But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
The lawyer asked who his neighbor was not to learn but to excuse himself, because his own right answer about loving God and neighbor had convicted him of not keeping the law and he was unwilling to repent and confess. Jesus refused controversy and answered with the story of the good Samaritan, so that the lawyer himself had to name the neighbor as the one who showed mercy. A neighbor is anyone who needs the help it is in your power to give, especially the wounded, needy and suffering person brought to your notice. In that answer all Jewish limits of nation, race, class, faith and enmity are swept away, so that neighbor means the whole human family, friend and enemy alike. To love such a neighbor as self by practical mercy is with supreme love to God the sum of the law and the way to eternal life, summed in the command to go and do likewise.
Question's Setting and Motive
The question belongs to the encounter in Luke 10:25-37, where a lawyer testing Jesus about inheriting eternal life was asked what is written in the law, himself answered that it is to love God with all heart, soul, strength and mind and neighbor as self, and was told he answered rightly and to do this and live. The lawyer then, willing to justify himself, asked Jesus who his neighbor is. Jesus did not enter controversy but answered by relating the parable of the good Samaritan, arranging matters so the decision came from the lawyer's own lips. That parable was a recent incident that had actually taken place and was known to several people.
In it a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves who stripped, wounded and robbed him and left him half dead and dying by the roadside. A priest saw him and passed by on the other side, and likewise a Levite looked on him and passed by on the other side. Then a journeying Samaritan had compassion, went to him, bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine, set him on his own beast, brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the morrow he paid the host two pence with promise to repay more spent when he comes again. The lawyer answered that the neighbor was he that showed mercy on him who fell among thieves, not even saying the Samaritan, thereby condemning his own practice and that of the scribes and Pharisees, and Jesus commanded, Go and do thou likewise, summing up in this all the principles contained in God's law.
He asked from a wish to justify himself because he knew he had not fulfilled the law's demands, was convicted and self-condemned by his own right answer and by Christ's searching words, yet was unwilling to repent, confess sin and acknowledge truth. He knew he had kept neither the first four commandments toward God nor the last six toward man, especially failing to love neighbor as self because self-love was supreme, and weighed in the balances he was found wanting. Instead of confessing his sin he tried to excuse his conduct and neglect, to evade conviction when truth came home to the conscience and to the naked soul, to make the commandment appear difficult to fulfill, to parry conviction, and to vindicate himself before the people. His question was petulant, controversial, critical, and needless because he knew how to answer it and already knew the duty he had not done, exposing unwillingness to forsake all and follow with an undivided heart.
The test was prompted by opponents listening as spies who set the lawyer forward and hoped to catch something to use against Christ and report to the authorities. They were scribes and Pharisees, with priests, lawyers, Sadducees and Herodians, disappointed, silenced and hateful, who dared not ask another question themselves. The same evasive questioning when truth is brought directly to the conscience is asked now by those who will evade truth if they can. Though he had first asked sincerely about eternal life, he now sought to justify himself rather than admit failure to love others.
The question reflects contemporary disputes over drawing boundaries among people by nation, social class and cleanness. Among the Jews there was dispute where to draw the line between neighbors and strangers, turning love of neighbor into a limit of how many people must be included. They regarded Gentiles and Samaritans as strangers and enemies, argued over which people and classes within their own nation counted, and religious leaders taught that contact with the ignorant and careless multitude brought defilement. The question was whether such unclean persons, Samaritans, and the careless multitude should be treated as neighbors, and whether faith, race, color or class should exclude.
Christ's Answering Parable
Jesus did not enter into controversy over the evasive question but answered by relating the parable of the good Samaritan, presenting a concrete case that made clear who a neighbor is and arranging matters so that the decision came from the lawyer's own lips. The question had followed the lawyer's own right answer that the law commands love to God with all heart, soul, strength and mind and love to neighbor as self as the way to life, and it was asked to justify himself and his course because that answer had exposed the gap between his practice and the law. It arose from unwillingness to acknowledge truth and to walk in its light, and from a spirit of controversy and criticism, yet Christ used it to show whom the lawyer should regard as his neighbor.
The parable was not mere illustration but a recent incident that had actually taken place and was known to several people. A certain man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves, who stripped and wounded and robbed him and left him half dead and dying by the roadside.
A priest came that way, saw him, and passed by on the other side, and likewise a Levite came, looked on him, and passed by on the other side, failing one they should have helped. Then a journeying Samaritan had compassion on him, went to him, bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine, set him on his own beast, brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the morrow he paid the host two pence for his care, with promise to repay whatever more should be spent when he comes again.
