Mark Hershey Who is my neighbor? Pt. 1.

“Who is my neighbor?” – Luke 10:25-37 - Part 1 of 2

Luke 10:25-29 The scenario went down like this…

A lawyer (or scribe) tested Jesus by asking what he had to do inherit eternal life.

Jesus replies, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”

The lawyer replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus replied, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”

Now, understand that Jesus does not think that you have to do good works to get to heaven, as some may say this passage says. No, Jesus’ response shows that this verse is saying, “a devotion to God is expressed in a devotion towards others, so that there is no distinction between devotion to God and treatment of people (c.f. Colossians 1:3-5, 1 John 4:11, Romans 8:1-11… To “do the law” means, in essence, to love. To live by the Spirit means to love and do righteousness).” (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: Luke, Darrell Bock, 1025)

But the lawyer wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

The lawyer’s whole purpose in asking this question was “to justify himself”. Luke provided that important detail that to explain that, “The lawyer is looking for minimum obedience required, but Jesus requires total obedience. It shows that he is approaching God on human terms and not on God’s. Jesus refuses to allow this limitation… Jesus refuses to turn people into a subspecies or into things that can be ignored.” (Bock, 1028)

Others agree that Jesus correctly identified the corrupt motivation of the Lawyer’s question.
“He (Jesus) does not like this question. Carving humanity up into groups some of whom are worthy of our love and others are not. Jesus does not answer the question, ‘Who is my neighbor?’ He tells a parable that changes the question." Piper continues, "Jesus tells a story that changes the question from ‘What kind of person is my neighbor?’ to ‘What kind of person am I?’ He changes the question from ‘What status of people are worthy of my love?’ to ‘How can I become the kind of person whose compassion disregards status?’" (John Piper, www.desiringgod.org)

Thoughts? Questions?