Happy belated Valentine’s Day! Since this holiday recently passed, let’s spend some time talking about love. I truly believe if there was one word that could change our world, it is love in action.
I’ve shared I’m reading through the 4 Gospels of the Bible (The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) before Easter. I was currently reading the story about the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37.
First, lets highlight this verse about love:
“And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27 ESV
To know anything about Jesus it is to know, he loves speaking in parables. I’m going to quickly summarize the parable and as always I encourage you to read it yourself.
The Good Samaritan:
A man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and was attacked by robbers – who took his clothes, beat him and left him for dead. There were 3 people who passed by and saw the man. A priest saw him and crossed to the other side of the road. Next a Levite passed him and crossed to the other side of the road as well. As last a Samaritan saw the man and had compassion for him. He stopped, bandaged his wounds and sat him on his own donkey and took him to an inn for safety and paid for them to care for him. He even told them if he had additional expenses let him know and he would pay them off when he passed back through.
The moral of the story was out of all 3 encounters, only the Samaritan proved to be a neighbor to the man and Jesus said for us to do likewise. Take a moment to think about how the world would look differently if we loved our neighbor as ourselves.
Here’s practical steps to put love in action from the scriptures:
- Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and all your mind.
- Love your neighbor as yourself.
Are you putting love in action?