Good Samaritan Helps While Priest and Levite Stand ByBible World
10:31Luke 10:31
And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
By chance a priest came down the dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho, saw the traveler who had been stripped, wounded and left half dead by robbers, and deliberately passed by on the other side without helping him. This was Christ's answer to the lawyer who had rightly summed the law as loving God with all heart, soul, strength and mind and loving his neighbor as himself, and who then asked who is his neighbor. A neighbor is not bounded by religion, race, class, nation or friendship, but is anyone who needs help, whoever most needs charity, sympathy and practical care. True religion is not profession, office, rites or reverence for the letter, but loving deeds and practical mercy, so the priest's cold neglect broke the command to love his neighbor as himself and proved that sacred position alone does not fulfill the law. The wounded man pictures humanity robbed and ruined by Satan and the rescuer pictures Christ who came to heal and redeem, the meeting was brought in God's providence as a test of character, and being a neighbor means going and doing likewise by promptly relieving suffering as soon as it is seen.
Story Words and Setting
Christ spoke this as His answer to the lawyer who asked what he must do to inherit eternal life and then asked who is his neighbor. The lawyer had rightly summed the law as loving God with heart and soul and strength and mind and loving his neighbor as himself, and had been told to do this and live. The case was presented to explain whom he must love as himself. It is teaching to be studied and applied to individual cases.
The setting is the road going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was a dangerous way through a wild, rocky wilderness ravine in Judea, infested with robbers and often the scene of violence. A traveler on that road fell among thieves who stripped him of all that was valuable. They wounded and bruised him, leaving him stripped and bleeding and weltering in his own blood by the wayside. He was left half dead, apparently unto death.
By chance a certain priest came down that way. He saw the wounded man lying there. He deliberately passed by on the other side without rendering any assistance or taking on the trouble of caring for him. A Levite afterward did the same at intervals.
The account records an incident that had actually and lately taken place. It was fresh in the minds of all the hearers and familiar to many. It was spoken before a large crowd including Pharisees and Sadducees and priests and lawyers seeking cause to report Him. The priest himself was among those listening. The priests and Levites who heard knew its picture was true to life.
Who Counts as Neighbor
Luke 10:31 belongs to the challenge to every boundary drawn around who must be regarded as neighbor, for a neighbor is not one of one's own church or faith, whether pleasant or disagreeable, Jew or Gentile, and makes no distinction of race, color, class, nation, social standing, or learning. No distinction of friend and enemy, stranger and neighbor, rich and poor, high and low, learned and unlearned is allowed to separate society into distinct circles with alienation between them, and in Christ the Jewish restrictions are swept away so that there are no territorial lines, no artificial distinctions, no caste, no aristocracy. A neighbor is not only relatives, friends, or members of one's own church or group, but any member of the human family beyond those who think and believe as one does.
A neighbor is anyone who needs help, whoever most needs charity and help, sympathy and practical help. The wounded man pictures all who are subjects of interest, sympathy, and charity no matter who they are and even when they are not kith or kin, and neglect of the needy and unfortunate brought under notice leaves no assurance of eternal life. That includes a soul wounded by the adversary and straying from Christ, a brother sick in spirit, every person who belongs to God and is His property, and every soul wounded and bruised by Satan. God values a man not by wealth, talent, or education but in proportion as he becomes a good steward of mercy and love, entrusted with talents of means, ability, and gifts of grace to be a good steward of beneficence for others and not to reap all advantage for himself.
Need itself claims help from humanity, whether the need is physical or spiritual, and belief of the truth takes believers out of selfish, narrow worldliness to be laborers together with God in helping those in need. The field of work is the world, and Christian religion is shown by practical service that relieves people's temporal needs and crosses territorial, social, and other human distinctions, opening the way to share Christ's love. That call to love reaches without narrow or Pharisaical limits at home and abroad, so that people in mission fields and people living in distant cities are neighbors whose needs call for care.
