Go and do likewise

In Luke 10:25-37, a lawyer tests Jesus by asking how to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds by asking what the law says about this? The man's answer is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. Thats the correct answer, that's what God's Word tells us, that's the truth this man had learned at some point. As an expert in the law, he wanted to know how to keep every aspect of the law without fail so he asked Jesus who his neighbor was. Jesus replies by telling the story of the good Samaritan who has compassion on a wounded man by the side of the road. Jesus then asks the man who in the story he thought had been a good neighbor to the wounded man. The man answer that it was the one who showed him compassion. Jesus then responds by saying "Go and do likewise."

Jesus was saying that it is not enough to know the truth, we must also go and do the truth. If I am not willing to go and demonstrate compassion to my neighbor, then I really don't understand what it means to love God and love my neighbor. The truth and the doing cannot be separated. The way to inherit eternal life is to seek out the truth of the kingdom and then live like that. 

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