Becoming Love

My, Devotion to Him #182

Verse Passage: Luke 10:25-29 “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He 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’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

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

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

Now there are several devotionals that are connected to this one. And what we have covered so far is “What Do You Treasure?”, “Dive In”, “Into His Fullness”, “Stay In The Water”, and “Jesus At The Core”. Now these devotionals have all been about us becoming people who treasure God, understanding that God treasures us, getting ourselves into a place where we are in His Presence more often, and becoming Christ-like with Jesus at the core of our being. You can see that when we treasure God and allow Him to captivate our hearts, it’s going to overflow. If we love God we’re going to love others. If Christ is at our core we will love others as He was a person who loved. That’s what Jesus was communicating to this teacher of the law in a really remarkable way

Now this teacher of the law you have to understand that in that day they were people who knew the Law of Moses. Which is the first five books of the Bible. These people knew these books inside and out. You could call them experts. 

This leader wants to make the discussion an intellectual exercise, but Jesus tries to engage his heart as he answers the question, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus knows the question is an attempt to justify  the man’s behavior. So, Jesus shares a story that transforms the man’s definition of who is a neighbor.

In Luke 10:30-35 Jesus tells an amazing story. The hero of this story is a Samaritan. Jews hated Samaritans. They would be the last people the teacher of the law would even consider his neighbor.

Now, what transpires next is amazing in its self. 

In Luke 10:36-37 Jesus ask the teacher a direct question in reference to the story and the teacher had really no choice but to say that Samaritan was the neighbor to the victim in the story. Then Jesus says “go and do likewise” 

Jesus pointed something out right here to us for this day and age. As Jesus is the core of us and we are representatives of Christ to this world. We are called to love. There are going to be people that you might not like. There might be someone hurting that you can touch. There might be someone who is lost you can touch. There might be someone from a different class of people or a different race that can be touch. There are people out there that need love and we are called to love. As we become people who treasure Him. We will also become people that loves other people but that’s what He did. 

The Samaritan knew that the Jews hated them his kind but he stepped over hate and in a time of someone’s need he showed love and compassion. 

Jesus said “go and do likewise” 

God bless! 

Copyright © 2019 by Jacob Olinger