Law Love and True Religion
Christ's answer sums up all principles contained in the law of God, with the priest who saw the stripped and wounded half-dead traveler and passed by standing inside that answer to the questions what must be done to inherit eternal life and who is neighbor. The whole duty of humanity is comprised in keeping the first four and the last six commandments, supreme love to God with all the heart, soul, strength and mind sanctifying the affections, and love to the neighbor as self whose fruit is love to mankind, bringing peace, happiness and joy to home and church. The two great arms of love are love to God held supremely under the first four commandments, which gives the mind of Christ, and love to fellow man under the last six, for no one loves God who does not love his neighbor because the neighbor is the purchase of the blood of Christ, so love does not shut itself inside four walls away from suffering. Neglect of the needy and unfortunate brought under notice, no matter who they are and even when they are not kith or kin, breaks the second great commandment on which the last six depend, and those who do not open their hearts to the wants and sufferings of humanity will not open their hearts to the claims of God in the first four precepts, showing idols claiming the heart so God is not honored and does not reign supreme.
True religion is not merely a system of beliefs or rites, outward religious forms, profession of piety, or reverence for the letter of the commandments, but is expressed in loving deeds, genuine goodness, practical mercy, benevolence and doing what brings the greatest good to others. Religious office did not make the priest a loving neighbor, for he and the Levite observed outward forms but failed to keep the law in their hearts, while the Samaritan showed compassion through action from a kind and loving heart. Outward religion and knowledge of the law do not make a person a doer of its commands, which require mercy and love for neighbor, and the priest's failure exposes unfitness for an office devoted to serving others. Though he had taken part in God-appointed temple worship, he treated practical care for a fellow human being as beneath his dignity and missed the opportunity God gave him to serve as an agent of blessing, warning that religious duties cannot be separated from the command to love neighbor, for neglecting that love misrepresents Christ's religion and damages character, and Christ calls followers to act with the same practical care, shown by what a person does and not merely by what he says.
The refusal to relieve the sufferer breaks the command to love the neighbor as self and fails to keep the law that gives right to eternal life, in contrast to having mercy as the Samaritan did. Seeing urgent need, the priest chose not to help and passed by rather than take on the trouble of caring, exemplifying selfish neglect and failure to understand God's compassion and love for humanity, and illustrating violation of the principles of justice and mercy contained in God's law. With the Levite he represents a class in the church who show indifference to the very ones who need sympathy and help, and notwithstanding position in the church they are commandment-breakers because they violate supreme love to God and unselfish love to neighbor on which the first four and the last six hang. To offend in that one point is to be guilty of all, leaving no assurance of eternal life because it fails the claims God has upon men.
A person's value and righteousness before God rests on the spirit he shows, not on nation, profession, religious position or office. Despite standing among the highest Jewish religious authorities and being chosen to serve in God's temple, the priest acted without mercy, pity, love or kindness, showing that claiming regard for God's law and keeping outward observances does not by itself mean showing love to a neighbor or keeping the law in the heart. As representative of the nation claiming exalted righteousness he acted with cruelty and selfishness and had no heart to feel for suffering humanity, while the despised and hated Samaritan possessed far superior character, nobility of soul and love of the right quality, showing mercy in disinterested benevolence to one he did not know and treating the stranger as he himself would desire to be treated. Those tested and proved in loving others as themselves will be pronounced fit for an inheritance with the saints in light.
Christ Pictured and Providence
The wounded traveler stands for humanity itself, for the sinner and the lost human race, deceived and ruined by Satan, robbed and wounded and left destitute and perishing by the wayside. The one who rescues him pictures Christ, who looked with compassion on that ruin, left His glory and came to its rescue, healed its wounds and provided for its needs. He covers the sinner with His robe of righteousness, provides safety at His own cost, died to redeem, and gives everlasting life to whoever believes, and His life both exposes how far men fall short of loving neighbor as self and commands His followers to copy His compassionate love. In that contrast the Samaritan represents Christ, while the priest who saw and passed by shows that religious position alone does not make one righteous, since the compassionate act showed the greater righteousness and fulfilled the command to love neighbor as oneself. The same neglect is seen in those professing to know God who left the colored race in the South wounded and beaten since emancipation, leaving thousands without help toward spiritual freedom, condemned by the example of Christ who did not leave the degraded human family to perish but came to bridge the gulf that transgression made between man and God.
