Liberty, Missouri, USA
January 2013
Luke 10:25-37
A. Love the Lord
Deuteronomy 6:5 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
B. Love your neighbor
‘What is hateful to thee, that do not to another. This is the whole Law; the rest is only its explanation.” - Rabbi Hillel, The Talmudic Tractate Shabbath
Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:18
Immediate context: fellow Israelite
Larger context (19:34): applies to any non-Israelite in the land.
Who BECAME a neighbor?
The neighbor Jews became strangers. The stranger Samaritan became neighbor to the wounded traveler. Henry Alford - The New Testament for English Readers - Matthew-Revelation
Who is a neighbor? The person who fulfills a need in someone.
Who has needs? Everyone.
C. Human needs
1. Physiologic
James 2:15-16 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
Matt 6:25-33 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on …. for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
2. Security
"I remember feeling ashamed, for some reason. I was ashamed of my parents. I couldn't face some of my friends at school anymore, because I desperately wanted to have the classic, …typical family. Mother, father. I wanted that security, so I resented my parents for quite a few years because of that.” Jon Savage. "Kurt Cobain: The Lost Interview".
Hebrews 13:5 for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.
Philippians 1:6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.
3. Social
You used to captivate me
By your resonating light
Now I'm bound by the life you left behind
Your face it haunts
My once pleasant dreams
Your voice it chased away
All the sanity in me
These wounds won't seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There's just too much that time cannot erase
I've tried so hard to tell myself that you're gone
But though you're still with me I've been alone all along,
Evanescence, My Immortal, Fallen.
“Borrowing from recent social commentary, popular culture and clinical experience they weave the sad tale of America's dangerous myth of stoic individualism, which in the end turns out to be , in fact, a foundering bedrock of emotional disconnection, the sickness at the heart of the American dream --which leaves us all too frequently both as individuals and a society-- in a state of dangerous disconnection from our fellow human beings: sad and lonely Americans all” Jacqueline Olds and Richard Shwartz, “The Lonely American.”
John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
John 15:15 I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
4. Psychological
An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older, 1 in 4 adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder.
Kessler RC, Chiu WT, Demler O, Walters EE. Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of twelve-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005 Jun;62(6):617-27.
1 Thess 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Matt 11:28-30.“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
5. Spiritual
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Isaiah 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
“Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised . . . Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee” St. Augustine, Confessions, Chapter 1
Real change is an inside job. You might alter things a day or two with money and systems, but the heart of the matter is and always will be the matter of the heart... our problem is sin. Not finances. Not budgets. Not over-crowded prisons or drug dealers. Our problem is sin. We are in rebellion against our creator. We are separated from our father. We are cut off from the source of life. A new president or policy won’t fix that. It can only be solved by god. Max Lucado, When God Whispers Your Name
Photo by Alev Takil on Unsplash
