Chapter 54—The Good Samaritan
This chapter is based on
Luke 10:25-37
.
In the story of the good Samaritan, Christ illustrates the nature of
true religion. He shows that it consists not in systems, creeds, or rites,
but in the performance of loving deeds, in bringing the greatest good
to others, in genuine goodness.
As Christ was teaching the people, “a certain lawyer stood up, and
tempted Him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
With breathless attention the large congregation awaited the answer.
The priests and rabbis had thought to entangle Christ by having the
lawyer ask this question. But the Saviour entered into no controversy.
He required the answer from the questioner himself. “What is written
in the law?” He said; “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 said, “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.” Jesus said, “Thou hast answered
right: this do, and thou shalt live.”
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 had asked
in sincerity, “What shall I do?” In his answer as to the requirements
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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. This answer,
being commended by Christ, placed the Saviour 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,” Jesus said. He presented the law as
a divine unity, and in this lesson taught that it is not possible to keep
one precept, and break another; for the same principle runs through
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