command and of heavenly love which are alike unobserved by our leaden intellects. Alas! we have been carelessly ignorant--"Yea, thou knewest not." There are matters within which we ought to have seen, corruptions which have made headway unnoticed; sweet affections which are being blighted like flowers in the frost, untended by us; glimpses of the divine face which might be perceived if we did not wall up the windows of our soul. But we "have not known." As we think of it we are humbled in the deepest self-abasement. How must we adore the grace of God as we learn from the context that all this folly and ignorance, on our part, was foreknown by God, and, notwithstanding that foreknowledge, he yet has been pleased to deal with us in a way of mercy! Admire the marvellous sovereign grace which could have chosen us in the sight of all this! Wonder at the price that was paid for us when Christ knew what we should be! He who hung upon the cross foresaw us as unbelieving, backsliding, cold of heart, indifferent, careless, lax in prayer, and yet he said, "I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour ... Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life!" O redemption, how wondrously resplendent dost thou shine when we think how black we are! O Holy Spirit, give us henceforth the hearing ear, the understanding heart! Daily Light on the Daily Path 1 Corinthians 2:10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.John 15:15 "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. Matthew 13:11 Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 1 Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, Ephesians 3:14-19 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, • from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, • that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, • so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, • may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, • and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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