The priest and the Levite were brought into contact with the sufferer in God's providence so that they might minister to him, and the meeting was an opportunity for compassion and a test of character and fitness for sacred office. Christ constantly weaves the web of human events and guides men, placing the suffering man where one with sympathy and compassion would attend to his needs. Suffering and calamity are thus permitted to call people away from selfishness and to awaken compassion, tenderness and love. Though set apart for God-appointed temple worship and called to lead men to understand God's love, the priest treated practical care as beneath his dignity, missed his opportunity to serve as an agent of blessing, and passed by, showing that religious duties and long prayers cannot be separated from love to neighbor or make up for want of mercy. His failure contradicted the merciful teaching he professed to know, for he claimed to be a repository of truth, mercy and compassion yet was destitute of the love of God, and national bigotry kept him from mercy when he supposed the sufferer might be a Samaritan. Having a holy office and being expected to show pity, he left a precious work of mercy and love undone and left the injured man perhaps to die.
The Samaritan's care for the same stranger stands in opposite spirit, and angels were beside him as he helped, teaching not to pass by suffering but to impart the comfort received from God. Those who so serve others have the cooperation of Christ. The full lesson of who is neighbor is learned in blessed companionship with heavenly beings, for serving others on earth prepares people for that companionship, and angels welcome those who have lived to minister.
Priest Character and Motives
The priest was a man in sacred office and responsible position, chosen to serve in God's temple among the highest Jewish religious authorities. He professed piety, acknowledged God's law as his guide, and claimed religious privilege and superior righteousness. Yet when he saw the wounded and bruised traveler lying by the road he had no pity, compassion, mercy or kindness, but showed a cold, unfeeling, stony, hard heart and passed by on the other side without helping. His religious position, duties and long prayers did not lead him to show mercy, and his indifference stands in contrast to the kindness required by God's law. His conduct was failure to love God with all the heart and to love his neighbor as himself, proving that seeing a neighbor's need without helping is neglect of love and that religious status alone does not fulfill the law or make one a loving neighbor. The two great arms of love are love to God held supremely under the first four commandments, which gives the mind of Christ, and love to fellow man under the last six, and no one loves God who does not love his neighbor, because the neighbor is the purchase of Christ's blood, so love does not shut itself inside four walls away from suffering.
He knew God's lessons of mercy and compassion given through Moses for Israel yet disregarded them and refused help to his suffering brother. He held sacred office and professed to teach Scripture and represent God, with a calling to have compassion and lead people to understand God's love, but his failure contradicted the merciful teaching he knew. Priests and scribes had read the law commanding love and care for the stranger, for the wounded and dying man who is a stranger, a neighbor and a brother in suffering, but had not brought it into practical life. God had brought him to the sufferer so he could help, yet he only glanced at him and did not help, despite his sacred office and duty to show compassion to those in need.
When he saw the wounded man in urgent need he let helping not suit his feelings and chose not to help rather than take on the trouble of caring for him. Though able to give aid he failed his duty to his fellow man, counting relief as too much trouble, an inconvenience and beneath his dignity. He gave only a sigh of pity, wishing he had not seen him, and purposely avoided him by going past without helping. His callous passing by, together with the Levite's, receives severe rebuke and warns against withholding pity and practical help from those who suffer. Selfishness made him unkind and unmerciful and, with national bigotry and prejudice, kept him from showing mercy, since he thought the sufferer might be a Samaritan and was uncertain of his identity.
Call to Practical Mercy
Being a neighbor means showing mercy in action, and the command is to go and do the same as the compassionate helper did rather than as the one who passed by. A heart moved by the Holy Spirit will not avoid duty but will promptly help as soon as suffering is seen, relieving physical needs and suffering as far as able. That work includes supplying food, shelter, work and life's necessities, which opens the way to reach hearts with spiritual truth. It is to be the Lord's helping hand to everyone in need of the help that can be bestowed, even when helping is not inviting and costs inconvenience, care and anxiety, which is genuine medical missionary work and practicing the law of God. Following these principles brings peace, happiness and joy to the home and church.
Passing by pictures heartless neglect of suffering plainly seen, leaving a brother who has fallen into decay and needs encouragement, a fallen neighbor, or institutions destitute of necessities, without interest, kind speaking, kind acting and help. To act in that way dishonors God, especially when a needy brother is passed by to patronize those who do not love or fear God, brings the result back upon the doer, cannot benefit him, hardens the heart, and keeps God from cooperating with him in development of character. Indifference, careless neglect, taking advantage of misfortune and increasing affliction for selfish gain are written against such persons in the heavenly records in the book, and God will repay every act of injustice and neglect, for everyone will finally be rewarded as his works have been. Pity and acts of mercy, benevolence and thoughtful consideration for the afflicted are counted as done to Christ himself, preserved in the heavenly records, rewarded, and mark commandment-keepers who shall have eternal life, while getting and holding all for self tends to poverty of soul. Thousands might have been saved if those acting like the priest and Levite had acted the part of the good helper, for one soul rescued is a soul saved from Satan's grasp, and to enjoy the good things of this life like Dives while making no use of what God gave to carry out His purposes is to share the priest's guilt.
