The Good Samaritan

The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) 1. Christ here makes a conniving lawyer come to terms with the just application of the law. A. The account of the good Samaritan was due to the lawyer's leading questions. vs. 25, 29. B. The lawyer was more interested in justifying himself than God---an attitude which keeps one out of the kingdom of God. LUK 7:29-30. C. The lawyer's crafty ways are turned back upon himself; his own mouth was witness against himself. 1CO 3:19; LUK 19:22. D. By sound reasoning the mouth of this hypocrite was stopped. TIT 1:9-11. 2. The lesson here of showing compassion obviously applies to us also. ROM 13:9. A. The neighbour whom we are obliged to love as ourselves is obviously not limited to such as share our faith. GAL 6:10. B. The Samaritan gave aid to someone in need when it was not convenient for him to do so. 2CO 8:1-4. C. If we concede the righteousness of a specific duty, we, like the lawyer, are obliged to DO such a duty. v. 37 c/w JAM 4:17. 3. “A certain man....fell among thieves...” (v. 30). He wasn't looking for trouble but it found him. A. We live in a fallen world where the righteous are not exempt from perils of robbers. 2CO 11:26. B. It behooves us to therefore earnestly pray and act accordingly. MAT 6:13; 2TH 3:2; PRO 22:3; LUK 22:36. C. No attempt is made to excuse these criminals on the basis of them being “victimized” by poverty, historic injustice, parental errors, poor education, etc. They would not fall under the merciful provision of PRO 6:30-31. 4. A priest and a Levite beheld the wounded man and simply abandoned him. vs. 31-32. A. They did as the thieves: they left the man to die. B. Perhaps their conduct's similarity to the thieves' conduct was owing to a shared vocation. MAR 11:17. C. Neither priestly offices nor priestly rituals could excuse them from righteous compassion. HEB 5:2; PRO 21:3. D. Being teachers of the law (DEU 33:8-10), the priest and Levite should have known what the law said and acted accordingly. LEV 25:35; PRO 24:11-12; ISA 58:7. E. Acts of compassion are articles of final judgment. MAT 25:34-36. 5. A despised Samaritan (JOH 4:9; 8:48) shamed the priest and Levite. vs. 33-35. A. He did not ignore the man nor simply wish him well but actually did something about it. JAM 2:15-17; 1JO 3:17. B. Submitted believers are priests unto God (1PE 2:5, 9) and ought not to be shamed by outsiders who lack knowledge but not compassion. 1CO 8:1; 13:2. 6. The Samaritan compassionately spent for the NEED of the wounded man. A. Faith obliges us to supply for the need, not the whims, of another. JAM 2:16. B. This argues against the “womb-to-tomb” notion of public welfare, especially for those who will not work to help themselves. 2TH 3:10. (1) The public welfare program of Scripture was workfare for the able-bodied. LEV 19:9-10. (2) The Pilgrims abandoned a collectivist economy in favor of one built on private ownership and personal responsibility and found: “This had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than The Good Samaritan 5-17-15 Page 1 of 2 otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could use, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better content. The women now went willingly into the field, and took their little ones with them to set corn; which before would allege weakness and inability; whom to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.” (Governor Bradford's Journals) C. The Samaritan spent his own money to help the man. He did not coercively tax it away from someone else to give to the distressed. (1) Is it moral for one to forcibly take wealth from his neighbor to give to another? (2) Is it moral to hire someone to do the same? (3) Why is it considered moral to elect someone to civil power to do the same? (4) When Paul wrote “Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth” (1CO 10:24) and that charity “...seeketh not her own...” (1CO 13:5), he wasn't implying that we should take away others' property for our own vision of philanthropic charity. D. Nothing indicates that the Samaritan's life's work was scouring the highways and by-ways for charity cases. He helped when there was opportunity to do so. GAL 6:9-10 c/w MAR 14:7. E. The Samaritan had personal control over the funds that were used to help the needy man. He did not need to solicit his church for release of church funds. 1CO 16:2. F. The Samaritan guaranteed the expenses of the man's care during recovery, no more. His welfare was not a monthly payment for life. G. There are two principal errors in material charity. (1) When it is withheld from someone in genuine need. DEU 15:11; PRO 3:27. (2) When its distribution is unwarranted or destructive to the recipient, or excuses others who should first be responsible. PRO 1:32; 1TI 5:3-4. 7. There is nothing to indicate that the Samaritan had an eye to a tax deduction nor any other benefit to himself, including public recognition. What he did was discreet and selfless. MAT 6:1-4; 1CO 13:3-5. 8. Nowhere is it implied that accepting help in a time of misfortune was a mark against the injured man's character. A. All in the church are to be prepared to give to the needful relief of other saints, as able. GAL 6:10 c/w 2CO 8:11-12. B. If all are expected to give but none are ever to receive, what sense is there in the ordinance? C. By need within the membership, opportunity for abundant honour and joy is given, as well as enhanced fellowship. 1CO 12:24-26; 2CO 8:4. The Good Samaritan 5-17-15 Page 2 of 2