Morning Devotional 041525 Love Your Neighbor

Liz’s Morning Devotional: Scripture selected from Upper Room

  April 15, 2025

Luke 10:25-29

25 A legal expert stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to gain eternal life?” 26 Jesus replied, “What is written in the Law? How do you interpret it?” 27 He responded, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” 28 Jesus said to him, “You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.” 29 But the legal expert wanted to prove that he was right, so he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Good Morning. Love the Lord God!

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus is very clear with his example to the legal expert. Some of Jesus’ parables are hard to understand, so we give ourselves grace when we struggle with its meaning. This parable; however, leaves us little room for confusion. 

Not only do we see the Samaritan doing the right thing, we see members of the “religious” order, avoiding the situation. I don’t think that Jesus’ choices of a priest, scribe, and Samaritan were random. He wanted us to see that even those who seem to be or should be doing the right things don’t always do so.

By using a Samaritan as a “good” guy, Jesus showed us that all people, even Gentiles, are our neighbors. In general, the Jews despised the Samaritans and condemned their ways of worship, so for a Samaritan to show the proper response was a slap in the face to God-fearing Jews. 

Generally speaking, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves means that we must let go of earthly ways and ideas. We could easily think that the second part of the commandment is the hardest because of course we love God.

Loving God is more than words! It’s more than doing the right thing when others are watching. Loving God is fully embracing living a life of righteousness. When we fully love God, we don’t boast, envy, or allow our pride to define who we are. Instead, we embrace and embody love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in all things, every moment of each day. Our demeanor should reflect Christ. 

The Good News is that God loves us and gives us the grace to slowly reach our aspiration of living a life of Christ. Yes, we stumble and fall, but God is waiting to help when we call his Holy Name. 

Loving Lord, Maker of all things! We are your messy children. Thank you for sending Jesus to show us the way. Thank you. We love you, Lord! In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen

Thought for the day: The Lord rejoices in our efforts to become children of God.

Love your neighbor! Pastor Liz