The extent of love; Luke 10: 25-37

As we consider today’s text, I am amazed at how this passage dovetails with what we have been looking at in Ephesians during our midweek service.  By the way, I am going to try to get out of the habit of referring to Wednesday night as our Bible study, and instead refer to it as our mid-week church service.  There are a lot of Bible studies around.  Sometimes it seems like there is one on every corner.  And while I have nothing against studying the Bible, I think it’s important to distinguish that our service is a church and not just a forum for religious discussion. So in accordance with the doctrine of the church as taught in Ephesians 4:12,13,  as a pastor I want to conduct our midweek service “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”  That equipping of the saints to do the work, the building up of the church, producing unity of doctrine, the  maturing of Christians, to become like Christ is the distinction between our church and a lot of so called Bible studies, which just serve as a forum for religious discussion, many of which have very little to do with the Bible.

Now what we have been learning in our study of Ephesians, is that what we believe dictates our behavior.  And so we can’t separate doctrine from conduct, because conduct flows from what you believe.  See, God isn’t interested in knowledge in the sense that we know a lot of facts about the Bible, but God is interested in obedience to what He has revealed. That’s why Jesus said, “You are my disciples if you do what I have commanded you.” And love is the foremost commandment of God. So in 1Cor. 13:2 Paul says, “If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” If we say we belong to Christ, then we will be doing the works of Christ.  And chapter 5 of Ephesians starts off by saying that the premiere work of Christ is the work of love.  We are told to imitate Christ, and walk in love, even as He loved us. 

Now we have spent a lot of time the last few Wednesdays breaking down exactly what that love looks like and so I won’t review it here now, except to remind you that love is not determined by attraction or emotion or even liking someone.  But love is defined by sacrifice, even as Christ loved the church and gave His life for her.  But today we are going to continue to look at the preeminence of love in the Christian life from another perspective, and that is found in our passage here in Luke. 

Vs.25 says “And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  Now a lawyer isn’t what we typically think of when we hear that title; He’s not talking about a Perry Mason style criminal lawyer.  But it would have been a person that was an expert in Mosaic law.  This man possibly would have been a scribe or a priest who was considered to be an authority on the laws of Judaism.  Now what is significant about these guys was that they took the 10 commandments and broke them down to the nth degree.  The rabbis said that there were 613 letters in the 10 commandments, and so they believed that signified some sort of hidden code that represented 613 laws.  And the lawyers were responsible for figuring  out those laws and teaching the others.

But they also added to the Mosaic law the rabbinical law.  They had a lot of traditions that they added, a lot of interpretations which they added to the law that were just as binding as the 10 commandments.  For instance, in order to keep the law concerning the Sabbath, they had to interpret what was meant by work.  And so there were dozens of laws written to define what constituted a bearing a burden, how far you were allowed to travel, or what you were allowed to do.  Lighting a fire on the Sabbath, for instance, was determined to be work, and so it was forbidden. 

But what was really at the heart of these laws was not so much a desire to fully and completely keep every facet of the law, or even to keep the intent of the law.  But what was really their intent was putting limits on the law.  See, if they could figure out every nuance of what was required to keep the law, then they could also figure out loopholes, in order to circumvent the law.  And that was really at the heart of what this lawyer was trying to do.  He came to test Jesus, not to trust Him.  He came confident in his Biblical knowledge.  I read somewhere that these lawyers would have very likely memorized the first 5 books of the Bible.  Amazing knowledge, but devoid of understanding and puffed up by pride. 1 Cor. 8:1 says, “Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.” See, the problem with the lawyer was pride.  He needed to be humbled before he could really learn anything.

So the lawyer asks Jesus a question to test Him.  That is an important point.  We forget sometimes that Jesus could read thoughts.  Luke 11:17 says Jesus knew their thoughts.  Repeatedly we read that Jesus knew what the people were thinking in their hearts.  And so He knows that this question is not from a sincere desire to learn.  I find that to be true in ministry all the time.  I’ve learned the hard way not to have a running  dialogue with people that ask questions only to try to provoke you, or to try to teach you something, or make a point that they want to make.  Some people ask questions not because they have a sincere desire to learn, but because they want to show off what they think they know, or because they want to try to make you look stupid.  I’m not sure what was the motivation for  this lawyer, but my guess is he hoped Jesus would incriminate Himself, and he could discredit Jesus as a teacher.  I think he addresses Jesus as “Teacher” in a somewhat sarcastic way.  That is my opinion anyway, but maybe I’m being a little paranoid.

