Kindness in Action

Dr. David Clyde Jones says this in his 8th lecture from his class on Christian Ethics:

The biblical example that most effectively shows us kindness in action is the parable of the Good Samaritan. It has been established in that narrative that the two most important commandments that summarize God’s will are to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. The question then arises, who is my neighbor? Instead of giving a technical definition of the term “neighbor,” Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. At the end of this parable Jesus asks, “Which of these three was a neighbor to the one in need?” He changes the question from, “Who is my neighbor?” to “Whose neighbor am I?” or “Who do I act toward in a way that a neighbor acts?” You can almost hear the grudging answer, “Well, I guess it is the one who showed mercy on the Samaritan.” Jesus then commands, “Then go and do likewise.” The importance of this is that there was not any prior existing obligation to which the men in the story were to be faithful, no prescribed rule like, “If you are traveling down the road from Jericho and you meet any men in the ditch, it is your obligation to stop and help them.” In fact, the only relationship that existed between the beat-up Samaritan and the Jew who acted as his neighbor was a hostile one because of the long-standing hatred between Jews and Samaritans. The kind of excellence the Jew showed in caring for the Samaritan who was beaten and robbed was to take full care of him. He bound up his wounds, took him to the inn, provided for him, and told the inn-keeper to keep a tally of any additional expenses and he would pay him back. This was out of his sheer kindness. You cannot put that in a rule. It is out of his sheer kindness that he had compassion on a fellow human being. And we are called to that kind of amazing response as we have received mercy. Matthew 5:7 says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Luke 6:36 says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” That is our Christian calling.