We began our study today by discussing the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), where we saw that salvation translates into a heart of compassion, even for our enemies. The question at hand in this parable is nothing short of a query into life and death- “What must I do to be saved?” And Jesus answers the question by once again connecting our relationship with God to our relationships with each other. Jesus tells a story of what salvation looks like in the life of a believer, and shows us that a love relationship with God ALWAYS translates into a loving heart towards our neighbors, even when those “neighbors” are our enemies. So to the degree that we fail to live lives of love for our neighbors, we actually demonstrate a heart that does not love God. We discussed how hard this is in our day-to-day lives, and how often we, like the priest & Levite in this parable, have good excuses for why we cannot truly love our neighbors. Rightly so, we all felt pretty guilty.
But what freed us to breathe under the weight of this difficult calling, was the very clear reminder that the only way we will ever be able to live the life of a Good Samaritan is by first tasting the bitterness of knowing that the character that BEST describes us in the story is the dying Israelite on the side of the road, who is without hope yet for the compassion of our enemy, who not only risked His life take us up out of the ditch, but actually gave His life for ours. That’s the gospel! The Good News that Jesus came to bring was that while we were still His enemies, Jesus Christ died for us (Romans 5:6-11). Starting with a gospel-view of who we are, gives us the freedom to fail in loving our neighbors, because we can trust that the truly GOOD Samaritan goes before us to do the saving. But is also invigorates us to join Him on the road, to share with others the same mercy and new life that we have received.
And it was in light of this discussion that we then wrestled, in conversation and prayer, with the question: What does it look like for the Nanuet Project to be a church that loves our neighbors well? I won’t post all of our discussion here, but instead invite you to be thinking, praying, and sharing what the Lord brings to your mind as you wrestling with this calling.
Please click here to download and listen to a recording of the vision Study from Nov 16:
VisionStudy20081116.mp3 (47.4Mb, 51 min 46sec)
