A Lawyer Questions Jesus in the Temple Courtby CBPepper
10:25Luke 10:25
And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
A lawyer stood up before a listening crowd to test Jesus and draw Him into controversy in hope of condemning Him, though in one telling he asked from a sincere desire to know the true principles of Scripture. Jesus entered into no dispute but turned the question back upon the expounder of the law, asking what is written and how he reads it, and affirmed his right answer with the verdict that doing it is the way to live. That doing is supreme, undivided love to God with all heart, soul, strength and mind joined to unselfish love to one's neighbor as oneself, which together are the sum of the law and the prophets and mean keeping the Ten Commandments given at Sinai. A neighbor is not bounded by religion, race, class or creed but is every needy and suffering soul brought to notice, as shown in the true incident of the good Samaritan who pitied, carried and paid for the wounded traveler whom priest and Levite passed by, with the command to go and do likewise at personal cost. To inherit eternal life in this way is to gain title to the heavenly inheritance and a life that measures with the life of God, a most solemn and all-important question for every soul bought by Christ's death, possible because He paid the price for sin and gives power through faith to fulfill the law's righteousness in active loving deeds rather than in mere profession or feeling.
Questioner and Occasion
A certain lawyer stood up and put the question about inheriting eternal life to test and tempt Jesus, seeking to entangle Him in controversy and to draw out something in His answer that could be used to condemn Him and destroy His influence, not from a sincere desire to understand truth. His spirit was one of unbelief and controversy, looking for material to use against Jesus rather than for light to obey.
He did not act alone but had been prompted, sent, and put forward by others, by the Pharisees, scribes, priests, rulers, Herodians and Sadducees. They stood by with lowering brows, disappointed in their expectations and filled with bitterest hatred after being silenced, daring to venture no further question themselves but using the lawyer to question Christ concerning the law. They listened eagerly as spies and critics, hoping to catch some word from His lips to twist to hurt His influence, to accuse Him before the people and the Jewish authorities, and to secure His condemnation and even destroy His life.
The question was asked publicly while Jesus was teaching, before a large crowd listening with intense interest. Jesus entered into no controversy over it, for He read every heart and every lurking thought as an open book and knew the questioner's heart and the plotters' purpose.
The weight of testimony holds that the inquiry was needless and ensnaring because the lawyer already knew the answer, while those who held the other view teach that he was sincerely seeking the real meaning of Scripture and asking how to receive eternal life. In that view his answer to Christ's question about the law passed over ceremonial and ritual rules and named love for God and neighbor as the two great principles on which the law and the prophets depend.
Christ's Way of Answering
Instead of entering into controversy, Jesus turned the question back upon the questioner himself, placing the burden of answering upon him. He directed him to what is written in the law and asked how he reads it, making the lawyer answer his own question about salvation from the law he claimed to expound. The question was needless because the lawyer already knew the answer, yet he had asked in a spirit of unbelief and controversy to test Christ before a large crowd listening with intense interest. Being thus shown his failure to keep the commandments convicted him, but instead of confessing his sin he tried to excuse and vindicate himself.
Jesus affirmed the lawyer's answer as right, declaring that to love God with all heart and soul and strength and mind and to love one's neighbor as oneself is the condition stated by the law. With the verdict, This do, and thou shalt live, He made doing the law the way to life. Doing this means living eternal life, for love for God and neighbor are the two great principles on which the law and the prophets depend, and those who reject the law reject the conditions of salvation. Those who set their affections on the things of this life and do not love God with all the heart and their neighbor as themselves are not fulfilling these conditions and cannot expect to be saved unless they repent and turn to God with all the soul.
The exchange teaches that what God requires must be learned from Scripture itself, with the answer sought in the law as written there rather than based on personal judgment or another person's authority. Each person must search the plain Word of God for himself, for God has plainly revealed the way of salvation and its light is to be received and obeyed rather than seeking another way or refusing truth to avoid separation from the world. No person can answer with suppositions, assertions, human theories, traditions, or false doctrines, nor with good intentions, good feeling, or a minister's teaching, and trusting those human answers risks losing eternal life. Ignorance does not excuse transgression when its claims are available, for the law identifies sin and reveals the sinner's need, conviction of sin is the first step in conversion, and when a person recognizes he is lost Jesus is revealed as the sin-pardoning Saviour through whom forgiveness is obtained. Eternal life is not gained by abolishing the law or weakening its sacred claims, but Bible truth is the only safe ground to stand on, Christ's words are spirit and life, and only obedience escapes the moral pollution in the world.
