A Pharisee (politically powerful religious faction) lawyer decides to test Jesus by asking what the most important commandment is. Jesus answers by stating two commandments: Love God wholeheartedly, and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. All the other rules are based on these two.
The lawyer asks for clarification: “Who is my neighbor?” (He can’t mean everyone, right!? Some of them are, you know…)
Jesus responds by telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan: A story about a Jewish man, much like the lawyer, who is violently mugged and left to die in the street. A priest and a Levite (member of the tribe in charge of the temple), both highly respected leaders in Jewish society, pass by while pretending not to notice. The only person who stops to help is a Samaritan, a member of a hated ethnic and religious minority that had recently defiled the Jewish temple in an act of terrorism. (The Samaritans’ own temple had been destroyed a century earlier and the date of its destruction made into an annual holiday, they were hated so much.)
“Which of the three men was a neighbor to the one who was robbed?”
“The one who showed mercy to him,” the lawyer admits, unwilling to utter the name of his mutual enemy.
“Go and do likewise.”
It says to love everyone, especially the ones society hates.
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
I mean, you’re still stuck with low-Intelligence Americans interpreting “neighbor” narrowly, but that’s still a matter of misinterpreting what the actual words mean.
True but in this case Leviticus sets up quite a few rules for how to treat Israelites vs non Israelites so I think it’s a much more reasonable interpretation in that case. In the other example though it’s very clear that it’s meant to be universal.
A Pharisee (politically powerful religious faction) lawyer decides to test Jesus by asking what the most important commandment is. Jesus answers by stating two commandments: Love God wholeheartedly, and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. All the other rules are based on these two.
The lawyer asks for clarification: “Who is my neighbor?” (He can’t mean everyone, right!? Some of them are, you know…)
Jesus responds by telling the Parable of the Good Samaritan: A story about a Jewish man, much like the lawyer, who is violently mugged and left to die in the street. A priest and a Levite (member of the tribe in charge of the temple), both highly respected leaders in Jewish society, pass by while pretending not to notice. The only person who stops to help is a Samaritan, a member of a hated ethnic and religious minority that had recently defiled the Jewish temple in an act of terrorism. (The Samaritans’ own temple had been destroyed a century earlier and the date of its destruction made into an annual holiday, they were hated so much.)
“Which of the three men was a neighbor to the one who was robbed?”
“The one who showed mercy to him,” the lawyer admits, unwilling to utter the name of his mutual enemy.
“Go and do likewise.”
It says to love everyone, especially the ones society hates.
Thank you for this. I was thinking of the old testament version which is a lot more narrow.
Leviticus 19:18 isn’t particularly narrow:
I mean, you’re still stuck with low-Intelligence Americans interpreting “neighbor” narrowly, but that’s still a matter of misinterpreting what the actual words mean.
True but in this case Leviticus sets up quite a few rules for how to treat Israelites vs non Israelites so I think it’s a much more reasonable interpretation in that case. In the other example though it’s very clear that it’s meant to be universal.