Moving Toward Need: The Second Greatest Commandment

In a previous post, we looked at a question asked of Jesus by an expert in the law. The expert asked him what the most important command in the entire law was. It is one of the most important questions anyone can ask. What is the most important thing God wants from me? What is the most important thing God wants me to do? In his response, Jesus actually says there is not one most important command, but two. He says this in Matthew 22:37-40: “He said to him, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.’” (CSB)

The greatest thing we can do with our lives, the most important thing God wants from us, is to love him with all our heart, soul, and mind. And the second greatest thing we can do is love others as much as we love ourselves. Our previous post examined the first command and defined what it means to love God with every part of our lives. In this post, we will look at the second great commandment: loving our neighbor as ourselves. What does this mean, and how do we do it?

Thankfully, Jesus answers these questions in another conversation with another expert in the law. This conversation is found in Luke 10:25-37. Similar to Matthew 22, Jesus is approached by an expert in Jewish law, but in Luke 10, the question is different. The expert asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25, CSB). Jesus turns the question back to him and asks the expert to answer his own question. The man answers the same way Jesus answers in Matthew 22. He says that people must love God with all their heart, soul, strength, and mind, and also love their neighbor as themselves (Luke 10:27). Jesus confirms this is the correct answer and encourages the man to obey those commands. The man does not leave it alone, though, and asks a follow-up question in verse 29: “But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?’” That phrase, “wanting to justify himself,” means “wanting to prove himself right.” He has his own thoughts on who his neighbors are and who he should love, and he wants Jesus to confirm that his opinions are right. This man is testing the boundaries of who a neighbor is and how much one should love that neighbor. He is testing to see who can be excluded from being a neighbor, and thus not having to love. 

Jesus’ response to this man takes the question and conversation in an unexpected direction. Jesus responds as he typically does, with a parable, and one of the most famous ones at that, the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Through this parable, Jesus shows us who our neighbor is and what it actually looks like to love that neighbor as ourselves. 

In the parable, Jesus tells the story of a man who is walking a dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho and is robbed and severely beaten. A priest then comes by, sees the man, but passes by on the other side, rendering no help or aid. Then a Levite comes (a Levite served and helped the priests in the temple), but he does the same as the priest and passes by without helping. Last comes a Samaritan. Jews at this time despised Samaritans. They viewed them as unclean and unworthy. They were unwelcome in a proper Jewish community. The Samaritan does the unexpected. He stops and helps this man. He bandages his wounds, takes him to an inn, and pays for him to stay there to heal. 

At the end of the parable, Jesus asks the expert who in the story “proved to be a neighbor” (Luke 10:36, CSB)  to the man in need. The expert responds with the only possible answer: “The one who showed mercy to him” (Luke 10:37, CSB). The Samaritan was the only one who proved to be a neighbor. He was the only one who followed the command to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus ends this conversation with a command to “Go and do the same” (Luke 10:37, CSB). What does it look like for us to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves? It looks like what the Samaritan did for a complete stranger. This is the type of love Jesus calls us to.

There are three aspects of Godly love for others that we can learn from the Samaritan in Jesus’ parable. To love others in the way God invites us to is to love with compassion, action, and sacrifice. The Samaritan loved the stranger in this way, and we are to do the same to those around us. Let’s dig more into these three aspects of Godly love for others. 

We Love with Compassion

In Luke 10:33, Jesus says, “But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion” (CSB). That word for compassion literally means our inward parts, or guts. Figuratively, it came to refer to a type of love that starts deep within us. It is not a surface-level feeling or just a general concern for someone or something. It is a deep, heartfelt, genuine love for someone. This is the type of love shown by the Samaritan, and it is the type of love we are to show to others. And remember, the Samaritan did not know the injured man. He was a stranger. Yet, he had compassion for him. He had a deep, genuine love and care for this person. This compassion for someone else is contrasted with the neglect and disregard shown by the priest and the Levite. It is easy to think we are not like that. We would never act like the priest and Levite. But if we are honest with ourselves, how often are we just passing by others in need? Or not even thinking about, much less asking about, the needs of those around us? This type of compassionate love requires us to care about others as much as we care about ourselves. We have to get our eyes off our own needs and onto the needs of those around us. Philippians 2:3-4 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others” (CSB). This is compassionate love–looking to the needs of others, not just our own needs and selfish desires. If we are going to love our neighbor as ourselves, it starts with having a compassionate heart and a watchful eye for the needs and concerns of others.