Meaning of Eternal Life
To inherit eternal life is to gain a clear title to the heavenly inheritance, to mansions in the sky that will be wanted when the earth reels to and fro, an incorruptible reward and a building made by God and not by human hands, a home on the earth made new where all is made new forever and ever. It is life that measures with the life of God and runs parallel with the life of Jehovah, a life measured by the life of God. Money and worldly honor do not raise a person one jot in value with the God of heaven who weighs moral worth, and it is short-sighted to place affections on uncertain earthly possessions and this life and lose sight of eternal things.
The question what to do to inherit eternal life is wonderful and important, the most valuable question anyone can ask, most solemn and all-important, because to lose heaven is to lose everything and to lose eternal life is terrible. Every hearer has a soul to save or to lose, of great value in the light of the cross of Calvary and bought by Jesus' death, and must waste no more moments but flee at once to refuge in Christ and lay hold of eternal life. It is the question every person must ask distinctly, what to do to be saved and inherit eternal life, a question of vital importance to every soul and relevant to everyone seeking the same answer. It is still to be asked personally and continually by everyone, young and old, parents and children, rather than spending time on nonessential disputes and curious theories or on who will make up the 144,000. Sin is too expensive a business, and disobedience will be weighed in the balances and found wanting as before the flood, at Sodom, and at Belshazzar's feast.
The word do means Christ answers positively and definitely, not leaving the matter indistinct and indefinite, but laying out a distinct, positive, plain course to be intelligently known and followed in action. The conditions are not emotions, mere theory, happy feeling, professed belief, or mere assent to the evidence of truth, but call for a definite course of action and for being doers of the Word and not hearers only, carrying out every principle God requires. Eternal life is too important to eternal interests to leave at risk like temporal business investments, too important for anyone to treat its conditions as uncertain. That doing means turning from self to behold Jesus the perfect Pattern, striving for the same perfection of character, cutting away everything unlike Him through sincere self-examination and diligent feeding on the Word, for His words are spirit and life.
Eternal life is possible because Jesus paid the price for redemption and the sins of the whole world, gave His own life for the life of the world, and His infinite sacrifice establishes feet on the Rock of ages. As Redeemer He takes responsibility for transgressors' sins before the Father, and Christ fulfills the law for transgressors who receive Him by faith as their personal Saviour. A sinner may be pardoned by accepting Jesus as Saviour, turning from sin and Satan's service and entering His service, receiving Him with soul, body and spirit. Through faith the repentant receive mercy, pardon and cleansing freely, and receive power to fulfill the law's righteousness by walking after the Spirit, for Christ's sacrifice does not abolish or lessen the law and forgiveness is possible without disregarding its claims.
Terms of Eternal Life
The conditions are stated in the simplest manner as supreme, wholehearted, undivided love to the Lord God with all heart and soul and strength and mind, and love to neighbor as self, with the promise that doing this is living. That love to God takes in all there is of a person, the whole being and every faculty devoted to His service, including will, speech, hearing, sight, physical strength, time, influence, intellect, reason, education and ability, with Christ central. There is to be no separation of affections, no divided service of Christ and mammon, and no soul or object enthroned in the heart, for whatever divides the affections, engages the mind and diverts from God violates the requirement and takes the form of an idol. Those who set their affections on the things of this life, consult selfish pleasure, let inclination rule spirit, soul and body, and give strength and time to unimportant matters do not fulfill these conditions and cannot expect to be saved unless they repent and turn to God with all the soul.
Joined to it is unselfish, Christlike love to one's neighbor as oneself in this life. That love is shown in fair, honest dealing with no misrepresentation, in loving the Saviour too well to misrepresent Him and loving fellow men too well to imperil their souls by a wrong example, in doing good, strengthening others and setting a right example. It includes earnestly sharing the truth with them and regarding others as souls bought by Christ's sacrifice, in agreement with the Old Testament commands to care justly for the poor, the fatherless, widows and strangers. Neglecting to watch for opportunities, discern necessities, identify with suffering humanity as Christ does, and act as the good Samaritan acted is sin in God's sight and forfeits the promise.
