“Whatever is Right” --Luke 10:25-37

In Luke’s Gospel account, he writes about Jesus, “And the child grew and became strong; He was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was with Him” (Luke 2:40). A little later on, after recounting Mary and Joseph finding Jesus in the Temple, Luke reports, “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with man” (Luke 2:52).

Both of these verses let us know that Jesus was a well-rounded person. He did things in response to God and, in obeying the Father, Jesus also found favor with those around Him. As Jesus let God’s grace pour through Him, it was inevitable that others would find Him a favorable young man.

Most people desire to be known by others as someone with wisdom and stature. Not as many have the desire to find favor with God, but almost all of us seek to be favored by others. And that’s a problem.

Jesus asks the question, “What good is it for a man to gain the world but lose his soul?” In other words, what’s the point of gaining the admiration and envy of other people if we have no favor with God? Without that right relationship with God, we cannot really be considered successful. We can’t really be considered alive.

As Paul continued his list in Philippians 4:8, he urges us to think on “whatever is right.” In the context of this list, that which is right is the thing that is right not just in the eyes of men, but more importantly in God’s eyes as well.

In today’s passage, we discover that the key to doing what is right in God’s eyes and man’s eyes is to follow the greatest commandment.

Background

The parable of the good Samaritan is one that we hear from the time we are small children in Sunday School. It is a parable that is familiar to most people, even if they haven’t been involved in church. The parable is told in response to a question about the greatest commandment. In Matthew, the question takes place in the Temple. Mark seems to indicate the question is asked out of a genuine desire to know Jesus’ thoughts on the matter, while Matthew and Luke indicate it was part of a test to trip Jesus up.

For whatever reason, Jesus is approached by an expert in the law and is asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” In Matthew and Mark, Jesus answers the question. In Luke, Jesus asks the man what he thinks the Law says is the greatest commandment. When the lawyer answers, Jesus tells the man he has answered well. Wanting to justify himself, the man then asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” The result is the parable we know so well.

It is in the question, the answer and the parable and its aftermath that we learn what it means to do right in the eyes of God and of man.

Central Truth: To do the right thing is to do what is right in the eyes of God and of man.

To do right:

Love God

When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus lets us know that the greatest command is that we are to love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength, and with all our mind. In other words, we are to love God with our entire being.

When we learn about why God sent Jesus to die for our sins, we learn it is because of God’s great love for all humanity. We learn this in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He sent His One and Only Son.” God’s love is of such depth and width and height that it cannot be conveyed fully, so John uses the word “so.”

The idea is that we are to equally love God with our entire being. We are to be so committed to God through Christ that we give ourselves entirely over to Him, trusting Him to lead us and provide for us. The love for God is such that we place ourselves in His hands, knowing that He will always do what is best for us and will allow us to reach our fullest potential in Him.

Reading over that paragraph, we need to be aware that what we think is best for us is not necessarily what God thinks is best for us. There are so many areas in our life that we think, “Oh, if only I can get this, my life will be complete.” If only we could become successful/win the lottery/marry a specific person, etc.” But success in our eyes is not what success is in God’s eyes. In our eyes, success is found our position and our standing in society. In God’s eyes, success is found in obedience to Him. Jeremiah was a prophet that was well-known to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. He counseled the king and government on a regular basis. But they never listened to Jeremiah; in fact, the response to Jeremiah’s messages were often to do the opposite. We could conclude that the prophet was unsuccessful. But Jeremiah was faithful to God, speaking what God told him to say. In God’s eyes, Jeremiah was successful. And even though the people seldom if ever listened to Jeremiah, they recognized that he truly was a prophet of God and that he had a special relationship with God. He did right in God’s eyes and in man’s eyes.

Our love for God must be complete and supreme, superseding all other loves in our life. That doesn’t mean we can’t love others, but our first love must always be God.

Love Others and Ourselves

The second part of the greatest command is that we are to love others as much as we love ourselves.

At first glance, using two commandments to describe the greatest commandment, which means that neither of them are the greatest, since only one can be greatest. But think of this as a record from the days when songs were sold as 45’s. On the record, there would be two sides—Side A and Side B. Most of the time, Side A was clearly the favored song, and Side B was added just to make the record complete. But sometimes, the artist and the record company would recognize that both songs were really good, and they would promote both sides of the record. The result would be that some people would buy the record for one side, while others would buy for the other side. The result was that both songs made the record a hit record.

In the same way, we need both commandments to make the greatest commandment. In 1 John 4, we are told the way we demonstrate our love for God is in the way we love others. Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, gave us a new commandment: That we were to love one another as He had loved us (cf. John 13:34-35). It’s difficult to have the love of Christ and not love others also. And that love is expressed in the way we treat others. That’s why Jesus gave us the Golden Rule, to guide us in the way we treat others.

