THE K I NG ' S BUS I NESS
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He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. We love, not in order to be saved, but because we are saved. Is this true of you?
and comforting the poor Jew while the robbers were beating him, by sayinrg that he was a pacifist and did not believe in meeting force with force; but as soon as the robbers had got him (the Jew) properly beaten up and had gone about their business, that he would help him all he could. And X think if the- good Samaritan had lived in a time and country where a citizen had something to say about the civil government, he would have seen to it that the road was properly policed and made safe from robber bands. Is not this just what we are trying to do in Europe today? V. The Command Given. Our bounden duty is here made plain. Are we discharging it? Thousands of helpless men and women all around us have fallen among thieves. There is no lack of material for us to work on. One of the striking needs among the many discouraging things of today is the new consciousness of human brotherhood. I do not mean by this to imply even that there can be any deep and lasting broth erhood among men outside of the family of the children of God, which will only be realized later; but we cannot blind our eyes to the fact that a great wave of human sympathy is weeping over the world today, irrespective of nationality, class or creed. As Christians, however, we must be awake and active, doing all that we can to bring men who are thus awakened, into the realization of that perfect brotherhood that can only come through a common union with the Son of God. The parable is the answer to the ques tion raised by the Master’s answer as to how eternal life might be earned. How completely it destroys all reasonable hope of obtaining eternal life by fully discharging our obligations to both God and our neighbor. Not else can we be saved, Gal. 2:16; 3:10; Jas. 2:10; but. being saved by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, Rom. 4:4, 5; John 3:16; 5:24; Gal. 3:13. The love of God fills and floods our life, and “ we love, because
In the lesson today we have a heart searching question (v.21), and a heart- satisfying answer (vs. 30-37.) The incident is full of pictures. If you can paint them you will have no dif ficulty in command- THE HEART ing attention from OF THE even little children, LESSON and no difficulty in driving home one of the sweetest, strongest lessons ever given by the Lord. The lawyer is simply a scribe whose business it was to transcribe the law and to teach and explain it. As a class, the scribes were cold, calculating, self- seeking, hypocrites. Thoroughly instruc ted in the law, they were fond of parad ing their own knowledge. This scribe stood up to test the quali ties of the new teacher; and propounded first a question concerning eternal life. The answer was so perfect that the scribe was embarrassed and sought to justify himself with another question by which he hoped to extricate himself, “ Who is my neighbor?” The Jews had a circumscribed sphere in which they walked in the treadmill of obligations. To the scribe there was no neighbor but another Jew, and our Lord took advantage of this opportunity to illustrate this subject for all time and for all people, and once for all answer the question “What is the sphere of my obligation— to whom shall I min ister; who is worthy of my sympathy and self-sacrifice?” His answer shows that the bounds of love are the boundaries of the earth. The life of love is not defined by limits. The heart demands the world for its sphere, and the reach of its hands for its limitation. The law cannot answer this question.
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