Constrained to answer, the lawyer said the neighbor was he that showed mercy on him that fell among the thieves, and he would not even say the Samaritan, thereby condemning his own practice and that of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus defined the neighbor as the one who showed mercy through practical care even to a stranger, and commanded, Go, and do thou likewise. That command sounds down to the present time and sums up in itself all the principles contained in the law of God.
Meaning of Neighbor
The question who counts as neighbor is answered by the wounded traveler, passed by by priest and Levite and helped by the Samaritan who had compassion, bound his wounds, carried him to an inn and paid for his care, with the command to go and do likewise sounding to the present time. A neighbor is everyone who needs the help that can be bestowed, every wounded, needy, unfortunate and suffering person brought under notice who calls for interest, sympathy and charity. A neighbor is especially the one who needs help most, and the very wounded and bruised man himself stands as neighbor, with suffering humanity in need included. Keeping the law requires tender kindness toward those in need, not merely claiming to keep it, and genuine medical missionary work is that law practiced by learning from the great Physician to restore brethren fallen into decay, showing interest, speaking and acting kindly, encouraging the needy as the Lord's helping hand, and not passing a needy brother by to patronize those who do not love God, even when helping costs inconvenience, care and anxiety.
A neighbor is also the one who shows mercy through practical care to someone in need, even to a stranger. Love of neighbor is shown by acting with sympathy, pity and practical help toward a fellow human being suffering misfortune, without making care depend on who the person is. The lesson is to go and do likewise and to act with that same compassion. Neglect of the duty to love neighbor is what the question sought to excuse, and the answer defines neighbor as the merciful actor and commands like action.
In Christ the distinctions made as to who was neighbor are swept away, so there are no territorial lines, no artificial distinctions, no caste and no aristocracy. Neighbor-love is not limited by religious or social difference, faith, race, color, class, nation, territory, caste or aristocracy. It extends not merely to kith or kin, relative, friend, fellow church member, household of faith, or one who thinks as we do, but to friends, neighbors and strangers alike, the whole human family, the whole world as the field, whether friend or enemy. The needy in every locality north, south, east and west, even families within the shadow of home doors, are neighbor, and every soul wounded and bruised by the adversary and every one who is the property of God is neighbor.
The Samaritan, though despised by the Jews and regarded as objectionable, became brother and friend to the wounded Jewish man by showing mercy and caring for him. He fulfilled the command to love neighbor as self, treating the injured man as he would wish to be treated and showing tender kindness beyond national prejudice. His compassionate action shows him more righteous than those who despised him, while the priest and Levite passed by, exposing the hard-heartedness of those who considered themselves uniquely religious. He represents Christ, who humbled Himself to serve humanity and became poor for our sake. The parable reflects a real event known to several people, in which a despised Samaritan alone helped a wounded Jewish man whom priest and Levite had passed by, and true love responding with pity and practical help to another's distress makes every person a neighbor to others.
Neighbors include a brother sick in spirit needing sympathy and help from one who has been as weak as himself, and fellow Christians weak or distressed needing the sympathy and practical help that has itself been needed. They include every soul in need temporal or spiritual, with none perishing outside Christlike care, every person belonging to God and purchased by Christ's blood, and every one wounded and bruised by the adversary. They include humanity interlaced and linked together as members one of another, made as sons and daughters and friends to help one another in helplessness and disappointment in life's battles, and anyone who needs the grace and patience Christ supplies, including people uncouth, discourteous, or unlikely to appreciate or repay kindness. Even a bitter opponent is to be treated with respect while truth is shared, and disappointment must not lead to thinking the worst of one another, since knowledge of one's own weakness fits the heart to be quick to feel and respond where help is needed.
Law Obedience and Life
Loving the neighbor as oneself, joined to supreme wholehearted love of God with all heart and soul and strength and mind, is the sum of righteousness and the whole duty of man. It is the second great duty and the fruit of love to God, kept in the last six commandments, while love to God is kept in the first four. Keeping these two principles is the binding condition of salvation and the way to inherit eternal life, requiring conversion of the whole person with no divided or partial obedience and no adequate excuse for refusing supreme love to God. The command must be applied personally, for neglecting it leaves a person morally deficient before God, and abiding in Christ means loving God with all the heart and neighbors as ourselves with an undivided heart. The lawyer himself had rightly answered that the law requires this love and had been told to do this and live, yet he asked who counts as neighbor in an effort to justify himself rather than repent after discovering he had broken God's law.
