Living the Compassion We Proclaim

Unknown Speaker (0:01): Wake up. It's time to kick start your day. You are listening to Scripture Link's daily dose of inspiration. Let's go.

Speaker 1 (0:14): Good morning, and welcome to this brand new day. This description links daily dose of inspiration for Monday, 06/29/2026. And today is the start of a short week for many of us with Independence Day celebrated at the end of the week. So something to celebrate today, though, is today is National Darts Day. I like playing darts.

Speaker 1 (0:45): I have a dartboard sitting right on my desk, a little mini one that's magnetic. And I like throwing darts at it, but I'm not very good at it. It also is national waffle iron day. I like a good waffle that makes the point of staying in a hotel as far as I'm concerned, especially the ones that are the middle four four little little mini waffles in one. Those are my favorite.

Speaker 1 (1:09): They celebrate National Waffle Day and celebrate Darts Day today. If you're reading along in the scriptures with us, we're just going through the New Testament this summer. Today, we're in Luke chapter sixteen and seventeen. Luke chapter sixteen and seventeen. And last Friday, we had finished up a a three day mini study on the story of the parable of the prodigal son.

Speaker 1 (1:32): And we had seen at the end of that as we studied about the father of the of the prodigal son, we saw his his unconditional love and his unconditional grace as he was waiting for his son to come home. And I told you we're gonna look at a story today that's that reflects the unconditional love and the unconditional grace. And if you guess that we're gonna talk about the good Samaritan today, you would be correct. We're gonna be in Luke chapter number 10. I know we just read these verses a couple of days ago, but Luke chapter 10 verses 25 through 37 gives us the story of the parable of the good Samaritan, and Jesus is is using the story to prove to a a lawyer what true love is.

Speaker 1 (2:26): And I'm not gonna read these verses for you. I'm gonna trust that you're gonna read them on your own. I'm just gonna highlight some here. And and Jesus had told the the Pharisee or the the certain lawyer that stood up and asked him how he should be how he should inherit eternal life. Jesus asked Jesus asked him how he reads the law and said, hey, you're doing right.

Speaker 1 (2:53): And verse 29 says, but he, talking about the certain lawyer, said he willing to justify himself said to Jesus, who is my neighbor? In other words, the lawyer wanted Jesus to define who deserved love. He wanted Jesus to define who deserved love. And and that's where the story of the parable of the good Samaritan comes in. In verse 30, we read that a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead.

Speaker 1 (3:40): This this man was was going from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell into a band of thieves who who stripped him of everything and left him along the side of the road. And, you know, we were we were talking last week about how how the world, you know, uses us for whatever it can get out of us and then cast us aside. And and that's basically what we see here in this story. This man lost everything. He was wounded.

Speaker 1 (4:10): He was probably dying at the side of the road. And then we see in verses thirty one and thirty two, Jesus says, and by chance, there came down a certain priest that way. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise, a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. So we see here in these two verses, two religious leaders of Jesus' day coming to where this injured man was, this person who was laying there wounded, and certainly a religious person is gonna come and is gonna help him, right?

Speaker 1 (4:51): Well, they didn't. They passed by as far as they could on the other side of the road, and they they neglected to help him. But then in verse number 33, Jesus says, but a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion on him. A certain Samaritan.

Speaker 1 (5:18): This is significant because in first century Jerusalem, the first century world, the Jews despised the Samaritans. They didn't look at them as a valid class of people. They they looked at them as outcasts and wanted nothing to do with them. And it's it's interesting that Jesus in the story makes the Samaritan out to be the hero that came to the need. Because if if the situation was reversed and it was a Samaritan laying there, you could be pretty certain that a Jew wouldn't wouldn't have came and helped him.

Speaker 1 (6:03): And we we read here what the man did for him in verses thirty four and thirty five. And he went to him. He bound him he bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And on the morrow, when he departed, he took out 2p and gave them to the host and said unto him, take care of him. And whatsoever thou spendest more when I come again, I will repay thee.

Speaker 1 (6:35): The the the Samaritan not only had compassion on him, but he healed up his wounds, and he took him to a place of safety, a place he would be protected. And he he it was a place that he was gonna be able to stay and to heal up. And he looked after his well-being even when he had to continue his journey. So the Samaritan did a a mighty work for this this injured Jewish man that laid there being injured by the band of robbers. And then we read in verse 36.

Speaker 1 (7:11): Let's jump down to verse 36. He says, now which of these three, the priest, the Levite, and the Samaritan? He said, of these three was a neighbor unto him that fell among the thieves? That's Jesus' point of question. He's saying, hey.

Speaker 1 (7:28): You tell me which one was a neighbor? The ones that passed by on the other side are the ones that helped him. And and this lawyer who was so entrenched in his wanting to keep the law and and wanting to to what's the word I'm trying to think of there? Wanted to be right in his day. He couldn't even say answer.

