By Leslie Lupton
The Healing Place Church
“Give, and it shall be given to you…running over” (Luke 6:38). Jesus was not only talking about giving our offering to help others, but also about being generous in every way of our life. He is saying, Giving is gaining. Look to bless others and you will be blessed by God and others in many ways, now and for eternity!
Jesus taught the Parable of the good Samaritan to inspire us to this kind of radical, uninhibited generosity. His story was his response to an expert in the law who was trying to justify himself as a loving person even though he did not offer love to people. He believed that his duty of neighborly love only applied to the religious Jews who were part of his group. In this way he justified for not showing love to the people he did not like.
Jesus showed this religious leader and us that our neighbors are not limited to our friends and those who are similar to us, but anyone who is within our reach at a given moment.
In addition to redefining whom our neighbor is, Jesus also redefines love. Our culture presents love as a desire, but that makes love then about us. Love is generous and has causes us to seek out the good of another person.
This is just as Jesus intended our culture to be. We are to take the example of our Savior and create a culture of love and concern for others. When we accept the true love of our Heavenly Father it cause us to have a deeper understanding of His nature. His nature is to give and that will cause us to give. He said, “ It is more blessed to give that it is to receive” (Acts 20:35).
This Christmas “Give” and experience to greatest feeling in the world. You can be a Good Samaritan by giving little blessings to the people around you.