“Love God, Love Others”

Monday, December 09, 2024

In California, more than 600 lawyer hopefuls were taking the state bar exams in the Pasadena Convention Center when a 50- year-old man taking the test suffered a heart attack. Only two of the 600 test takers, John Leslie and Eunice Morgan, stopped to help the man. They administered CPR until paramedics arrived, then resumed taking the exam. Citing policy, the test supervisor refused to allow the two additional time to make up for the 40 minutes they spent helping the victim. Jerome Braun, the state’s bar senior executive for admissions, backed the decision stating, ‘If these two want to be lawyers, they should learn a lesson about priorities. The truth is that only two people of the 600 had learned that lesson. Perhaps Mr. Braun would have felt differently if he had been suffering from a heart attack.

Life has a way of distracting us from things of true importance. But as followers of Jesus, we must recognize the priority of serving God by serving others. That’s what we learn from the story of the Good Samaritan. Jesus told the story because a lawyer wanted to know how to inherit eternal life (Luke 10.25). But we learn quickly that the lawyer knew what the law said about that: love God with all his heart, soul, and strength, and love his neighbor as himself; but would he do it?

Many people regard the Good Samaritan as a noble story of an extraordinary individual; but this is God’s expectation for everyone who would follow Him. Jesus’ affirmation of the lawyer’s response (Luke 10.27) is more than a declaration of understanding. Loving God means serving others and showing mercy. The inclusion of the priest and Levite emphasizes this point in the story. There is an unspoken expectation that followers of God will lead compassionate, merciful lives. That is why people in need often seek out spiritual counselors. If these characters were common people, we might have excused their behavior… but everyone understands these men SHOULD have stopped to help. 

Jesus’ emphasis on serving as a means of loving God highlights that our call is not about following the right checklist or simply maintaining our personal relationship with the Father; it’s about taking God’s will seriously and meeting people’s needs as we can. 

Many of us are not that different than the lawyer. We are motivated and aware of God’s directives. We don’t have a knowing problem, but perhaps we have a doing problem. Twice Jesus said to the lawyer, “Do this.” Sometimes we become so consumed with our own spiritual journey that we do not see others bloodied and beaten along the way. The parable of the Good Samaritan sets a clear expectation for God’s people: a love for God always translates into love for humanity. And so, “little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18)

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