But it’s also important to note that we are to love ourselves, as well. Too many times, we find ourselves not treating ourselves with love, but with some other emotion—disgust, anger, even dislike and hatred. We feel we’re unworthy of being loved, for any number of reasons. We believe this because Satan has convinced us we are unlovely, we are unworthy of God’s love, certainly.

But the Bible is clear—we are worthy of God’s love. Not because of anything we have done or said, but because it is God’s nature to love. God is love. God sent His Son because He loves us so much. Our relationship with God is not based upon our being good enough for Him; the relationship is built around the fact that God chose us, He saved us, and He loves us. He may not love some of the things we do or don’t do, but He loves us. If we are good enough for God to love us, we almost should be able to love ourselves.

Part of the way we love ourselves is by realizing that, while we are loved, does not mean we can take it easy from now on. Our love for self includes our love for God and our desire to be what and where God wants us to be. And where He wants us to be is in Him.

Put It into Practice

Perhaps the lawyer understood all of this when he answered Jesus with the right commandments. But the question he then asks Jesus tells us that he didn’t have a full understanding.

“But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” (v. 29). My guess from reading this verse is that the lawyer knew there were some people he didn’t love. He probably was thinking about that guy he ran into on a regular basis in the market. Maybe he was thinking about a particular judge. For whatever reason, he wanted to justify himself. He wanted Jesus to narrow the scope of the neighbor to give the lawyer cover.

The result is the parable of the Good Samaritan. It’s a tale of a man who, while traveling down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was set upon by robbers. They took all he had, beat him and left him for dead on the side of the road. Three people pass by. The first is a priest—someone who represented God before the people. Rather than help the man, he passes on the other side of the road and carries on. The second person is a Levite. A Levite is someone from the tribe of Levi. Those who are from Levi were part of the people separated to serve God. Think of them as a deacon or important member of the church.

Up until this point, the people who were listening to Jesus were probably smiling and nodding their heads. You see, this was a familiar parable, and the listeners knew what was coming next. In the traditional parable, the third person was a layperson, just a common, everyday Israeli who would stop and help the battered man.

Imagine, then, as Jesus tells them the third person, the one who helps, is not a Jewish layperson, but a Samaritan. A Samaritan? No one in Israel liked Samaritans, and the feeling was mutual. Yet, Jesus chose the Samaritan. It is the Samaritan who stops and tends to the wounds of the injured man. It is the Samaritan who puts the man on his donkey and takes him to an inn. It is the Samaritan who continues to care for the man, and who pays the innkeeper enough to continue to see to the man’s needs until the Samaritan could return.

Maybe we don’t grasp the significance of a Samaritan. To put it in context of today’s world in American, Jesus might have said, the married gay couple or the illegal alien. Maybe He’d say the Democrat or the Republican, the socialist or the libertarian. There are so many things that seem to divide us today, it might be hard even for Jesus to limit Himself to just one person or group.

Having completed the parable, Jesus asks the lawyer, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” (v.36). The lawyer’s answer is telling. He responds, “The one who had mercy on him” (v.37a). Maybe we’re reading too much into this, but the lawyer couldn’t just say, “The Samaritan.” Was there such a dislike—a hatred—of Samaritans that he couldn’t even say the words? We’ll never know.

What we do know is Jesus’ answer to him: “Go and do likewise” (v.37b).

In other words, Jesus reminds us, once again, that it’s not enough to hear what Jesus is saying. We need also to do what Jesus tells us to do. In Matthew 21:28-32, Jesus tells a parable of a man with two sons. The father tells one son to do a task, and the son tells his father no. The father tells the second son to do the same task, and he says yes. However, as the day goes on, the first son repents of his attitude, and does the task. The second son never gets around to doing what his father told him to do. Jesus then asks, which of the two sons did what his father wanted? The answer is, the first son. Jesus then goes on to say that there are those who profess to follow Jesus, but never do His will, while there are others who may not immediately respond to Him but ultimately do as Jesus asks.

It’s the same thing that Jesus tells the lawyer, and He tells us. It’s not enough to say we love God and we love others as ourselves. We are to put it into practice.

Conclusion

When we consider thinking about that which is right, we are looking at what’s best for everyone. Is it right in God’s eyes? Is it right in other people’s eyes? Just as we looked at truth and honor, so the right thing fits in neatly with these first to. If we always do what’s true, and if we always do what’s honorable, how we can we not help but always doing what is right?

Put in the context of the greatest commandment, doing what is right is always seeking a “win-win” situation for everyone. It is not to compromise on what is true and honorable, but it is to seek what will allow us to let others feel good about the situation, and it will always be the right thing if it is right in God’s eyes.

Whatever thing is right, think on these things.