His question is answered by the story of the wounded traveler and the Samaritan, teaching that a neighbor is anyone in need to whom mercy can be shown and that keeping the law requires tender kindness toward those in need, not merely claiming to keep it. A man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho was stripped and left half dead by thieves, passed by on the other side by a priest and by a Levite, then pitied and cared for by a traveling Samaritan who bound his wounds with oil and wine, carried him on his own beast to an inn, paid two pence for his care with promise to repay more, and the neighbor was defined as the one who showed mercy with the command to go and do likewise. Keeping these two principles brings peace and happiness and joy into the home and the church, and the exchange presents love of neighbor as part of the question of how to inherit eternal life and as a central lesson of Christian education.
True religion is not merely a system, creed, or rite, but loving action seeking the greatest good of others, and genuine goodness. The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches the true science of Christianity and gives practical shape to loving one's neighbor as oneself, showing how to live out the command to love. It teaches the way to inherit eternal life, grounded not in sophisticated ideas but in Christ's self-giving life. A neighbor is anyone who needs the grace and patience Christ supplies, including people who are uncouth, discourteous, or unlikely to appreciate or repay kindness. The command to love one's neighbor requires practical deeds and cannot be set aside by self-made rules, for true obedience to God's commandments must be rooted in love, and the Samaritan's kind, loving action made him a doer of the law, showing that obedience must be lived out in deeds, not merely claimed in words.
The lawyer's failure exposed that self-love was supreme and that he had kept neither the first four commandments toward God nor the last six toward man, especially failing to love his neighbor as himself. Having himself stated the gospel conditions of eternal life, he understood their bearing and felt the Holy Spirit convict him of neglecting duty toward God and neighbor, seeing himself weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found wanting, not serving God supremely because he had not loved Him supremely, and therefore failing to love his neighbor as himself, standing self-condemned. Instead of confessing sin and acknowledging truth, he tried to excuse his failure, to make the commandment appear difficult to fulfill, to parry conviction, and to vindicate himself, asking as though ignorant of the principles of law though his first question about eternal life was needless because he knew how to answer it. No one can keep the law in his own strength, but only by accepting the virtue and grace of Christ, with belief in the propitiation for sin enabling fallen man to love God with his whole heart and his neighbor as himself, and the conditions he had stated are unchangeable and eternal for every member of the human family standing before God.
Luke 10:25-37 presents the difference between obedience and disobedience in reality to those who are transgressors of the law. Within that call to obedience, Luke 10:29 stands applied to temperance and intemperance, to the condition of the world before the flood and before the destruction of Sodom, to the value of the human soul in the light of the cross of Calvary, and to warning and judgment as in being weighed in the balances and found wanting. The passage urges hearers that they have souls to save or souls to lose and are deciding their own destiny for eternity, to waste no more moments, to flee to refuge and lay hold of eternal life. Together with the call to present the body a living sacrifice to God, Luke 10:27-29 presses a decision to choose the good and right way.
To neglect wounded, needy cases and withhold compassion breaks the second great commandment to love neighbor as self, on which the last six commandments depend, so that to offend in this point is to be guilty of all. The answer is every wounded, needy and unfortunate person brought under notice who calls for interest, sympathy and charity, no matter who they are and whether they are kith or kin, with neighbor-love and mercy extending to friends, neighbors, and strangers alike. Those who do not open their hearts to the wants and sufferings of humanity will not open their hearts to the claims of God stated in the first four precepts, but let idols claim the heart where God does not reign supreme, whatever their professions of reverence for the law. Such neglect leaves no assurance of eternal life, because it fails to answer the claims God has upon us, and neglecting duty to one's neighbor is disobedience to God's commandments that can result in the loss of eternal life, as exposed by the failure of the priest and Levite to see and respond with sympathy to another's suffering.
God gives people opportunities to meet others and show mercy and love, which are true principles of the law, with its principles of justice and mercy requiring practical care for a person in need. These are mercy, love, justice, human kindness and compassion rather than narrow interpretations the Pharisees ignored. The priest and Levite had the opportunity to help the wounded sufferer, but saw him and passed by instead of showing pity, showing that those who should help a suffering fellow person can fail to do so. The same failure occurs in the present when men in responsible positions pass by without pity or shut themselves away from the suffering. To love God with all the heart and neighbor as self is to have pity and give practical care to suffering humanity, for no one loves God without loving his neighbor, because the neighbor is the purchase of the blood of Christ, and position or religious standing does not replace this practical love, since a selfish, cold spirit does not represent Christ.
