Free The Greatest Commandment Luke 10: 25-37 Essay Example

The 10 commandments give the relationship between God and us (e.g. thou shalt not worship) as well as with other people (e.g. thou shalt not envy thy neighbor). However, to achieve these first man has to reconcile his relationship with God and love him with all his heart before they can love their neighbors as we love ourselves. If this does not happen loving their neighbors will fail. So in Luke 10: 25-37 ‘The Greatest Commandment’ a religious law expert asked Jesus how he could inherit eternal life (possibly how does he get to heaven). Jesus responded with the only two commandments that paraphrase the 10 commandments. ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your strength, and all your mind. ’ And ‘Love your neighbor as ourself.” A lot of the other rules might be broken and Jesus likely knows this but just ‘try’ not to break these ones and that is why it is called ‘The Greatest Commandment.’ Since Jesus answered this so nicely in Scripture and it is pretty direct people don’t need to search for other meanings or better interpretations. These two commandments all the other ones just fall into place in order get to heaven and salvation.
The neighbor is your fellow man, the good samaritan and ourselves. This is a parable told by Jesus. In Luke 10:29 the same religious lawyer wanted to ‘justify himself’ so Jesus told him a story about a man that was going on a journey from Jericho to Jerusalem when he came upon some robbers. He was robbed stripped, beaten and left for dead. A priest and one other past by the guy (possibly what people might do today if that happened). However, a Samaritan (keeper of the Torah) came to help him. The neighbor is the guy that was beaten but it could also be the samaritan. So basically what kind of person do you want to be in this world? This story is meant as a reflection upon yourself and says ‘What kind of person am I?’ The answer should likely should be a good neighbor that either gives mercy to people or can accept someone’s help (possibly both are necessary).
(Note: the name good samaritan that we use today to have mercy on others).