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To: lavaroise; OneWingedShark

In Hebrew the words for neighbor and enemy are spelled the same way. There were marks ADDED LATER to distinguish the words, but when they were originally written you had to tell the difference by context.

That’s why Christ addressed the “love your neighbor, hate your enemy” doctrine in the sermon on the mount.

The good Samaritan illustration is actually about salvation. It was addressed to a lawyer who was hostile in asking the question, “Who is my neighbor?” Christ’s answer was so compelling that He completely refuted the lawyer’s premise with a surprising and unexpected conclusion.

Christ was teaching how love is the fulfilling of the Law. But this illustration was not addressed to disciples but to someone publicly challenging the Lord. Generally it is a bad idea to use anecdotal evidence when entering into a debate because your opponent can always twist the illustration and turn it on its head to make a counterpoint.

After Christ describes a robbed and wounded traveler not being helped by religious leaders passing by, the traveler is helped by a Samaritan. Samaritans were despised by the Jews. The Samaritan helps the Jewish crime victim. This alludes to something similar that actually happened in the Old Testament.

The lawyer is probably listening with the technical legal question in mind as to who the “neighbor” technically is in Christ’s story. When the story ends, the obvious question would be “which person who passed the victim was keeping the law to love your neighbor?” The lawyer was probably prepared to answer that question with various technicalities.

But Christ asked something a little different. He did not ask merely which one was neighbor. He asked who was neighbor “to him who fell among thieves”. In other words, he asks the lawyer to put himself in the shoes of the victim. The whole time he has been imagining himself as the passer by. He is evaluating if the priest broke the Law. He is evaluating if the Levite broke the Law. But Christ asks Him to evaluate who his “neighbor” is from the perspective of the victim.

The problem the lawyer had was pride. He did not see his need for salvation. He saw himself as a law keeper. He needed to realize he was the victim of sin- hurting, bleeding, and dying. So, in concluding His argument Christ suddenly turns the tables and changes the perspective. Put yourself in the shoes of the victim. The lawyer wanted to be able to pick and choose who his neighbors were so he could be selective about the person to whom he shows love. So Christ asks whom he would pick as neighbor if he was the victim.

Obviously we would all pick the one who helped us. But if the Samaritan is our neighbor when we need his help, he must also be our neighbor when he needs our help.

The point is that neither we nor the lawyer have actually kept God’s laws. We are sinners - victimized by sin, dying and in danger of eternal judgment. Christ pictures Himself as The Good Samaritan. They ridiculed Him by calling Him a Samaritan (implying He was fathered illegitimately). He wore the slur as a badge of honor. Christ was after all only Jewish on His mother’s side. His Father was God, not a man. He was also despised and rejected by His own people.

Philippians also instructs that Christ has now become every nationality and ethnicity because He indwells all of them.

In order for us to receive Christ’s free gift of salvation, we must first realize we have broken God’s laws and see ourselves as the hurting and dying victim of sin in desperate need of help. Desperate people cannot be picky and choosy about who we receive help from.

Seeing this can allow a person to see his or her need for a Savior.

The Gospel is pictured in the story as Christ describes treating the wounds with oil (the Spirit) and wine (symbol of the blood of Christ). Christ died on the cross in our place to pay for our sins (breaking the laws of God). This fulfilled the prophecies of scripture, and also when He was raised again from the grave of the third day, He was seen by witnesses. He gave the gift of the Spirit after He ascended into Heaven with a promise to return with a reward for His followers. In the story, the Samaritan leaves the recovering victim with an inn keeper who is paid (church equipped to minister through gifts of the Spirit), and promised that the Samaritan will come back and pay the inn keeper any other money owed (picturing Christ’s return and His reward being with Him).

The Good Samaritan does answer the question of who is our neighbor, but it also addresses our deeper need for salvation through the message of the Gospel.


49 posted on 02/07/2015 5:58:53 AM PST by unlearner (You will never come to know that which you do not know until you first know that you do not know it.)
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To: unlearner

http://biblehub.com/mark/6-11.htm

Christ advise to forget those intent on deatroying you and your help.

When people support gays, whatever, they are “enemies” trying to proselytize, competitors, but when a company goes actively supporting their bashing of Christians, it is when you have become soulless and reject the holy Spirit for greed. There is no way for such the eventual self destruction and hell,mand it is no use feeling bad about it like Lot’s sister turning into a nostalgic pillar of salt for Soddom.


52 posted on 02/07/2015 10:11:28 AM PST by lavaroise (A well regulated gun being necessary to the state, the rights of the militia shall not be infringed)
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To: unlearner

I might say Christ is even more adament than I am since He says to remember them as being bad people.

Tou do not test God. Unless you are islamist, then you do not believe Christ would come down the cross using His powers to give charity to those whipping Him. Nope, He let them accomplish their unjustice in the fullest of light for sake of the few with eyes who could see.

Tempting God as Southwest airline is doing, supporting gays bashing charitable Christians while making their beds with islamics cutting the gays head off and the Harlot Southwest shameful airline in bombings will not get “sympathy” from God. It shall be accomplished, and to reject that is going against God.


53 posted on 02/07/2015 10:34:17 AM PST by lavaroise (A well regulated gun being necessary to the state, the rights of the militia shall not be infringed)
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