The wounded man pictures the Southern field in its neglected and perishing need, and the priest pictures those who have seen that need and left it unhelped. The colored race, wounded, robbed, beaten and left for dead, was left after emancipation without spiritual freedom, education and the gospel, with only a hundredth part of the needed effort done. To see wretchedness and do nothing, to withhold means, labor and earnest effort, to divert sacred funds, or to allow pride, display and self-interest to take resources and attention from neglected fields, is to pass by on the other side and share his guilt. Spending hundreds of thousands on large facilities, buildings and presses for self while Nashville, the Huntsville school and neighboring enterprises cannot finish and work, and leaving institutions destitute of necessities, is that same neglect, whereas duty requires a neighborly, substantial interest expressed in unselfish effort and liberal gifts to sustain and lift the needy to high vantage ground, redeeming past neglect, which the Lord blesses. The priest gave only a sigh of pity, wishing he had not seen him, and his pity did not move him to act.
The same failure is looking at the long-neglected work in the cities, especially Southern cities, and in destitute missionary fields like Australia, and then neglecting it. It is withholding practical care from the sick, afflicted, crippled, blind, lame, widows, orphans, poor, worn-out workers, fellow workers left in poverty, Brother Leininger, Brother Myers, Edson White left like the wounded man, sisters left without modest clothing, and a brother pleading over mortgaged means. Churches and members pass by souls wounded by sin who need the power of the divine Healer to cure their wounds, souls for whom Satan has set his trap, and to know their danger and go home caring nothing for them as lost sheep is to lack the spirit of the good helper and to share the attributes of the enemy of God. Every church that believes the truth for this time should long since have been gathering in the needy, the oppressed, the suffering and the destitute, supplying physical necessities, feeding the hungry, bringing the poor that are cast out into homes, and according to strength and opportunity personal service of this kind is required of all, since donations of money cannot take its place though giving means is right, and doing this work gives a favorable opportunity to set forth Christ the crucified One. It is also refusing sympathy and restoring help to tempted, erring, straying and fallen souls, victims of intemperance, liquor, tobacco and stimulants, and drunkards treated as lost causes, instead of seeking, warning, teaching, encouraging and restoring them as Christ died for them, lifting up a standard against the enemy and restoring the moral image of God in man through simple food, unstimulating drink, clean clothing, hopeful words and words fitly spoken to discouraged souls.
The passage is also a call to transgressors of the law to temperance instead of intemperance, setting intemperance against the condition of the world before the flood and before the destruction of Sodom. It sets the value of the human soul in the light of the cross of Calvary and warns that those who like Belshazzar indulge appetite and sacrilegious disobedience are weighed in the balances and found wanting. It warns every hearer that they have souls to save or souls to lose, are deciding eternal destiny, must waste no more moments, must flee to refuge and lay hold on eternal life, and must make Christ their strength to break the slavery of perverted appetite. Love for God and neighbor must govern the use of entrusted property, so that possessions are regarded as talents for wise use, kept subordinate to eternal interests, and allocated with sanctified judgment to advance God's glory and the good of others, not to gratify passion or become objects of trust and devotion, lest wealth taking precedence over obedience become a snare endangering the soul. That serious work requires enlisting the whole being, heart, mind, soul and strength, not confining labor to believers but becoming acquainted with unbelievers, placing truth before those living up to all the light they have, reaching precious souls such as those in Melbourne, and using the open door Christ's death to redeem human beings has set before them to bring others into fellowship with the saints. When the Holy Spirit is poured out there is triumph over prejudice of color or caste into a pure, heavenly, unselfish atmosphere, God controls minds, human hearts love as Christ loved, faith takes hold of eternal realities, the heart is filled with faith that works by love and purifies the soul, and the color line is regarded very differently.
The lesson helped teach the disciples that Christ's love and mercy extended to Samaritans despite their hostility toward Him, and that lesson prepared them to carry the gospel to Samaria and to welcome its people as recipients of Christ's message. Anna's taking charge of the tent company is likened to that caring example in contrast to neglect.
