No Strings Attached

In the tenth chapter of Luke, an expert in religious law asked Jesus what he had to do in order to inherit eternal life.

Jesus responded with two questions of His own: what is written in the law and how do you understand it?

The expert responded.

Luke 10:27 (NET) – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus told the expert that he answered correctly.

According to scripture, the expert then asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus then told the expert about a man who was beaten by robbers and left half dead.

He told the expert that first a priest and then a Levite each saw the injured man and passed him by.

Fortunately for the injured man, a Samaritan came along and “felt compassion for him.”

The Samaritan treated his wounds and took him to an inn to render additional treatment.

The next day, the Samaritan gave the innkeeper some money.

He instructed the innkeeper to take care of the injured man and promised to repay him in full whatever was spent on the man’s care.

Jesus then asked the expert which of the three became a neighbor to the injured man,

Luke 10:37 (NET) - The expert in religious law said, “The one who showed mercy to him.” So Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”

This is certainly not the only place in scripture we are told to love God.

It is also not the only place in scripture we are told to love our neighbor.

Love, whether for God or neighbor, has to be unconditional.

We are told to love our neighbor in the plainest of terms.

We are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

Our fellow man is our neighbor.

He might disagree with us.

He might even dislike us.

To be completely honest, he might even absolutely hate us and everything we believe,

Even so, Jesus reminds us that we are to love him.

We must love him with no strings attached.

The love of God and neighbor go hand in hand,

If we cannot find it within ourselves to love our neighbor unconditionally, we cannot honestly say that we love God.

Blessings,

Jim Pokorny

The Other Brother Jim

Look for me at http://faithfulfeetteam.blogspot.com/ on Friday, July 3, 2015.

I’ll be back here on Friday, July 10, 2015