These two loves are the two great principles and two great arms on which hang all the law and the prophets, to be obeyed in order to gain eternal life. They are the sum and substance of the law, the foundation of all true godliness and the sum of righteousness, expressing God's wisdom and power when practiced by those who overcome satanic temptation. The law is a divine unity whose same principle runs through every precept, with what God requires in the first four and last six commandments expressed in these two great commandments. Living by them by faith forms characters acceptable in heaven and prepares people for heaven through sanctification by the truth, with power to become God's children given to those who believe in and receive Christ.
That love means keeping the Ten Commandments, the first four defining duty to God and the last six defining duty to fellow men. They are the original moral law given to Israel at Sinai and engraved on tables of stone, the Lord's own work dating to when He made heaven and earth, which stood immutable when typical sacrifices ceased at Christ's death and holds its claims in all ages. The instruction is the same instruction given to Moses for Israel to observe and walk in all the ways God commanded without turning to the right or left, so that obedience means life and disobedience means death. The lawyer's answer presents the whole duty of man in a few words, with love to God with all the heart and love to man as the two principles summing the ten.
Eternal life is therefore joined to obedience to God's commandments, given on condition of understanding and obeying them and not merely believing. Perfect obedience in thought, word and deed is required as under both old and new covenants, the same yesterday as now and never changing, the same obedience required of Adam being required of every member of the human family and every descendant of Adam. The law claims the whole person at all times, defines sin, states the terms of salvation, and its requirements are conditions of salvation so that those who reject the law reject those conditions. The answer stands answered for all time and will decide the case of everyone before the bar of God in the last great day, for the law of Jehovah and not human policy and inventions will decide destiny. Like those judged before the flood, at Sodom, and at Belshazzar's feast, disobedience will be weighed in the balances and found wanting, setting before transgressors the difference between obedience and disobedience as the reality that decides destiny for eternity.
The exchange convicted the lawyer because the question was needless, he already knew the answer yet had not fulfilled it. Being shown his failure to keep the commandments, recognizing the law's righteousness and his own condemnation, and seeing himself weighed and found wanting for not loving God supremely and therefore not loving his neighbor, he was exposed. Instead of confessing his sin he tried to excuse it, vindicate and justify himself before the people, asking who counts as neighbor to justify his conduct and evade truth brought directly to him. This lesson of love is also the basis for the command that those in responsible positions be perfect.
Who Counts as Neighbor
Neighbor is not limited by religious affiliation, race, color, social class, kinship, friendship, church membership, or sameness of belief. Neighbor is anyone who needs help, anyone wounded and robbed by the adversary, every needy, unfortunate and suffering soul brought to notice, and every person who belongs to God. No matter who they are, such persons are subjects for interest, sympathy and charity. The question what to do to inherit eternal life is answered by supreme love for God and unselfish, Christlike love for one another, the two great principles on which hang all the law and the prophets.
Jesus illustrated who counts as neighbor with the parable of the good Samaritan as an incident that actually took place. A traveler going down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves and was passed by on the other side by a priest and a Levite. But a Samaritan pitied him, bound his wounds, carried and cared for him and paid for his keep. The religious men who passed by failed to act, while the Samaritan cared for an injured stranger with active mercy.
That parable sums up all the principles contained in the law of God. It ends with the continuing command Go, and do thou likewise. This means not passing by on the other side but showing mercy with practical compassion, interest, kind words and acts, restoring the fallen, binding wounds, and caring at personal cost, inconvenience and anxiety. This is genuine medical missionary work and the law of God practiced, for doing and not merely speaking is expected. The neighbor is the one who shows mercy, and the lesson is to show that same tender regard and practical help to anyone in need.
Willing to justify himself, the lawyer asked who is his neighbor. He already knew the answer that the law requires wholehearted love for God and love for neighbor as self, and being shown his failure to keep it convicted him. Instead of confessing his sin he tried to excuse, vindicate and justify himself before the people, to ease his conscience and turn away the wound to his self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. He asked as though ignorant, and the parable left him no room for objection. Yet his national dislike remained, so he would not credit the Samaritan by name and answered only that the neighbor was the one who showed mercy.
