Parable of the Good Samaritan
An expert in the Law of Moses stood up and asked Jesus a question to see what he would say. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to have eternal life?" Jesus answered, "What is written in the Scriptures? How do you understand them?" The man replied, "The Scriptures say, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.' They also say, 'Love your neighbors as much as you love yourself.'" Jesus said, "You have given the right answer. If you do this, you will have eternal life."
But the man wanted to show that he knew what he was talking about. So he asked Jesus, "Who are my neighbors?" Jesus replied: As a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, robbers attacked him and grabbed everything he had. They beat him up and ran off, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road. But when he saw the man, he walked by on the other side. Later a temple helper came to the same place. But when he saw the man who had been beaten up, he also went by on the other side. A man from Samaria then came traveling along that road. When he saw the man, he felt sorry for him and went over to him. He treated his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put him on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next morning he gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, "Please take care of the man. If you spend more than this on him, I will pay you when I return."
Then Jesus asked, "Which one of these three people was a real neighbor to the man who was beaten up by robbers?" The teacher answered, "The one who showed pity." Jesus said, "Go and do the same!"
Eternal Life
Eternal life or kingdom of heaven is synonymous to the first and second of all commandments. “Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-34, Matthew 22:35-40). This was written in Deuteronomy 6:4 to call our attention to the great importance of the truth that there is one God and there is none other but He. It is also true that we must love God with all our heart, mind, and strength, and that we must love others as much as we love ourselves. These commandments are more important than all the sacrifices and offerings that we could possibly make, and they lead us to the eternal life (John 17:3; Romans 6:23; 1 John 5:13; 1 John 5:20).
Loving God Is Obeying Him
Loving God is more than just reciting the Shema but respecting and obeying God, whom we know as the One true God! This is what life is all about (Ecclesiastes 12:17). We must do what God's teaching says; we don't just listen and do nothing. When we only sit and listen, we are fooling ourselves (James 1:22). If we truly know God, we obey Him (2 Thessalonians 1:8).
The question “what must I do to inherit eternal life” may come from two different persons with different intentions: (1) one who has a reservation, and (2) one whose passion is to do everything to inherit eternal life. The first one will follow only if it doesn’t affect his reservation (Matthew 19:16-23). The second one is like when he finds treasure hidden in a field and buries it again. He is happy and goes and sells everything in order to buy that field (Matthew 13:44). He knows who God is and he is willing do all his best to obey Him.
In this parable, Jesus is drawing a strong contrast between those who knew the moral law and those who actually followed the moral law in their lifestyle and conduct. Jesus now asks the lawyer if he can apply the lesson to his own life with the question "So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?". He refers to the "good man" as "he who showed mercy." Jesus then tells the lawyer to "go and do likewise," meaning that he should start living what the moral law tells him to do.
Loving God Is Loving Others
We love because God loved us first. But if we say we love God and don't love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don't love the people we can see? The commandment that God has given us is: "Love God and love each other!" (1 John 4:19-21). We will do all right, if we obey the most important law in the Scriptures. It is the law that commands us to love others as much as we love ourselves. But if we treat some people better than others, we have done wrong, and the Scriptures teach that we have sinned (James 2:8-9). If we love only those people who love us, will God reward us for that? Even tax collectors love their friends. If we love only our friends, what's so great about that? Don't even unbelievers do that? (Matthew 5:46-47). We may be faithful in helping other followers, but we should also do the same to the ones we didn’t know before (3 John 1:5). Let our action of kindness to come from our heart, and not be something we feel forced to do (Philemon 1:14), knowing that God is really the one doing what we do, if we live by the truth (John 3:21).
Therefore, let’s warn anyone who isn't living right. Encourage anyone who feels left out, help all who are weak, and be patient with everyone. Let us not be hateful to people, just because they are hateful to us. Rather, let’s be good to each other and to everyone else, with the good intention of pleasing others better instead of ourselves (Romans 15:1-3). Let’s start “going and doing likewise” from our heart (Philemon 1:14), from our strength (Ephesians 4:28), from our speech (Ephesians 4:29), from our soul (1 Thessalonians 5:16), and deep in our prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17).