How much may be learned from our blessed Lord Jesus’ answer to the question asked by the unbelieving lawyer: “Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He thought to trip up the eternal Son of God there sitting (with His Godhead glory veiled) in his very presence. The lawyer seemed quite satisfied that his knowledge of the law and his intellectual grasp of God’s Word had earned him eternal life. In unbelief he dares to tempt the very Law Giver who stood in his presence!
In moral perfection, the Lord Jesus turns the question back on the lawyer: “What is written in the law? how readest thou?”
He recites the words of the law flawlessly and in doing so realizes those very words condemned him. The lawyer well knew his heart had not kept the law perfectly. Here surely is the two-edged sword of the Word of God piercing to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit.
Sadly, rather than owning his sin, the poor lawyer seeks to justify his failure in keeping the law he knew so well, by asking the Lord Jesus a question he thought impossible to answer: “And who is my neighbor?” But we learn from the divine answer given to the question that a neighbor has two important characteristics: nearness and need.
The wounded man lying half-dead in the ditch—unresponsive, bleeding and dirty was not a convenient object of affection for the lawyer, the priest or the Levite. But he possessed the two characteristics that qualified him as their neighbor he was near them and he had great need of their help. However, in order to reach out to him, they would have to love him as they did themselves.
In the day in which we live, when the love of many shall grow cold (Matt. 24:1212And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. (Matthew 24:12)), Christians need to have very tender hearts concerning those who are truly neighbors saved or unsaved having needs that in love for Christ ought to be met. We also should remind our hearts that material things, though not excluded, are often the least pressing of those needs that exist among our neighbors.
In Exodus 12:44And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. (Exodus 12:4) an abundance of the passover lamb in one home was to be shared with a neighbor. Do we, dear brethren, so enjoy Christ in our homes that there is an overflowing abundance of the heavenly Lamb to share with those nearby whom we know to be spiritually hungry?
In Zechariah 8:1616These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: (Zechariah 8:16), there is vital instruction for dealing in love with a neighbor: “Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor.” This is especially vital in our dealings with one another as brethren. In Ephesians 4:2525Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. (Ephesians 4:25) this is repeated with the body of Christ in view: “Wherefore... speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.”
How important that a believer speak the truth in love to one who is a neighbor in the family of God! There will be times when the truth of God may not be couched in easy and comforting words “faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Prov. 27:66Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. (Proverbs 27:6)) but divine truth ought always to be spoken in love.
May God grant our hearts to be exercised afresh to consider those who are near and have need in order that “every one of us” might seek to “please his neighbor for his good to edification” (Rom. 15:22Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. (Romans 15:2)).
Ed.