We see this happen in media interviews all the time. They have come to be known as “gotchya” questions where the interviewer takes joy in setting up a scenario that the responder must either refuse to answer, or he is forced to stumble through the answer to the satisfaction of the interviewer and/or the audience. This is similar to the attempt to trip-up Jesus when asked which commandment is the greatest of them all. A Pharisee, and interestingly a lawyer, posed the question perhaps counting on Jesus to make a misstep and pit one precept against another. How then could Jesus claim to be any sort of authority? The Pharisees could take gratification in his lack of understanding and enjoy his public humiliation. But ultimate truth cannot be destroyed, even by a lawyer driven by an agenda of deception. Jesus responded,
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:37-40 ESV)
Jesus’ response was essentially a summary of the Law, showing that each precept had to do with either utter devotion to God or an unconditional love for others, the second like the first in that both require humility uncommon to us in our sinful nature. Loving God and loving our neighbors as much as we love ourselves? A significant challenge considering how much we take pride in who we are and the things we do.
In Jesus’ response, he also exemplified this love for neighbor by not mincing words and by not attacking the person asking the question. In this passage we see that he told the truth and he communicated respectfully, two primary components of love for neighbor. Jesus didn’t even inquire into the motives of the lawyer, he simply answered the question. His model of interaction teaches us that we are responsible for how we interact with others, that we can not betray the call to love God and love neighbor by reducing our interactions to manipulation, deceit, intellectual dishonesty, or any other tactic that gives the appearance that an argument is won but only at the expense of truth and the humiliation of an opponent.
Loving our God is something Christians try to take seriously, but loving your neighbor seems to be something we struggle with a great deal more, failing to know or remember the relationship between the two. In another account of this interaction in Luke 10, the conversation goes further where Jesus is asked by the lawyer “who is my neighbor?” This is where we encounter the parable of the Good Samaritan. But if you look closely at the text, Jesus’ focus on who is the neighbor is redirected from the person in need to the person able to help. The question does not remain “who is my neighbor?” but rather “who are you a neighbor to?”.
“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.” (Luke 10:36-37 ESV)
The parable makes clear that the neighbor is the person who showed mercy. In other words, are you a neighbor? Do you show mercy to those who are in need? Do you demonstrate mercy and hospitality to others? Are you serving or are you waiting to be served?
Being in a maturing relationship with God generates a personal spiritual climate where we desire to be a neighbor to others, considering them a priority over our own needs. But without that positioning before God, there really is little reason to put others before self. 1 John 4:19 declares that we love God because he first loved us. Because he loved us first, because he has shown mercy, we are able to do the same, to imitate the love of God in our own relationships and daily encounters.
PDF