battig1370 said:
In Luke. 10:25-37 a couple of questions have been asked.
"what shall I do to inherit eternal life and who is my neighbour?
also it is written in Matt. 25:31-46 who shall inherit eternal life.
I asked a few christians, "why was a samaritan used as an example of how we can inherit eternat life?" They could not answer this question.
Do you know why the samaritan? The Jews considered the Samaritans less worthy than dogs.
Peace be with you, Paul
Jesus recognised that the person asking the question was actually a self righteous religious hypocrite.
The Luke passage in full:
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'[c]; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'[d]"
28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
30In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
36"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."
The point was that the self righteous religious people of Jesus' time (just like those of our own time) liked to believe that they are better than others. Jews were particularly proud of being Jews and generally despised Samaritans who were regarded as totally inferior people. You can imagine a parallel perhaps with white and black people in apartheid South Africa or perhaps in the southern states of the USA.
Jesus showed here that to gain the kingdom (eternal life) you have to love people without judgment and without condescension. You just have to love them full stop. The Samaritan would have known he was hated by Jews but he helped the man nevertheless. You can imagine the self righteous religious questionner of Jesus' having to answer "The one who had mercy on him." almost through gritted teeth. Note he still does not manage to actually say "the Samaritan".
Of course the villains of the piece are those who should have helped the man that is the Levite (similar to the questionner) and the Priest.
This is a further example of Christ's great teaching which is that you are not required to be a theologian or religious or great in status but you have to love God and you cannot love God truly unless you love people. Here is a quote from 1 John 4 (Message Translation) which I had at my wedding. This expands on the subject of love further.
God Is Love
7-10My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
11-12My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
13-16This is how we know we're living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He's given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we've seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God's Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we've embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
To Love, to Be Loved
17-18God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
19We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
20-21If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.
You cannot say it much plainer than that. If you cannot love your brother (sister), black, white, muslim, jew, hindu, buddhist, atheist, christian, homosexual, lesbian, adulterer, robber, murderer then you cannot truly love God and that is the basis of eternal life. In fact it's the basis of life here and now. To love people (and God too) is to truly live and brings real happiness in this life even if the road is often personally difficult. To love self (and usually personal posessions or material wealth too) does not bring satisfaction and happiness. It breeds avarice, hatred and misery and usually much more misery to the person who hates than the person who is hated. Joy for eternity should be no more than an extension of real joy (not transient pleasure) in life now and that requires love for your fellow mankind.
It should be noted that this is not a 'Mills and Boon' type love. This is the practical type of love whereby people give of themselves to help others (just like the Samaritan). Matthew 25 expands on what you need to do to others to show that sort of love (give food, water, shelter, clothes, companionship, non judgmental friendship (prison visits) etc.).
We can see that today (as probably in previous times also) there are many who do not profess any religious belief openly to others but who show this type of love by their actions whilst on the other hand many others who show great 'religiosity' do not seem to make any attempt to follow the instruction of loving their fellow mankind.
But God is Just!
I hope this helps.
regards,
Gordon.
