The Samaritan, Levite and Priests were all offspring of the House of Judah. The Samaritan was considered a heretic to the Jewish faith who did not follow every doctrine and dogma to the jot or tittle as the Jews. Whereas the Levite and the Priest were considered to be those who followed the Letter of the Law, the Torah. These holy people would more than likely get an unpleasant suprise when they faced judgement whereas the Samaritan received eternal life because his actions proved his closeness to God more than those who professed to keep the law perfectly. Herein is the admonishment to legalism by our Lord which contradicts against the teachings of God’s grace and mercy. This also aligns well with Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharissees in Matthew 23. This was the subject of the Gospel taught by a Catholic priest in my church the day after the Pope called other faiths defective. The epistle of John verifies this further.
I John 4:7-21
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world. 15God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. 16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement, because as he is, so are we in this world.
18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19We love* because he first loved us. 20Those who say, ‘I love God’, and hate their brothers or sisters,* are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister* whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 21The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters* also
To anathemize someone is a work of love. It is for the heretic’s benefit that he be warned of the mortal peril in which he puts his soul. God called us to love not just all Christians, Protestant or not, but also our enemies. This is the point of the Samaritan story. But it also teaches something else: that not what you think or know, but what you do, that matters to God. The priest and the levite may have had all the right doctrines, it is what they failed to do that condemned them. This parable shatters the Protestant error of “by faith alone” to pieces.
Faith is what you do.