The question the lawyer asks is a valid question.  In fact, it’s the most important question that can be asked by any person.  “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  It was the same question of the rich young ruler in Luke 18: ““Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  It’s a good question.  And it’s noteworthy that in both examples Jesus answers with the Law of Moses.  We will address that in a moment.  But the question is one that deserves to be turned around and asked of each one of you this morning;  “By what means can you claim to have eternal life?”  In other words, what grounds can you provide for your salvation?  If I were to give you all a card this morning and a pen and give you 5 minutes to write your answer, I wonder if you could answer that question?  How can you know that you have eternal life?  If you cannot answer that question this morning, then I would love to sit down with you and show you how you can know that you have eternal life, that your sins are forgiven, and your name has been written in the Lamb’s book of life.

But as the text indicates, the lawyer wasn’t really asking because he wanted to know the answer.  He thought he already knew the answer.  What he was trying to do was get Jesus to say something that he could use to trap Him, and ultimately discredit Him.

So Jesus responds in classical rabbinical fashion.  He answers the question with a question.  Jesus says, ““What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?”  As I said earlier, it is amazing that Jesus responds to this lawyers question with this answer.  He doesn’t tell him that all you have to do is say a prayer, or be baptized, or have a relationship with God.  He says, “what is written in the law?”  Jesus basically bounces the ball back over to this guy, knowing his heart.  Knowing that this guy is placing his faith in his knowledge of the law, in his standing in the temple.  He knows that this lawyer is trusting his eternity to his ability to keep the law.  So basically, Jesus calls him on it.  What does the law say?  How does it read to you?

Maybe what prompted Jesus to ask that is found in another statement Jesus made in  Matt. 7:2 “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.”  So Jesus may be saying to this lawyer, “Hey, you put your trust in the law? OK, then what does the law say? You want to be judged by the law? Then what does the law require?”

Now what is significant about the way Jesus phrased that question was that all religious Jews knew full well the answer. Part of the practice of law abiding Jews was to recite the Shema, a prayer, twice daily.  The Shema is from Duet. 6:4 and 5. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And these words which I'm commanding you today shall be on your heart." And then they added from Leviticus, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," Leviticus 19:18. Not only was this law recited twice daily, but it was written on the doorpost of their homes, it was carried in the phylacteries, those little boxes on their forehead that the Pharisees wore.  They knew full well these laws were the foundation of the law.  All of the commandments can be found in these two:  Love God and love your neighbor.  So the lawyer quoted from the Shema.

Then listen to Jesus response.  “You have answered correctly; Do this and you will live.”  That’s an amazing statement, even a surprising answer in light of our view of grace.  But we need to understand that the NT never sets aside the moral demands of the OT, but rather affirms them.  Jesus said I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.  Obedience has never stopped being essential to faith.  But in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit comes reviving our conscience, and stamping the law of God upon our hearts, that we might keep His commandments. 

Grace doesn’t eradicate the requirements of the law.  But rather grace provides the substitute who kept the law perfectly, that we might be made righteous vicariously, so that we might receive power from the Holy Spirit to do the works of God, being obedient to His will.  See that is the fulfillment of the prophecy of  Ezekiel 11:19  when God says, “And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God.”  The power of the Holy Spirit is not given to glorify ourselves, that we might fall out on the floor or stagger around like drunken people, or so we can speak some gibberish that no one understands, but the power of the Holy Spirit is given that we might have the power to do what God commands us to do, that we might through our obedience glorify God. 

But let’s consider Jesus answer; do this and you will live.  Is that really true?  If you were able to keep the law perfectly, would you be saved?  Well, Jesus said you can.  But the problem is we can’t.  Jesus kept the law perfectly and He had eternal life.  But there is no way that we can do the same.  The Bible says that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  God’s standard for righteousness is beyond our grasp.  That was the point of the law, to show God’s standard of righteousness, and show us that we were unable to keep it.  So Gal. 3:24 tells us then that “the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.” The law teaches us that we can’t keep the law, therefore we need a substitute who can, and that is Jesus Christ.

