Who is My Lawyer’s Neighbor?

The definition of any lawyer is one who studies and understands the law, thus becoming an expert in the law. In Jesus’ day there were the same type of men, called scribes, those who studied God’s law.

In a particular and rather popular parable, Jesus was tested by such a lawyer:

"25. And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26. He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27. And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. 28. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29. But he, desiring to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbor? " (Luke 10)

Like most scholars, bible teachers, pastors, those that study the Scriptures and have become experts in systematic doctrine, the lawyer answered correctly that you must love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. But, the expert, being a good scribe, understood the law and knew that as long as he specifically defined love as between him and God, he would be safe, self-righteously displacing the action of love to his neighor. In other words, the good, religious expert today could say, ‘I love Jesus, I attend fellowship every Sunday, I am an elder, I am on the worship team, I give tithe and I teach and preach to the church, I help the less fortunate in my church, I even witness to the unbelievers that come to my church."

But, if one asks this christian if he goes out and preaches on the street to his neighbor then his rebuttal most often is a soliloquy of his self-righteous ‘relationship’ to God, as if that was greater than preaching the Gospel:

"I cannot help that man because of my prior ministry obligations, but if he is still alive may God’s love abound, strengthening him enough to crawl to safety. "

Just like the scribe in the verses above, and the ‘loving’ institution he represented, the expert self-righteously said "who is my neighbor?".

The scribe brought in a question to bring confusion, so that he would not have to actually demonstrate this love he that had just expounded upon. He attempted to justify himself as if his question had more validity than the command.

Jesus then specifically defined who was his neighbor; he talked of a certain man, traveling, attacked and robbed by thieves, beaten for good measure and left half-dead.

The term half-dead is interesting; all of us are born into this world with a sin nature and are doomed to die as the wages of sin is death. We are in fact, half-dead, spiritually dead without Christ, awaiting judgment.

The parable continues with a certain priest coming upon the hapless individual, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side of the road; he was priest, going about his priestly duties, but having no compassion upon this man who most certainly was going to die. He instead went to the other side of the road, being fully entrenched in his own ministry.

Jesus then speaks of a Levite coming along. He sees the man, goes and looks, but then passes by like the priest did, on the other side of the road. This man by his position being a priestly assistant in the Temple, debates with his conscience but decides to walk on towards his scheduled event.

These two priestly experts were probably not heading to do evil, but heading to do the routine of the ministry they had been called to. They most likely had immersed themselves in their temple roles, but, still they had no compassion upon the dying man.

The risks in helping the man were great: they might be robbed themselves, losing the temple treasury. They might be beaten or killed. If upon feeling the man’s pulse and finding him dead, they would have to go through many ceremonial washings to purify themselves from touching a dead body, according to the law. If he wasn’t dead then they would be obligated to assist him somehow to a place of salvation, from death. But, because they were continually burdened by the duties of their respective ministries, they chose to let this man die, indeed to forget they saw him, so that they would be free to continue in their ministerial tasks.

Along comes a Samaritan, who is neither priest, priest assistant nor a Jew. He sees the man and has compassion. "And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee."

This man, the Samaritan, Jesus used as an example to rebuke the hypocrisy of the scribes, priests and pharisees, not to rebuke them for being experts in the law, but to rebuke their hypocrisy. On one hand the experts boasted that they loved God with heart, soul, mind and strength, but had no actions to this boast, only self-righteousness and justification why they would not help a man who was dying.

This parable is symbolic of the Gospel: a believer sees the dying man, goes to him, pulling the man from the clutches of certain death by presenting the Gospel. Through the Gospel, which is the power of God to all who believe, he has shown the spiritually dead man love, salvation and eternal life in Christ. The religious hypocrites speak of love but when it comes time for action they bring up questions and end up passing by on their own way.

Many of these religious hypocrites ease their consciences by telling themselves that they preach to those in their churches, or congregations and thus lead them to Christ and membership to their fold; but this parable takes place outside the temple, outside the church building where man and his conscience is pricked, where there is no pat on the back, or any financial or membership gain, but only the opportunity to do what is right and holy in the sight of God. God has commanded, in all four of the gospels, to go and preach the Gospel to the lost, not just in Jerusalem, but in all the world. God has commanded us all to have compassion upon the lost.

We were once lost like the half-dead man, unable to deliver ourselves from eminent death. Christ came and saved us; He pulled us from the snare of death, by the atoning work of the cross, and gave us the promise of eternal life.

Jesus asked the lawyer, an expert in the law, and also asks the Christian: "Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? 37. And he said, He that showed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise."

God has called us to have mercy upon the lost, to go and preach the Gospel of Christ to them, and pull them from the snare of death.

It is evil for a man to murder, but how much more wicked is it to be apathetic with the Gospel, simply because it is inconvenient?

Is the risk great when we go out and preach the Gospel on the streets? Absolutely, but Christ, being God and man, risked more. Is there a chance that we, our church or fellowship may be sued and lose everything we own, all that we have built? Absolutely.

May God not hold our apathetic behavior to our account, and may we be led by the Spirit and act in faith, taking advantage when fellow brethren go to present the Gospel to our neighbors; may we not become hypocrites, not finding any gain in it, or that the risk was too great to show compassion to the lost, instead remembering the grace the was bestowed freely upon us by our Lord and savior Christ Jesus, blessed be his name.

Steven Styles

We encourage you to email the author to prove or disprove, from the Scriptures, the intent, meaning, purpose or doctrine of this piece.email Steven