27 And he answered, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”
28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE.”
29 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
…
36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”
37 And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”
Who is my neighbor?
The Good Samaritan did not make advanced plans to show mercy to the man beaten and left half dead. But, when the Good Samaritan saw him, he felt compassion on him and went to lengths to help him, showing mercy to him.
We do know that this beaten man was “going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers” (verse 30), but we don’t know anything else: whether this man was a good man or a bad man, an old man or a young man, a rich man or a poor man etc. Maybe, we can guess that he was a good man, old man, and poor man, because of what happened to him, but those are only speculations that work against the message of this story.
The message of this story is that we should show mercy toward those who cross our path whether they be good or bad, old or young, rich or poor. We should show mercy toward whoever crosses our path and needs our help.
How do we show this mercy?
I think that it is significant that the priest and Levite were part of this story. As we know, they passed by the man beaten and left half dead. They represent the Law. They knew the Law and the requirements of the Law. They knew that they had a duty to help this man. But, they did not do so.
In comparison, the Good Samaritan knew little or nothing about the Law. It was not the Law that motivated him to help the man beaten and left half dead. Rather, it was the compassion within the Good Samaritan that motivated the Good Samaritan to help the man beaten and left half dead.
How do we get this compassion?
We need Jesus Christ in our hearts. We need the Holy Spirit within us. We need to walk by the Spirit. We trust the Holy Spirit to produce the fruit of love, kindness, and goodness within us, that will constitute such compassion necessary to show such mercy. See Galatians Chapter 5.
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 