Practicing the Answer Daily
True religion is active, not a matter of systems, creeds, rites, idleness or mere contemplation, but of loving deeds, genuine goodness and doing the greatest good to others. It requires the energetic use of mental and physical powers, being wide awake to watch for opportunities, discerning the necessities of fellow beings, identifying with suffering humanity as Christ does, and promptly noticing and helping without first asking about beliefs. The answer to what to do to inherit eternal life is supreme love for God and unselfish, Christlike love for one another, the two great principles on which hang all the law and the prophets, to be obeyed in order to gain life. Neighbor means everyone who is in need of the help that can be bestowed, every wounded, robbed, needy and unfortunate person brought to notice, and being neighbor means not passing by on the other side but showing mercy with practical compassion, interest, kind words and acts, restoring the fallen, binding wounds, carrying and caring at personal cost, inconvenience and anxiety. This is genuine medical missionary work and the law of God practiced, summed in the continuing command to go and do likewise, for doing the law in daily life is the true fruit of piety.
Loving God supremely governs possessions and work, for property and money are talents entrusted by God, subordinate to eternal interests and to be used wisely for God's glory and the good of others, with sanctified judgment and awareness that an account must be given. When wealth captures the heart, comes between a person and obedience, or is used to gratify passion and self, it becomes a snare and an idol that endangers the soul. Eternal life is therefore not inherited by overgrown centralization, putting up extra buildings and conveniences where large establishments already exist and spreading over too much ground, but by dividing and subdividing the work into many places, distributing means equally, working the vineyard without delay in other places in the world, and giving help to the neighbor in needy fields such as Nashville, California and the South. God still tests everyone by this, putting a needy object, a needy neighboring school or institution, before them and letting it remain, so neglecting to help it is failure under the test, while duty calls to sustain isolated brethren and destitute fields elsewhere by liberal gifts and unselfish effort, giving up unnecessary comforts and destructive indulgences such as tobacco, and using money as stewards to educate children, help others overcome, and save souls ready to perish, so that salvation is worked out for the whole family.
The answer demands unreserved surrender to God and entire consecration and conversion, with no separation of the affections from God allowed. It lays the positive duty on all to render the service He requires, which is the entire being — the whole wealth of affection, talents, possessions and all, laid at His feet — claiming for God the first place, the first thoughts and the first action, so that His claims take no second place and no human love is placed where God should be. This means turning from self to behold Jesus the perfect Pattern, striving for the same perfection of character, cutting away everything unlike Him through sincere self-examination and diligent feeding on the Word, turning toward God, abandoning the service of Satan, ceasing to sin, coming out from wicked associates, and receiving Christ with soul and body and spirit. It is a life that practices the truth and witnesses to transformation of character through an indwelling Saviour who works mind and heart to do His will, with faith that works by love and purifies the soul, exercised faith that works made plain and practical; ceremonial correctness, forms, virtuous acts alone, or giving goods and body without love will not save, for what is weighed is motive and spirit more than performance, and Christ will not accept a divided heart.
Neglecting the needy proves lack of compassion to humanity and transgression of the second great commandment on which the last six commandments depend, so that to offend in that one point is to be guilty of all, and leaves no assurance of eternal life. Whoever will not open the heart to the wants and sufferings of humanity will not open the heart to the claims of God stated in the first four precepts of the Decalogue, but lets idols claim the heart and affections so that God is not honored and does not reign supreme. Those who set their affections on the things of this life and do not love God with all the heart and their neighbor as themselves are not fulfilling the conditions affirmed in this do and thou shalt live, and cannot expect to be saved unless they repent and turn to God with all the soul, for complete obedience is the only condition that meets the requirement of the law, and those who do not obey shall not see life. Neglecting to watch and help is sin in God's sight, for the law defines sin and does not accept people while they persist in transgressing it, and keeping the commandments includes treating others with love rather than harming or destroying them.
The question of what to do to inherit eternal life is the highest science and the central concern of higher education, calling the whole person's abilities into full exercise, and the essential question to keep continually in view rather than spending time on nonessential disputes. It points to the great principles of God's law as essential matters to teach and consider, presenting truth to be obeyed by walking in God's commandments. Ministers must therefore study the Word to understand its requirements and live them in courteous words and kind deeds, parents and children must take seriously their responsibilities, and all must lead others to understand the practical meaning illustrated by the Good Samaritan as true Christianity.