By chance a priest came down the dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho, saw the traveler who had been stripped, wounded and left half dead by robbers, and deliberately passed by on the other side without helping him. This was Christ's answer to the lawyer who had rightly summed the law as loving God with all heart, soul, strength and mind and loving his neighbor as himself, and who then asked who is his neighbor. A neighbor is not bounded by religion, race, class, nation or friendship, but is anyone who needs help, whoever most needs charity, sympathy and practical care. True religion is not profession, office, rites or reverence for the letter, but loving deeds and practical mercy, so the priest's cold neglect broke the command to love his neighbor as himself and proved that sacred position alone does not fulfill the law. The wounded man pictures humanity robbed and ruined by Satan and the rescuer pictures Christ who came to heal and redeem, the meeting was brought in God's providence as a test of character, and being a neighbor means going and doing likewise by promptly relieving suffering as soon as it is seen.
Story Words and Setting
Christ spoke this as His answer to the lawyer who asked what he must do to inherit eternal life and then asked who is his neighbor. The lawyer had rightly summed the law as loving God with heart and soul and strength and mind and loving his neighbor as himself, and had been told to do this and live. The case was presented to explain whom he must love as himself. It is teaching to be studied and applied to individual cases.
The setting is the road going down from Jerusalem to Jericho. It was a dangerous way through a wild, rocky wilderness ravine in Judea, infested with robbers and often the scene of violence. A traveler on that road fell among thieves who stripped him of all that was valuable. They wounded and bruised him, leaving him stripped and bleeding and weltering in his own blood by the wayside. He was left half dead, apparently unto death.
By chance a certain priest came down that way. He saw the wounded man lying there. He deliberately passed by on the other side without rendering any assistance or taking on the trouble of caring for him. A Levite afterward did the same at intervals.
The account records an incident that had actually and lately taken place. It was fresh in the minds of all the hearers and familiar to many. It was spoken before a large crowd including Pharisees and Sadducees and priests and lawyers seeking cause to report Him. The priest himself was among those listening. The priests and Levites who heard knew its picture was true to life.
Who Counts as Neighbor
Luke 10:31 belongs to the challenge to every boundary drawn around who must be regarded as neighbor, for a neighbor is not one of one's own church or faith, whether pleasant or disagreeable, Jew or Gentile, and makes no distinction of race, color, class, nation, social standing, or learning. No distinction of friend and enemy, stranger and neighbor, rich and poor, high and low, learned and unlearned is allowed to separate society into distinct circles with alienation between them, and in Christ the Jewish restrictions are swept away so that there are no territorial lines, no artificial distinctions, no caste, no aristocracy. A neighbor is not only relatives, friends, or members of one's own church or group, but any member of the human family beyond those who think and believe as one does.
A neighbor is anyone who needs help, whoever most needs charity and help, sympathy and practical help. The wounded man pictures all who are subjects of interest, sympathy, and charity no matter who they are and even when they are not kith or kin, and neglect of the needy and unfortunate brought under notice leaves no assurance of eternal life. That includes a soul wounded by the adversary and straying from Christ, a brother sick in spirit, every person who belongs to God and is His property, and every soul wounded and bruised by Satan. God values a man not by wealth, talent, or education but in proportion as he becomes a good steward of mercy and love, entrusted with talents of means, ability, and gifts of grace to be a good steward of beneficence for others and not to reap all advantage for himself.
Need itself claims help from humanity, whether the need is physical or spiritual, and belief of the truth takes believers out of selfish, narrow worldliness to be laborers together with God in helping those in need. The field of work is the world, and Christian religion is shown by practical service that relieves people's temporal needs and crosses territorial, social, and other human distinctions, opening the way to share Christ's love. That call to love reaches without narrow or Pharisaical limits at home and abroad, so that people in mission fields and people living in distant cities are neighbors whose needs call for care.
