If you are a fan of Reba McEntire you probably know that song. It carries a profound truth, that we can say we love but if we don't show it (give it away), it doesn't exist. Jesus Christ used another words to describe this truth, when He dealt with a lawyer who came to test Him in Luke 10:25-37. The lawyer asks: “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replies with another question: “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” The lawyer got it right but like every lawyer (well, maybe there's an exception out there), he was evasive and tried to justify himself. As Jesus knew his heart, He went straight to the matter. Most people, when Jesus Christ told a parable didn't understand, but this lawyer did, when Jesus asks him who was the neighbor of the man who was wounded, the lawyer said: “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” In other words, Jesus showed him that OUR neighbor can be the one we don't associate with, maybe we even consider our enemy, as Jesus commands us in Matthew 5:44. He (Jesus) also made it clear that our involvement with the "church" does not justify ourselves, when He spoke about the Priest and the Levite who didn't care for the wounded man. Why did Jesus used the Samaritan as the "good man" in the Parable? Maybe to fulfill a prophecy that came from Moses: Romans 10:19. The Jews considered the Samaritans to be their enemies because Samaritans were half-Jews. The race (Samaritan) came about after the Assyrian captivity of the northern kingdom of Israel (its Capital was Samaria) in 721 B.C. Certain people from the nation of Israel stayed behind. These people intermarried with the Assyrians producing the Samaritans. They "worshiped" YAHWEH but not in Jerusalem (Mount Zion), instead they had their temple on Mount Gerazim: John 4:20. Maybe Jesus was trying to tell the lawyer that knowledge (faith) without works is dead. Maybe Jesus was showing the lawyer's hypocritical way of living. Whatever the case might be, one thing is for sure: It doesn't matter how big our knowledge about the kingdom of God is, if we don't practice what we know, it will only count for our condemnation. God's love is practical not theoretical! As faith without works is dead, so is love without works!
James 2:15-16. There's a beautiful song by Steve Camp that I love, that talks about the love of Christ, a compassionate love. The song is called "Don't Tell Jesus Loves Them" and this is the chorus:
Don't tell them Jesus loves them till you're ready to love them too;
Till your heart breaks from the sorrow and the pain they're going through;
With a life full of compassion may we do what we must do;
Don't tell them Jesus loves them till you're ready to love them too.
That's Jesus' feeling or attitude for the people, just like it says in Matthew 9:36. What kind of Christianity are we living: A theoretical one? A hypocritical one? A denominational one? Or a Christ-like One? Let's put Christ back in our Christianity! Revelation 3:20.