Living as Neighbor
The command that closes the parable still sounds down to the present time: go and do likewise, living out love to neighbor in practical care rather than turning it into a limit on how many must be included. The lawyer's question sought to justify himself after affirming love of neighbor as self, making love a boundary to be drawn, while Christ answered with a case from their own community showing how to live the command and inherit eternal life, grounded not in sophisticated ideas but in Christ's self-giving life. A neighbor is anyone in the human family in suffering need, whatever religious belief or doctrine may be, not merely relative, friend, fellow church member, or one who thinks as we do, but every wounded, suffering person and suffering humanity itself calling for interest, sympathy and charity. Fulfilling God's law therefore means being quick to see necessities and quick to help without first inquiring about faith or beliefs, promptly noticing needs and relieving them as God's helping hand and agents. All are responsible for this true missionary work with none excused, doing all the good possible and especially good to fellow believers, staying wide awake to discern how to bless humanity, working in Christ's lines with constantly improving efficiency as duty and privilege and as the living of the gospel. Neglecting to watch for opportunities and discern necessities is sin, because Christ identifies His interest with suffering humanity, and keeping God's commandments means loving God supremely and loving that neighbor as self as the way to eternal life.
The question must never be used to hold back from helping or to avoid the righteous work and the light already given, since asking who qualifies can become easier than doing what God places before us. Instead the work lying nearest is to be undertaken, doing the mercy before us while examining whether God's love is in the heart, with concern not confined to a small circle or ruled by narrow, self-directed principles, but extended at home and abroad. A neighbor is the one who most needs sympathy and help, every soul wounded and bruised by the adversary, every one who is God's property, and in Christ the Jewish distinctions are swept away so there are no territorial lines, no artificial distinctions, no caste and no aristocracy. The needy in every locality north, south, east and west are neighbor, even families within the shadow of home doors, and every person met is neighbor as recipient of the grace and light of truth to be shared, for which believers are to be trained.
The wounded man robbed by thieves, stripped and left half dead, passed by on the other side by priest and Levite, then pitied, bound up, carried to an inn and paid for by the compassionate Samaritan, shows that a neighbor is everyone who needs the help you can bestow. Genuine medical missionary work is that law of God practiced, learning from the great Physician to restore brethren fallen into decay by showing interest, speaking and acting kindly, and encouraging the needy, discouraged and oppressed as the Lord's helping hand, including across racial and social divisions. It forbids passing a needy brother by on the other side in order to patronize those who do not love or fear God, even when helping is not inviting and costs inconvenience, care and anxiety.
When God is loved supremely all property is seen as a talent loaned in trust, to be used with wisdom subordinate to eternal interests and with sanctified judgment to appropriate entrusted goods so as best to advance God's glory. Money cannot confer happiness unless the Lord's name is glorified in its use, and when it charms the heart it becomes a snare and a master instead of an agent for good, regarded above God's favor, taking the place of an idol and worshiped. When property or money interposes between man and obedience to God it is ruinous to eternal interests, so to serve God with heart, mind and affection is to work for His name's glory and use His gifts as one who must give account of his Lord's goods. Property must not get hold of the mind nor be used to gratify passion, which fosters pride and extravagance and imperils the soul in serving lust.
The duty reaches beyond believers to those who have not received the truth, requiring God's people to give their whole selves to His service. Neighbors calling for practical help and resources include people in cities where little or no outreach has been done, to be reached with the gospel, including New York City, other cities and the Southern field. The neighbor is especially the people of the Southern field left without the light of life, above all the colored people and cities such as Huntsville that should have received warning years ago, demanding every power of body and mind put to work to give them light, going in person where possible and where going is impossible sending means and at least keeping hindrance away. A neighbor is likewise a brother or fellow person left to struggle unaided under adverse circumstances and an institution in distressing need, such as a school destitute of many necessities, and to leave them struggling on without help is heartless neglect and failure of duty. To be a neighbor is to take a neighborly, substantial, unselfish interest in their welfare, redeeming past neglect, sustaining needy work by liberal gifts from stronger conferences, having those planted in the same field faithfully act their part, and sending tried men from church to church to set the need before the people and arouse them to fulfill their duty, and God is in earnest about this and will bless every unselfish effort. It forbids unbelief, discouraging talk, criticism over trifles, withholding or diverting means, and holding the work back as with a foot on the brake so the carriage cannot move, for such hindrance cuts off light ready to come from heaven, leaves cities in darkness, and makes the work much more difficult because the enemy gains advantage through years of delay.
Its full answer is learned only through a life of service and compassion, for those who minister to others on earth will share the angels' companionship in heaven and will then fully learn what neighbor love involves.