Speaker 1 (7:58): The Samaritan was the one. He said to him, he that had mercy on him. And Jesus told him, Jesus gave him the commandment to go and do likewise, to go and be the one to show mercy on somebody, be the one to show love for somebody. What's our takeaway in this story today? Well, the first thing that I noticed here is the lawyer asked, who was my neighbor?

Speaker 1 (8:30): Like I said at the top of the the study, the lawyer was trying to to get Jesus to define who deserved love and who didn't. And he wanted to limit his obligations to those that was like him. Maybe Jesus would have said, well, you know, your neighbor is the Jewish person that lives in the next tent over or the person that lives in your street or the person that that looks like you and eats like you, and that that's not what Jesus said. But I'm sure that that's what the the man would have expected to hear, but that's not what he said. Love and compassion should supersede all social, cultural, and religious boundaries.

Speaker 1 (9:25): In other words, love others like God loves us. Jesus said in John chapter 15 and verse number 12, he said, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Jesus is telling us to love others in the same way that God loves us. And that's unconditionally. When God looks at us, he doesn't see our social spot, our social level.

Speaker 1 (9:52): He doesn't see the color of our skin. He doesn't look at the things that the world looks at. And when we're gonna look at others, we gotta make sure that we're not looking with the same divisions, with the same boundaries that the world looks at things. True compassion requires us to look past divisions to help those who need help. True compassion requires us to look past the divisions to help those who need help.

Speaker 1 (10:35): I'm certain, I'm 100% certain in this day and age, if if these events would happen today, when when the Samaritan came up to the Jewish person, the first thing he would ask is, are you a Democrat or a Republican? That's how deeply divided our nation is today in that the Democrats won't help the Republicans and Republicans won't help the Democrats, and neither one of them is really helping anybody. We gotta be the difference. We gotta not Just like that Samaritan man didn't I mean, he knew the way the Jews felt about him. He knew the way that that they despised him, but he didn't let that get in the way.

Speaker 1 (11:22): He didn't see an enemy. He didn't see anything other than another man that needed help. And when we look at things in this world, we need to look through them same glasses, not as sinners who's living for themselves, not as Democrat, not as Republican, not as white, not as black, but as another human being that needs help. That's the whole thing to this story here. True compassion.

Speaker 1 (12:02): True compassion not only requires us to look past divisions, but true compassion is costly. The Samaritan used his resources. He used his time, and he used his money to help a complete stranger. And following the letter of the law is meaningless if we are avoiding if we avoid, if we are void of practical love for others. Following the letter of the law is meaningless if we're not gonna if we're not gonna help other people.

Speaker 1 (12:57): First John chapter four. Flip over there with me real quick, and we're gonna wrap it up this morning. First John chapter four and verse number 20. Jesus says, if a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he's a liar. For that he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

Speaker 1 (13:22): See, Jesus is challenging us in our love and saying, how can we say we love God if we don't love our brother? How can we say we love God if we look at our brother and say, well, you don't deserve my help because of your political affiliation or because of of who you are? The point of this story is that we need to show love and compassion to all those we come in contact with, not only those who love us. The Jews didn't love the Samaritans. They despised them, But that didn't stop that Samaritan from helping the Jew in the story.

Speaker 1 (14:08): We need to show love to all those we come in contact with. We need to show love to those who won't show love to us. Who is it in your life right now that you need to show the love of God to? Think about that as you go through this day and remember, get into God's word and allow God's word to get into you and then share that word with someone today. Have a blessed day.

Unknown Speaker (14:47): Hey George, did you hear about Bob landing that big sale? Yeah, yeah, sure. Sorry, I got a meeting to go to. But did you hear what else happened to Bob? No.

Unknown Speaker (14:55): What? You didn't hear what happened to Bob? No. No. Tell me.

Unknown Speaker (14:59): I thought you said you had a meeting. It's just a meeting with my boss. It can wait. He got caught stealing, didn't he? No.

Unknown Speaker (15:05): He was drinking on the job. Right? You know those sales guys. No. Embezzling, insider trading?

Unknown Speaker (15:09): Come on. Tell me. What? What? Why are you so interested in hearing this?

Unknown Speaker (15:12): You didn't have time to hear good news about Bob. That was boring. Now I wanna know what happened. Why? Because I'm egotistical, and I wanna hear bad things about other people to make me feel better about myself.

Unknown Speaker (15:22): Woah. That was honest. Yeah. I shouldn't be that way. I wouldn't want others to talk about the bad things I've done.

Unknown Speaker (15:30): You know, Bob, gossip really isn't good. True. So what happened to Bob? Oh, he bought a new car with a bonus he got. You made me late to a meeting with my boss for that?

Unknown Speaker (15:39): Well, you insisted I tell you.

Speaker 3 (15:41): Another message from Lifeline Productions, the comic strip of radio at lifelinepro.com.