But look at this lawyer again.  I’m sure he is convicted by the law’s standard for righteousness; Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and your neighbor as yourself.  I mean, who wouldn’t be convicted of sin if they looked at that law honestly?  Who among you can say that He loves God fully and completely with every fiber of your being?  If you are even the least bit honest you must confess that you fall short of loving God to that standard.  Oh, we might claim we haven’t murdered anyone, we haven’t coveted, or haven’t committed adultery, (even though Jesus would show that if you hate you are guilty of murder), but none of us can really claim to love God that much.  Except maybe this lawyer. 

He answers back, “well then, who is my neighbor?” But see, he wanted to save face, to convince people that he was righteous, though he knew he wasn't.  He wanted to maintain his façade of self righteousness.  And so he said to Jesus, "So who is my neighbor?"  He jumps right over the loving God part.  That’s the epitome of arrogance. He basically is saying, "I'm okay with God, and I’m ok with my neighbor. But let’s define neighbor.  Because he was looking for the loophole.   And so he wants to debate Jesus. 

That’s the hallmark of a person that is prideful, by the way.  They want to wrangle over words, bring up obscure meanings and so forth.  And as Paul told Timothy, often their purpose is to be contentious. 1Tim. 6:3, “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.”  Paul says the root of such rebellion is conceit, which is pride.  That is the root of this lawyer’s sin.  It’s pride and an unwillingness to be taught, an unteachable spirit.  Instead, He wants to school Jesus, he wants to show how much he knows.  And in so doing he shows his lack of humility.

Jesus is a lot more gracious than I would have been.  If it were me, I would maybe have told this guy I won’t cast pearls before swine and moved on.  But I think Jesus is graciously giving this guy a chance to repent.  And so Jesus tells a story to illustrate how God defines a neighbor.  It’s a parable, and it must have been a convicting story for this lawyer as well as I’m sure it is for you and me.

Jesus said ““A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead.”  Now notice, in this story, Jesus describes this fictitious character as just a man.  No nationality or classification.  No mechanism to determine who the man is.  Just a man.  So right off the bat, we see that God’s definition of a neighbor is not classified by proximity, or by nationality, or any of the usual definitions.  Just a random, ordinary man in a place far from everyone’s home, is beaten and robbed and left half dead on the side of the road.

But immediately the emphasis of the story changes from the misfortunate victim, to the passerby’s. Jesus describes three men that passed by.  The first one, ironically enough, is a priest.  And vs. 31 says, that when the priest saw the man, he moved to the other side of the road and passed him by.  Now this must have hit home with the lawyer to some degree, because in all likelihood, he was a priest.  A priest would have known the law, and known that the law stipulated that you were to show kindness to strangers. Yet he goes to the other side of the road to avoid him.

The second guy is a Levite.  All priests had to come from the tribe of Levi, but he was more than likely considered a priest’s assistant.  All priests had to descend from the line of Aaron, in addition to being a Levite.  But not all Levites were of the tribe of Aaron.  So he worked with the priesthood.  He worked in the temple or the synagogue and he also would be conversant in the law.  But he too passed on the other side of the road. 

And then the third guy comes by.  Jesus describes this man as being on a journey, but the really important thing is that he was a Samaritan.  Now that would have been a shocking thing for the lawyer and the people listening.  Samaritans were not considered real Jews.  They had intermarried with Gentiles. They had become corrupted in their theology.  They had no inheritance in Israel.  They had no right to enter the temple.  They were outcasts. Jews would walk a great distance to go around Samaria in order to keep from coming into contact with Samaritans.  So the Jews and Samaritans were enemies of one another.