The lawyer asked who his neighbor was not to learn but to excuse himself, because his own right answer about loving God and neighbor had convicted him of not keeping the law and he was unwilling to repent and confess.
Jesus refused controversy and answered with the story of the good Samaritan, so that the lawyer himself had to name the neighbor as the one who showed mercy.
A neighbor is anyone who needs the help it is in your power to give, especially the wounded, needy and suffering person brought to your notice.
In that answer all Jewish limits of nation, race, class, faith and enmity are swept away, so that neighbor means the whole human family, friend and enemy alike.
To love such a neighbor as self by practical mercy is with supreme love to God the sum of the law and the way to eternal life, summed in the command to go and do likewise.
Question's Setting and Motive
The question belongs to the encounter in Luke 10:25-37, where a lawyer testing Jesus about inheriting eternal life was asked what is written in the law, himself answered that it is to love God with all heart, soul, strength and mind and neighbor as self, and was told he answered rightly and to do this and live. The lawyer then, willing to justify himself, asked Jesus who his neighbor is. Jesus did not enter controversy but answered by relating the parable of the good Samaritan, arranging matters so the decision came from the lawyer's own lips. That parable was a recent incident that had actually taken place and was known to several people.
In it a man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves who stripped, wounded and robbed him and left him half dead and dying by the roadside. A priest saw him and passed by on the other side, and likewise a Levite looked on him and passed by on the other side. Then a journeying Samaritan had compassion, went to him, bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine, set him on his own beast, brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the morrow he paid the host two pence with promise to repay more spent when he comes again. The lawyer answered that the neighbor was he that showed mercy on him who fell among thieves, not even saying the Samaritan, thereby condemning his own practice and that of the scribes and Pharisees, and Jesus commanded, Go and do thou likewise, summing up in this all the principles contained in God's law.
He asked from a wish to justify himself because he knew he had not fulfilled the law's demands, was convicted and self-condemned by his own right answer and by Christ's searching words, yet was unwilling to repent, confess sin and acknowledge truth. He knew he had kept neither the first four commandments toward God nor the last six toward man, especially failing to love neighbor as self because self-love was supreme, and weighed in the balances he was found wanting. Instead of confessing his sin he tried to excuse his conduct and neglect, to evade conviction when truth came home to the conscience and to the naked soul, to make the commandment appear difficult to fulfill, to parry conviction, and to vindicate himself before the people. His question was petulant, controversial, critical, and needless because he knew how to answer it and already knew the duty he had not done, exposing unwillingness to forsake all and follow with an undivided heart.
The test was prompted by opponents listening as spies who set the lawyer forward and hoped to catch something to use against Christ and report to the authorities. They were scribes and Pharisees, with priests, lawyers, Sadducees and Herodians, disappointed, silenced and hateful, who dared not ask another question themselves. The same evasive questioning when truth is brought directly to the conscience is asked now by those who will evade truth if they can. Though he had first asked sincerely about eternal life, he now sought to justify himself rather than admit failure to love others.
The question reflects contemporary disputes over drawing boundaries among people by nation, social class and cleanness. Among the Jews there was dispute where to draw the line between neighbors and strangers, turning love of neighbor into a limit of how many people must be included. They regarded Gentiles and Samaritans as strangers and enemies, argued over which people and classes within their own nation counted, and religious leaders taught that contact with the ignorant and careless multitude brought defilement. The question was whether such unclean persons, Samaritans, and the careless multitude should be treated as neighbors, and whether faith, race, color or class should exclude.
Christ's Answering Parable
Jesus did not enter into controversy over the evasive question but answered by relating the parable of the good Samaritan, presenting a concrete case that made clear who a neighbor is and arranging matters so that the decision came from the lawyer's own lips. The question had followed the lawyer's own right answer that the law commands love to God with all heart, soul, strength and mind and love to neighbor as self as the way to life, and it was asked to justify himself and his course because that answer had exposed the gap between his practice and the law. It arose from unwillingness to acknowledge truth and to walk in its light, and from a spirit of controversy and criticism, yet Christ used it to show whom the lawyer should regard as his neighbor.
The parable was not mere illustration but a recent incident that had actually taken place and was known to several people. A certain man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among thieves, who stripped and wounded and robbed him and left him half dead and dying by the roadside.
A priest came that way, saw him, and passed by on the other side, and likewise a Levite came, looked on him, and passed by on the other side, failing one they should have helped. Then a journeying Samaritan had compassion on him, went to him, bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine, set him on his own beast, brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the morrow he paid the host two pence for his care, with promise to repay whatever more should be spent when he comes again.