We Love with Action

Godly love for others doesn’t stop with just a feeling of compassion, love, or concern for someone else. True, godly love does something about those feelings. Godly love takes action. Notice in the parable that the Samaritan did not just have compassion. He did something about it. He took care of the injured man. We cannot just say we love someone; we have to demonstrate it. This is true in any relationship we have. If we truly, actually care about someone, we will not just say it with our words; we will demonstrate it with our actions. It is the pattern of love that God demonstrates with us. He does not just say that he loves us. He shows us. Romans 5:8 says, “But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (CSB). God shows his love for us by dying on the cross for our sins and saving us. And he calls us to do the same. 1 John 3:16-18 says:

“This is how we have come to know love: He laid down his life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has this world’s goods and sees a fellow believer in need but withholds compassion from him—how does God’s love reside in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech, but in action and in truth.” (CSB)

Let us not love with words or feelings only. Let us love one another with our actions.

We Love with Sacrifice

When the Samaritan decided to act on his compassion and take care of this stranger, it cost him something. To really take care of this man the way he needed, it was going to be a sacrifice for the Samaritan. Look at the parable again and see what sacrifices the Samaritan made. Taking care of the stranger cost him time and convenience. He stopped his journey and went out of his way to take this stranger to an inn. It cost him money. He used his own supplies and money to bandage the man up and pay for his stay at the inn. It also cost him comfort and safety. This road to Jericho was known to be a dangerous path full of robbers ready to attack. We rightfully look down on the priest and Levite for just passing by, but they were just making the safe (and probably wise) decision. It could have been a trap. This man could have been faking his injury, with his friends waiting around the corner to attack anyone who stopped. The Samaritan took that risk and sacrificed his comfort and safety to help the stranger. This is the type of sacrificial love God calls us to. Loving others will cost us something. It will require sacrifice.

Our question then becomes, what does this look like? What are some ways you can love those around you sacrificially? We can:

• Bless someone in need with a meal
• Help a neighbor in need with yard work or house projects (rather than judging them on how bad their yard looks)
• We can find someone new to our neighborhood or church and invite them into our lives, be their friend, and get to know them
• We can offer up free babysitting to the family with young children who just need a break
• We can give generously of our own resources to those in financial (or some other kind) of need
• We can sacrifice our time to serve others at church or volunteer with a non-profit in our community
• We can take time to get to know our neighbors, really hear what’s going on in their lives, and pray with them (rather than the quick hello before we get back to our own lives)

Loving others the way Jesus calls us to here means we have to give up something:

• Our time
• Our to-do list and schedule
• Our priorities
• Our resources
• Our preferences
• Our day off

Yes, godly love requires sacrifice, and it will not always be easy. But when we truly love like Jesus, when we truly have a heart for others, it won’t feel like sacrifice. It won’t feel burdensome. It won’t feel like going out of our way. It will feel like love. It will feel like this is exactly what Jesus would do. 

Jesus shared this parable because he was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” And he ends the parable by asking, “Who proved to be the neighbor?” 

John Piper says this about the Parable of the Good Samaritan: 

“Jesus tells a story that changes the question from, ‘What kind of person is my neighbor?’ to ‘What kind of person am I?’ He changes the question from, ‘What status of people are worthy of my love?’ to ‘How can I become the kind of person whose compassion disregards status?’ How can I become the kind of person who, instead of moving to the other side of the road (or the other side of town), moves toward need and sacrifice and risk? Christians move toward need, not comfort.”

The question of who to love is easy. It’s everyone,

The real question is much harder: will I be the neighbor? Will I be someone who loves others with compassion, action, and sacrifice?

Will I be someone who moves towards need and not comfort?

This is the type of love Jesus shows to us, and it is the type of love he invites us to have for others. 

Let us love with compassion, action, and sacrifice. Let us love our neighbor as ourselves.