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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Parable fo the Good Samaritan - Evaluate | NT general Archive 1 | Reformer Joe | 25564 | ||
Brian: How about this interpretation? Luke 10:25 -- A man asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. Luke 10:26 -- Jesus turns the question back on him. Luke 10:27 -- The mean, a teacher of the law, quotes Dueteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 as a summation of God's law, implying that this is his understanding of eternal life. Luke 10:28 -- Jesus wholeheartedly agrees. Those who fully comply with God's law will live. Luke 10:29 -- The man (probably elated at such an "easy" path that he undoubtedly saw himself as attaining), wanted to JUSTIOFY HIMSELF by clarifying who his "neighbor." It seems apparent that his attitude is defining how little he can do in order to gain this eternal life. After all, if one's neighbor is narrowly defined, the road to heaven is that much easier. Luke 10:30-35 -- Jesus relates the story of a man beaten and left for dead by robbers and abandoned by his own kinsmen, who happen to be the "clergy" of the time, just like this lawyer. It is a Samaritan, who traditionally would be classified as persona non grata, who stops (possibly at risk to his own safety), bandages the man, put him on his own animal, takes him to an inn, gives the innkeeper two months' rent and says that if anything else is needed, that the Samaritan will financially compensate upon his return. Luke 10:36 -- Jesus answers a very different question from the one that was asked of Him. Instead of answering "Who is my neighbor?", He asks, "Which one of the three passers-by was a neighbor to the person in need?" The answer is obvious. Luke 10:37 -- The man answers correctly and Jesus tells him to go and do likewise. Conclusion: If we consistently treat every human being who crosses our path with the same self-sacrifice and compassion that the Samaritan demonstrated for the victim here, abandoning all thoughts of our own safety, going miles out of our way to render aid, thinking of our own finances as completely inconsequential in the interests of a stranger who has never even spoken to us (and under most circumstances, would have never spoken to us in the first place), and making sure that his/her future needs are taken care of by you personally, then you are fulfilling God's law. Raise your hand if that is your attitude toward every human being who comes across your path... The moral of this parable? It has nothing to do with tolerance and acceptance of false religions (which the Old and New Testaments expressly forbid). This parable teaches that we never even come close to fulfilling the commands of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. The lawyer's pride in trying to shoot for the minimum of what the letter of the law states is blown apart by Jesus' shocking example. To comply with this law to the extent Christ did is something we have not done and will not do. Therefore, the lawyer is condemned, just like we are. (Romans 3:10-18) Compliance to God's law is unattainable by humanity in its fallenness (Romans 8:7-9). We have all fallen short of God's glory (Romans 3:23), which requires God's grace to justify us completely (Romans 3:24), because we will NEVER justify ourselves by our works (Ephesians 2:8,9), but rather by faith alone (read: "trusting only") in Christ's fulfillment of the law of God in his sinless life, substitutionary death, and bodily resurrection on their behalf (Romans 5:6-8). What do you think of THAT interpretation? --Joe! |
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2 | Parable fo the Good Samaritan - Evaluate | NT general Archive 1 | kalos | 25574 | ||
Joe: Your interpretation is excellent, just excellent. It's so refreshing today to read something on the forum that is true. Thank you. |
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3 | Parable fo the Good Samaritan - Evaluate | NT general Archive 1 | Reformer Joe | 25608 | ||
You are quite welcome. Of course, it helps that our pastor spoke on this passage the Sunday before last, so the implications of this passage have been turning over in my head a lot the last week and a half. :) Once we take passages like this into account and understand just what it means to please God, it is a very humbling thing. Then to realize that Jesus not only said this, but He DID it in the most complete and perfect sense...well, that is just mind-boggling, and passages like Philippians 2:5-11 and Romans 5:6-8 just reinforce my conviction that people have to have rocks in their head if they think that they have come anywhere close to Jesus' absolute obedience to God's commandments. Grace becomes that much more amazing to me when I realize just how far away I am from God's standard of obedience. There is simply no way I could merit heaven by my works, even as a follower of Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God that Christ accomplished it all on my behalf! "For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." --Romans 8:3-4 --Joe! |
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