Constrained to answer, the lawyer said the neighbor was he that showed mercy on him that fell among the thieves, and he would not even say the Samaritan, thereby condemning his own practice and that of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus defined the neighbor as the one who showed mercy through practical care even to a stranger, and commanded, Go, and do thou likewise. That command sounds down to the present time and sums up in itself all the principles contained in the law of God.
Meaning of Neighbor
The question who counts as neighbor is answered by the wounded traveler, passed by by priest and Levite and helped by the Samaritan who had compassion, bound his wounds, carried him to an inn and paid for his care, with the command to go and do likewise sounding to the present time. A neighbor is everyone who needs the help that can be bestowed, every wounded, needy, unfortunate and suffering person brought under notice who calls for interest, sympathy and charity. A neighbor is especially the one who needs help most, and the very wounded and bruised man himself stands as neighbor, with suffering humanity in need included. Keeping the law requires tender kindness toward those in need, not merely claiming to keep it, and genuine medical missionary work is that law practiced by learning from the great Physician to restore brethren fallen into decay, showing interest, speaking and acting kindly, encouraging the needy as the Lord's helping hand, and not passing a needy brother by to patronize those who do not love God, even when helping costs inconvenience, care and anxiety.
A neighbor is also the one who shows mercy through practical care to someone in need, even to a stranger. Love of neighbor is shown by acting with sympathy, pity and practical help toward a fellow human being suffering misfortune, without making care depend on who the person is. The lesson is to go and do likewise and to act with that same compassion. Neglect of the duty to love neighbor is what the question sought to excuse, and the answer defines neighbor as the merciful actor and commands like action.
In Christ the distinctions made as to who was neighbor are swept away, so there are no territorial lines, no artificial distinctions, no caste and no aristocracy. Neighbor-love is not limited by religious or social difference, faith, race, color, class, nation, territory, caste or aristocracy. It extends not merely to kith or kin, relative, friend, fellow church member, household of faith, or one who thinks as we do, but to friends, neighbors and strangers alike, the whole human family, the whole world as the field, whether friend or enemy. The needy in every locality north, south, east and west, even families within the shadow of home doors, are neighbor, and every soul wounded and bruised by the adversary and every one who is the property of God is neighbor.
The Samaritan, though despised by the Jews and regarded as objectionable, became brother and friend to the wounded Jewish man by showing mercy and caring for him. He fulfilled the command to love neighbor as self, treating the injured man as he would wish to be treated and showing tender kindness beyond national prejudice. His compassionate action shows him more righteous than those who despised him, while the priest and Levite passed by, exposing the hard-heartedness of those who considered themselves uniquely religious. He represents Christ, who humbled Himself to serve humanity and became poor for our sake. The parable reflects a real event known to several people, in which a despised Samaritan alone helped a wounded Jewish man whom priest and Levite had passed by, and true love responding with pity and practical help to another's distress makes every person a neighbor to others.
Neighbors include a brother sick in spirit needing sympathy and help from one who has been as weak as himself, and fellow Christians weak or distressed needing the sympathy and practical help that has itself been needed. They include every soul in need temporal or spiritual, with none perishing outside Christlike care, every person belonging to God and purchased by Christ's blood, and every one wounded and bruised by the adversary. They include humanity interlaced and linked together as members one of another, made as sons and daughters and friends to help one another in helplessness and disappointment in life's battles, and anyone who needs the grace and patience Christ supplies, including people uncouth, discourteous, or unlikely to appreciate or repay kindness. Even a bitter opponent is to be treated with respect while truth is shared, and disappointment must not lead to thinking the worst of one another, since knowledge of one's own weakness fits the heart to be quick to feel and respond where help is needed.
Law Obedience and Life
Loving the neighbor as oneself, joined to supreme wholehearted love of God with all heart and soul and strength and mind, is the sum of righteousness and the whole duty of man. It is the second great duty and the fruit of love to God, kept in the last six commandments, while love to God is kept in the first four. Keeping these two principles is the binding condition of salvation and the way to inherit eternal life, requiring conversion of the whole person with no divided or partial obedience and no adequate excuse for refusing supreme love to God. The command must be applied personally, for neglecting it leaves a person morally deficient before God, and abiding in Christ means loving God with all the heart and neighbors as ourselves with an undivided heart. The lawyer himself had rightly answered that the law requires this love and had been told to do this and live, yet he asked who counts as neighbor in an effort to justify himself rather than repent after discovering he had broken God's law.
