A Neighbor Who Loves

Love is quite a confounding idea in our culture. People twist the concept of love and use it to manipulate people to get what they want. Worse yet, they use the teachings of Jesus Himself to excuse sin and demonize righteousness. The one of Jesus’s parables that most often gets twisted is the Good Samaritan. Some think that the parable teaches that only religious people don’t love right while social outcasts do. However, the Good Samaritan is a parable on how everyone fails at love and how much we all need Jesus. When the lawyer expresses His understanding of how to enter the kingdom, Jesus commends Him. His answer, straight from the Old Testament, shows that we must love God with everything and others as ourselves. Jesus commends his understanding of Scripture. However, the lawyer proves that his understanding still has gaps. Instead of realizing how he falls short of that love, the lawyer tries to justify himself by asking, “Who is my neighbor?” Therein lies the problem, self-justification. We can’t justify ourselves as having loved God or others enough. We need Jesus to justify us. Only Jesus loved as He should, but God accepts His love and credits it to us through faith. That’s the real love. It’s God not destroying us all but sacrificing Himself to save us. If we model that love, we’ll stand out in our culture and show we’re ready for the kingdom. –Pastor Rory

Sunday at Liberty

9AM: BTH–Introduction to Parables–Matthew 10:10-17

10AM: Pastor Nate–A Neighbor Who Loves–Luke 10:25-42 (sermon notes)

6PM: Evening Gathering at the Martins’–What is Love?–Leviticus 19:13-18