The Lawyer's Question
* On one occasion, an expert in the law asked Jesus a question. Read Luke 10:25-28.

1. The lawyer asked, "what must I do to inherent eternal life?" (10:25) How does Jesus respond? Why do you think Jesus responds this way?

* The lawyer answered, "Love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' and 'Love your neighbor as yourself" (10:27).

* We are to love God with our whole being. We are to be devoted to God, and delight in Him above all else. And if we truly love God, we will also love others (1 John 4:20-21).

* Jesus replied to the lawyer, "You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live" (10:28).

2. Is Jesus saying we can earn eternal life by "doing" something? How do the commands to love relate to the gospel (good news of Jesus Christ) and faith?

The Lawyer's Question (Round 2)
* After Jesus replied, "Do this (that is, 'love God with all your being, and love your neighbor'), the lawyer asked a second question. He asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" (10:29)

3. Why do you think the lawyer asks this question?

Jesus' Response: The Good Samaritan
* Rather than directly answering the lawyer's question, Jesus replied with a parable. Read Luke 10:29-37. There are four characters in the parable (excluding the innkeeper):

€ Man in need - Victim of robbers; stripped, beaten, and left "half-dead" by the side of the road. His ethnicity is not identified.
€ Priest - Minister in the Jewish temple. He would be considered a very religious man.
€ Levite - Worker in the Jewish temple. He could be thought of as a priest's assistant.
€ Samaritan - A man from Samaria. Jews generally despised Samaritans, who were considered impure half-breeds with a corrupted religion.

4. Describe the actions (or inactions) of the priest and Levite. What can we say about them?

5. The Samaritan "took pity" on the man in need. In what ways (and to what extent) does the Samaritan show compassion to the man in need?

Jesus' Question
* Read Luke 10:36. Jesus turned the lawyer's question around. Instead of defining our neighbors (limiting whom we may or may not serve), we are to be a neighbor (serving where there is need). As T.W. Manson said, "love does not begin by defining its objects: it discovers them."

* In response to Jesus' question, the lawyer had to answer, "The one who had mercy on him" (10:37a). So Jesus told the lawyer, and he tells us today, "Go and do likewise" (10:37b).

6. What lessons can we learn from the parable of the Good Samaritan?

7. What are some specific ways we can be a neighbor to those in need?