But notice that this Samaritan shows compassion on the man who was lying on the side of the road.  He shows kindness, and what he is illustrating for Jesus’ purposes is the principle of loving your neighbor.  Now a lot of people get this whole parable wrong, because they see this kindness as  some sort of morality tale.  The proponents of the social gospel use this as an example of what Christianity is all about.  But please understand something.  Jesus isn’t telling this parable as an illustration of salvation.  He is telling this parable as an illustration of loving your neighbor.  Jesus isn’t teaching that doing good deeds and being a good Samaritan is the way to inherit eternal life.  He is teaching that loving your neighbor is a characteristic of one who has inherited eternal life.  That is an important distinction.   

However, this parable is intended to convict the lawyer of his sin by the realization that he falls short of loving his neighbor.  And if the lawyer will confront his sin, and repent of his sin, then he can be a candidate to inherit eternal life if he then trusts in Jesus as the substitutional atonement for his sin.  But if he defends his sin, and says he has no sin, then there is no salvation for him. 

Now you know the story, and I won’t belabor all the usual details.  I’m sure you have heard them before.  But I will say that the compassion this Samaritan illustrates the loving your neighbor and, is characterized by three things.  First of all, he doesn’t show love because he expects to be compensated or rewarded.  He loves someone who is unable to love him back.  He loves someone who is considered his enemy.  He shows him kindness and compassion and helps him without expectation of a return.

Secondly, his love is sacrificial.  He uses his own supplies to help this man, supplies that he was counting on for the success of his own journey.  He generously gives the innkeeper money which amounted to leaving a credit card with a stranger and saying, whatever it takes to help this person, take it.  Use it.  Love is costly, love requires sacrifice.

And thirdly, it was a love in spite of inconvenience.  The Samaritan is on a journey.  People are waiting for him.  He had places he needed to go.  Important deadlines.  He was in a hurry.  And yet he takes the time to tend to him, goes out of his way to take him to an inn, and even spends the night there with him.  Not only that, he promises to return.  That kind of love requires a lot of time, taking time out of your busy schedule to minister to others.  Considering other’s needs as greater than yours. 

Jesus shows through this story that the lawyer was trying to define the wrong term.  He was trying to define who was his neighbor so he could exempt certain people from love.  But Jesus defines the problem as that of being neighborly.  Not who constitutes a neighbor. A neighbor is just a man, or a woman, any man or woman.  But the issue that God is concerned about is how we act towards others;  are we being a neighbor?  Are we showing the love of God towards our neighbors?

Jesus asked the lawyer in vs. 36, “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” “And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

Listen, I asked you at the beginning to consider how you would answer the question of how to inherit eternal life.  And so I end by asking you to consider if you show the  fruit of Christianity which Jesus command in vs. 37, to go and show mercy to our neighbors.  You say you are a Christian?  Then the works of a Christian will be to show mercy to strangers, to love your enemies, to show compassion to your neighbors.  James said in ch.2:7,  “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”  He said you will show or reveal your faith by your works.  That is the proof of your faith. 

Listen, your Christianity is not measured by your intellectual knowledge of Biblical facts, or even upon some spiritual experience you may have had,  but your salvation is judged by your compassion and love for others.  How can you say you are a Christian and ignore your lost neighbors, not to mention your own friends and family members?  Are they not as much of a helpless victim in need of salvation as the man lying on the side of the road in the parable?  How can a Christian ignore the lost?  Not necessarily the lost in Africa, or India.  Though certainly there is a need to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.  But how can you ignore your neighbors? The people you meet by chance, like the lady at the checkout counter?  How can you ignore the guy that works on your appliance or your car?  How can you ignore the helpless, hopelessly lost, dying souls living down the road from you who you pass by every day, several times a day? How can you fail to show compassion to your neighbors by sharing the gospel with them?  How can you do that and say that you are a Christian?  If you are a Christian, how can you callously withhold the antidote from a lost and dying world?

I pray that we learn from this parable that love requires a sacrifice.  Love is not limited to the loveable, or those we find attractive, or even to those that will love you back.  Let’s remember that love will require us at times to be inconvenienced.  But we are commanded to love one another even as Christ loved us and gave his life for us.  If Christ was willing to sacrifice His life, His throne, for our salvation, then I hope and pray that we can allow ourselves to be inconvenienced a little as well, that we can sacrifice a little as well, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.  Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.” Let’s share the love of Christ with a dying world.