A lawyer stood up before a listening crowd to test Jesus and draw Him into controversy in hope of condemning Him, though in one telling he asked from a sincere desire to know the true principles of Scripture. Jesus entered into no dispute but turned the question back upon the expounder of the law, asking what is written and how he reads it, and affirmed his right answer with the verdict that doing it is the way to live. That doing is supreme, undivided love to God with all heart, soul, strength and mind joined to unselfish love to one's neighbor as oneself, which together are the sum of the law and the prophets and mean keeping the Ten Commandments given at Sinai. A neighbor is not bounded by religion, race, class or creed but is every needy and suffering soul brought to notice, as shown in the true incident of the good Samaritan who pitied, carried and paid for the wounded traveler whom priest and Levite passed by, with the command to go and do likewise at personal cost. To inherit eternal life in this way is to gain title to the heavenly inheritance and a life that measures with the life of God, a most solemn and all-important question for every soul bought by Christ's death, possible because He paid the price for sin and gives power through faith to fulfill the law's righteousness in active loving deeds rather than in mere profession or feeling.
Questioner and Occasion
A certain lawyer stood up and put the question about inheriting eternal life to test and tempt Jesus, seeking to entangle Him in controversy and to draw out something in His answer that could be used to condemn Him and destroy His influence, not from a sincere desire to understand truth. His spirit was one of unbelief and controversy, looking for material to use against Jesus rather than for light to obey.
He did not act alone but had been prompted, sent, and put forward by others, by the Pharisees, scribes, priests, rulers, Herodians and Sadducees. They stood by with lowering brows, disappointed in their expectations and filled with bitterest hatred after being silenced, daring to venture no further question themselves but using the lawyer to question Christ concerning the law. They listened eagerly as spies and critics, hoping to catch some word from His lips to twist to hurt His influence, to accuse Him before the people and the Jewish authorities, and to secure His condemnation and even destroy His life.
The question was asked publicly while Jesus was teaching, before a large crowd listening with intense interest. Jesus entered into no controversy over it, for He read every heart and every lurking thought as an open book and knew the questioner's heart and the plotters' purpose.
The weight of testimony holds that the inquiry was needless and ensnaring because the lawyer already knew the answer, while those who held the other view teach that he was sincerely seeking the real meaning of Scripture and asking how to receive eternal life. In that view his answer to Christ's question about the law passed over ceremonial and ritual rules and named love for God and neighbor as the two great principles on which the law and the prophets depend.
Christ's Way of Answering
Instead of entering into controversy, Jesus turned the question back upon the questioner himself, placing the burden of answering upon him. He directed him to what is written in the law and asked how he reads it, making the lawyer answer his own question about salvation from the law he claimed to expound. The question was needless because the lawyer already knew the answer, yet he had asked in a spirit of unbelief and controversy to test Christ before a large crowd listening with intense interest. Being thus shown his failure to keep the commandments convicted him, but instead of confessing his sin he tried to excuse and vindicate himself.
Jesus affirmed the lawyer's answer as right, declaring that to love God with all heart and soul and strength and mind and to love one's neighbor as oneself is the condition stated by the law. With the verdict, This do, and thou shalt live, He made doing the law the way to life. Doing this means living eternal life, for love for God and neighbor are the two great principles on which the law and the prophets depend, and those who reject the law reject the conditions of salvation. Those who set their affections on the things of this life and do not love God with all the heart and their neighbor as themselves are not fulfilling these conditions and cannot expect to be saved unless they repent and turn to God with all the soul.
The exchange teaches that what God requires must be learned from Scripture itself, with the answer sought in the law as written there rather than based on personal judgment or another person's authority. Each person must search the plain Word of God for himself, for God has plainly revealed the way of salvation and its light is to be received and obeyed rather than seeking another way or refusing truth to avoid separation from the world. No person can answer with suppositions, assertions, human theories, traditions, or false doctrines, nor with good intentions, good feeling, or a minister's teaching, and trusting those human answers risks losing eternal life. Ignorance does not excuse transgression when its claims are available, for the law identifies sin and reveals the sinner's need, conviction of sin is the first step in conversion, and when a person recognizes he is lost Jesus is revealed as the sin-pardoning Saviour through whom forgiveness is obtained. Eternal life is not gained by abolishing the law or weakening its sacred claims, but Bible truth is the only safe ground to stand on, Christ's words are spirit and life, and only obedience escapes the moral pollution in the world.
