01/09/2026
REFLECTION: LOVING OTHERS
HC4: ‘What does God’s law require of us …love your neighbour…’
Leviticus 19:18 ‘…love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.’
Have you heard of the ‘Genovese Syndrome’, the tendency of witnesses to stand back when someone is in danger? It is also called the bystander effect: people see suffering yet walk away because they do not want to become involved. But involvement is not merely a social issue; it is deeply spiritual. John writes: ‘No one has ever seen God; but if we love each other, God lives in us… If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar.’ (1
John 4:12, 20).
Jesus commands us to love God with our whole being and to ‘…love your neighbour as yourself.’ In
Luke 10, an expert in the law asks, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus turns the question
back: ‘What is written in the Law? The man answers correctly: love God completely and love your
neighbour as yourself. Jesus replies, ‘Do this and you will live. The demand is clear: perfect love. The question is whether anyone can fulfil it.
Wanting to justify himself, the lawyer asks, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ He hopes to draw a
boundary, to identify those worthy of love and exclude the rest. Jesus refuses that division. He changes the question from ‘Who qualifies as my neighbour?’ to ‘Am I acting as a neighbour?’ His purpose is not merely to win an argument, but to expose the man’s heart and lead him to mercy.
Jesus tells the story of a man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho who is attacked, stripped, beaten and left half dead. A priest comes down the road.
Hope rises, surely, he will help. But he sees the man and crosses to the other side. A Levite follows. He too sees, avoids, and walks away. Both can offer plausible excuses: danger, ritual uncleanness, inconvenience. Yet
compassion does not ask first, ‘What will this cost me?’ It asks, ‘What will happen to him if I do nothing?’
Then Jesus shocks his listeners: a Samaritan arrives. Jews and Samaritans were bitter enemies. Yet this despised outsider sees the wounded man and is moved with compassion. He approaches him, bandages his wounds, pours on oil and wine, places him on his own animal, carries him to an inn,
pays the cost, and promises to cover every further expense. This is not minimal kindness.
It is costly, vulnerable, extravagant love.
The Samaritan does all this for someone who may have hated him, someone unable to repay him or even offer thanks. Jesus asks, ‘Which of these three was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?’ The lawyer answers, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ He cannot even say, ‘...the
Samaritan.’ Jesus gives the command: ‘Go and do likewise.’
Remember the first question: ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus’ answer presses with
unbearable force. Love God perfectly. Love every person in your path- even an enemy- lavishly, sacrificially, tenderly and without limit. Keep an open account. Hold nothing back. Go and do it.But we cannot. The parable is not merely a model for good behaviour; it is an indictment of the human heart. We do not love God completely or our neighbours as ourselves. Jesus intends the lawyer- and us- to confess: ‘I cannot do this. How, then, can I have eternal life?’ The gospel answer is not our achievement, but Christ’s work. Jesus loved perfectly. At the cross, he gave himself
sacrificially for helpless sinners, bearing our failure and purchasing forgiveness and life. Like the
wounded man, we contribute nothing to our rescue. We are saved by grace and kept by grace.
Grace does not leave us as spectators. Because Christ has loved us, we hear his words anew: ‘Go and do likewise.’ There can be no comfortable noninvolvement. Our neighbour is not only the family member, friend or colleague we enjoy. Our neighbour is also the person who irritates us, differs from us,
mocks us, opposes us, or can offer nothing in return. We are not called merely to tolerate them with a polite smile, but to show genuine compassion, to risk
inconvenience, hurt, expense and misunderstanding for their good.
Jesus said, ‘Love one another as I have loved you. By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples.’ Christian love reveals the gospel. Whether we provide food locally, give to those facing
hunger, support people affected by violence, or seek justice for the oppressed, we refuse to be
bystanders. We step towards the wounded. We act because Christ stepped towards us.
So when God places someone in our path, the question is not, ‘Are they worthy of my love?’ The
question is, ‘How can the love of Jesus be seen through me?’
As a former Chaplain to the U.S. Senate (Edward Hale) said ‘I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, that I
ought to do. And what I ought to do, by the grace of God, I shall do