His question is answered by the story of the wounded traveler and the Samaritan, teaching that a neighbor is anyone in need to whom mercy can be shown and that keeping the law requires tender kindness toward those in need, not merely claiming to keep it. A man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho was stripped and left half dead by thieves, passed by on the other side by a priest and by a Levite, then pitied and cared for by a traveling Samaritan who bound his wounds with oil and wine, carried him on his own beast to an inn, paid two pence for his care with promise to repay more, and the neighbor was defined as the one who showed mercy with the command to go and do likewise. Keeping these two principles brings peace and happiness and joy into the home and the church, and the exchange presents love of neighbor as part of the question of how to inherit eternal life and as a central lesson of Christian education.
True religion is not merely a system, creed, or rite, but loving action seeking the greatest good of others, and genuine goodness. The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches the true science of Christianity and gives practical shape to loving one's neighbor as oneself, showing how to live out the command to love. It teaches the way to inherit eternal life, grounded not in sophisticated ideas but in Christ's self-giving life. A neighbor is anyone who needs the grace and patience Christ supplies, including people who are uncouth, discourteous, or unlikely to appreciate or repay kindness. The command to love one's neighbor requires practical deeds and cannot be set aside by self-made rules, for true obedience to God's commandments must be rooted in love, and the Samaritan's kind, loving action made him a doer of the law, showing that obedience must be lived out in deeds, not merely claimed in words.
The lawyer's failure exposed that self-love was supreme and that he had kept neither the first four commandments toward God nor the last six toward man, especially failing to love his neighbor as himself. Having himself stated the gospel conditions of eternal life, he understood their bearing and felt the Holy Spirit convict him of neglecting duty toward God and neighbor, seeing himself weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and found wanting, not serving God supremely because he had not loved Him supremely, and therefore failing to love his neighbor as himself, standing self-condemned. Instead of confessing sin and acknowledging truth, he tried to excuse his failure, to make the commandment appear difficult to fulfill, to parry conviction, and to vindicate himself, asking as though ignorant of the principles of law though his first question about eternal life was needless because he knew how to answer it. No one can keep the law in his own strength, but only by accepting the virtue and grace of Christ, with belief in the propitiation for sin enabling fallen man to love God with his whole heart and his neighbor as himself, and the conditions he had stated are unchangeable and eternal for every member of the human family standing before God.
Luke 10:25-37 presents the difference between obedience and disobedience in reality to those who are transgressors of the law. Within that call to obedience, Luke 10:29 stands applied to temperance and intemperance, to the condition of the world before the flood and before the destruction of Sodom, to the value of the human soul in the light of the cross of Calvary, and to warning and judgment as in being weighed in the balances and found wanting. The passage urges hearers that they have souls to save or souls to lose and are deciding their own destiny for eternity, to waste no more moments, to flee to refuge and lay hold of eternal life. Together with the call to present the body a living sacrifice to God, Luke 10:27-29 presses a decision to choose the good and right way.
To neglect wounded, needy cases and withhold compassion breaks the second great commandment to love neighbor as self, on which the last six commandments depend, so that to offend in this point is to be guilty of all. The answer is every wounded, needy and unfortunate person brought under notice who calls for interest, sympathy and charity, no matter who they are and whether they are kith or kin, with neighbor-love and mercy extending to friends, neighbors, and strangers alike. Those who do not open their hearts to the wants and sufferings of humanity will not open their hearts to the claims of God stated in the first four precepts, but let idols claim the heart where God does not reign supreme, whatever their professions of reverence for the law. Such neglect leaves no assurance of eternal life, because it fails to answer the claims God has upon us, and neglecting duty to one's neighbor is disobedience to God's commandments that can result in the loss of eternal life, as exposed by the failure of the priest and Levite to see and respond with sympathy to another's suffering.
God gives people opportunities to meet others and show mercy and love, which are true principles of the law, with its principles of justice and mercy requiring practical care for a person in need. These are mercy, love, justice, human kindness and compassion rather than narrow interpretations the Pharisees ignored. The priest and Levite had the opportunity to help the wounded sufferer, but saw him and passed by instead of showing pity, showing that those who should help a suffering fellow person can fail to do so. The same failure occurs in the present when men in responsible positions pass by without pity or shut themselves away from the suffering. To love God with all the heart and neighbor as self is to have pity and give practical care to suffering humanity, for no one loves God without loving his neighbor, because the neighbor is the purchase of the blood of Christ, and position or religious standing does not replace this practical love, since a selfish, cold spirit does not represent Christ.