Meaning of Eternal Life
To inherit eternal life is to gain a clear title to the heavenly inheritance, to mansions in the sky that will be wanted when the earth reels to and fro, an incorruptible reward and a building made by God and not by human hands, a home on the earth made new where all is made new forever and ever. It is life that measures with the life of God and runs parallel with the life of Jehovah, a life measured by the life of God. Money and worldly honor do not raise a person one jot in value with the God of heaven who weighs moral worth, and it is short-sighted to place affections on uncertain earthly possessions and this life and lose sight of eternal things.
The question what to do to inherit eternal life is wonderful and important, the most valuable question anyone can ask, most solemn and all-important, because to lose heaven is to lose everything and to lose eternal life is terrible. Every hearer has a soul to save or to lose, of great value in the light of the cross of Calvary and bought by Jesus' death, and must waste no more moments but flee at once to refuge in Christ and lay hold of eternal life. It is the question every person must ask distinctly, what to do to be saved and inherit eternal life, a question of vital importance to every soul and relevant to everyone seeking the same answer. It is still to be asked personally and continually by everyone, young and old, parents and children, rather than spending time on nonessential disputes and curious theories or on who will make up the 144,000. Sin is too expensive a business, and disobedience will be weighed in the balances and found wanting as before the flood, at Sodom, and at Belshazzar's feast.
The word do means Christ answers positively and definitely, not leaving the matter indistinct and indefinite, but laying out a distinct, positive, plain course to be intelligently known and followed in action. The conditions are not emotions, mere theory, happy feeling, professed belief, or mere assent to the evidence of truth, but call for a definite course of action and for being doers of the Word and not hearers only, carrying out every principle God requires. Eternal life is too important to eternal interests to leave at risk like temporal business investments, too important for anyone to treat its conditions as uncertain. That doing means turning from self to behold Jesus the perfect Pattern, striving for the same perfection of character, cutting away everything unlike Him through sincere self-examination and diligent feeding on the Word, for His words are spirit and life.
Eternal life is possible because Jesus paid the price for redemption and the sins of the whole world, gave His own life for the life of the world, and His infinite sacrifice establishes feet on the Rock of ages. As Redeemer He takes responsibility for transgressors' sins before the Father, and Christ fulfills the law for transgressors who receive Him by faith as their personal Saviour. A sinner may be pardoned by accepting Jesus as Saviour, turning from sin and Satan's service and entering His service, receiving Him with soul, body and spirit. Through faith the repentant receive mercy, pardon and cleansing freely, and receive power to fulfill the law's righteousness by walking after the Spirit, for Christ's sacrifice does not abolish or lessen the law and forgiveness is possible without disregarding its claims.
Terms of Eternal Life
The conditions are stated in the simplest manner as supreme, wholehearted, undivided love to the Lord God with all heart and soul and strength and mind, and love to neighbor as self, with the promise that doing this is living. That love to God takes in all there is of a person, the whole being and every faculty devoted to His service, including will, speech, hearing, sight, physical strength, time, influence, intellect, reason, education and ability, with Christ central. There is to be no separation of affections, no divided service of Christ and mammon, and no soul or object enthroned in the heart, for whatever divides the affections, engages the mind and diverts from God violates the requirement and takes the form of an idol. Those who set their affections on the things of this life, consult selfish pleasure, let inclination rule spirit, soul and body, and give strength and time to unimportant matters do not fulfill these conditions and cannot expect to be saved unless they repent and turn to God with all the soul.
Joined to it is unselfish, Christlike love to one's neighbor as oneself in this life. That love is shown in fair, honest dealing with no misrepresentation, in loving the Saviour too well to misrepresent Him and loving fellow men too well to imperil their souls by a wrong example, in doing good, strengthening others and setting a right example. It includes earnestly sharing the truth with them and regarding others as souls bought by Christ's sacrifice, in agreement with the Old Testament commands to care justly for the poor, the fatherless, widows and strangers. Neglecting to watch for opportunities, discern necessities, identify with suffering humanity as Christ does, and act as the good Samaritan acted is sin in God's sight and forfeits the promise.