Law Love and True Religion
Christ's answer sums up all principles contained in the law of God, with the priest who saw the stripped and wounded half-dead traveler and passed by standing inside that answer to the questions what must be done to inherit eternal life and who is neighbor. The whole duty of humanity is comprised in keeping the first four and the last six commandments, supreme love to God with all the heart, soul, strength and mind sanctifying the affections, and love to the neighbor as self whose fruit is love to mankind, bringing peace, happiness and joy to home and church. The two great arms of love are love to God held supremely under the first four commandments, which gives the mind of Christ, and love to fellow man under the last six, for no one loves God who does not love his neighbor because the neighbor is the purchase of the blood of Christ, so love does not shut itself inside four walls away from suffering. Neglect of the needy and unfortunate brought under notice, no matter who they are and even when they are not kith or kin, breaks the second great commandment on which the last six depend, and those who do not open their hearts to the wants and sufferings of humanity will not open their hearts to the claims of God in the first four precepts, showing idols claiming the heart so God is not honored and does not reign supreme.
True religion is not merely a system of beliefs or rites, outward religious forms, profession of piety, or reverence for the letter of the commandments, but is expressed in loving deeds, genuine goodness, practical mercy, benevolence and doing what brings the greatest good to others. Religious office did not make the priest a loving neighbor, for he and the Levite observed outward forms but failed to keep the law in their hearts, while the Samaritan showed compassion through action from a kind and loving heart. Outward religion and knowledge of the law do not make a person a doer of its commands, which require mercy and love for neighbor, and the priest's failure exposes unfitness for an office devoted to serving others. Though he had taken part in God-appointed temple worship, he treated practical care for a fellow human being as beneath his dignity and missed the opportunity God gave him to serve as an agent of blessing, warning that religious duties cannot be separated from the command to love neighbor, for neglecting that love misrepresents Christ's religion and damages character, and Christ calls followers to act with the same practical care, shown by what a person does and not merely by what he says.
The refusal to relieve the sufferer breaks the command to love the neighbor as self and fails to keep the law that gives right to eternal life, in contrast to having mercy as the Samaritan did. Seeing urgent need, the priest chose not to help and passed by rather than take on the trouble of caring, exemplifying selfish neglect and failure to understand God's compassion and love for humanity, and illustrating violation of the principles of justice and mercy contained in God's law. With the Levite he represents a class in the church who show indifference to the very ones who need sympathy and help, and notwithstanding position in the church they are commandment-breakers because they violate supreme love to God and unselfish love to neighbor on which the first four and the last six hang. To offend in that one point is to be guilty of all, leaving no assurance of eternal life because it fails the claims God has upon men.
A person's value and righteousness before God rests on the spirit he shows, not on nation, profession, religious position or office. Despite standing among the highest Jewish religious authorities and being chosen to serve in God's temple, the priest acted without mercy, pity, love or kindness, showing that claiming regard for God's law and keeping outward observances does not by itself mean showing love to a neighbor or keeping the law in the heart. As representative of the nation claiming exalted righteousness he acted with cruelty and selfishness and had no heart to feel for suffering humanity, while the despised and hated Samaritan possessed far superior character, nobility of soul and love of the right quality, showing mercy in disinterested benevolence to one he did not know and treating the stranger as he himself would desire to be treated. Those tested and proved in loving others as themselves will be pronounced fit for an inheritance with the saints in light.
Christ Pictured and Providence
The wounded traveler stands for humanity itself, for the sinner and the lost human race, deceived and ruined by Satan, robbed and wounded and left destitute and perishing by the wayside. The one who rescues him pictures Christ, who looked with compassion on that ruin, left His glory and came to its rescue, healed its wounds and provided for its needs. He covers the sinner with His robe of righteousness, provides safety at His own cost, died to redeem, and gives everlasting life to whoever believes, and His life both exposes how far men fall short of loving neighbor as self and commands His followers to copy His compassionate love. In that contrast the Samaritan represents Christ, while the priest who saw and passed by shows that religious position alone does not make one righteous, since the compassionate act showed the greater righteousness and fulfilled the command to love neighbor as oneself. The same neglect is seen in those professing to know God who left the colored race in the South wounded and beaten since emancipation, leaving thousands without help toward spiritual freedom, condemned by the example of Christ who did not leave the degraded human family to perish but came to bridge the gulf that transgression made between man and God.
The priest and the Levite were brought into contact with the sufferer in God's providence so that they might minister to him, and the meeting was an opportunity for compassion and a test of character and fitness for sacred office. Christ constantly weaves the web of human events and guides men, placing the suffering man where one with sympathy and compassion would attend to his needs. Suffering and calamity are thus permitted to call people away from selfishness and to awaken compassion, tenderness and love. Though set apart for God-appointed temple worship and called to lead men to understand God's love, the priest treated practical care as beneath his dignity, missed his opportunity to serve as an agent of blessing, and passed by, showing that religious duties and long prayers cannot be separated from love to neighbor or make up for want of mercy. His failure contradicted the merciful teaching he professed to know, for he claimed to be a repository of truth, mercy and compassion yet was destitute of the love of God, and national bigotry kept him from mercy when he supposed the sufferer might be a Samaritan. Having a holy office and being expected to show pity, he left a precious work of mercy and love undone and left the injured man perhaps to die.
