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What is Written in the Law?, May 20
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.
Luke 10:27
.
Among the Jews the question “Who is my neighbor?” caused endless dispute.
They had no doubt as to the heathen and the Samaritans. These were strangers and
enemies. But where should the distinction be made among the people of their own
nation, and among the different classes of society? Whom should the priest, the
rabbi, the elder, regard as neighbor? ...
This question Christ answered in the parable of the good Samaritan. He showed
that our neighbor does not mean merely one of the church or faith to which we
belong. It has no reference to race, color, or class distinction. Our neighbor is every
person who needs our help. Our neighbor is every soul who is wounded and bruised
by the adversary. Our neighbor is everyone who is the property of God.
The parable of the good Samaritan was called forth by a question put to Christ
by a doctor of the law. As the Saviour was teaching, “a certain lawyer stood up, and
tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” The Pharisees
had suggested this question to the lawyer, in the hope that they might entrap Christ
in His words, and they listened eagerly for His answer. But the Saviour entered
into no controversy. He required the answer from the questioner himself. “What is
written in the law?” He asked. “How readest thou?” The Jews still accused Jesus of
lightly regarding the law given from Sinai, but He turned the question of salvation
upon the keeping of God’s commandments....
The lawyer was not satisfied with the position and works of the Pharisees. He
had been studying the Scriptures with a desire to learn their real meaning. He had
a vital interest in the matter, and he asked in sincerity, “What shall I do?” In his
answer as to the requirements of the law, he passed by all the mass of ceremonial
and ritualistic precepts. For these he claimed no value, but presented the two great
principles on which hang all the law and the prophets. The Saviour’s commendation
of this answer placed Him on vantage ground with the rabbis. They could not
condemn Him for sanctioning that which had been advanced by an expositor of the
law.
“This do, and thou shalt live,” Christ said. In His teaching He ever presented the
law as a divine unity, showing that it is impossible to keep one precept and break
another; for the same principle runs through all. Man’s destiny will be determined
by his obedience to the whole law (
Christ’s Object Lessons, 376-378
).
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