These two loves are the two great principles and two great arms on which hang all the law and the prophets, to be obeyed in order to gain eternal life. They are the sum and substance of the law, the foundation of all true godliness and the sum of righteousness, expressing God's wisdom and power when practiced by those who overcome satanic temptation. The law is a divine unity whose same principle runs through every precept, with what God requires in the first four and last six commandments expressed in these two great commandments. Living by them by faith forms characters acceptable in heaven and prepares people for heaven through sanctification by the truth, with power to become God's children given to those who believe in and receive Christ.
That love means keeping the Ten Commandments, the first four defining duty to God and the last six defining duty to fellow men. They are the original moral law given to Israel at Sinai and engraved on tables of stone, the Lord's own work dating to when He made heaven and earth, which stood immutable when typical sacrifices ceased at Christ's death and holds its claims in all ages. The instruction is the same instruction given to Moses for Israel to observe and walk in all the ways God commanded without turning to the right or left, so that obedience means life and disobedience means death. The lawyer's answer presents the whole duty of man in a few words, with love to God with all the heart and love to man as the two principles summing the ten.
Eternal life is therefore joined to obedience to God's commandments, given on condition of understanding and obeying them and not merely believing. Perfect obedience in thought, word and deed is required as under both old and new covenants, the same yesterday as now and never changing, the same obedience required of Adam being required of every member of the human family and every descendant of Adam. The law claims the whole person at all times, defines sin, states the terms of salvation, and its requirements are conditions of salvation so that those who reject the law reject those conditions. The answer stands answered for all time and will decide the case of everyone before the bar of God in the last great day, for the law of Jehovah and not human policy and inventions will decide destiny. Like those judged before the flood, at Sodom, and at Belshazzar's feast, disobedience will be weighed in the balances and found wanting, setting before transgressors the difference between obedience and disobedience as the reality that decides destiny for eternity.
The exchange convicted the lawyer because the question was needless, he already knew the answer yet had not fulfilled it. Being shown his failure to keep the commandments, recognizing the law's righteousness and his own condemnation, and seeing himself weighed and found wanting for not loving God supremely and therefore not loving his neighbor, he was exposed. Instead of confessing his sin he tried to excuse it, vindicate and justify himself before the people, asking who counts as neighbor to justify his conduct and evade truth brought directly to him. This lesson of love is also the basis for the command that those in responsible positions be perfect.
Who Counts as Neighbor
Neighbor is not limited by religious affiliation, race, color, social class, kinship, friendship, church membership, or sameness of belief. Neighbor is anyone who needs help, anyone wounded and robbed by the adversary, every needy, unfortunate and suffering soul brought to notice, and every person who belongs to God. No matter who they are, such persons are subjects for interest, sympathy and charity. The question what to do to inherit eternal life is answered by supreme love for God and unselfish, Christlike love for one another, the two great principles on which hang all the law and the prophets.
Jesus illustrated who counts as neighbor with the parable of the good Samaritan as an incident that actually took place. A traveler going down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves and was passed by on the other side by a priest and a Levite. But a Samaritan pitied him, bound his wounds, carried and cared for him and paid for his keep. The religious men who passed by failed to act, while the Samaritan cared for an injured stranger with active mercy.
That parable sums up all the principles contained in the law of God. It ends with the continuing command Go, and do thou likewise. This means not passing by on the other side but showing mercy with practical compassion, interest, kind words and acts, restoring the fallen, binding wounds, and caring at personal cost, inconvenience and anxiety. This is genuine medical missionary work and the law of God practiced, for doing and not merely speaking is expected. The neighbor is the one who shows mercy, and the lesson is to show that same tender regard and practical help to anyone in need.
Willing to justify himself, the lawyer asked who is his neighbor. He already knew the answer that the law requires wholehearted love for God and love for neighbor as self, and being shown his failure to keep it convicted him. Instead of confessing his sin he tried to excuse, vindicate and justify himself before the people, to ease his conscience and turn away the wound to his self-sufficiency and self-righteousness. He asked as though ignorant, and the parable left him no room for objection. Yet his national dislike remained, so he would not credit the Samaritan by name and answered only that the neighbor was the one who showed mercy.