The Samaritan's care for the same stranger stands in opposite spirit, and angels were beside him as he helped, teaching not to pass by suffering but to impart the comfort received from God. Those who so serve others have the cooperation of Christ. The full lesson of who is neighbor is learned in blessed companionship with heavenly beings, for serving others on earth prepares people for that companionship, and angels welcome those who have lived to minister.
Priest Character and Motives
The priest was a man in sacred office and responsible position, chosen to serve in God's temple among the highest Jewish religious authorities. He professed piety, acknowledged God's law as his guide, and claimed religious privilege and superior righteousness. Yet when he saw the wounded and bruised traveler lying by the road he had no pity, compassion, mercy or kindness, but showed a cold, unfeeling, stony, hard heart and passed by on the other side without helping. His religious position, duties and long prayers did not lead him to show mercy, and his indifference stands in contrast to the kindness required by God's law. His conduct was failure to love God with all the heart and to love his neighbor as himself, proving that seeing a neighbor's need without helping is neglect of love and that religious status alone does not fulfill the law or make one a loving neighbor. The two great arms of love are love to God held supremely under the first four commandments, which gives the mind of Christ, and love to fellow man under the last six, and no one loves God who does not love his neighbor, because the neighbor is the purchase of Christ's blood, so love does not shut itself inside four walls away from suffering.
He knew God's lessons of mercy and compassion given through Moses for Israel yet disregarded them and refused help to his suffering brother. He held sacred office and professed to teach Scripture and represent God, with a calling to have compassion and lead people to understand God's love, but his failure contradicted the merciful teaching he knew. Priests and scribes had read the law commanding love and care for the stranger, for the wounded and dying man who is a stranger, a neighbor and a brother in suffering, but had not brought it into practical life. God had brought him to the sufferer so he could help, yet he only glanced at him and did not help, despite his sacred office and duty to show compassion to those in need.
When he saw the wounded man in urgent need he let helping not suit his feelings and chose not to help rather than take on the trouble of caring for him. Though able to give aid he failed his duty to his fellow man, counting relief as too much trouble, an inconvenience and beneath his dignity. He gave only a sigh of pity, wishing he had not seen him, and purposely avoided him by going past without helping. His callous passing by, together with the Levite's, receives severe rebuke and warns against withholding pity and practical help from those who suffer. Selfishness made him unkind and unmerciful and, with national bigotry and prejudice, kept him from showing mercy, since he thought the sufferer might be a Samaritan and was uncertain of his identity.
Call to Practical Mercy
Being a neighbor means showing mercy in action, and the command is to go and do the same as the compassionate helper did rather than as the one who passed by. A heart moved by the Holy Spirit will not avoid duty but will promptly help as soon as suffering is seen, relieving physical needs and suffering as far as able. That work includes supplying food, shelter, work and life's necessities, which opens the way to reach hearts with spiritual truth. It is to be the Lord's helping hand to everyone in need of the help that can be bestowed, even when helping is not inviting and costs inconvenience, care and anxiety, which is genuine medical missionary work and practicing the law of God. Following these principles brings peace, happiness and joy to the home and church.
Passing by pictures heartless neglect of suffering plainly seen, leaving a brother who has fallen into decay and needs encouragement, a fallen neighbor, or institutions destitute of necessities, without interest, kind speaking, kind acting and help. To act in that way dishonors God, especially when a needy brother is passed by to patronize those who do not love or fear God, brings the result back upon the doer, cannot benefit him, hardens the heart, and keeps God from cooperating with him in development of character. Indifference, careless neglect, taking advantage of misfortune and increasing affliction for selfish gain are written against such persons in the heavenly records in the book, and God will repay every act of injustice and neglect, for everyone will finally be rewarded as his works have been. Pity and acts of mercy, benevolence and thoughtful consideration for the afflicted are counted as done to Christ himself, preserved in the heavenly records, rewarded, and mark commandment-keepers who shall have eternal life, while getting and holding all for self tends to poverty of soul. Thousands might have been saved if those acting like the priest and Levite had acted the part of the good helper, for one soul rescued is a soul saved from Satan's grasp, and to enjoy the good things of this life like Dives while making no use of what God gave to carry out His purposes is to share the priest's guilt.