Living as Neighbor
The command that closes the parable still sounds down to the present time: go and do likewise, living out love to neighbor in practical care rather than turning it into a limit on how many must be included. The lawyer's question sought to justify himself after affirming love of neighbor as self, making love a boundary to be drawn, while Christ answered with a case from their own community showing how to live the command and inherit eternal life, grounded not in sophisticated ideas but in Christ's self-giving life. A neighbor is anyone in the human family in suffering need, whatever religious belief or doctrine may be, not merely relative, friend, fellow church member, or one who thinks as we do, but every wounded, suffering person and suffering humanity itself calling for interest, sympathy and charity. Fulfilling God's law therefore means being quick to see necessities and quick to help without first inquiring about faith or beliefs, promptly noticing needs and relieving them as God's helping hand and agents. All are responsible for this true missionary work with none excused, doing all the good possible and especially good to fellow believers, staying wide awake to discern how to bless humanity, working in Christ's lines with constantly improving efficiency as duty and privilege and as the living of the gospel. Neglecting to watch for opportunities and discern necessities is sin, because Christ identifies His interest with suffering humanity, and keeping God's commandments means loving God supremely and loving that neighbor as self as the way to eternal life.
The question must never be used to hold back from helping or to avoid the righteous work and the light already given, since asking who qualifies can become easier than doing what God places before us. Instead the work lying nearest is to be undertaken, doing the mercy before us while examining whether God's love is in the heart, with concern not confined to a small circle or ruled by narrow, self-directed principles, but extended at home and abroad. A neighbor is the one who most needs sympathy and help, every soul wounded and bruised by the adversary, every one who is God's property, and in Christ the Jewish distinctions are swept away so there are no territorial lines, no artificial distinctions, no caste and no aristocracy. The needy in every locality north, south, east and west are neighbor, even families within the shadow of home doors, and every person met is neighbor as recipient of the grace and light of truth to be shared, for which believers are to be trained.
The wounded man robbed by thieves, stripped and left half dead, passed by on the other side by priest and Levite, then pitied, bound up, carried to an inn and paid for by the compassionate Samaritan, shows that a neighbor is everyone who needs the help you can bestow. Genuine medical missionary work is that law of God practiced, learning from the great Physician to restore brethren fallen into decay by showing interest, speaking and acting kindly, and encouraging the needy, discouraged and oppressed as the Lord's helping hand, including across racial and social divisions. It forbids passing a needy brother by on the other side in order to patronize those who do not love or fear God, even when helping is not inviting and costs inconvenience, care and anxiety.
When God is loved supremely all property is seen as a talent loaned in trust, to be used with wisdom subordinate to eternal interests and with sanctified judgment to appropriate entrusted goods so as best to advance God's glory. Money cannot confer happiness unless the Lord's name is glorified in its use, and when it charms the heart it becomes a snare and a master instead of an agent for good, regarded above God's favor, taking the place of an idol and worshiped. When property or money interposes between man and obedience to God it is ruinous to eternal interests, so to serve God with heart, mind and affection is to work for His name's glory and use His gifts as one who must give account of his Lord's goods. Property must not get hold of the mind nor be used to gratify passion, which fosters pride and extravagance and imperils the soul in serving lust.
The duty reaches beyond believers to those who have not received the truth, requiring God's people to give their whole selves to His service. Neighbors calling for practical help and resources include people in cities where little or no outreach has been done, to be reached with the gospel, including New York City, other cities and the Southern field. The neighbor is especially the people of the Southern field left without the light of life, above all the colored people and cities such as Huntsville that should have received warning years ago, demanding every power of body and mind put to work to give them light, going in person where possible and where going is impossible sending means and at least keeping hindrance away. A neighbor is likewise a brother or fellow person left to struggle unaided under adverse circumstances and an institution in distressing need, such as a school destitute of many necessities, and to leave them struggling on without help is heartless neglect and failure of duty. To be a neighbor is to take a neighborly, substantial, unselfish interest in their welfare, redeeming past neglect, sustaining needy work by liberal gifts from stronger conferences, having those planted in the same field faithfully act their part, and sending tried men from church to church to set the need before the people and arouse them to fulfill their duty, and God is in earnest about this and will bless every unselfish effort. It forbids unbelief, discouraging talk, criticism over trifles, withholding or diverting means, and holding the work back as with a foot on the brake so the carriage cannot move, for such hindrance cuts off light ready to come from heaven, leaves cities in darkness, and makes the work much more difficult because the enemy gains advantage through years of delay.
Its full answer is learned only through a life of service and compassion, for those who minister to others on earth will share the angels' companionship in heaven and will then fully learn what neighbor love involves.