Practicing the Answer Daily
True religion is active, not a matter of systems, creeds, rites, idleness or mere contemplation, but of loving deeds, genuine goodness and doing the greatest good to others. It requires the energetic use of mental and physical powers, being wide awake to watch for opportunities, discerning the necessities of fellow beings, identifying with suffering humanity as Christ does, and promptly noticing and helping without first asking about beliefs. The answer to what to do to inherit eternal life is supreme love for God and unselfish, Christlike love for one another, the two great principles on which hang all the law and the prophets, to be obeyed in order to gain life. Neighbor means everyone who is in need of the help that can be bestowed, every wounded, robbed, needy and unfortunate person brought to notice, and being neighbor means not passing by on the other side but showing mercy with practical compassion, interest, kind words and acts, restoring the fallen, binding wounds, carrying and caring at personal cost, inconvenience and anxiety. This is genuine medical missionary work and the law of God practiced, summed in the continuing command to go and do likewise, for doing the law in daily life is the true fruit of piety.
Loving God supremely governs possessions and work, for property and money are talents entrusted by God, subordinate to eternal interests and to be used wisely for God's glory and the good of others, with sanctified judgment and awareness that an account must be given. When wealth captures the heart, comes between a person and obedience, or is used to gratify passion and self, it becomes a snare and an idol that endangers the soul. Eternal life is therefore not inherited by overgrown centralization, putting up extra buildings and conveniences where large establishments already exist and spreading over too much ground, but by dividing and subdividing the work into many places, distributing means equally, working the vineyard without delay in other places in the world, and giving help to the neighbor in needy fields such as Nashville, California and the South. God still tests everyone by this, putting a needy object, a needy neighboring school or institution, before them and letting it remain, so neglecting to help it is failure under the test, while duty calls to sustain isolated brethren and destitute fields elsewhere by liberal gifts and unselfish effort, giving up unnecessary comforts and destructive indulgences such as tobacco, and using money as stewards to educate children, help others overcome, and save souls ready to perish, so that salvation is worked out for the whole family.
The answer demands unreserved surrender to God and entire consecration and conversion, with no separation of the affections from God allowed. It lays the positive duty on all to render the service He requires, which is the entire being — the whole wealth of affection, talents, possessions and all, laid at His feet — claiming for God the first place, the first thoughts and the first action, so that His claims take no second place and no human love is placed where God should be. This means turning from self to behold Jesus the perfect Pattern, striving for the same perfection of character, cutting away everything unlike Him through sincere self-examination and diligent feeding on the Word, turning toward God, abandoning the service of Satan, ceasing to sin, coming out from wicked associates, and receiving Christ with soul and body and spirit. It is a life that practices the truth and witnesses to transformation of character through an indwelling Saviour who works mind and heart to do His will, with faith that works by love and purifies the soul, exercised faith that works made plain and practical; ceremonial correctness, forms, virtuous acts alone, or giving goods and body without love will not save, for what is weighed is motive and spirit more than performance, and Christ will not accept a divided heart.
Neglecting the needy proves lack of compassion to humanity and transgression of the second great commandment on which the last six commandments depend, so that to offend in that one point is to be guilty of all, and leaves no assurance of eternal life. Whoever will not open the heart to the wants and sufferings of humanity will not open the heart to the claims of God stated in the first four precepts of the Decalogue, but lets idols claim the heart and affections so that God is not honored and does not reign supreme. Those who set their affections on the things of this life and do not love God with all the heart and their neighbor as themselves are not fulfilling the conditions affirmed in this do and thou shalt live, and cannot expect to be saved unless they repent and turn to God with all the soul, for complete obedience is the only condition that meets the requirement of the law, and those who do not obey shall not see life. Neglecting to watch and help is sin in God's sight, for the law defines sin and does not accept people while they persist in transgressing it, and keeping the commandments includes treating others with love rather than harming or destroying them.
The question of what to do to inherit eternal life is the highest science and the central concern of higher education, calling the whole person's abilities into full exercise, and the essential question to keep continually in view rather than spending time on nonessential disputes. It points to the great principles of God's law as essential matters to teach and consider, presenting truth to be obeyed by walking in God's commandments. Ministers must therefore study the Word to understand its requirements and live them in courteous words and kind deeds, parents and children must take seriously their responsibilities, and all must lead others to understand the practical meaning illustrated by the Good Samaritan as true Christianity.