The wounded man pictures the Southern field in its neglected and perishing need, and the priest pictures those who have seen that need and left it unhelped. The colored race, wounded, robbed, beaten and left for dead, was left after emancipation without spiritual freedom, education and the gospel, with only a hundredth part of the needed effort done. To see wretchedness and do nothing, to withhold means, labor and earnest effort, to divert sacred funds, or to allow pride, display and self-interest to take resources and attention from neglected fields, is to pass by on the other side and share his guilt. Spending hundreds of thousands on large facilities, buildings and presses for self while Nashville, the Huntsville school and neighboring enterprises cannot finish and work, and leaving institutions destitute of necessities, is that same neglect, whereas duty requires a neighborly, substantial interest expressed in unselfish effort and liberal gifts to sustain and lift the needy to high vantage ground, redeeming past neglect, which the Lord blesses. The priest gave only a sigh of pity, wishing he had not seen him, and his pity did not move him to act.
The same failure is looking at the long-neglected work in the cities, especially Southern cities, and in destitute missionary fields like Australia, and then neglecting it. It is withholding practical care from the sick, afflicted, crippled, blind, lame, widows, orphans, poor, worn-out workers, fellow workers left in poverty, Brother Leininger, Brother Myers, Edson White left like the wounded man, sisters left without modest clothing, and a brother pleading over mortgaged means. Churches and members pass by souls wounded by sin who need the power of the divine Healer to cure their wounds, souls for whom Satan has set his trap, and to know their danger and go home caring nothing for them as lost sheep is to lack the spirit of the good helper and to share the attributes of the enemy of God. Every church that believes the truth for this time should long since have been gathering in the needy, the oppressed, the suffering and the destitute, supplying physical necessities, feeding the hungry, bringing the poor that are cast out into homes, and according to strength and opportunity personal service of this kind is required of all, since donations of money cannot take its place though giving means is right, and doing this work gives a favorable opportunity to set forth Christ the crucified One. It is also refusing sympathy and restoring help to tempted, erring, straying and fallen souls, victims of intemperance, liquor, tobacco and stimulants, and drunkards treated as lost causes, instead of seeking, warning, teaching, encouraging and restoring them as Christ died for them, lifting up a standard against the enemy and restoring the moral image of God in man through simple food, unstimulating drink, clean clothing, hopeful words and words fitly spoken to discouraged souls.
The passage is also a call to transgressors of the law to temperance instead of intemperance, setting intemperance against the condition of the world before the flood and before the destruction of Sodom. It sets the value of the human soul in the light of the cross of Calvary and warns that those who like Belshazzar indulge appetite and sacrilegious disobedience are weighed in the balances and found wanting. It warns every hearer that they have souls to save or souls to lose, are deciding eternal destiny, must waste no more moments, must flee to refuge and lay hold on eternal life, and must make Christ their strength to break the slavery of perverted appetite. Love for God and neighbor must govern the use of entrusted property, so that possessions are regarded as talents for wise use, kept subordinate to eternal interests, and allocated with sanctified judgment to advance God's glory and the good of others, not to gratify passion or become objects of trust and devotion, lest wealth taking precedence over obedience become a snare endangering the soul. That serious work requires enlisting the whole being, heart, mind, soul and strength, not confining labor to believers but becoming acquainted with unbelievers, placing truth before those living up to all the light they have, reaching precious souls such as those in Melbourne, and using the open door Christ's death to redeem human beings has set before them to bring others into fellowship with the saints. When the Holy Spirit is poured out there is triumph over prejudice of color or caste into a pure, heavenly, unselfish atmosphere, God controls minds, human hearts love as Christ loved, faith takes hold of eternal realities, the heart is filled with faith that works by love and purifies the soul, and the color line is regarded very differently.
The lesson helped teach the disciples that Christ's love and mercy extended to Samaritans despite their hostility toward Him, and that lesson prepared them to carry the gospel to Samaria and to welcome its people as recipients of Christ's message. Anna's taking charge of the tent company is likened to that caring example in contrast to neglect.